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What kind of "Elements" and Voxels do you want to see?


Wardion2000

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I'd like to create a list of all the elements, voxels, and mesh ideas we would all like to build with in-game that have not been mentioned by the devs yet.  A short list of what I'd like to see follows.

 

  • Artificial gravity voxels with diminishing returns based on how close you are to a natural gravity well.
  • Voxels with "traction" that the character avatar "sticks" to so we can build moving platforms we won't slide off of.  Diminishing returns based on how far you are from a gravity well. 
  • Voxels that can only be constructed in certain conditions such as an airless, high, or zero-g environment.  (Could make certain shipyards more or less valuable and/or capable.)
  • Voxels that can have different properties if certain conditions are met.  (apply power and you increase mass for instance.)
  • "Floating" component voxels.  Functionality identical to other types but for aesthetics only.  (See my forum portrait for an example.)

Anyone else with ideas?  I think this thread could be quite expansive.

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Artificial mass, in case you're on a low gravity planet and you don't wanna go bouncing around everywhere

 

Also, when you say elements, do you mean like Sulfur, Titanium, etc?

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The elements I'm interested to learn about pertain to command controls and research tech.

Will there be instruments that allow us to detect specific fuels and other resources as we fly by asteroids and planets? Will we have scanners that detect specific life forms?

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A voxel that emits the power, gravity and heat of a star. (not really, but it'd be cool, right?)

 

As for actual hopes, 
I like the idea of being able to collect your standard metal elements and such, but mixing in gases from moons, planet atmospheres and etc. could make things interesting, meaning you'd essentially have to mine the atmosphere of a planet, the crust of a moon or the gas of a star. 

Some rarer elements and metals could be asteroid based, but I really like the idea of having things be different than usual. Instead of just mining an asteroid or the planets surface, you move a hulking gas huffing ship through the atmosphere to get to certain pockets of gases and such. Alternatively, you could take that ship to take gas from space. 

Now, I imagine storing things like this could happen in two forms, depending on the state its in. Gas and Liquid Gas, meaning you could change the weight and density of it. That maybe something to do with the later refining process. 

They are my ideas on the elements of 'gases' and mining them. 

(I really hope this is what you mean, Or I look like an Idiot) 

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I want to be able to Paint the surface different colors...

 

A voxel in the systems I've looked at usually is only capable of having 1 color... usually based on what ever material it's made from.  But I want to do things like:

 

apply a decal that's independent of the voxels underneath them...

have a 1 voxel thick wall with different colors on either side.  Like a gray hallway with a blue or white sick bay room...

 

But I don't expect we'll get that... I'll have to make walls 2 thick to get the right look... and have to deal with low fidelity designs for logos and such...

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Artificial mass, in case you're on a low gravity planet and you don't wanna go bouncing around everywhere

 

Also, when you say elements, do you mean like Sulfur, Titanium, etc?

I see how my post may have been confusing.  When I say elements I mean specifically "voxel elements" and "mesh elements"  A staircase would be an example of a "voxel element" a cockpit would be an example of a "mesh element".  The devblog (Link here) goes into greater detail.

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Communication Unit

-Made a post about this one

 

VR Unit

- A game element a player would have to get inside similar to a cryopod to use the "Virtual Simulator" building mechanic that was mentioned in this blog post

- Meant to be used in conjunction with safe zones, even though the player is in VR they can still be attacked from the outside environment. 

 

Ark Unit

- An incredibly expensive unit in terms of resources, used to create player-made safe zones after players have expanded out a bit.

- Alien "Ark Tokens" have been suggested, but how do those make sense within the lore? Humanity already has the ark tech on the arkship, they should know they are made. 

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Communication Unit

-Made a post about this one

 

VR Unit

- A game element a player would have to get inside similar to a cryopod to use the "Virtual Simulator" building mechanic that was mentioned in this blog post

- Meant to be used in conjunction with safe zones, even though the player is in VR they can still be attacked from the outside environment. 

 

Ark Unit

- An incredibly expensive unit in terms of resources, used to create player-made safe zones after players have expanded out a bit.

- Alien "Ark Tokens" have been suggested, but how do those make sense within the lore? Humanity already has the ark tech on the arkship, they should know they are made.

I can see building communication components into ships and structures but what about the other two?  Is the VR unit a pod I install as part of a structure?  Is the Ark unit?  Please elaborate on those two.

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I can see building communication components into ships and structures but what about the other two?  Is the VR unit a pod I install as part of a structure?  Is the Ark unit?  Please elaborate on those two.

 

Yup, so for the VR unit I'm imagining it as something you can place in any construct. You could have one in your ship, station, or building and use them whenever you are safe from harm and have time to design constructs. The dev's originally suggested the virtual simulator mechanic as an alternative to player-made safezones but the idea here is that you have both, but keep the VR aspect technically within the game world. 

 

As for the Ark Unit, I think safezones should be kept exclusively to planets because an ark sphere of protection placed anywhere in space seems OP. For the Ark unit you and other players would group together and place an Ark Unit on a planets surface making one territory tile protected. However the ark unit would require large amounts of power and enough resources that a sustained collective effort would be required over about a week. Essentially the same thing as the 'Ark Token' except that players don't have to discover them as Alien artifacts. This one could actually be thought of more as a blueprint for a construct than an actual "element" because of it's size and complexity.

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-A camera block, to pilot drones in first view, or to check your base perimeter, etc...

-Mechanical stuff (pistons, rotors, ...)

-A block that destroys everything you put in it, like a trashcan.

-Alarm block, that emits sound when triggered

-Scaffolds, cheap and easier to place/remove than normal blocks

-Sensors of various kind

-Tons of piping (energy, items, fuel, ...)

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Seen in trailer:

  • Cockpit
  • Thrusters
  • Weapons

Implied or mentioned:

  • Gyroscope
  • Control Unit/DPU
  • Containers
  • Energy shielding
  • FTL like Star Trek or Star Wars
  • Stargates
  • Reactors
  • Probably others...

I would like to see: (a lot coming from Space Engineers)

  • Antenna
  • Wheels & suspension
  • Other kinds of chairs and cockpits with various functionality
  • Ship size nanoformer for building large constructs and mining
  • Ore detector
  • Usable motors, pistons, hinges and sliding surfaces
  • Different kinds of reactors or power sources
  • Different kinds of thrusters
  • Lights of various designs
  • Various decorative objects
  • Sensor devices

And as a stretch goal, perhaps an interplexing subspace beacon? Yes? Please?

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I agree with Velenka, would love to see larger size nanoformers, or nanoformers independent from your arm at least compatible with DPUs. If not them than an independent mining element.  And in my opinion a fabricator unit is also implied when they say that you can have an LUA scripted automated factory. Personally I would also like to see a beacon type element that is deploy-able, or toggle-able to create a FTL target-able point, but I also think this is pretty likely anyway, and might even be included in a long range sensor suite.  

  

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Another vote for building large nanoformers/constructors, along with refineries (assuming some material processing step is required between mining and building, could be used to make things interesting).  Ultimately I would like to be able to build a vehicle factory that can automatically construct anything within its size constraints with the only player inputs being the blueprint for the construct and the raw materials.

 

Pipes and conveyors, possibly as separate elements specialized for transporting solid objects, liquids, gases, power, etc.  Space Engineers oddities include the potential to build a functional system which uses a single conveyor pipe to transport ore, ice, liquid hydrogen, computer chips and ammunition through a nuclear power plant.  Judging by the power conduits posted on Twitter the devs might be going in this direction already.

 

Handholds.  I mentioned these in another thread, basically the idea is to give people something to hold on to and pull themselves along when in freefall.  The theory is that you can arrange them all in a row and basically climb along them a bit like a ladder.  This would be helpful for when artificial gravity fails or you just don't feel like spending the resources to build a gravity generator.

 

Explosive bolts.  I don't know whether multi-stage rockets will be particularly useful at any point in this game but if you want to replicate early spaceflight properly you need some pyrotechnic decouplers.  Also useful for rapidly ejecting anything potentially dangerous on the ship, such as a damaged antimatter storage pod, biohazard containment, mysterious alien artifact, etc.

 

Solid fuel rockets.  Small, cheap and with high thrust capabilities but only good for one use with a short burn time and no throttle or shutdown capability.  These would pair well with the explosive bolts for ditching said hazardous items or becoming the first player to get to space... if you can manage that without blowing yourself up on the launch pad.

 

Some sort of automatic voxel wrap system could make life a lot easier for designers.  The idea is that certain components can be placed inside a voxel wall with a hole automatically cut out that is the perfect shape for it.  This would make it easier to build partially enclosed rocket motors, internal cannons, pipes and conduits routed through walls, etc.  It also means you can build small rooms which intersect with large meshes without creating annoying gaps between the wall and the mesh.

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Remember that any sort of automated factory could really ruin the economy, so in the case the game will have it, it's going to be strongly limited by time/resources. 

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Remember that any sort of automated factory could really ruin the economy, so in the case the game will have it, it's going to be strongly limited by time/resources. 

I don't think it would necessarily.  It would be an economy that doesn't follow modern day standards is all.  Instead of finished products being of value conceptual products  (like blueprints) and construction materials would be its basis.  Somewhat fitting as this was how economies amongst early settlers worked.

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This just sprouted a whole new idea:

What if we could make our own weapons from voxels? Of course they'd be very simple (like, simple bullet physics test, special ammo types, to determine stats).

Plenty of the current player base attracted to DU come from games like Space Engineers.  There the crafting of weapons from voxels is not only common, it's also the norm.  I'd love to see the same ability in DU but it may not be feasible to have a hundred different player made weapons on screen.

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Plenty of the current player base attracted to DU come from games like Space Engineers.  There the crafting of weapons from voxels is not only common, it's also the norm.  I'd love to see the same ability in DU but it may not be feasible to have a hundred different player made weapons on screen.

Very good point, but they could be low-poly. Also, 2 factions would probably use 1-10 different guns.

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Very good point, but they could be low-poly. Also, 2 factions would probably use 1-10 different guns.

??????  "low-poly".......  I'm assuming you mean "lower the resolution of rendered voxels."  A voxel and a polygon are two different things.  It's apples and dishwashers, mice and men, oranges and orangutans.

 

Your second statement assumes a lot about builders and players.  What evidence do you have that supports this?

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This just sprouted a whole new idea:

What if we could make our own weapons from voxels? Of course they'd be very simple (like, simple bullet physics test, special ammo types, to determine stats).

 

It's said on the Dual Universe wiki that player created weapons wouldn't be implemented at launch, but perhaps later on in the game.

 

http://dualuniverse.gamepedia.com/Weapon_Units

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