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Swiss cheese


FD3242

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Have the devs mentioned whats going to be in place if anything to stop planets from turning into Swiss cheese. No hate on Swiss cheese, but I like my planets looking like planets.

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NQ have not stated anything on this topic.

 

However I've speculated many times that certain types of materials will be affected by daily erosion. For example: for every day passed, all dirt and gravel on the planet would have a certain degree of voxel smoothing applied to it, to slowly revert it towards the initial voxel configuration of the planet based on its seed.

 

I have yet to get anyone from NQ to comment on this.

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NQ have not stated anything on this topic.

 

However I've speculated many times that certain types of materials will be affected by daily erosion. For example: for every day passed, all dirt and gravel on the planet would have a certain degree of voxel smoothing applied to it, to slowly revert it towards the initial voxel configuration of the planet based on its seed.

 

I have yet to get anyone from NQ to comment on this.

That would be a good solution. But not sure it could be fast enough and still feel natural.

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Have the devs mentioned whats going to be in place if anything to stop planets from turning into Swiss cheese. No hate on Swiss cheese, but I like my planets looking like planets.

As far as we know right now, holes are persistent. And I think that is a good thing. If NQ feel the need to "fix" it an erosion script would be preferable.

 

If you set up a big mining operation, 500 meter deep and more you dont want your excavation filling up each x amount of time. Thats just one example why swiss cheese is still better than the alternative, in my opinion.

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Im kinda hoping NQ ends up doing something with a mining rights unit. Basically a territory unit that allows you to edit the planet voxels/mine. It would be very cheap, can be picked up and placed again perhaps with some cooldown, and multiple units can be placed in a singe territory. It doesn't reserve rights or anything. It would also be deactivated if a Territory unit is placed in the territory. I just think its in the best interest of the game to have at least some minor level of effort needed to modify the planet.

 

To falstafs comment it could also work as a trigger for planets to fill up holes. If no mining unit is present then start this planet self repair process.

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To falstafs comment it could also work as a trigger for planets to fill up holes. If no mining unit is present then start this planet self repair process.

See, the issue with your idea is that a mining unit needs to be constructed.

 

Mining as it is right now at the basic level doesnt need anything beyond your nanoformer. You start the game you can start mining your way up. You lost everything in some high stakes game, go dig a hole. It is a self contained loop that doesn't need external help to get a player started.

 

I'm not saying it couldn't work your idea for a unit to freeze the auto refill script. Though resources are finite as a design rule, that includes planets as a whole.

 

And me personally, if someone digs a big hole I want it to persist until another player fills it back up. :)

 

Alioth as a starter planet is huge, I dont think swiss cheese will be that big of an issue.

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See, the issue with your idea is that a mining unit needs to be constructed.

 

Mining as it is right now at the basic level doesnt need anything beyond your nanoformer. You start the game you can start mining your way up. You lost everything in some high stakes game, go dig a hole. It is a self contained loop that doesn't need external help to get a player started.

 

I'm not saying it couldn't work your idea for a unit to freeze the auto refill script. Though resources are finite as a design rule, that includes planets as a whole.

 

And me personally, if someone digs a big hole I want it to persist until another player fills it back up. :)

 

Alioth as a starter planet is huge, I dont think swiss cheese will be that big of an issue.

 

I guess im just jaded. I have seen so many of these free build, free edit games and they all end up looking like crap so quickly. Sure the starter planet is huge but there may also be 50k people on it at launch. I honestly don't care if the mining unit is free. It's not supposed to be about the investment cost to make it. Its about having to carry a thing and place it if you want to edit. So someone can't just run from point a to b digging a line in the dirt just cause they are bored. Maybe make it heavy or have a small activation time to edit like 5 minutes. The goal in my eyes is to make it that if you are trying to mine or edit the planet you are not slowed down or burdened by this at all. But if you are just running around you cant edit the planet.

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Alioth as a starter planet is huge, I dont think swiss cheese will be that big of an issue.

 

They have mentioned the sizes of planets and there is no way anytime soon that they will turn into swiss cheese. The sizes of the planets are so large that it would take a very very very long time and by the time you do turn it to cheese, everyone will probably be off Alioth and living elsewhere

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But if you are just running around you cant edit the planet.

Yes I certainly understand your sentiment.

I just dont agree with it. :)

 

You dont want some "idiot" messing up the neighborhood. Though I dont mind people digging holes for fun. If they think its fun who am I to disagree with it. Its the way the game was set up.

 

Lets say we have 50 000 people at launch, the safe zone is a 20 km circle. I cant do math but thats a lot of space. Now just imagine Alioth, I think it will be fine.

 

Naturally the closer you get to the Arkship the more cheese you will find.

Thats human nature I guess. ;)

 

Btw you can always start some eco org to restore the landscape. :P

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If people deface the planet (which will happen) can at least the surface be easily restored with voxel tools? Will the plants grow back naturally on exposed dirt? If neither of these happen there is still another option: Leave the planet.  There is a pristine planet out there.

 

But if you don't want to leave, its time to create the DU-Eco-Rangers.

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I'm sure it will be possible to do at least some basic repair work with the voxel tools, so people can repair the damage.

 

The thing about these planets is that they are going to be HUGE. I don't think anyone here (including me) really comprehends how big they will be. The official figure is that the planets will be 100km in radius. That gives a surface area of 126,000 square kilometers. If we assume 50,000 players at launch that's about 2.5 sq km per person. And that's just surface area. If we look at volume, since we can dig around as much as we want underground and that is where most of the resources are, then we are looking at 4,190,000 cubic km, or 84 cubic km per person. And that's just on the first planet. Going off of what NQ has stated, it will likely be only a few weeks until people start to go to other planets in the solar system. There will most likely be between 5 to 10 other planets in the starting system so that's between 12.5 to 25 sq km per player, not including moons and asteroids. And then after that we will be able to move to other solar systems, expanding infinitely into the galaxy. 

 

Players are really going to have to try if they want to be able to deface all of that space faster than new space is discovered. 

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I'm sure it will be possible to do at least some basic repair work with the voxel tools, so people can repair the damage.

 

The thing about these planets is that they are going to be HUGE. I don't think anyone here (including me) really comprehends how big they will be. The official figure is that the planets will be 100km in radius. That gives a surface area of 126,000 square kilometers. If we assume 50,000 players at launch that's about 2.5 sq km per person. And that's just surface area. If we look at volume, since we can dig around as much as we want underground and that is where most of the resources are, then we are looking at 4,190,000 cubic km, or 84 cubic km per person. And that's just on the first planet. Going off of what NQ has stated, it will likely be only a few weeks until people start to go to other planets in the solar system. There will most likely be between 5 to 10 other planets in the starting system so that's between 12.5 to 25 sq km per player, not including moons and asteroids. And then after that we will be able to move to other solar systems, expanding infinitely into the galaxy. 

 

Players are really going to have to try if they want to be able to deface all of that space faster than new space is discovered. 

 

Keep in mind that jc has stated we will only be able to dig some small amount into the planet 1.5 km is what i recall so its much much less cubic/km of actual usable space. Its still a lot of space but i still think it will probably grow to look like crap in a semi short amount of time. Things like water not being counted in usable space for harvesting and if plants do or do not grow back on ground that has been lowered and then fixed. characters seem to be able to harvest large amount of dirt pretty fast so large holes that can scar a large area and things like water not flowing(so hovering lakes) and hovering mountains breaking immersion. These things could happen pretty easy and it would be great if there was some way to make it so at least a player has to care enough to try to maintain making the planet look like crap. At least make it so if players want to repair the planet they can do so semi easily.

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My view on this:

You can already dump material (as shown several times) and then smooth it (January video). Yes those patches would be brown at the moment, but for release its enough imho. It's no top priority to me and I think there are way more important things to handle now.

 

Besides: I don't support some random mechanic that fills up such patches (weathering would be cool though) but I honestly believe that if those holes/monuments offend you, PLAYERS should undo them, not some mechanic. Make a Greenpeace org and dedicate yourself to that, if you can even manipulate the ground there because of TCUs and RDMS

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Keep in mind that jc has stated we will only be able to dig some small amount into the planet 1.5 km is what i recall so its much much less cubic/km of actual usable space. Its still a lot of space but i still think it will probably grow to look like crap in a semi short amount of time. Things like water not being counted in usable space for harvesting and if plants do or do not grow back on ground that has been lowered and then fixed. characters seem to be able to harvest large amount of dirt pretty fast so large holes that can scar a large area and things like water not flowing(so hovering lakes) and hovering mountains breaking immersion. These things could happen pretty easy and it would be great if there was some way to make it so at least a player has to care enough to try to maintain making the planet look like crap. At least make it so if players want to repair the planet they can do so semi easily.

 

You are correct that it may not be possible to dig all the way through the planet, and JC has stated as such. Although, the exact specifications on the actually depth are not set in stone, and I have a feeling that we will be able to go deeper rather than shallower. The point is not so much the exact numbers as the fact that there will be plenty of space so it is unlikely that everything will be mined out. And besides, people can repair it. It's true that there may be some features that end up not looking natural or realistic, but that is the price to pay for the game world being editable. 

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I would like to add that I am more worried about the spawn area.

The spawn will have a much higher density of players digging in the same area.

A good example of this is 2b2t.org a 6 year old Minecraft anarchy server.

It only looks like this for a few km but its the first thing players see when they join.

.ridealong_feb28_8.jpg

 

Edit: Remember a minecraft world is larger then a planet yet the spawn still looks like this.

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I'm sure we will find good ways. Or the devs, rather.

 

I'm against some "auto-repair over time" however, besides some very limited erosion or weathering mechanic for the first layer of blocks exposed to the elements.

 

Other than that, you want some change fixed? Do it yourself or let someone do it.

 

In our old Minecraft server, any new player would spawn in the safe "spawn city". Once you'd leave the doors, it was no man's land or faction controlled territory. Yet through mining or war (artillery), the outside of the city often looked like crap. So we got a player initiative together to fix it and a bit later, it was green again. Other areas further off (that would see no care after war) still looked bombed or damaged. Something I actually liked, it would show you where war went and ruins would speak untold stories about conflicts.

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NQ mentioned something trivial a good number of months ago. They suggested something along the lines of natural "resource-regen meteor showers", which I would assume to be natural events that occur and gradually regenerate a planet's resources (and I would assume voxel layout) by bombarding it with resource meteors...?

 

I did say it was trivial.

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