Nobody told me there would be math involved! Of note perhaps, I have limited lights and windows and hull is mostly single block thick.
haha ;-) ah... I only wanted to know... but it's interesting (and I do still wonder what Blocks are "Devices"? (besides Windows) F.e. we have similar number of Blocks (you: 3350, me: 3388), your ship has 1/3 more(!) Triangles (for Performance or against - how you'd call it; you: 43372, me: 33000), but I have 50% more Devices (you: 403, me: 636 - and no, I don't have 600 windows ;-)
It's a good thought. I have around 40 windows, 23 lights, 14ish pieces of furniture and a few med devices. 6 o2 vents / 2 o2 stations and 3 med things. But then theres the 4 constructors 30 something cargo boxes and tanks and gennies and 4 fridges and food processor. 36 grow plots. 15 turrets and a couple plasma guns. So indeed, unless you have a ton more of any of that, not sure where the class difference is getting applied. Now it's secret math...
Windows, Lights, all Weapons & Drills, & everything in the Creative Mode Itemmenu "Devices" Tab as best as I know, including all Deco Blocks, function toting or not.
Getting really late - but always time to spam a few screenshots... Omicron, here we come! We found a good spot to land our CV armada. Kivutar, Ilmarinen and Ilmatar. Sunset. Did some mining. Off to loot a couple civilian POI's. Out of the expedition bases @Starwing6 has made so far - all have been excellent - but I think this is my favourite. And to end the night, we raided a close by Xenu Armoury! Starwings & Timo's New assault HV was feeling frisky and punched a hole in the wall no problem. Awesome vessel, I hope @Starwing6 got some good action shots with it
Over the last couple of days i felt a little unhappy with my current mobile base. I do use it 99% of the time as a base, so: why not give the look more base than mobile? Thats what i came up with so far: Its the rear; the front will get another massive tower with the cockpit in top. The halls to the left and right are going to be docks for 6 medium-sized vehicles, with storage room in the corners behind. Over them a battlement is planned going around all the base/ship, running through the three towers. The things I need constantly like kitchen and Constructors go into the big tower in front, while the rear towers will hold tanks and engines. Thrusters are a problem of their own; i dont want to bury them, but they definitely are disturbing the medeval impression...
So... if I just add a ton of DECO(!) blocks without any purpose besides looking more spacey... I could end up with a class 100?? oookay... seems I have to remove a few... this also could be the reason I suddenly went from Class 5 to Class 7 with my Omega-Outpost... I've made it more tech-alike in creative... my bad...
oh that's awkward now... haha... eh... yes.... I even didn't recognize these tabs have NAMES... haha... oh my... (that's automatic doing, I know where to click to find xyz) Okay. Now... if indeed ANY of these Blocks under the "Devices Tab" indeed counts as one (the name should speak for itself, yes, I got it ;-) then okay, I see why I got increased in Class... - Fuel & O2 Tanks. I've TONS of them - Thrusters & RCS. Do I need to say something? You know me.... - and these DECO(!) Blocks... okay, you got me. Edit: but then... why are WINDOWS and perhaps Weapons counting too? Edit2: And then Lights are double-counted. As Devices... and as Lights... ?
Well devices and lights pay a huge part in performance too. Block per block - only the 'worst' building blocks (like the 4 way connector or some of the rounded truss blocks) are 'worse' than devices I think. Not that I really pay any attention to that when I'm building - but if you NEED to bring your ship class down for some reason (server restriction), it's good to know. Anything that isn't a building block that contributes to the triangles - is a device. Don't really see why you would have to. Are you having performance issues? Class 7 should run just fine.
@rainyday nah, I'm not in need to bring the class down (but the red class 7 on my outpost still got me thinking, as this is still a somewhat small base compared to some that I've seen from others... but there's some 100 fuel and O2 tanks buried in the basement... seems as the formula doesn't involve checking visibility that still got me... :-( Add another 100 Cargo boxes and Fridges and yes... Devices... but still it's only 782... Edit: just checked the formula with my base... ... Class 7.4914 ... about one additional computer console and I'm at 8!!!! HAHA... edit... no... it was TWO of them!! ;-) oh my.... and yes, weapons and windows counting too. just checked.
Our HV race has been postponed, though not due to weather. I just wanted a few more lightning shots because it was a good practice opportunity. When 3/4 of our faction were online, we departed on our expedition to Omicron. We didn't know if our other friend could play, so we thought it would be no problem to pick him up from Akua when he's able to join us. We arrived at Omicron's orbit and took our SVs down to scout for a good place to make camp. @rainyday located a perfect spot near water and multiple ore deposits, plus it has ample flat space for parking our vessels. Within a few short minutes, we established our presence on Omicron! Thank you very, very much. Timo actually said the same thing last night. I'm really glad because I try to improve with every build. Thankfully the second level landing pad is big enough to accommodate the vessels we use. Our other faction mate was retrieved from Akua. We looted some civilian POIs and then enjoyed our first combat mission on Omicron. I wanted to get some combat screenshots of our new HV called Venomsmite. Timo is inspired to do organic ships and I love the vessel he built. I added some detail paint and texture inside and out, and she looks truly at home on Omicron. There was an amusing head on collision with @rainyday But then we stopped playing around around headed out to attack the Xenu Armory. I love Ilmarinen I probably mentioned that already, but seeing it landed on a planet is pretty incredible! We decimated the Armory with Venomsmite, Surma and Black Wisp! The turrets on our HV began targeting the mechs inside because they register as turrets, so we blew open the wall before we stopped them. Then we all stormed the place. Those Zirax must've been terrified in those final moments. lol One hilarious moment was when I saw a door that would be fun to blow up, and it was the front door! I love it that we rushed in through the hole in the wall and I didn't even know the intended point of entry.
So I just went hunting on the steam workshop for the venomspite(some of the buildings I have been working on recently have organic or aberrant organic themes to them and I love being inspired) but I could not find it? Any chance I could humbly beg or plead with Timo to post the BP here.
I took screenshots for the upload this afternoon, so Venomsmite will be on the Workshop tonight or tomorrow
I tried my hand at my first Capital (with capital C) Vessel... and realized about a quarter through that I'll never be able to spawn such a monstrosity in single player survival Oh well, it should do for when I'll host a multiplayer game. Could make a pretty nice prize to "discover". (And If Ido not manage to harass any of my friends enough to have them buy this game, I can always bug one of you guys with a hosted server to slap it on a planet of yours I guess ) screenshot is the core room (right is the encased core, front the weapons array)
Size class is just a rough way to measure how much GPU power will be needed to render something. Lights and windows are harder on the GPU, probably because they have more active elements, ie how they interact with the lighting engine with regards to shadows and reflections, how that changes as players move around, and how much time has to be spent calculating all that. Things like a computer console or o2 tanks can have lots of rounded edges and details too. More complexity means more triangles and more GPU needed to render it. If the way they calculate size class seems a little draconian it's probably due to the fact it's not fully optimized yet. All that stuff has a cost in terms of GPU power needed to render it and not everyone has a top end video card. One class 6 base isn't a big deal. Get a couple dozen together along with ships and mobs and players and it starts to add up.
Have you figured out a way to conviently que up a bazillion iron ingots? Or is it still increments of 10? I am sure you already know about this, but dismantling a Civvy base with a T2 multi-tool goes really really fast, and while it is still kind of a pain to do, you can get something like 10 - 20k iron ingots that way. That opens the way to some decent ships.
Also, I know it is never quite possible to replace the experience and satisfaction of building your own CV, but I assembled this list of fairly easy to acquire survival CV's: http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=926226632 I keep meaning to add to it, but I never seem to have the time or have other things to do.
