Curved Blocks

[canuk]

I looked back a few pages and I am surprised that I didn't see curved blocks as a suggestion? Avorion's building system appears to be the best set up out of similar games to add curved blocks because of the scaling feature. In many other games curved blocks are relatively useless since you are stuck with a set radius for each block. With Avorion's system it seems that it would be possible to have a curved block set at any radius and could add quite a bit of complexity to builds as well as be one of the only games to successfully integrate curved blocks into the game.

[Yeedo]

I don't think we need it that badly since one of the main things Avorion's dynamic scaling allows is making a lot of inverted corners and corners look like a curved surface.

[canuk]

I agree that its not a need and isn't the highest thing on my personal list but it would be nice and I feel that this is one of the few games that would be able to successfully have curved blocks without being limited to a 1 block radius like many other games.

[AVOBob]

;D

[DJND]

Uhm, with the block system we currently have we can create those 'curved' blocks however we want them to be curved. Just take lots and lots of the blocks we can use and create templates, start small. On a computer, to simplify rendering graphics, all curved shapes are essentially lots of small triangles put together so that it looks curved from the players point of view. The complexity of an object can be described by how many triangles are used for it and it quickly gets up to tens of thousands of them.

 

Pretty similar to how we build our ships. Still, many people are just lazy and create a round shape just by splitting it up into a 6 to 8 sided polygon and don't take the time and effort to really make it look like a circle.

 

Although it might be nice to have additional templates shipped with the game to save people from having to reinvent the wheel again and again. Perhaps a way to exchange templates like we already do exchange ship builds?

 

Oh, and for gods sake, a better way to organize all those ship models. Adding a folder system would be a start. I'm always deleting those autosave ones that the game insists putting in the middle of my real collection of ships. Arg! Thats of a bother enough to drive me up the walls! And I can't even add that feature myself since the build mode doesn't seem to be part of the available scripts.

 

Grr! It should be a rule that any game developed has to at least have one team member that has a mild case of obsessive-compulsive disorder. I'm sure all those games over the years that were so highly praised for it's love to details had someone with OCD on the team.

[VoltairesPuppet]

How about we make the case to the developers for making the editor LUA based or at least significant parts exposed via LUA (i.e. manipulate blocks via C exposed API, basic GUI in LUA code). 

 

One addition would be the ability to add meta data to saved ships and blocks, which isn't removed but marked as broken if edited by a non-conforming editor.  i.e. so curves can be changed at a later date because the curve data is saved along with the blocks (if editor is smart enough it could compensate for individual blocks that may have been tweaked, or just not allow editing of such composite shapes).

 

A plugin mechanism would be cool, but as moders we could figure that stuff out while not distracting the devs from the more important stuff.

[Draxiss]

I'm fine with it not being a high priority, but I hope the Devs do decided to implement Round one day. Being able to create curved blocks (maybe dynamically determine the curve?) would cut down on unnecessary ship complexity.

[DJND]

How about we make the case to the developers for making the editor LUA based or at least significant parts exposed via LUA (i.e. manipulate blocks via C exposed API, basic GUI in LUA code). 

 

As someone who is able to modify lua I'm always very happy if game mechanics and user interface is opened up to modification by players. I've been very disappointed when I couldn't find either the ship editor nor the user interface when you are flying around anywhere in the opened lua sources. Many parts of the UI give the impression to just be added to have something to use and then be left as 'good enough'. It is tedious to access ships or stations via 'F' and even worse interface design to have to press shift to free the mouse and then to move it up right to access the trade module. How i'd wish to bind that to a hotkey.

 

One addition would be the ability to add meta data to saved ships and blocks, which isn't removed but marked as broken if edited by a non-conforming editor.  i.e. so curves can be changed at a later date because the curve data is saved along with the blocks

 

To make that more logical, I'd call it 'grouping', as do many other 3d model editors. A grouping of blocks can then be used in the same way as a block itself, i.e. rotate, resize, fit to somewhere and so on. After adding a template of blocks (hm, isn't that just like a grouping there?) you only need to add said template instead of recreating a good curved grouping of blocks. Deliver the best templates with future versions of the game and voila, your wish was fulfilled. ;)