Creating your own Parts

[Halo381]

Alright, so I saw a topic below that kinda got what I was thinking, about Multi-Block Weapons and the like. But what I propose is a bit smaller scale, so to speak. The idea comes in two parts:

 

The first would be a sort of mini-voxel based creation system, where you can essentially build blocks. What I mean is, a way to create something like a cockpit, or a thruster, or a cannon. I understand that, upon release, there will be blocks like this available, and they can be manufactured and sold, just like ships and other resources. However, eventually someone will come along who wants something more. So I had the idea that one could go into a sort of "creation chamber", a place where they can test designs without fear of losing resources, and use smaller voxels to create a new ship part, that can be then sold as a standalone part and attached to ships. I don't know if this was the intention from the beginning, but I would really love feedback on this particular idea

 

The second part to the mini-voxel system simply goes down in scale. Rather than being able to just create parts for your ship, it could be possible to create certain handheld items. In particular, for the purpose of war. I know this game isn't meant to be a first person shooter or anything, but I also am aware that there will be instances where pilots would like to kill one another on foot, or where a group boards a large ship and they require a means to fight the crew and disable the ship systems. Perhaps, with this mini-voxel system, someone might create a plastic explosive or a shaped charge, and it can be manufactured and sold so that disabling or entering ships is easier. 

 

Send me your feedback, guys!

[Kuritho]

I'd love to see a 3-D printer-type item that allows you to make your designs that goes through several physic tests (barrel clogged, bullet caliber fits through barrel, waterproof, costs of materials ect.

[CosmicDragon]

So first welcome, to the community Halo381.

I would refer you to the wiki article called Weapon Units, were the devs address the topic.  I personally like the idea of developing custom parts, as I have said else where.  But I think most likely what we could expect at least in the next two years is a way to edit the look of the parts but not modify any of their specs.  The Devs haven't flatly rejected the idea for voxels parts, but I assume that it would end up tying into how research will work.  The creation chamber it self sounds interesting, especially if it was implemented in lore with a holodeck type structure in large ships and stations. 

Here is the wiki page: http://dualuniverse.gamepedia.com/Weapon_Units

[Kuritho]

I think a multi-level system of blocks working together achieve a task(s) https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/566-multi-block-systemweaponry/,

combined with this idea... We're talking gatlings man.

[Shynras]

Would be cool, but there's way more work to do to implement this, thsn you may think. And they're already plenty of features to work on right now.

 

Let's say you can create your own version of a thruster. How do you balance that? A thruster has stats, like energy consumption, thrust power, weight, volume, maybe a port to insert fuel in a specific position, so when you build one, you can't just place small dirt blocks, but various pieces, like the part where the flwme texture come out, or stuff like that (otherwise would not be immersive). So they need to add those pieces. Then they'd need to balance the volume for example, you can't just build a trhruster made by 1 small block, would be way more convenient compared to a standard one that takes space on the ship. Then the game would have to load more blocks, so it would be laggier. Then they'd have to do this for all the interactive parts they're going to add in the game (hundreds?). So, yes it's cool, but you get this, or you get the game, pretty much xD

[Halo381]

Would be cool, but there's way more work to do to implement this, thsn you may think. And they're already plenty of features to work on right now.

 

Let's say you can create your own version of a thruster. How do you balance that? A thruster has stats, like energy consumption, thrust power, weight, volume, maybe a port to insert fuel in a specific position, so when you build one, you can't just place small dirt blocks, but various pieces, like the part where the flwme texture come out, or stuff like that (otherwise would not be immersive). So they need to add those pieces. Then they'd need to balance the volume for example, you can't just build a trhruster made by 1 small block, would be way more convenient compared to a standard one that takes space on the ship. Then the game would have to load more blocks, so it would be laggier. Then they'd have to do this for all the interactive parts they're going to add in the game (hundreds?). So, yes it's cool, but you get this, or you get the game, pretty much xD

 

I was thinking something a bit different. Like, you have a set of parameters you have to meet before you can publish the blueprint for a specific part. Among them would be specifying where the flame texture comes from, where any light effects are, etc. Also, there would be certain things, like say computer chips and the like, where you have to put them in to increase the power of the thruster, leaving them exposed makes the thruster easy to disable, so there's a certain size that you simply cannot go under if you want an effective thruster.

 

In regards to the bit about loading more blocks, once the blueprint is complete and the part is manufactured, it all becomes one entity. That's how ships work as well. Once it's built, it's all one entity. Now, if you hit a part of the ship consistently, you can possibly shoot that part off, but the singular ship removes the problem of lag. Think of it as a Sum of it's Parts, rather than a Part of it's Sums. One whole over several tiny bits

[Anaximander]

I read the title of the topic as "Create your own Pants". I got to say, I was confused at first.

[Shynras]

I was thinking something a bit different. Like, you have a set of parameters you have to meet before you can publish the blueprint for a specific part. Among them would be specifying where the flame texture comes from, where any light effects are, etc. Also, there would be certain things, like say computer chips and the like, where you have to put them in to increase the power of the thruster, leaving them exposed makes the thruster easy to disable, so there's a certain size that you simply cannot go under if you want an effective thruster.

 

In regards to the bit about loading more blocks, once the blueprint is complete and the part is manufactured, it all becomes one entity. That's how ships work as well. Once it's built, it's all one entity. Now, if you hit a part of the ship consistently, you can possibly shoot that part off, but the singular ship removes the problem of lag. Think of it as a Sum of it's Parts, rather than a Part of it's Sums. One whole over several tiny bits

Even if it becomes a single entity, adding all this rules(minimum size, maximum power, minimum energy cons, etc...), adding chips/flames/smallblocks and balancing all this, would require a ton of work, especially if you have to do this for hundreds of blocks.

Then if you merge that into a single entity, the only difference with a normal thruster is aesthetic (because without voxels the game cannot calculate local damage), and related to the statistics that can be changed, but at this point you could implement this second feature way easily just adding some sliders to a normal thruster. 

 

Again, more contents is always a good thing, but i feel this  requires a lot of time to implement and it could cause a lot of trouble to the game balancing. I guess it could be better just to have thruster that you can place blocks on to cover them, you would still be able to change their appearance to a certain degree, it's easier to implement, and you'll never have a balance problem.