Like Space Engineers, you use the Insert, Delete, Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down to rotate blocks. My opinion with the building system is I somewhat like it, but I think that blocks should act how they do in Medieval Engineers, where there are multiple variants all select able by moving the scroll wheel. That would really cut down on the amount of templates in the constructor!
Actually, I don't even want to use the drill for destroying any blocks, items, etc. I would like to use a different drill to take blocks or structures off so I can reuse them and place them somewhere else without the need to destroy the block and item and have to find more components to make the item again. Anything like a wrench or sawblade would do (or a toolbox with different tools...animations of the player dismantling a part would be interesting, but I think it would make building too slow). When I am at home and need to move a television or another important device, I don't destroy the item and put it back together just to move it to another place. I unhook things or unscrew where it is fastened, and then I move it to another place without ever having the need to destroy it. This ability for the game would make things extremely easier (or at least to a certain extent.) Right now, I have accidentally place hull blocks and devices in the game, and I have to leave it or destroy it. It's really frustrating. (This may be more suitable in the constructor forums, but this also applies to building and mining, which is why I am going slightly off-topic at this point). Right now, if you destroy a vital part of the escape pod, it may be impossible to recreate the item. Sometimes, being able to create primitive tools would save players from having to fail a game. Pickaxes of wood and metal, axes, shovels, and other basic tools could easily be created if one is stuck in a hole or has another serious problem. Also, I would like to be able to have a manual crafting area when I need to make these tools. I don't always need a constructor to create something for me when I am in an emergency. I can just create the device with my own hands. This means I have to wait until my hands have taken care of the job. If a part that gets destroyed by other means (not the mining drill), I could replace the part by manually creating tools, a workshop area, and the necessary components for the part to place it back where it was or somewhere else. Sometimes, using hands to dig out sand or using legs to kick out a rock would be helpful if someone lost or used up all of his or her drill charges and is stuck. To have the mining drill solely used for the terrain would actually make terraforming around your base easier. I won't have to worry about accidentally moving the cursor too far and destroying something important on my base. In reality, if I was in this situation and not in-game, I would be able to carefully terraform without touching the base. This means that this doesn't take away the realism that some people like in games and makes building and terraforming much easier. However, moving some sand off my base wouldn't even require a tool. I would be able to just move my foot over the sand and just push it off to the side. This ability may be hard to implement in the game, but I wish I could do just that. It's frustrating to have to work so hard just to move something with advanced tools that would just be easy to move in real life. (If the following tool already exists, please disregard this comment. ) Also, I would like to have another tool to place dirt or such back on the terrain when I need to fill in a hole. When I build underground or on land, I feel that maybe it isn't necessary for a whole block for the creation of base to be used in the world. Instead of making the whole block appear and keeping it the same as one mines some unnecessary terrain away, the block can adjust its appearance to look like work was done to make the hull have support in the ground. When bases are spawned, they sometimes stick out above ground. I hate that, especially when I am trying to make the base look like it has structural integrity (not like this feature is needed, but I like doing this because I like making things look cool and realistic (please don't get mad at me for using "realistic," I mean that I just like making things look like they could be made even with factors of gravity and such). It's hard to build underground. I would like to just place metal walls (not just hulls) around a hole I make without terrain sticking out. Maybe for anyplace a person builds at, the terrain must alter a bit to make a metal block look "right" when it is placed. I'm getting frustrated with terrain sticking out. I just want to create my base and make it look clean. Also, I don't want my base to float in the air. Maybe structural integrity would be nice for this problem. I would like the base to stick out of the terrain (almost like it's part of the terrain). Another idea (not dealing with what I have previously said) I have is when I build something large at the click of a button, drones or such can be sent out (when one gets to this point of the game) to create the object. It would be like waiting for something in the constructor to be created but instead with a building site. I think this is all I have to say. This was long. XD
I figured I should add, since vehicles now drop to the ground in gravity when no one is in them (good for in case you accidentally bale out), working on the undersides is now pretty impossible in single player. I used to have my small ships hovering above ground to work on the underside, and the hover vehicles hovered high enough for access. Although you could work on a small ship in space to get to the underside, no such option is available for ground vehicles. Perhaps some kind of repulsor block that forces vehicles to float 2m or so above it, that can be fitted to a base.
Indeed, they should be available from the cockpit . But i think thats where the "Acces" button will serve for, i clicked it allready a couple of times but i doesn't do anything till now, or i'm doing something wrong .
Really need a scaffolding system that lets me pick up the components again. A 'plan mode' or similar that lets me place the blocks in image form so I can be sure it'll work out then let it take the blocks to really be built would be good. Blueprints are needed for being able to build/rebuild designs. As it stands I start from scratch each time when I really want to make the same thing, then improve on a single portion. The blocks currently react a little weird when trying to place them, they skip around too easily. The fact that I only get back parts and again have to build the block makes it very hard to try new stuff. Power isn't unlimited and the constructors aren't low consumption.
I noticed that the two 'gray with blue tinted windows' style cockpits do not line up well with other building blocks. Also the low cockpit which spawns with a new ground vehicle is also a bit unfriendly when lining up with other blocks. Unless I'm maybe missing something, I personally think these cockpits could maybe do with a slight redesign to match up better with slope/rounded blocks. Unless different angles of slopes are planned for in the future.
I mentioned this in the constructors section, but this seems like a better place for it. I would like to see a more complex building system. In essence, I don't think you should be able to just shove a whole bunch of these relatively large block into your backpack and then just plop them down. It just doesn't make sense. I'd prefer the ability to build in the field; to take a whole bunch of components with me and use a tool to assemble them onsite (a la space engineers welder). While the ability to just pick up blocks and put them in place can be a nice feature, say for use in a small hangar or for more complicated machines, it shouldn't be the default method. As to the ideas I've seen in this thread, the matter gun seems like something that's a bit beyond the technology we're working with here, and the frames idea seems perfect. In survival mode I hope to eventually see a good inventory limiting system, preferably by both weight and volume. With that type of scenario it just makes more sense to go out with some girders and plating, and use those to assemble your capital ship's armor. As opposed to cramming something ten times as big as you into your backpack. or worse, only being able to carry one block at a time (assuming proper encumbrance etc.) I'm going to stop rambling now, but i'm curious where others' thoughts lie on this.
Here's a video that some of you like @JayCo were needing. @Axios had previously linked a video in this thread to show off the StarMade building mechanics, but JayCo said that it doesn't explain how the system works but just shows someone using it. I have made a video to show how building in StarMade works. Unfortunately, it is not a high quality video. I had to remake the video for many times because the screen recorders I was using didn't show the video. I eventually got one to work, but it wasn't my best attempt for making the video. Plus, the fans in my laptop are loud, and I apologize for the noise. Please forgive any problems with the video and its low quality, and I hope I clarified how the StarMade building system works. http://adf.ly/1KSA4L Edit: I also make a few suggestions here and there in the video.
I'd prefer something like a Gravity-Tool that allows me to somehow move around "functional blocks" like a generator, tanks etc. Example: I started with my first base, placing some function blocks randomly on the surface level (bad idea). Now i wanted to move those power- and ressource blocks to my underground levels ... of course i had to re-built and place the new components in the basement and then destroy the upper-level blocks.... moving around the components. Maybe that's not possible due to the engine locking placed blocks to the grid once and for all...
Worst case scenario with that they could just treat whatever you're carrying like any other vehicle. I personally would only make that a requirement for capital/base blocks. With the smaller frame you should be able to fit one or two blocks on your back (once we have inventory limits that is)
Maybe you could only move blocks that belong to you/you are in control? The game already has a "ownership/property" flag for a base...and it will need one also for SV, GV and CV. So this shouldn't be a problem as you could use the same argument for the drills
After having built some large-small vessels in an unusual shape, i' like to suggest 10 new base HULL blocks 1) Full-Cut edge double block (2*1*1) 2) Full-cut edge double block inverted (2*1*1) 3) half-cut edge double block 4) half-cut edge double block inverted 5) full edge 6) full edge inverted 7) half full edge 8) half full edge inverted 9) half-cut edge 10) sloped half-cut block I've also put up a thread in the public forum: http://empyriononline.com/threads/suggestion-basic-variations-of-edge-sloped-blocks.680/
11) half-cut slope 12) half-cut-top slope 13) one-side slope half-cut block 14) quarter-cut edge block Attached Files:
Another thing I'd like to add. I'd personally like to see the ability to place basic blocks (armour, ramps, stairs etc) on terrain. That way, we could make a stairway to go up and down easily when mining a large deposit that goes deep underground. Powered blocks would still need a base. On that note, I personally think that elevator blocks should require power, consume power and when not powered, act like an empty block (ie you fall when you walk into it). Personal preference.
Yep..building blocks "downstairs" is quite difficult. But building on a solid planet needs to have other challenges than building a "basement" to a space station. So that's ok for me - any construction worker on earth needs to do the same: first digg a hole..then place blocks. No one would dare to first build the 1st store and then build its way down. We are just mislead by the game (or: by all games), because even if you place blocks in the "air", they won't fall down and even if you clear all of the soil beyond a base, it won't collapse until structural integrity is not implemented. So they should keep it like this.... An idea: have circular staircase blocks that are 2 blocks tall and have a base (+1 = 3*1*1 in total) plus circular staircase blocks (1*1*1) without a base. If you want to go down (or up!), just place the staircase block (with a base) with its topmost stair-block next to the floor. When placing the block, the dust/soil is cleared. Just need to go downstairs and remove the rest of the soil and expand the base block to a floor for your basement. Adding blocks directly to the terrain - as the terrain is not flat - may add some inconsistence to the building process itself = seperate blocks mismatch base blocks if not placed correctly. Furthermore: when we place a BA, we are placing a building grid that's a required by the engine to "know" where each block belongs to. If you just place blocks to the terrain, it could be impossible to join those with an exisiting BA grid....maybe i am wrong about this one.
yes this, absolutely needed in Empyrion, the sooner the better, and all window shapes se has also, all these shapes originate in minecraft first really so its not really copying se, but these shape blocks are so important to building in creative. KEEN are awful slow at introducing new blocks, they dribble out at 1 a week if were lucky,, took them 18 months to give us all those shapes, I am hoping we get them a lot faster in Empyrion.
OK, so I was thinking about the building mechanics, and I find it tedious to build block by block in First person/Third person (FP/TP). I know we now have blueprints and i haven't tried them yet, but as I understand they are for creative only and you still have to build a model block by block first. What i would like to see is a blueprint table that allows you to create 2d designs (or 3d if the devs are ambitious) which can be made in the fabricator and placed in one piece in FP/TP. So for example one might design a wall 20x5 blocks with a few windows that can be designed once and built over and over in the fabricator and then placed as one piece. Maybe it has lights attached too, as a time saver. You would be able to rotate and turn it like any other placeable object making base building a snap. Or you could design a ship block layer by layer and construct it one plane at a time. The key is that the designer is an interface, mouse/keyboard driven that can save designs. Kind of like Planet explorers has an extremely robust designer for functional objects. I don't need that, but a way to create a block plan and place it at once. The idea of the "matter gun" would make this not too OP as you would have to place the object and then "build" it with the gun. Of course you would need all the materials in the fabricator first too. Having a block plan, would also make ship fabrication and replication easier to automate.
That's correct. I personally like the idea to be able to build blueprints of a whole segment of a base and then just place and built it. That would be very convenient if - for example - i decided i want to build my "science room" always with the same setup of doors, windows, machines etc. Same applies to any vessel. Currently, the planning of those blueprints means building the ship in creative (or survival). Would be cool to have a holo-table (or a VR entitiy machine) where we just toss around virtual (virtual) blocks and create a blueprint without having to build the base/vessel in the (virtual) real game entitiy. Concerning the pre-build via constructor: i don't know about on how Planet Explorer handles this, but as in Empyrion the smallest element is one block, it could be difficult (engine-wise) to create pre-build planes/walls. Even if it's not possible to have whole structures pre-built, with the use of a "matter gun" it would not be such a problem to first place a "blueprint frame hologram"* and then built block-by-block. (The workflow SE uses with projector+blueprint is quite limited, but maybe closer to a doable solution for Empyrion) * This is a quite realistic solution even nowadays: If it's possible to display a construction plan on something like an augmented reality device (e.g. google glass or similar)...some future astronauts corps with spaceships like we can build in Empyrion should be capable to display even more complex construction plans and link those to their tools without having to set up projectors or similar devices first...
