User-Made Engines

[Hirnsausen]

Here is a revolutionary idea:

Players can use honeycombs (and maybe additional existing or even new elements) to build their kind of shape for an atmospheric or space engine. At the back of their own designed engine, they can select an area of honeycombs and declare that as exhaust of that engine with a right-click, automatically all connected honeycombs of that type are then selected. The player then can decide about the color, saturation, and intensity of the engine's firebeam.  A value of 0 means no visible exhaust firebeam (still, the engine produces thrust). Then the player can make a setting, if the custom engine is a Basic one, an Uncommon one, Advanced, Rare, or Exotic. The liter amount or volume of the player-made engine defines, to which existing engine the thrust and attributes of the custom engine are equal. Example: if the player-made engine has the same volume or larger than a regular atmospheric engine S, the player-made engine automatically takes all attributes of that version (basic, uncommon, etc.) of atmospheric engine S. (thrust, health points, etc.), If the volume equally or surpasses that of an M atmospheric engine, then the item gets automatically the attributes of such an M engine. Etc.. The player finalizes is design with a right mouse-click, and this produces a blueprint that will produce that custom engine at the same cost like the corresponding regular engine.

Those custom engines cannot be sold on the markets, but players can sell them or the BPs through their own dispensers on their tile(s).

Any engine must be at least 3 voxels wide, high, and long but also cannot have less volume/liters than the smallest regular XS engine.

With the ability to customize engines, we can build spaceships that will look more than just cool! The shape of ships in DU will benefit greatly from that!

[Yoarii]

Utilizing the awesome build system we have in the game for things like this has been asked for a long time, but afaik never has had any response from NQ. It's a great idea and would enable players to not only design ships, but also the parts of those ships. It does cut into the element production side of the game, but engine elements and the like could be remade into parts that are needed to make these special element-honeycombs, or they are kept as-is.

 

While it sounds "easy", there are likely many considerations to this though; how will PvE and PvP damage be applied to such elements, repairs etc...

 

That said, I fully support something that opens up for more creative possibilities.

[Hirnsausen]

Thanks for your feedback. Yes, I know that the DU community has the deep with for such a feature. Al we can do, is to continue raising this subject. NQ will eventually notice it and also see all the positive impacts this would have on the game, on the amazing ship designs this would allow.

Pssstt - NQ, do you hear me?   🙂