BA and CV variant of F5 drone, with independent toolbar. Like: - You place 'drone launcher' somewhere outside - You put items you want to build with into some storage (likely a usual container) - You select the drone (open Devices, select drone -> Access) - Set up the toolbar from storage, start building - You stand up/deactivate drone and then sit back/re-access it - All blocks are still in toolbar - Works within logistic range or at least within certain rage of BA/CV, perhaps within certain range of 'launcher' Reasons: 1. Ability to create multiple toolbars by placing multiple launchers 2. No need to run around base to reach all corners, so less issues with building bigger structures in survival (drone is warrantied to reach at least within own structure, in worst case you switch to a different one) 3. No need to have higher celling for F5 drone 4. Doesn't care about movement (actually, might be better to disable it during movement, but at least you will be in seat if your teammate decides to relocate CV) 5. Toolbar that you don't need to reconfigure each time from scrath 6. Blocks used for toolbar stay in storage, player's inventory is free 7. Potential use as remote camera: you can launch one external drone after landing CV to make sure you landed where you needed, ramps touch ground e t c. Or potentially in missions - player can access remote BA-drone located in maintenance tunnel in some way and 'scenario' uses it to give a glimps of some facility/defense e t c
Manual landing gear deployement (like doors system for example)... Another familly blocs to add possibility to dock containers to HV's, SV's. Containers => SV/HV => CV/Bases. So a system that extend docking possibility.
I would go even further: Give us combat drone spawners! I really want to build a drone carrier. Having the ability to place combat drones on your bases and ships would be a huge advantage for singleplayers!
Modular building more explained on this post: https://empyriononline.com/threads/modular-building.47007/ that I made
Prefab framing without using blocks. Maybe a mode that allows us to freely place certain blocks (mostly the actual building blocks like steel and concrete, the ones used for actual structures and hulls) so we can get a better idea of what our structure will look like before we “finalize” it. All the decoration, painting, texturing, populating can be done once the hull/structure is finalized.
Better terrain manipulation ability. For example the ability to smooth terrain and not have jagged terrain that looks like crap as soon as you dig it or flatten it.
It would still need a way to 'smoothen out' surfaces. Flatten, flattens and can cause sharp edges. A smoothening function would allow making all corners, ramps, edges... smoother. Less jaggy, or bumpy. Normalizes harsh deviations of a given area... without outright flattening the angles.
From the perspective of builders tools, I would really like to see: PRIMARY - An option to toggle partially transparent blocks in the debug tools (i.e. show a ghost image of blocks that we can still see but see other blocks through). For example, this would be very useful to work out if the block you are removing from within a ship is actually part of the outer hull and also where devices are buried behind layers of walls. SECONDARY - An option to toggle a building grid in debug tools (i.e. show block boundaries).
I've often wanted a "ghost mode" which is a derivative of "god mode". It would behave the same in terms of flying anywhere, moving about... however the huge difference would be when you come into contact with "blocks". In god mode, you simply 'clip in' and see through the graphical entity until it pops out to another side or surface for which the clipping does not see. Sure, this is useful most the time when building in Creative mode... However with ghost mode, if you come in contact with a block, that block 'vanishes' (or transparents down to like 2%) so you can see all surfaces bordering that block. As you move through a thick group of blocks, you are basically 'blind' because you are floating through and only seeing the surfaces bordering the block(s) you are physically inside of. Why? Many times I like to texture the 'unseen' surfaces of specific things. Like, pipe ends, specialty blocks, undersides of devices that have solid covers and the like. Having only the block I am in, vanish, would allow me to texture any surface I see fit. The only way I can do it now, is be deleting a block, so I can texture other bordering block surfaces... and put it back (or texture ahead of time as I'm building something, which is just as much a pain). Why again? When a player blows off a block, and you see a clean solid metal surface ... it doesnt look as good as say seeing a more rough or technical surface. Case in point the 'pipes' I mentioned above. When blowing off sections of pipe, I do not want to see solid steel pipe ends... but rather use a texture that looks better for a 'broken off pipe end'. Yeah, I'm weird that way.
From an building perspective: Allowing certain blocks to merge with other blocks. For example, allowing 'pipes' to go through walkway or truss blocks. I am sure there are other suggestions for this out there. I am not suggesting that regular 'solid' blocks should be allowed to merge with other 'solid' blocks, but allowing some overlap with some specified groups would be wonderful from a creative point of view.
This approach does potentially offer a way to trim back some of the blocks in the game. For instance, you don't need a corner wall (90 wall) block if two normal wall blocks are allowed to intersect.
Yes, it has issues. For one, it won't fill much dirt into areas that are too low, leaving pyramid shaped depressions in the ground or creating a jagged edge before flattening the beyond terrain to a lower level. But it can't be used to make a smooth slope. You get a plateau, then a jagged edge, then a lower plateau with a strange ditch in between. Then you try to use the fill tool to fix it and it doesn't fill evenly, so you end up with more jagged stuff. Then you flatten again and end up with a jagged edge. And the textures are wrong, and you can't plant grass or get the textures to look normal again, etc. So you end up with a mess of jagged stuff and strange texture shapes. But from a game perspective maybe you just want a smooth slope between A and B that's easy to run across without getting stuck on, and you can't create that properly.
add a volume/mass indicator controlled by thruster/hover engines to the cockpit screen of the craft, along with the effects of gravity if you are looking at a planet/moon (like temperature and radation)...some type of visual indicator to help you manage your mass of your craft...would aid in designing vessels as well
yes, but if there's going to be a weight indicator why not have it on the cockpit hud...and a bit more simple instead of the obscure way they have it now...make it like our inventory volume indicator influenced by weight, thrust, hover egines, gravity
