Variable block mass and construction price.

[Energywelder]

I don't know how often this topic has come up, I didn't see anything similar in the post list, and the related posts don't show anything similar either, so here goes.

I have a cube of Black adv armor, it masses .25 (.25 I dunno what units).
I have a wedge of Black adv armor, it occupies 1/2 the volume of a cube, but for some reasons masses exactly the same. . . dunno why.

In the "old days" when cubes and wedges were their own blocks, I would've also suggested the manufacturing process which produced wedges from cubes yield twice as many wedges as cubes, but that ship sailed. I guess to keep up with the times, if you have 1 black adv armor, and place 1 wedge, you now have .5 black adv armor, but that might be pushing it.

I of course extend this point to cover corners, tetras, heptas, and panels too.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

I can see where you're coming from and it's absolutely logical. I think it might still be possible to do most of what you want.

What came to mind for me was continue to produce the block using the factories, but when producing the other shapes have the excess converted to Mesh/Crystal composit appropriately. The mesh/crystal composit would be the theoretically shaved off sections. Either that or convert them to scrap.

For me what would be nice is a block created that is the reverse of what you request/manufacture.

 

[Valck]

"Too complicated" was the overwhelming response I got when I last brought this up.
Still it's something I'd like to see, along with fuel, which usually elicits the same reaction...

 

[PLIX]

I heard this used to be on robocraft and people would build creations (whatever you call them) so people used shapes as they were lighter and just as strong

 

[MeRobo]

If the mass was variable, so should be the HP because otherwise tetras and 1/4 slabs would have the best stats since they are the smallest blocks out of these and would have the least mass.

 

[jayman38]

I disagree with this suggestion, due to the docked armor trick, which places twice (or more!) as much armor in the same space, using the non-block, non-hepta blocks. Decreasing mass will further improve the docked-armor mechanic, which is already powerful.

 

[Energywelder]

jayman38 MeRobo then perhaps HP and armor should be variable as well, not saying that's a bad idea.

 

[PLIX]

But then if you change the strength diagonal faces become vulnerable and pvp ships get uglier and all for what slightly lighter wedges you are overcomplicating the game when doing weapon tests it will just make it harder to test them and when building pvp ships constantly checking the mass of every single variation

Also if going for realism this then becomes less realistic because in real life sloped armor is way better

 

[Lord_Greyscale]

Also if going for realism this then becomes less realistic because in real life sloped armor is way better

In "Real Life", sloped armor is better because projectile deflection happens/is possible. (not because the slope itself is any better than a solid cube of the same material)

In StarMade, the only deflections that happen are ships bouncing off of one another at ludicrous speed, and even that doesn't happen if you have collision damage enabled. (instead, you have a bigger ship with a small crater, and an overheating shuttle missing it's entire front-end)
(oh, and a whole lot of overheating NPC ships cluttering up the universe)

 

[PLIX]

In "Real Life", sloped armor is better because projectile deflection happens/is possible. (not because the slope itself is any better than a solid cube of the same material)

In StarMade, the only deflections that happen are ships bouncing off of one another at ludicrous speed, and even that doesn't happen if you have collision damage enabled. (instead, you have a bigger ship with a small crater, and an overheating shuttle missing it's entire front-end)
(oh, and a whole lot of overheating NPC ships cluttering up the universe)

Your forgetting that because of the sloped armour the projectile has to go through much more armour although it is useless here because block thickness doesn't change but mainly its balance issues

 

[Xtremesonicboom]

The advantages of sloped armour don't apply to energy weapons. As for PvP ships becoming uglier, I don't think that would happen, because, when is a slope not adjacent to another 1-2 blocks?
Thinking: ◢ ■
           ■
Otherwise, if the ship designers take care when designing their ships, the wedges, slabs, etc. would be a difficult target to hit. Or, you can use the fact that slabs and wedges are lighter to your advantage, creating ships that are faster, but have less armour to keep them alive. A smart combatant can use maneuverability to their advantage against a less agile target. Personally, I like to think that the potential for greater design variation caused by a change like the one suggested is a benefit that outweighs potential issues that can be caused.

Worst case, you can always go into the block editor and set it how you want it. Maybe a nice server owner could apply a config where wedges, slabs, etc. are lighter, have less armour, and so on to see how it affects things? Speculation is all well and good, but if we could get people to test this to see how it affects the various aspects of the game, it would allow everyone to be better informed as to how a change like this would affect the game.

TLDR: Try it. You have the power. If it sucks, problem solved, and if it doesn't, then you can make an informed argument with greater potential for convincing the devs to look into it.