I was originally going to explain my suggestion while responding to the following quotes but I'll keep my suggestion out of it and follow Bench's suggestion instead and put something a bit more indepth on the Suggestions board. Thus, my post here are going to be(hopefully) a bit more focused on just responding to the points made.
One word: Tetris. Get some graph paper, make a 10x10 box and see how full you can get that box using standard
Tetris blocks with these varying scenarios:
1. All one block type. You have complete freedom to put blocks in without worrying about gravity.(i.e. box is drawn using the XY axis, you place from the Z axis.
2. Use an dice roller, assign each block a number(1-7) and put blocks down as you roll their number. Normal Tetris rules(blocks go to the bottom, can't clip through blocks while rotating) but you don't have a timer.
3. As above but you have 10 seconds to put each block down.
4. Roll about 30 times. Count out how many of each block you have and figure out how you can fit as many blocks in as possible. Same rules as 1. Start a timer as soon as you begin filling the box. Stop the timer when you think you've done the best arrangement possible.(This may be simpler if you had legos or something of that nature instead of having to fill in/erase squares constantly. Can also use a spreadsheet with conditional formatting to change the background color).
Count the number of empty cells. Odds are, you'll have the least amount of empty spaces in scenarios 1 and 4. Depending on your skill, you may have spent a good amount of time finding an optimum arrangement.
Every game inventory system abstracts dealing with items as we do in real life. This is primarily due to the fact that not only programming an accurate representation of inventory handling in the real world is a pain but that we really don't have any input devices that would make such a system anywhere near as intuitive as it would be in the real world. Odds are we won't ever see anything like that until immersive VR is developed and even then, I'd expect many games to
still abstract inventory management since, on average, people are abyssmal at it.
Now, every type of inventory abstraction has its flaws, no real way around it. Part of game design is figuring out which flaws work with the game itself. Given that Starmade focuses more on having multiple of the same item as opposed to many distinct items a system that functions with that in mind is preferable to one that doesn't.
Simple: It makes sense in the exact, same, vein that the systems you mentioned do. As "forcing" players to build a certain way...This suggestion means they either need to have an access point to wherever they put their cargo hold or chain modules up to the storage module in their bridge/cockpit. Considerably less "forcing" than requiring players to allocate hundreds to thousands of blocks on their ships and bases to be used as non-interactable storage.
I can only assume you thought the list of suggestions I made were meant as individual ones when they were intended suggested as a group. The reason I say that is the scenario you describe not only exists
right now but is
promoted by the personal cargo feature.
To make it clearer, let's imagine a storage module as a box and each inventory space is another box within. BoxA and BoxB respectively.
Current inventory system works like this:
BoxA can hold an infinite number of BoxBs.
Each individual BoxB can hold one item type but an infinite number of them.
BoxA, however is on a
scale and is weighed down by the contents of it's BoxBs.
Cargo Spaces are used as a counterweight on the scale.
Result: With enough cargo spaces, a linked storage can hold
everything.
My suggestion:
BoxA can hold a limited amount of BoxBs.
Each individual BoxB can hold one item type but is limited on how many it can hold.
Cargo Spaces increase the capacity of each BoxB in a BoxA but experiences diminishing returns.
Result: A single storage could, potentially hold an infinite amount of a few item types but it would be much more efficient(regarding block:storage ratio) to use several storage modules.
In other words, you just countered my argument with, "I don't want it to work the way it is now."
And now, I'm going to actually play for a bit then get around to writing up a detailed post that fleshes out my inventory suggestion and throw it up on the Suggestions board.
Edit to prevent double posting:
Fix that now. One of the worst things a game can have is a dev team that's not actively playing their game. If that means a slightly longer production cycle, so be it. It's damned hard to fix something when you don't work with the final product.
