copy template to another instance of blueprint?

I have a made a blueprint from a SV and had the factory produce a second instance of said SV. Now I have modified the the 2nd instance, and I would like to use a repair console to 'repair' the original instance of the blueprint according to the template so that both SVs will become identical.

How can I do that? Shouldn't doing this be a feature?

 

Thanks! The template must be saved somewhere. Can't I just copy the file, thus replacing the template of the SV I want updated?

Creative mode is not helpful for this at all: I can't just pick up all the SVs and throw them into the factory as resources to make new ones according to the modified blueprint. I'd have to tediously salvage all SVs made from the blueprint block by block and put them into the factory block by block just to update them. And I'd have to do that every time I make a change to any of the SVs. There has to be a better way.

Creative mode is nice when you want to design something entirely new. That rarely happens. I have something in the game, like the SV, and I update it in the game. As long as there is no way to recycle the old instance in the game as a whole rather having to do it block by block, and as long as creative mode doesn't consider the resources available to me in the game so I don't end up with something I can't have in the game, creative mode is useless for updating what's in the game and difficult when creating something new.

 

I don't understand why you would do this? If you're in creative, you can just spawn new blueprints immediately. Why would you put resources in the factory in creative?

You can see what resources are required for a ship in the ships control panel, under the statistics tab.

I would just change the name of the modified SV (add Mk2 or something to the name) and save it as a new blueprint. Then when you want another copy of that ship, just use the blueprint to build the Mk2 version again.

I mean yes, if you want to recycle an entire ship in Survival, you would do so block by block with a salvage tool of some sort.

I've never seen the need to do such a thing, personally. I can always find more resources to just build another ship.

If it's spawned in already, then yeah you would need to update it by hand. As Taelyn said, templates are for repairing stuff after combat, not for modifying ships into new configs.

You can always modify the ship in creative and save it as a new unique blueprint, or even overwrite the original blueprint, then go back to your Survival save and build the new version from the factory.

Not sure what you mean by creative being difficult when creating something new. I've found it infinitely easier to build things in creative than survival. It's also infinitely easier to update blueprints in creative.

 

Are savegames too difficult to make backups of? How do I get what I have done in creative mode into the game?

The only way I know for that is to use the factory to build a new instance, and that requires to put all the needed resources into the factory, and it still leaves me with the old version of the instance which I wanted to update which I then would painstakingly have to salvage block by block.

It doesn't matter what the build options in creative are. I need what I built/updated in the game, and otherwise I don't need it. That makes the only use for creative mode building something new. As you said, you can't update an instance to an updated blueprint or copy a template to an old instance to use the repair bay to update the old instance to the new one. It's the obvious and logical thing to do and exactly the feature I need. Creative mode is entirely unhelpful for this.

Why would I do anything in creative when not building something new?

 

I have the old instance in the game, and of course I need the updated version in the game. So in the game, I update one of the instances, which I have in the game, of the old blueprint, and I want to make the other instance that I didn't update manually the same as the instance I updated so that I don't have to do all the work all over again.

I don't have any of the instances in creative. I could spawn either version there, but why would I do that? I need the instances in my game, not in creative.

Yes, and I can't see what resources are available to me in the game when I'm in creative. I need to know both at the same time or I may easily end up having made a blueprint in creative that I can't build in the game because I don't have the resources for it.

Then what do I do with the non-updated instance? It's sitting in front of my mining outpost, and I probably don't have the resources to build a new updated instance. Even if I do, I don't to want let the old instance go to waste and end up with a huge parking lot of outdated instances sitting in front of my mining outpost eventually.

Yes, and that sucks. So I want to update the old instance at my mining outpost to the instance I have modified in the hangar of my refinery. The repair bay could do that easily if I could only tell it to use the template of the updated version.

That's like saying you just buy another computer when its software needs to be updated, or you buy a new car when the ashtray is full, or a new house when your current one needs cleaning.

To find more resources, you'll have to keep going further and further to find more. So once you have established a nice base, you run out of resources quickly and have to move to another place and start all over again. What's the fun in that?

Of course it's in the game. It's still the first SV I built before ever going into creative, and I updated it over time. Where else would it be.

Templates and/or blueprints is the logical way to update things in the game once you updated one of their instances. How else would you do that? Doing it by hand for all instances isn't an option.

Why would I do that? I'd have to painstakingly salvage the old one block by block and feed it into the factory block by block. That's too silly to do.

It's difficult because you may end up with something you can't build. It's difficult because you would have to painstakingly salvage the instance in the game to build a new instance. It's difficult because you have to quit your game and load or create another one, do the work there and then get back to where you were. And modifing things in creative isn't any easier than in the game. It's the same work, and it's a lot more work because you need to salvage block by block. Why would anyone do that?

 

Okay, I got it, I see you now.

So yeah there's no in-universe way to do what you're asking -- but we can be a bit clever and emulate a solution.

What I would do is this: delete the old ship and use console commands to spawn the new one.

Make sure you have a blueprint for the new version that you want. Then we will open the console (~) and enter a few commands.

First we will get the blueprint for the new ship made. Simply start the blueprint, then go back to console and enter the command 'fbp.' This will force the blueprint to finish, even if there are no resources in the factory. So now we can spawn the new ship. But we still have the old ship hanging around, so we need to get rid of it.

Before the next step, make sure you empty the fuel, o2, ammo, loot, and anything else stored in the ship that you may want to keep, and put it in your base temporarily.

So we enter 'di,' and we can see the ID of the ships we look at. Aim at the old ship and note the ID number. Then, go into console again and enter the command 'destroy xxxx' where 'xxxx' is the ID of the old ship.

Now that the old ship is gone, simply spawn the new one (that you finished with the 'fbp' command earlier) from the factory.

No resources lost, no tedious salvaging and rebuilding. Just a simple swap from one ship to the other. The old ship is completely gone, and the new ship should be exactly the blueprint as spawned.

-- -- -- -- --

Now what I, personally, would do? Instead of continuing to muck about with SVs, I'd build a cheap starter CV so I can get around to new star systems and collect resources much much much quicker and easier. Lately I've been using SVs as just a temporary step between HV and CV, but idk if that jibes with your playstyle.

If I didn't have the resources to build a CV yet, then I would just collect those resources with my current SV. I assume your SV has a warp drive? If so, go check out a few other planet orbits and look for asteroids to mine. If you had already cleaned out all the resources from your current orbit, then you would absolutely be able to build a new SV (maybe barring some very rare resources -- but you wouldn't need many of those on a starter SV anyway).

Personally I've never had a situation where I wanted to update an SV to new blueprint. I'd either just start a new save (I imagine you'd be quite opposed to doing so) or build something else entirely.

But then again I'm sure I have a completely different playstyle than you do. But maybe this will help give you inspiration for your own games.

Yeah, see, it's called the Repair Bay, not the Update Bay. Major hint in the name there

 

Cool, I see what you mean, it's a good idea There's some cheating involved though because updating would require more resources that weren't needed for the old instance. I think I can live with that.

My first CV was shot to pieces, so I designed a new one in creative mode. I slavaged what was left of the old one, block by block, put it into the factory and added some more resources for the factory to build the new one.

The new one finally has shields and better weapons, so it won't be destroyed so easily. That doesn't mean it can't be destroyed, and it's expensive to run. Using it for about a day burns about 40000 fuel (plus ammunition if there's a fight), and it takes like half a day to maintain all the auto miners on the mining planet and to go to the ice planet to strip mine the ice from its surface to finally make fusion cells --- plus getting resources for the ammo. The situation will probably improve over time with better auto miners, until the ice runs out, yet there are only so many deposits on the mining planet, and going to multiple planets every time would take more time.

As a result, I tend to park the CV at the sun and hope it won't be attacked, turn off the power and explore the system in my CV. Using the CV has advantages because it's way cheaper to run, is much better suited for mining asteroids, isn't so costly if destroyed and is much better suited to maintain auto miners. I can pull up close to them and stand on the cockpit to access them; with the CV, I'd have to find a suitable landing area, walk all the way down from the cockpit through a couple doors and an elevator, open the boarding ramp and then either have a long walk to the miner or switch over into a HV or SV I have the hangar ... That isn't efficient.

So I built a base on the mining planet, and that's where the other instance of the SV is which I'd like to update. I teleport to the base and use the SV there to maintain all the auto miners and, if I need, warp over to the ice planet, get some ice, fly back and teleport with it all back to my refinery with has plenty solar power to do all the refining and constructing.

The CV can stay at the refinery while I do that. If I had to run the CV all the time like I had intended to begin with, I'd be doing almost nothing but mining for the ruel to run it. And I have to store all the resources at a save place anyway; the CV isn't suited for that.

The only advantage the CV has is that its detector has a longer range. I'll probably try to build a small CV soon that takes the role the SVs currently have for just that reason. Perhaps I gut the hull of the SV, replace its core with a CV core and put CV weapons and equipment replace the SV equivalents.

That would be the next case in which I would want to update the old instances.

Yes, I had to build a SV to get the resources to finally build a CV.

Why would I start over just to update instances of a blueprint? Updating them needs to a feature of the game, using a repair bay or, if you want to call it that, an update bay. Starting over, I'd be thrown back to having nothing but the survival tool, and it took a long time and a lot of work to get to where I'm now.

Well, I'm trying not to devastate all planets I come across, passing them by in an an endless journey in my CV, mining them out and taking whatever I might want regardless of the destruction I create. It's the alternative, and it would feel bad. And how far would I get? If my CV were destroyed and thus all my resources lost, I might end up in a situation in which I either just die, or I'd survive and never have the resources to build another CV or even a SV. There's no guarantee that you can find the resources for one in the system or on the planet you're currently in or on.

There's not really any difference. I could have updated my SV and the repair bay would have taken it back to what it was before if I hadn't saved the new template. I kept that option as a backup for in case the modification would have gone wrong; I could just have repaired it.

Maybe add another type of bay and call it update bay. You can't really play the game without this.

 

Yes you can, quite easily.

 

Like how?

 

I feel I should point out, before you try this, it is not possible. SV and CV use completely different components and, more importantly, different sized blocks.

As far as I know, you cannot directly convert an SV to a CV. Best you can do is try to copy the hull shape as a new ship in creative or something.

I'm very curious to see this CV. I don't think I've had one burn that much fuel, so I'm quite curious to see what is

 

Cool, so that's easy enough I've never heard of EAH, though.

 

Ah, yes, I didn't think about the blocks. Thrusters and weapons are also all different.

I tried to build a small CV when the selection tool messed it up, and it seems there's no way to build them small. It would need a warp drive and a shield of course, and those are huge, and the blocks are very big as well.

Fortunately, the fuel situation has improved after the auto miners dug out a lot of promethium.

Fuel consumtion is currently 3.52kPSU at idle. I had the tanks full before I started using it for about a day, and they are at 49% now. They hold 84000 when full, so using it about 10 hours means about 40000 fuel, i. e. about 4000 per hour. I didn't really pay attention to how many hours I used it, but 10 is probably about right. You can see the fuel counter go down in the panel by what appears to be a bit less than a second, so that's about right.

If I got it right, the blueprint is here and you can see for yourself: https://www.adminart.net:8055/blueprint-battlehopper.tar.gz

I guess you can unpack it where your installation stores its blueprints. This is for a vanilla game, with volume limit turned off. It's not finished yet. I plan to add more weapons and maybe do some more texuring.