Lighting in Dual Universe

[Msoul]

The following is an examination of the various player lighting options in Dual Universe as of Update 1.1. Please keep in mind this is not my area of expertise and many of the conclusions drawn here are highly subjective. Hopefully you still find it useful and free of errors.

 

Summary of Findings (TLDR)

 

• The Headlight XS is uniquely situated as the spotlight of Dual Universe and it does that job exceptionally well
• Long and Square lights are functionally equivalent and best suited for illuminating surfaces that need to be seen from a distance
• The Vertical light has the lowest effective range but being omni-directional with high intensity makes it ideal for indoor lighting of complex geometries.
• Luminescent Voxels are best suited for decorative highlighting rather than general illumination.
• Physical properties of lighting elements are standardized but be aware that the Vertical light L has increased mass, volume, and health
• XS light elements are tier 1 + nanocraftable while S, M, and L sized lights are tier 2 with standardized recipes
• Current fabrication costs for light elements are primarily from schematics and manufacturers are fully capable of supplying consumer needs right now

 

Introduction

 

There are 4 different types of craftable light elements Headlight XS, Long Light, Square Light, and Vertical Light with the last 3 having size variations XS, S, M, and L. Each of these elements can be configured to blink at a regular interval and/or output RGB colors through the right click menu. Note that the RGB values must be scaled between 0 and 1 so if you are referencing integer color values (ie: 1 to 255) simply divide it by 255 before inputting. In addition there are 11 different kinds of Luminescent Voxels creating a fairly diverse color palette that spans the visible spectrum. These lights as shown below are the primary focus of this post, but it is also worth noting there are a large number of alternative sources such as fireworks, deco-lamps, engine VFX, and of course the sun itself.

 

 

Lighting Characteristics

 

The main objective behind adding lights to a construct is to use them to illuminate surfaces. These are the key parameters that influence this.

 

• Field of View (FOV) – The angle centered about an object’s normal within which light is cast
• Intensity Factor – The relative power of a light source measured in multiples of 100,000 lux
• Attenuation Distance – The distance between a light source and a surface, beyond which said surface is no longer illuminated
• Penumbra Factor – A measure of how fast projected/surface light intensity decreases from the epicenter 
• Visible Distance – The distance between an illuminated surface and an observer, beyond which the light on said surface begins to fade out

 

When it comes to FOV all light elements have approximately the same value of 100 degrees with the exception of vertical lights which are omni-directional. The remaining stats are plotted below with reference to element size. Note that gaps in the bar graph represent break points on the y-axis which were added to prevent exceptionally large values from obscuring the rest of the dataset.

 

 

The headlight XS has the greatest light intensity and attenuation distance which makes it effective at illuminating distant surfaces, but the high penumbra factor causes that intensity to rapidly decrease as the light spreads outwards from the point of incidence. Consequently it functions as a powerful spotlight that is great for lighting up distance objects with a narrow beam. The long and square lights closely mirror each other with the larger variants exhibiting slightly longer range. These lights also have the highest visible distance making them well suited for general illumination of mission critical surfaces like runways and landing pads. Vertical lights on the other hand have the lowest overall range but being omni-directional, with moderate intensity, largely makes up for that. They are well suited for locations that require many nearby surfaces to be irradiated at once such as building interiors or complex voxel geometries. In order to further highlight the differences between these light sources, the following visual reference was created. It showcases the amount of light spread that would occur on a 32x32m (ie: S-core size) flat surface when illuminated by each source from the respective distances listed on the left side.

 

 

Physical Characteristics

 

When it comes to general properties all light elements are approximately equal with the exception of the vertical light L. It has over three times the mass, four times the storage volume, and triple the amount of functional surface area. It is also the only light with any meaningful amount of health although it is still not recommended that they be utilized for defensive purposes since these decorative type elements do not even have damage resistance. In terms of dimensions each increase in the size category roughly doubles the primary side length of each respective element.

 

 

Fabrication Costs

 

The production recipes for XS lighting elements are all Tier 1 and can be made in the nanocrafter. All other sizes are Tier 2 and must be crafted in industry units, specifically an Assembler XS for everything except the vertical light L which requires the S sized variant. An overview of the fabrication costs per individual element produced is provided below. From it we can see that if you neglect schematics the only differences between baseline unit costs are associated with an item's tier. However once again the vertical light L proves to be an exception as it also has a substantially longer crafting time, likely due to it being paired with with the Assembler S.

 

 

Under current market prices these schematics represent upwards of 50% the overall cost expenditure to manufacture said lights. Taking a brief look at public market orders it becomes clear that despite this, there is a moderate surplus of elements available for purchase (note that outliers with absurd +/-1000% prices have been removed). Smaller sized lights in particular appear to have been produced in excess of player demand and are now being listed at or below that of production costs. It is difficult to estimate when the existing supply will be exhausted as player demand for small lights is not easily quantified. However due to the low fabrication costs and crafting times, affluent manufactures will be able to quickly restock this market should the opportunity arise. The situation with larger sized lights is more dynamic right now. The low volume of units that are presently on the market have been listed with profit margins of about 20% which is indicative of a more limited supply and/or a greater demand.

 

 

To assess supply concerns, the following plot compares the fabrication costs for lights to that of atmospheric engines. From it we can see that the total schematic costs for engines is slightly higher while the requisite ore requirements are substantially higher, particularly for M and L sizes. Despite this, market sell volume for engines is much greater than that of lights while also maintaining above zero profit margins. Thus we can infer that player industries exist which are capable of meeting supply requirements for the large lighting sector but they are instead targeting other items like engines, likely due to even higher consumer demand and hence greater profits. 

 

 

Luminescent Voxels

 

Unlike lighting elements these voxels appear to operate solely as emissive surfaces and produce a highly localized glowing effect. In terms of the ore costs per m3 they are similar to the other Tier 2 light elements but only require about a fourth of the T1 ore (more specifically 11 and 30 litters of T1 and T2 respectively). Schematics cost per m3 is exceptionally low at 172.45 quanta. This would ordinarily make luminescent voxels the cheapest form of Tier 2 lighting but their more limited range also means that a substantial amount is needed to achieve the same level of illumination as the other light elements. They do however have the unique ability to be precisely shaped and seamlessly integrated into other voxel structures. Considering all of this I believe luminescent voxels are best suited for decorative highlighting rather than general illumination.

 

Conclusions and Recommendations

 

Based on the above, it is my determination that Dual Universe currently has adequate lighting options which when employed correctly, will handle the majority of scenarios. There is however plenty of room for expansion and/or further diversification down the road, when time permits. In terms of expansion I recommend adding a secondary element with omni-directional properties such as a sphereical light. Also consider decreasing the overall effectiveness of the headlight XS and instead utilizing its original properties on a larger sized variant (ie: headlight S). In terms of diversification, the most restricted parameter right now is FOV so assess the merits of adding that as a configurable variable or providing more FOV variation across the existing element set. 

Finally @Aaron Cain your original inquiry was with regards to crafting costs for L sized lights with respect to T2 engines, considering the associated player demand for both (static building vs dynamic construct). Based on market trends alone, it is safe to say that the demand for large engines is presently higher. From a practical standpoint this examination shows that it only takes a couple strategically placed L sized lights to fully illuminate an S core sized surface. I also reason that illuminating a dynamic construct of identical core size will typically require more lights than its static counterpart due to the need to handle both interior and exterior surfaces as well as the more complex geometries associated with piloting elements. So the question becomes why are large lights less popular then large engines? Rationally, it is either because the majority of players are less interested in them and/or are unwilling to invest into them. With regards to baseline costs these lights are already a fraction of the cost of said engines, primarily due to their sparser ore requirements. Perhaps that is still not sufficient, but with engines flying off the proverbial shelves it is difficult to say this conclusively. The only thing I can conclude is that the majority of players place low importance on lighting. The next step would be to reach out, ask why, then determine if anything should be done or if players are satisfied.

 

[sHuRuLuNi]

What is the point of this Thread? Are you actually NQ?

 

Lighting is completely broken in DU, it was broken since the beginning or thereabouts of beta (some time during that time happened something where the lighting completely changed). This also introduced some kind of a haze.

 

Want proof? How about you go to any market, look at the corners where there are Square Lights L, which according to you are "the best" -- and see how they illuminate NOTHING. I.e. they illuminate a few meters in front, but just a meter to the side, or if you walk a bit away there is no illumination at all - the landing pad is completely dark. They are completely and utterly broken. In my ship, when Inside, I could put 10 Square Lights L and just half a meter away there will still be completely dark corners. And the "Global Illumination" blabla does not help at all in this case.

 

I have several videos where this can be seen - I have shown my giant shop sign which is made of RED VOXELS and if the sun is not shining directly at them, then they look BLACK (completely dark, one cannot make out the colors). Why would red voxels look BLACK if the sun is just slightly to the side? Is this how it works in RL? No, of course not.

 

Further more, what is the point of lighting, like Vertical Lights L, which seem to be the only lights that actually do illuminate stuff -- when you cannot see them AT ALL anymore once you go just a few hundred meters away or so?

 

I mean, the idea behind putting many Lights L is to illuminate the territory and structures so that they can be visible from FAR AWAY. If you are in a city suburb - does the whole city lighting DISAPPEAR once you go 500 meters away?

 

More proof of broken lighting: If you fly with your ship at night - which does not need to have any light on it --- and even if you are 2000m above ground - all around your ship THE GROUND is lit up - you can make out trees and everything. This is utterly stupid of course. Why would the ship "edges" light up the ground which is 2000m below the ship?

 

Even more proof: On my territory I demolished a mountain range and created a lake. And in this lake I created a crater which is some 50+ meters below the water level.
If I didn't tell you - you would not know that I am under water at all --- because the sunlight is 100% the same intensity as it is above the water. Just if you looked up, you could make out some "waves" above you. This was also better before and then it got broken like the whole lighting did.

 

More proof? During the Alpha, the dark side of planets were DARK - AS THEY SHOULD BE --- now they are not dark anymore, they are slightly lit - artificially, which does not make sense and makes the whole universe look SMALLER and not so DEEP and immersive.

 

More proof? Try building a ship at night, and do use THOUSANDS OF LIGHTS, yet in some corners it will still be PITCH BLACK -- so you might think to yourself "Oh, I will use my torchlight here" - then you do that, and ALTHOUGH YOU ARE DIRECTLY SHINING the torchlight on the wall just 50cm away from you -- YOU STILL CANNOT SEE ANYTHING.

It's like the torchlight is NOT WORKING AT ALL --- this happened many times to me, and I had to turn around and try to light up the ground just to see if the damn thing is working at all.

 

 

 

EDIT:

 

Here, I just went and took these images of my ship. It is daylight, and there are 20 Lights L on my territory. The honeycomb is ORANGE STEEL - you can see in the last part of the image HOW IT SHOULD LOOK LIKE.

 

Yet, look how the ship wall looks, DARK / BLACK -- even if I use the torchlight. And as I said IT IS DAYLIGHT.

There is your "lighting" ...

 

 

 

 

 

[Msoul]

37 minutes ago, sHuRuLuNi said:

What is the point of this Thread? Are you actually NQ?

No I am not NQ and as I said in the opening, lighting is not my area of expertise. However I would like to obtain a high level understanding of all aspects of DU and hence decided to dive in and try to figure out how this all works. After awhile I had collected a bunch of interesting data so I figured I might as well share it here in the hopes someone would find it useful.

 

38 minutes ago, sHuRuLuNi said:

How about you go to any market, look at the corners where there are Square Lights L, which according to you are "the best" -- and see how they illuminate NOTHING

I was unable to find any instances of a Square Light L in the market building. It appears that most of the lights being used there are actually white luminescent voxels which as I pointed out in my post have the lowest range and are poorly suited for general illumination. I did however manage to find a pair of Square Light M near the entrance elevator and they seemed to be doing a fine job in my opinion.

 

46 minutes ago, sHuRuLuNi said:

the landing pad is completely dark

Perhaps it could be improved but once again this is not because lighting is broken, it is just not being used effectively here. The landing pad only has 4 light elements and they are placed in the far corner. Everything else is once again luminescent voxels.

 

53 minutes ago, sHuRuLuNi said:

Further more, what is the point of lighting, like Vertical Lights L, which seem to be the only lights that actually do illuminate stuff -- when you cannot see them AT ALL anymore once you go just a few hundred meters away or so?

As I said in my post they appear best suited for short range interior lighting. The vertical light L will only illuminate things within ~20m and those illuminated things will only be seen as illuminated from up to 300m away. The long and square lights have less intensity but surfaces illuminated by them will be visible from much further.

 

59 minutes ago, sHuRuLuNi said:

More proof of broken lighting: If you fly with your ship at night - which does not need to have any light on it --- and even if you are 2000m above ground - all around your ship THE GROUND is lit up - you can make out trees and everything. This is utterly stupid of course. Why would the ship "edges" light up the ground which is 2000m below the ship?

It seems that I am not able to reproduce this. The ground directly beneath my ship has the same light level as the rest of the terrain. There is however a very faint glow coming from the nearby district which makes sense because there are 4x square light L on that platform.

 

1 hour ago, sHuRuLuNi said:

Even more proof: On my territory I demolished a mountain range and created a lake. And in this lake I created a crater which is some 50+ meters below the water level.
If I didn't tell you - you would not know that I am under water at all --- because the sunlight is 100% the same intensity as it is above the water. Just if you looked up, you could make out some "waves" above you. This was also better before and then it got broken like the whole lighting did.

I do agree with you that water has seemingly no impact on lighting. Not sure if that is something that can be easily added but I am certainly not opposed to the idea.

 

1 hour ago, sHuRuLuNi said:

More proof? During the Alpha, the dark side of planets were DARK - AS THEY SHOULD BE --- now they are not dark anymore, they are slightly lit - artificially, which does not make sense and makes the whole universe look SMALLER and not so DEEP and immersive

Yes the amount of light present during the night was increased and yes that does have a negative impact on immersion but I was there during this period in time and the heavy darkness was often quoted as an major issue by players. Personally I think it is better now but that is just my opinion. Perhaps your right and the majority of players feel it was turned up too high. I would love to hear more people comment on this.

 

1 hour ago, sHuRuLuNi said:

More proof? Try building a ship at night, and do use THOUSANDS OF LIGHTS, yet in some corners it will still be PITCH BLACK -- so you might think to yourself "Oh, I will use my torchlight here" - then you do that, and ALTHOUGH YOU ARE DIRECTLY SHINING the torchlight on the wall just 50cm away from you -- YOU STILL CANNOT SEE ANYTHING.

It's like the torchlight is NOT WORKING AT ALL --- this happened many times to me, and I had to turn around and try to light up the ground just to see if the damn thing is working at all.

Ah the avatar's flashlight. I actually investigated that too but it was an entirely different class of lighting object which was far more complicated. To be honest I still don't fully understand how it works, something about cubemaps and box projections. I will have to look into again when I have time. Personally I find the flashlight works well but I will admit there are times I wish it had a wider FOV.

[Squidrew_]

2 hours ago, sHuRuLuNi said:

More proof? Try building a ship at night, and do use THOUSANDS OF LIGHTS, yet in some corners it will still be PITCH BLACK -- so you might think to yourself "Oh, I will use my torchlight here" - then you do that, and ALTHOUGH YOU ARE DIRECTLY SHINING the torchlight on the wall just 50cm away from you -- YOU STILL CANNOT SEE ANYTHING.

It's like the torchlight is NOT WORKING AT ALL --- this happened many times to me, and I had to turn around and try to light up the ground just to see if the damn thing is working at all.

 

this may not be the cause of what you are describing exactly, but i want to talk about this. a huge issue i noticed was that way back in 0.24 when they gave voxels new textures and materials, all metals became very dark. at night, they seem to be largely illuminated by ambient light, meaning that surfaces appear pitch black unless they are directly reflecting a nearby light source. white pattern aluminum for example used to be actually white, like white plastic or concrete as we have now, however currently they appear to be gray at best, and black at worst.

 

because metal is used so much, it made the entire world a lot darker and flatter in my opinion. during the time of 0.24 in beta many had the same perspective as i do here writing this, and the materials were altered slightly in response, but it was nowhere near enough in my opinion.

 

i have pictures of Alpha 3 and upon viewing the markets back then, i realize that everything pops way more, mostly in the metals. i would share of course if it wasn't under NDA, but the world was brighter, and far more detailed, open and eye-catching as a result of the superior lighting conditions for metal honeycomb. it's really quite drastic, and i wish i could show it off

 

somewhere in between the two would be the best balance i think

[Kezzle]

3 hours ago, Msoul said:

Note that the RGB values must be scaled between 0 and 1

 

Something I got showed the other day is that the scaling goes up to 5. Higher values increase the brightness/intensity of ths source. They don't seem to have any effect on range, but the light level is higher where the light has any effect at all.

[sHuRuLuNi]

43 minutes ago, Msoul said:

 

 

 

 

Just what on bloody earth is this?! Did you seriously just dial up the Gamma to ELEVEN, just to make this screenshot?

 

With the standard Gamma (1.0) - because anything above 1.0 makes even the night into day and everything becomes white and washed out -- THIS IS HOW IT ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE:

 

 

Now see: 

 

#1  -- The gigantic light is right next to that Exit Sign object - yet you cannot see the side of the object AT ALL - it is not at all illuminated although the bloody lamp is right smack next to it.

#2 -- There is thick column right there in the back -- it is completely dark here and cannot be made out at all, althought we have TWO gigantic lamps right next to it.

#3 -- You cannot make out the edges of that wall at all, although it is just 2 meters away from from two gigantic lamps.

 

 

 

 

 

---- Holy shit balls of steel .... just look at his "district teleporter" sign hahahahaha ... it is COMPLETELY WASHED OUT. You can literally SEE that the gamma is turned all the way up .... Unbelievable ...

[sHuRuLuNi]

Here, I just made a video RIGHT NOW, to show you that I am using Standard Gamma and also to show what happens when you dial up the gamma all way up, like what msoul did, just to make a bloody screenshot .... The audacity, really.

 

 

 

[Msoul]

Very fair point there, looks like my preferred gamma setting is 1.5 but if I drop it to 1.0 like you suggested then I am able to reproduce the image you provided here. Yes everything is much darker but the light itself is still behaving as I would expect. These square lights project downwards in a cone (like shown below) so it is not surprising that they fail to illuminate the areas you have indicated. In general it would have been better to use a vertical light for this close range indoor setting but none the less I have indeed been assessing things thinking that 1.5 gamma was typical. If 1.0 is the standard then I absolutely agree that either the market areas need better lighting or perhaps lighting intensity in general could use a buff.

[Physics]

6 hours ago, sHuRuLuNi said:

What is the point of this Thread? Are you actually NQ?

 

Lighting is completely broken in DU, it was broken since the beginning or thereabouts of beta (some time during that time happened something where the lighting completely changed). This also introduced some kind of a haze.

 

Want proof? How about you go to any market, look at the corners where there are Square Lights L, which according to you are "the best" -- and see how they illuminate NOTHING. I.e. they illuminate a few meters in front, but just a meter to the side, or if you walk a bit away there is no illumination at all - the landing pad is completely dark. They are completely and utterly broken. In my ship, when Inside, I could put 10 Square Lights L and just half a meter away there will still be completely dark corners. And the "Global Illumination" blabla does not help at all in this case.

 

I have several videos where this can be seen - I have shown my giant shop sign which is made of RED VOXELS and if the sun is not shining directly at them, then they look BLACK (completely dark, one cannot make out the colors). Why would red voxels look BLACK if the sun is just slightly to the side? Is this how it works in RL? No, of course not.

 

Further more, what is the point of lighting, like Vertical Lights L, which seem to be the only lights that actually do illuminate stuff -- when you cannot see them AT ALL anymore once you go just a few hundred meters away or so?

 

I mean, the idea behind putting many Lights L is to illuminate the territory and structures so that they can be visible from FAR AWAY. If you are in a city suburb - does the whole city lighting DISAPPEAR once you go 500 meters away?

 

More proof of broken lighting: If you fly with your ship at night - which does not need to have any light on it --- and even if you are 2000m above ground - all around your ship THE GROUND is lit up - you can make out trees and everything. This is utterly stupid of course. Why would the ship "edges" light up the ground which is 2000m below the ship?

 

Even more proof: On my territory I demolished a mountain range and created a lake. And in this lake I created a crater which is some 50+ meters below the water level.
If I didn't tell you - you would not know that I am under water at all --- because the sunlight is 100% the same intensity as it is above the water. Just if you looked up, you could make out some "waves" above you. This was also better before and then it got broken like the whole lighting did.

 

More proof? During the Alpha, the dark side of planets were DARK - AS THEY SHOULD BE --- now they are not dark anymore, they are slightly lit - artificially, which does not make sense and makes the whole universe look SMALLER and not so DEEP and immersive.

 

More proof? Try building a ship at night, and do use THOUSANDS OF LIGHTS, yet in some corners it will still be PITCH BLACK -- so you might think to yourself "Oh, I will use my torchlight here" - then you do that, and ALTHOUGH YOU ARE DIRECTLY SHINING the torchlight on the wall just 50cm away from you -- YOU STILL CANNOT SEE ANYTHING.

It's like the torchlight is NOT WORKING AT ALL --- this happened many times to me, and I had to turn around and try to light up the ground just to see if the damn thing is working at all.

 

 

 

EDIT:

 

Here, I just went and took these images of my ship. It is daylight, and there are 20 Lights L on my territory. The honeycomb is ORANGE STEEL - you can see in the last part of the image HOW IT SHOULD LOOK LIKE.

 

Yet, look how the ship wall looks, DARK / BLACK -- even if I use the torchlight. And as I said IT IS DAYLIGHT.

There is your "lighting" ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

OP seems to of put in a fair amount of time to make a guide and all you want to do is shit on it with ramblings.

 

Go away and get some manners and respect. 

 

If you want to have a moan and and a rant make your own thread and not shit on someone else's efforts. 

 

Thank you Msoul for the time you put in to the guide 👍

[Aaron Cain]

@Msoul Thank you very much for this elaborate investigation.

All the presented data and results are not only very plausible but also give a good reasoning behind the choices made for lighting.

Personal i still think the schematics are expensive but within your investigation and my initial question this seems very natural and with that Balanced.

 

Probably only I use 60 L lights on a structure and thus costs are just my way of designing

It was a good read and i even learned stuff about lights i did not know yet.

 

Thank you very much for your hard and thorough work!

[GraXXoR]

Interesting. No idea how you managed to figure all of this out. Must have taken you hours and hours. 
 

for me though, the lighting in this game is complete shit. we made the mistake of having a base near the North Pole of Thades. It’s dark as fk 20 hours a day and the lights are so crap that we need hundreds of thousands of ℏ worth of just the schematics, to light up anything.
 

moreover because only plastic, brick, concrete and marble actually get illuminated to any worthwhile extent by surrounding light, all the pure voxels (glossy, aged etc) require tons more lights for successful illumination, massively upping the cost. 
 

I can only presume that this was one more purposeful design choice done to cripple T1 building materials as much as possible and reduce player progress. 
 

 

[CptLoRes]

1 hour ago, Physics said:

 

OP seems to of put in a fair amount of time to make a guide and all you want to do is shit on it with ramblings.

 

Go away and get some manners and respect. 

 

If you want to have a moan and and a rant make your own thread and not shit on someone else's efforts. 

 

Thank you Msoul for the time you put in to the guide 👍

I agree very much in principle. But the guide must at least represent reality if we are going to respect it.

And we ALL know that lights are broken in DU. And not fixing this is a big part of why everything looks so dark and dull in the game (one of the first things new players usually complain about), despite trying to tweak ambient light with a skybox etc.

[Msoul]

I appreciate the kind words everyone but please don't hesitate to point out mistakes if you find them. SHuRuLuNi has raised some interesting points, some of which I agree with, and some that I do not. However the fact I overlooked the gamma setting is a perfect example of why its always great to seek feedback from others. 

 

I checked and it seems that the gamma discrepancy has no impact on the charts I provided as all the data presented there was not associated with my client settings. However my overall conclusions were heavily influenced by what I was seeing in game and that was clearly not an accurate reflection of the average player. Now I still would not go so far as to classify lighting in Dual Universe as broken since it is in fact working. However it seems that the difference between day and night is quite significant and if others also share this viewpoint then perhaps that is something that can be tweaked.

 

So what exactly do you guys recommend? Does the moonlight need more potency or is it better to keep the environment dark and instead add intensity and/or effective range to player lighting? If there do happen to be conflicting opinions on all of this then what about the idea of adding another toggle to the settings page?

[Wyndle]

Ideally both.  The reflection of moonlight onto the ambient lighting should be clearly noticed even as low as 0.6 gamma.  Artificial lighting should not vanish at LOD range, nor should shadows close to the light blur to non-existant by moving away from the light. 

[Leniver]

There is also a small tips, if you want to have more light.
Use OpenGL instead of DirectX, but be ready it's a bit shiny

[GraXXoR]

Holy Moly. Just reread MSoul's epic OP and nearly lost my coffee when I read XS lights are Tier 1 and we can make them in the nanopack.

 

I would swear on my partner's life (mine is needed to keep playing DU) that I had to buy nearly 500 T2 XS schematics for the "uncommon floor" of our factory to make headlights, XS square lights and XS vertical lights for an old blueprint...  Is my memory playing tricks on me?

 

 

--edit 

 

thank fk for that, I thought I was having a stroke... 

 

Here was the original T2 implementation of a headlight, which is why some of us were getting our knickers in a twist over the cost of basic lighting.

 

 

 

Now we need one basic connector and one basic power unit...

 

Seriously, when did this change? And I wish I'd waited before having to make nearly half a thousand lights.

 

but kudos to NQ for seeing ( a little bit of ) sense.

I'm reserving full praise because now somehow one connector and one power unit combined weighs 70kg!

 

-- edit edit... 

 

I found the crafting rebalance happened in 1.1.0...   Interesting..