I have once or twice used the hazard blocks to signify in "engineering" the power section, or used them to look like diagonal pipe bundles (The wedges).
Things You Never Use
- Thread starter Edymnion
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Well, I don't agree on the rail doors, I love those, but I do agree on Pulse.
I never use it. I prefer /Damage Beam in every instance because I hate the uber long reload time and huge power drain of Pulse as a secondary.
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I want to throw in here that just because something is underused doesn't mean it's broken.
Damage pulse is a good example. Most people don't use the primary because melee isn't particularly useful in space, but as fleets and AI improve, it may be viable to build drone swarms that ram ships and pulse them. Pulse has a very large radius and high damage, which potentially makes it devastating in large numbers against armor. It's just not meant for >100m ships that can't maneuver well enough to use it. As a secondary, it's for high alpha. High alpha isn't too popular in starmade, but to explain:
Imagine you have space for a 1500 module weapon. You already have a fairly standard main gun (maybe it's cannon/cannon/explosive or something), so you think "hey, maybe an ion weapon for plowing through shields". You could go beam/cannon/ion - this gives you 30,000 dps (1500 blocks * 10 dps/block * 2x ion modifier). This is nice, but only useful if your target has less than 30,000 regen; otherwise you make no progress.
On the other hand, you could go with beam/pulse/ion - this is still only 30,000 dps, but a slightly insane 1,500,000 burst damage (30,000 dps * 5 second base burst time * 10x pulse modifier). This means that if your target has less than 1.5m shields, it doesn't actually matter how much regen they have; you can one shot their shields. The point of high alpha is that even if you can only fire once, you only NEED to fire once. Just, you know, don't miss.
Back to the original point, just because beam/pulse/ion is underused doesn't mean it's fundamentally broken (or, more importantly, that it needs a buff, because it doesn't). Your ability to make a unique ship that uses an underused (but not underpowered) weapon combination is an important check for the current meta. You might think you're totally fine flying around with 500k shields and 50k regen because you're used to people using pure DPS weapons to take you down - my ability to shatter that expectation is very important. It also helps keep combat a little less linear - just because you're bigger than me, doesn't mean you're going to win in a fight. I have unique tactical options I can use to turn the tables in my favor.
Plus, who doesn't like missile/pulse/explosive? Like, sure, the range and speed suck, but that 40m radius hole is SO worth it.
As for decorative blocks, I definitely think there's intrinsic value in things people don't use very often (like plants or green hazard stripes). Art would be really boring if everyone only used 3 colors or only ever painted 3 things. You never know what might look good - ice was a useless block until someone figured out that putting it in front of a light source looks really cool.
Damage pulse is a good example. Most people don't use the primary because melee isn't particularly useful in space, but as fleets and AI improve, it may be viable to build drone swarms that ram ships and pulse them. Pulse has a very large radius and high damage, which potentially makes it devastating in large numbers against armor. It's just not meant for >100m ships that can't maneuver well enough to use it. As a secondary, it's for high alpha. High alpha isn't too popular in starmade, but to explain:
Imagine you have space for a 1500 module weapon. You already have a fairly standard main gun (maybe it's cannon/cannon/explosive or something), so you think "hey, maybe an ion weapon for plowing through shields". You could go beam/cannon/ion - this gives you 30,000 dps (1500 blocks * 10 dps/block * 2x ion modifier). This is nice, but only useful if your target has less than 30,000 regen; otherwise you make no progress.
On the other hand, you could go with beam/pulse/ion - this is still only 30,000 dps, but a slightly insane 1,500,000 burst damage (30,000 dps * 5 second base burst time * 10x pulse modifier). This means that if your target has less than 1.5m shields, it doesn't actually matter how much regen they have; you can one shot their shields. The point of high alpha is that even if you can only fire once, you only NEED to fire once. Just, you know, don't miss.
Back to the original point, just because beam/pulse/ion is underused doesn't mean it's fundamentally broken (or, more importantly, that it needs a buff, because it doesn't). Your ability to make a unique ship that uses an underused (but not underpowered) weapon combination is an important check for the current meta. You might think you're totally fine flying around with 500k shields and 50k regen because you're used to people using pure DPS weapons to take you down - my ability to shatter that expectation is very important. It also helps keep combat a little less linear - just because you're bigger than me, doesn't mean you're going to win in a fight. I have unique tactical options I can use to turn the tables in my favor.
Plus, who doesn't like missile/pulse/explosive? Like, sure, the range and speed suck, but that 40m radius hole is SO worth it.
As for decorative blocks, I definitely think there's intrinsic value in things people don't use very often (like plants or green hazard stripes). Art would be really boring if everyone only used 3 colors or only ever painted 3 things. You never know what might look good - ice was a useless block until someone figured out that putting it in front of a light source looks really cool.
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Also, some people think that the explosive blocks are useless, but they are great for sabotage, especially now that wireless activator blocks are a thing. Picture it:
you have placed a small ship inside your enemy's ship through a hole, or through an open door.
Once inside, you begin to build a bundle of explosives, remembering to place it near the hull, or near a critical system.
You get out and detonate it.
I have tested this on a large ship, not in PvP, in PvE, and it works wonders. Sort of like a nuclear Trojan Horse, that your enemy doesn't know is there.
Great for puncturing large holes in hulls, damaging systems, killing astronauts and destroying other ships if there is a landing bay. The best part about it is that you don't have to use it right away, or, if you repair people's ships, it can be built right into the ship itself.
KABOOM
(also great for self destruct, defense systems and of course, the classic "I planted a bomb on your ship, oh no wait I didn't, or maybe I did")
you have placed a small ship inside your enemy's ship through a hole, or through an open door.
Once inside, you begin to build a bundle of explosives, remembering to place it near the hull, or near a critical system.
You get out and detonate it.
I have tested this on a large ship, not in PvP, in PvE, and it works wonders. Sort of like a nuclear Trojan Horse, that your enemy doesn't know is there.
Great for puncturing large holes in hulls, damaging systems, killing astronauts and destroying other ships if there is a landing bay. The best part about it is that you don't have to use it right away, or, if you repair people's ships, it can be built right into the ship itself.
KABOOM
(also great for self destruct, defense systems and of course, the classic "I planted a bomb on your ship, oh no wait I didn't, or maybe I did")
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It's not really ideal for self-destruct because the blocks now explode when hit by enemy fire instead of just breaking like a normal block like they used to.
I meant put them in the core room, or around systems such as radar jammers, cloakers, energy cores ad thrusters. Even if they're not attached to the ship itself, they'll still do damage.
They are also good for "car clamps", where you make a small mine, and set it up so that if they move it'll explode. This is pretty good for smaller ships, or drone fleets.