That's why I don't mind for "normal" stamps, but for "fixed" biomes we should have the choice, because we can't place a POI in there by coordinates if the stamp rotates (it depends on height). For the "random" placement to occur the stamp needs to be quite large, while placing by hand we can be very precise. For the example I gave up here, the "random placement" only put the little POI once in about ten tries, and the console simply stated that the "POI placer could not place 1 of 2 structures" (the other was the drone base, totally random). But to place by hand, I can fit this same POI on a very small spot, even "floating" to some extent. The "random placement" and generation has its limits : every planet looks the same in the "large universe" and limits the possibilities for scenario creation. Think of placing a bridge over a deep lava chasm : the "random placer" will never want to do it, but it can be done easily with coordinates. Or a POI inserted on the steep side of a cliff... or a "gate" between two cliffs... But if the terrain features in that fixed area keep turning and flipping, the structures will end up buried or floating in mid air. This restrains POI placement to large, flat areas, and also restrains their shapes and function. Here, example : I want to put a wall in that gap : I can place it by coordinates (fixed POI) : But in the next game load the "biome stamp" flipped upside-down, so the wall is not there because it's in the northern hemisphere: But the simple fact that they intended to only make "rotation on demand" shows that this is unwanted behavior, and the only way to have "diversity" is to control generation which tends to give always the same overall feel to terrains when left to "automation". Changing fog color and plants types to take close-up snap shots is not "terrain diversity" and gets boring fast when flying over land. Tackling POIs is also limited to digging tunnels because players don't want to expose themselves in a flat plain. These are real issues that allowing manual placement of POIs can easily solve.
Made a little SV miner - tried to make it vaguely Taidan-ish to go along with the Marine Frigate template:
Moving the little family to another place. All builds on top of the CV are home made. My learning curve in design is sooo flat... Never been as good in spatial intelligence as in other matters. But I love practicing ! The lifter is not that bad tho, spent a couple of hours on it. Home again (haha, F6...)
My friend and I are taking things very slow. We have not followed the storyline or taken to space flight yet. Basically we are trying to secure our homeworld (kicking Kirax insectoid) butt by matching the devs cheese for cheese on my friend's private server. Truth to tell, I don't even know how to get to the storyline. His server settings have respawn, of POIs - so essentially we are using the Kirax the same way we use the LGC sites, as resource farms.
Taking a little break from planet design, I started thinking about scenarios and modding files. First I thought I needed new, more powerful weapons... Hard to aim with this, but it made me think of another more "scenario-related" feature : infiltration ! Ha ! At least I can secretly walk under unsuspecting drones... haha ! .
Today I worked on some new CV landing pads. The one to fit a need I am feeling in survival. The other to fill a gap between that BA and a small BA already on my workshop. Hence, the Medium Rest for small CV. And the Large Rest with repair bay included.
Pushed the latest big update of Reforged Galaxy today. It includes the new zirax dreadnought. But of course I needed to test the space defense to see if one would come. It took a lot of tries, but eventually I ended up against the Tovera-Class Dreadnought. Followed by a second wave a few minutes later of 3 corvettes. I went up against it with a fair contender, a UCH Crusader. A Frigate that can do a pretty good job against a zirax destroyer, I tried that first. So against the Tovera, it was clearly going to be extremely one-sided. I managed to bring down the shields for a few seconds, before the ship blew my entire front weapons array off. So let's take a look at the most visually-epic CV-vs-CV battle. It wouldn't be quite so epic if not for RG's new explosions, explosion mechanics and missile handling. Here's the moment when I cracked its shields open and unleashed a full salvo of light rockets. They did nothing of course, the light rockets don't have the penetration of a rocket turret. But they DO look awesome. I just wish i'd gotten this shot without the HUD. This is probably one of my favorite shots of the battle. Gotta love those big airburst explosions. The entire front of my ship is gone after the first 5 minutes. The remaining 5 minutes was me moving only on RCS and 2 XL thrusters. The ship eventually died when one of the Dreadnought's EMP cannons knocked out my generators during a head-on charge. This is it before the final charge. You know? The whole "Prepare for ramming speed!" Well, it was fun.
Landing pad on Medium Rest is 15 x 31 blocks. Even my Raven CV designed to lift my warpless small CV is only 12 x 27 blocks (width x depth). So all of my small CV should have no problem with that BA. Landing pad on the Large Rest is 29 x 63 blocks. While I have plans to build CV up to 25 x 58 blocks, only some of my abandoned pre-CPU CV were any bigger than that. If ever I feel the need to make a bigger pad than that, I will call it something like the Grand Rest.
Really @Vermillion, really?! Just now i wanted to take my 'Mayas Pride' to her maiden voyage, only to find your posts with the finished Dreadnought AND a new version of RG. Have to DL it, after:
Built and tested a gunship concept: Good against soft targets clearing a deposit, but not very effective against POIs
I was revising an old blueprint today and revamped the Osanshouo. The big thing I wanted to add was a fly-through hangar but the ship was too short to handle the smallest hangar doors. So... it no longer meets it's height requirement from the original build challenge, but I made sure that it still meets the width requirement. I think I will publish it as the V3 after some more tweaking. It just keeps getting longer... Yay, hangar doors now. ... and the width is the same. Perfect for "Totally Overpowered" with the lower guns helping take out the invaders.
@Robot Shark, seeing your fly through CV inspired me to work some on my drive through CV. Still a long ways to go for mine considering I am still in the relatively early stages.
Created a rough, but working, first draft of a long-range warp-capable transport SV and miner HV set. Mining HV (with turrets) mounts up to the the SV via a rear mounting arm. The HV undocks and hovers slightly off of the mount so that the turrets will work (since the ability to use the turrets while docked has been nerfed by the game devs). The HV can also be undocked and used separately. Besides mining, the design works well for drilling vertical shafts or creating moats. - Note: no textures or colors at this build stage.
Trying something new for me, I wanted to remove the flat bottom appearance from the underside of the ship. Good for a first attempt?
