Procedural craft building

[conker4]

In my opinion if the building of a aircraft/spacecraft was the same as building a building (with blocks) the craft that you will create will not be as good as you want. If the building is planned to be this way it will limit the way that you can build craft. although my way may seem complicated in application it would be easy. with the current way of building you will be limited to a block or edgy design. 

 

My idea comes from the game kerbal space program where there are mods that allow you to build parts in a procedural way.

 

(03:10)

 

(01:10)

 

This way of building will allow player to be in full control of the craft that they are building. 

 

 

[norab7]

I'm not sure what you suggest. The building will be freeform voxel based building, so you can build whatever shape you want with a limitation of 25cm square blocks.

 

The elements, that are the predesigned parts the devs create, such as thrusters, cockpit, engine ect we don't know their sizes 100% yet but they will be attachable to any voxel based construct that you can think of.

 

We don't know enough about the elements to know what we can do with them, we know that we won't be able to create them but we don't know if we can manipulate them in different ways yet so your idea of procedural (at least how i view it in the videos) could quite well happen in the future, we just don't know.

 

Good idea though if it is possible, but i do wonder about the balance issue if you can resize and reshape all the elements, you may end up with someone whos entire construct is just one massive cannon or a players construct that is made up of the smallest possible variations of the elements giving him a small surface area in PvP combat.

 

However, I do know that the place you put the elements onto the construct will make a difference when you fly it, eg. if you put all your thrusters on the front of the construct you will only be able to pitch your ship upwards as there will be no thrust powering it foward/backward ect.

 

Given that you can create any shape you want out of voxel, i think there may already be enough freedom to create any shape of ship that you would desire without the procedural idea you have suggested, but it is a good idea nontheless if it can be incorporated

 

Also, nice link here for building from the DevBlogs: https://devblog.dualthegame.com/2016/02/20/builder-gameplay-voxel-tools-elements/

 

nora,

[conker4]

I'm not sure what you suggest. The building will be freeform voxel based building, so you can build whatever shape you want with a limitation of 25cm square blocks.

 

The elements, that are the predesigned parts the devs create, such as thrusters, cockpit, engine ect we don't know their sizes 100% yet but they will be attachable to any voxel based construct that you can think of.

 

We don't know enough about the elements to know what we can do with them, we know that we won't be able to create them but we don't know if we can manipulate them in different ways yet so your idea of procedural (at least how i view it in the videos) could quite well happen in the future, we just don't know.

 

Good idea though if it is possible, but i do wonder about the balance issue if you can resize and reshape all the elements, you may end up with someone whos entire construct is just one massive cannon or a players construct that is made up of the smallest possible variations of the elements giving him a small surface area in PvP combat.

 

However, I do know that the place you put the elements onto the construct will make a difference when you fly it, eg. if you put all your thrusters on the front of the construct you will only be able to pitch your ship upwards as there will be no thrust powering it foward/backward ect.

 

Given that you can create any shape you want out of voxel, i think there may already be enough freedom to create any shape of ship that you would desire without the procedural idea you have suggested, but it is a good idea nontheless if it can be incorporated

 

Also, nice link here for building from the DevBlogs: https://devblog.dualthegame.com/2016/02/20/builder-gameplay-voxel-tools-elements/

 

nora,

i see what you are saying about the parts like guns and thruster's. in my post i did not make my self clear and i wish for this to only be for the structural side of things and not for functional items. i only say this due to the fact that yes you can get a lot of freedom from voxel but with a building system like this you will be able to get curves and many other shapes that would be hard or impossible to make.

[Ripper]

You should really look at the voxel builders devblog: 

 

https://devblog.dualthegame.com/2016/02/20/builder-gameplay-voxel-tools-elements/

 

Even though those voxels are 25cm, you can shape them for more definition.

[norab7]

I'd just like to point out about the curves and such that you mention are actually possible. There is a screenshot of the tools being used inside the devblog showing a almost perfect circle being created, so lines, squares and circles, I'm unsure if you require any other shapes to make anything you require.

 

What kinda of things would you think are impossible to make that you can't make out of the proposed tools?.. and what tools would you like to be added maybe?

 

 

nora,

[Tbagger98]

Question regarding construction. They say you can build anything you want. A space ship station or buildings etc. Would there be limitations as to the size unless there is a structural reinforcement implemented to allow for bigger better creations? In other words could i build a single tower of blocks from a planet to a moon, or would i have to design layers of reinforcement for stability etc... Would i also need to have bulk heads for ships and stations to maintain there integrity? Similar to rust when building a base the integrity is reduced if a supporting structure isn't used to increase strength.

[norab7]

Question regarding construction. They say you can build anything you want. A space ship station or buildings etc. Would there be limitations as to the size unless there is a structural reinforcement implemented to allow for bigger better creations? In other words could i build a single tower of blocks from a planet to a moon, or would i have to design layers of reinforcement for stability etc... Would i also need to have bulk heads for ships and stations to maintain there integrity? Similar to rust when building a base the integrity is reduced if a supporting structure isn't used to increase strength.

 

I'm going to say no to the supports, thought don't quote me as i don't know.

 

I'm judging my answer off the actions of planets when you dig out a block that is not connected to the planet anymore, it doesn't just fall the to ground it stays where it is, if it's part of the planet it is always part of the planet. Also it has been confirmed that if you dig a tunnel without any supports in the planet the roof will not cave in on you.

 

So both these points lead me to believe that you can build whatever you like and you will not need to support it, however i don't know how gravity will interact with player constructs that are build on the planet then cut in the middle. Like you single block to the moon idea, i don't think you will need supports, but i don't know what will happen if you decide to take out a chunk of blocks in the middle of it as it is player made and not a planet.

 

As the game relies on voxels too, i don't think there will be any structural integrity, think about all the different voxels and computations that would be needed to be done on dynamic shapes in or to figure out its strengths. I worked as a engineer doing stress analysis on purpose build software and that took ages to do, given that it was real life stresses i was calculating, but i would imagine the same idea is placed around calculating structural integrity on voxels.

 

nora,.