A suggested change to build mode

[Toughbrook]

I've only played this game for around 20 hours, but while playing it, it reminded me constantly of myself making minibuild ships in the online game "ROBLOX" only the building system feels to be poorly matched to the nature of Avorion's step-adjustable grid.

I think this game could benefit heavily from having a system similar to the one shown here:

 

The current build mode just feels weird; a lot of times when I'm trying to place a block and get it sized to the correct size I run into problems with perspective. The problem is that the block is always being forced to move all over the dang place when I move my mouse. I guess what I really want is a non-mouse based system.

It would be a good idea to follow in the steps of From the Depths (by far the best "build your vehicle" sandbox game ever created) and have a building system similar to the current one that appeals to players from games like minecraft and the devil-spawn of "space engineers" but also have an option for a more convenient and capable system that doesn't use the mouse and more properly fits the game.

 

It could also be that It just feels weird to me because I'm new and I don't know all the tricks, but still I believe that change would be great.

 

 

[Fox]

I guess lots of your trouble comes from being new here, myself had a hard time getting away from SE's build mode and get used to Avorion... after roughly 400h now i think i got the drill basically, but i definetly think the stepless variable blocks together with the option to clip em into each other makes it the best InGame-Editor i've found up to date, and i played (and still am playing) LOTS of em!

 

...

It would be a good idea to follow in the steps of From the Depths (by far the best "build your vehicle" sandbox game ever created) ...

...

 

Uhm, sorry, but simply nope... FTD had such an bad Editor i'd step away from adapting anything from it! Cluttered, complicated and very unintuitive, combined with the complexity of the game, with selfcrafted turrets and AI Scripting included, an expierience that had driven me away from the game real quick... and me never was afraid of complexity, EVE's "steep learning curve" was laughtable for example... like gotta go through 3 consequent SubMenus to choose a simple block?

 

 

Even Space Engineers defied G-Menu made it better...

 

A matter of taste at the end i guess, but i definetly prefering Avorions Build System! From Kerbal, Robocraft and Space-/Medieval Engineers over Starmade and Creativerse until Wurm Beta and ARK, never found one easier to use whlie keeping such creative freedom!!

 

[Toughbrook]

The main thing that would make life a lot easier is the movement and resizing shown in the video. It allows for you to move blocks in all dimensions without having to have your camera in certain spots, and you can resize them in any direction from any given position.

I can't see any good reason to have the blocks follow the mouse like they do, compared to having the very simple and versatile resize/movement arrows. The "arrows" also help with precision since you're moving them along one axis at a time, looking at any angle or distance you want, as opposed to dragging them on a surface or having them snap to it

Now, I'm not trying to say that the current mode is terrible, or that the one showcased is completely better, but I do believe that something like this should be considered.

 

 

Also, I'm not here to defend FtD but its features for building components and weapons allows for more thought to be put into designing ships with defined purposes and building a good mixed fleet. I'd prefer custom turrets over the attachable turrets like in Avorion because they allow for ships to be built around a function, but of course something like that would not work at all with how ships work in the game and it isn't really like Avorion needs to be a tactical ship designing contest anyway.

In the FtD example I was referencing how it has two build modes, one a simple easy-to-use one, and another meant to better suit the game—not saying that any of its mechanics should be borrowed (the two games are extremely different in both form and goal, after all)