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Elements as Voxels.


Morndenkainen

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Okay, started playing this game recently and one thing that just drives me nuts about it is the whole "elements" system. Sure, it's nice having a snazzy looking engine that you can put down and boom, there it is.. Or wings/ stabilizers, air-brakes, etc... 

But it limits creativity and kind of sucks... A lot of otherwise good looking ships end up looking like garbage because of it.

To that end, I suggest implementing elements as voxels or mini-elements. Imagine being able to place a single voxel sized block in your existing ship that functions as an element. The more "mini-elements" attached, the more effective it acts as an element. Pretty much exactly the same as it worked in StarMade. That way, players have the option to exercise their creativity and make engines, wings, and other elements that not only function well, but fit their ships properly. Even if it had to be done in 1x1 "engine element cubes" that were linked together through physical contact on the 6 sides, that would be a massive improvement on the creativity end... Surely it wouldn't be too difficult to figure out power scales and such.. A small engine has X number of voxel blocks worth of volume, and gives X performance, and then scale that up where each block gives that individual base amount, plus an adjacency bonus, allowing the L engines to be made up of however many mini element blocks they would take in voxels as well. And to prevent abuse from making ridiculously large engines, a hard-cap of mini element blocks working together could be implemented.. Hit the cap? Time to build another engine... 

The same could be done with wings as well... Mini-element blocks could allow for "lifting surface" hulls while not having to be stuck using the generic "wings" that every other ship out there has on them.. 

And fuel tanks... Why do they all have to be the exact same cylindrical object? What if I've got a square space I want to fill in?

Seems to me the current element's system, while easy enough to use, has a LOT of shortcomings for a game that's all about designing and building whatever it is you're inspired to build.

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I think this is a really good idea. I feel like a lot of the time, to make things look nice I have to hide them behind a wall. But can't do that with wings, or other outside elements!

With this method, people could build to their hearts content, and make things look nice, and not like they dove into their closet blind and grabbed whatever their hands touched. :P

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And it wouldn't really upset the current system, because you'd still need things like chairs, force fields, antenna dishes, etc... Could easily still use all of the different interior items, windows, glass, and the like, while giving players the freedom to choose their engine, wing, container, and fuel tank shapes and sizes.

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