The only reason fuel would be being consumed when the solar capacitor is discharging is if the base is drawing more power than the maximum output of the solar capacitor. In any case, the solar capacitor should always be used before standard generators anyway.
Armored Cockpit (SV/HV) Visually, they'd be basically the same to the normal cockpits. But they'd have 2000 hp as opposed to the normal 700-750 hp. Constructed using Sathium and other higher-tier components. Why? The cockpit is the most exposed part of an SV/HV and usually the most forward. And while we can upgrade the armor and even the glass of the ship, the cockpit is the most obvious, most vital and most exposed part of a ship. Hell, one of the variations of cockpit includes the entire front nose-cone of the ship so it doesn't even have the bonus of armor blocks over the lower front half of it.
I agree with this. We still can change the cockpit HP in the "config.ecf" file. Or maybe add/create an upgrade template in the same file. ( I will try this. )
Personal Defense Field (lol.pdf) This (relatively expensive) item places like an explosive charge on any surface. Though it doesn't explode, it does generates a forcefield from it's top side (1m x 1.5m) that blocks movement and incoming fire from both sides. Functioning as portable cover when out in the open or entering hostile rooms. The field has a fixed hit limit of say... 20 hits, making it minimally effective against miniguns, sentry turrets and automatic weapons. Considerably more useful against the slower shotguns, rockets, laser and plasma weaponry. Useful for blocking entrances and doors when up against a swarm of those ridiculously durable scorpions. The field generator can be manually disabled the same way you pick up a bike/tent/survival constructor. You don't get it back though (that would be OP). The field will automatically overheat and explode after a minute or two. The field generator will automatically break if the block it's placed on is removed. Item stacks to 5 (Same as Explosive Charges) Other useful functions: You can place them on walls and jump from field to field to climb onto the roof of bases. Slap them on the front of your HV/SV to protect it from BA/CV turrets. They should be expensive and you'll need a lot of them to cover a ship... and they'll only last a couple of minutes from placement. Would be cool to see hostiles using them as well. Zirax are meant to be trained soldiers.
So, something like the deployable bubble shield from Halo? One could have multiple types of deployable equipment, too (e.g. mini sentry guns, healing bubbles, jump boosters).
On a BA/CV, one block is enough space for a complete crew birth, similar to the image below. It would be nice to plunk one of those down that had a floor, ceiling, walls, and integrate nicely with the various doors. Right now, you have to throw a bunch of blocks at crew quarters, which is fine if you're making a luxury liner, but not so great if you're making something more military or minimalistic.
The discussion of cargo and mass reminds me that I once wanted to make a freighter similar to a modern container ship. Of course, modern cargo containers are much bigger than the game's cargo boxes. This had me wanting something like a 2x4x2 cargo box. The Internet says "Standard ISO shipping containers are 8ft (2.43m) wide, 8.5ft (2.59m) high and come in two lengths; 20ft (6.06m) and 40ft (12.2m)." What's that work out to in large blocks? Is it 1x3x1 and 1x6x1? That seems weird. Maybe the current 1x2x1 cargo boxes aren't so bad. I must think they look weird when they're put on an HV/SV, or something. They would be much smaller on an HV/SV.
Oh, YES - this type of block with bed /bunk beds, little table with chair and internal light (just as in your picture in trains, or in submarines) would be GREAT addition for smaller ships!
I think it probably feels weird because the aspect ratio isn't right; the in-game containers would really need to be more like 2.5 / 5 blocks long.
I'd think we could have a 1 block bathroom too. Perhaps that would cause some complication for the developers. Suddenly one block has to act like a toilet, shower, sink and medicine cabinet depending on what part of the block you interacted with.
That might be it. I thought the BA/CV blocks were 2m and the HV/SV blocks were 1m. In retrospect, maybe its just the HV/SV cargo boxes feel like they want to look like a miniaturized cargo container, when they're probably better off looking like something you see on top of a car.
Well, with the escape pod, we already have two ways of interacting with it ('interact' and SHIFT+'interact'); applied to the all-in-one bathroom, 'interact' could open the medicine cabinet while SHIFT+'interact' could activate all of the buffs. I mean, chances are pretty good that recovering from a hangover or food poisoning is going to involve use of the shower as well as the toilet (same for radiation poisoning), so I don't see a huge need to keep them forcibly separate. Obviously, for RP/design purposes, still having the separated objects as well would be nice. Yeah, SV/HV blocks are 0.5 m on a side, so the large ones are 0.5 m x 0.5 m x 1 m.
I've posted this elsewhere, but just noticed this thread, so ... I would very much like to see this missing Corner Block added to Empyrion. Spoiler This looks like the perfect spot for this missing corner piece. Spoiler
Spotlight (Variation 4) Currently spotlights come in 3 variations. 1 cube and 2 slopes. What we need is a non-airtight version without the "box". More like Space Engineer's spotlights. At present, the block ones simply don't look good when used anywhere that's not built directly into the body of a ship/base. (e.g. sitting on top of Truss Blocks, on top of guard towers, mounted on the side of attack ships, slapped on top of a hover like a redneck's monster truck, etc...)
Books and plants and holo images of your dogs and cats. I got so bored with the extremely limited amount of furnishings and decor in Empyrion that I've been building and... well... decorating in TS4 again. Got bored with Planet Nomads for the same reason. There just aren't nearly enough options.
My thoughts on this have always been that the bathroom sink should never have been 2 blocks long. I end up leaving it out of builds I wanted to have a full bath in because it just takes up too much space and severely limits the number of configurations the blocks can be placed in. I can understand why the devs would not want to combine the shower and toilet since they each serve a specific purpose that is unrelated to the other. Although there are times I do miss the "bathroom" in the old Superior motor home my parents once had. My dad said you could ****, shower and shave all at the same time. For some things, the larger blocks (BA/CV) are just too big. I truly wish the devs had given us more than 2 block sizes to work with before it got to the point where it wasn't feasible to add them.
I appreciate that the game is about survival. Hence the title. But there comes a point where you are surviving quite well. So well in fact that you have a hovercraft or spaceship. At that point its more about comfortable living - so why shouldn't we have nice, varied furnishings!? Seriously though - a "BookShelf" - about 45% of the item name is about books - yet there are no books on the bookshelf - a contradiction no?
My thoughts exactly. Why can't we have nice things? Why can't we have "all the comforts of home"? Pictures on the walls. They could be screenshots we've taken. Mementos/souvenirs of places we've been. Trees, bushes, flowers and vegetables we can plant in the ground (not a grow plot) if you prefer to live planetside like I do. Curtains, rugs, fireplaces with a fire that can be turned on or off, mirrors, candles, the list goes on and on. Many of these things could be used on ships as well. They don't all have to be restricted to bases/homes. So yeah, @Hummel-o-War , why can't we have nice things?
that's a very fine point and suggestion. If the name of the game in the early stage of the game is survival - why not have a non-artificial light source - i.e. firepit, fireplace, candles, torch sconce?
