Advanced Build mode

yobeefjerky

So, after playing starmade (a lot, I've built an earthling cruiser) i thought how an advanced build system would help in cosmoteer, and it hit me (that part hurt), why not have an advanced build menu, it would give the player a menu with advanced options
Here are a few thing that it could do
Mirror mode (this could also be normal)
Crew pathing (it would show the paths crew would take)
Weapon Slaving (you could slave a cannon to a laser, that cannon would then point in whatever direction the laser points into, it would also fire when the laser fires, it would still need crew though)
Edit ship AI (this could be something like you can alter the ships AI to only target certain ships, maybe ships of certain sizes)
See ship size (this is self explanatory, it would tell you how many blocks in each direction the ship is)

What do you think?
What options do you think would help in an advanced mode?

Walt

yobeefjerky Mirror mode (this could also be normal)

What use case would mirror mode fulfill that mirroring using the copy/paste tool wouldn't?

Crew pathing (it would show the paths crew would take)

I've been thinking about showing paths to nearby ammo/power supplies and crew when placing parts. This would hopefully help new players understand the power/ammo/crew mechanics.

Weapon Slaving (you could slave a cannon to a laser, that cannon would then point in whatever direction the laser points into, it would also fire when the laser fires, it would still need crew though)

When would you use this?

See ship size (this is self explanatory, it would tell you how many blocks in each direction the ship is)

Is there a reason to want to know this in build mode? Or would putting it along with the cost/crew/mass info suffice?

warbird100

Walt
YES! Crew pathing is a must! Even though I clearly have corridors, my crew walks through half the rooms they should never have to touch! It would be cool to make a 'crew assignment' to, so certain crew members are certified gunners, the people who feed thrusters, and people who manage shields! (Currently I have to micromanage my doors, but that only goes so far!)

Walt

warbird100 Crew assignments are definitely coming. Manual adjustment of paths is probably not -- that's probably too much micromanagement. I expect that being able to assign crew to specific rooms/tasks will solve most problems.

Arilou_Laleelay

+1 to mirror/flip x/y axis mode. I was about to make a post about it.

I was expanding my ship to Mark 3, adding huge wings and new systems, and when I was halfway done I wished I could have instantly mirror-pasted the other side and be done with it 🙂

I kind of like that the crew has a mind of its own. With exact pathing control what's the use of designing a smart corridor/door setup?
An alternative could be the ability to purchase different kinds of crew, who each have their own AI priorities. So engineers will take care of the engines, but can also man weapons (but are less efficient at it). The prospect of finding rare (alien) crew in deep space also sounds exciting to me.

PS: Is there a way to remove doors?

Walt

Arilou_Laleelay I was expanding my ship to Mark 3, adding huge wings and new systems, and when I was halfway done I wished I could have instantly mirror-pasted the other side and be done with it

Do you know about copy/paste and that you can use it to rotate/mirror sections of your ship?

An alternative could be the ability to purchase different kinds of crew, who each have their own AI priorities. So engineers will take care of the engines, but can also man weapons (but are less efficient at it).

I am planning for there to be different classes of crew that are good at different kinds of things and can be assigned to different tasks.

Is there a way to remove doors?

Three ways:
1. Use the delete tool and click on the door.
2. Hold alt with any other tool and click on the door.
3. Select the parts with the doors you want to delete en masse, and press Ctrl-Del.

warbird100 I have three shield generators, and if I connected those parts to the other corridors, The generators would literally do nothing

Not sure what you mean. I downloaded your ship and added doors to connect those shields/reactors/quarters to the rest of the ship. The crew consistently brought power from the nearest reactor to each shield, despite having other reactors available.

even though I have a two wide hall, crew will cross the hall just to walk into each other.

Unless you have a lot of crew traveling through the hallway, it's generally faster for them to walk through each other than to walk around. If you do have a lot of crew going both directions through a double-wide hallway, they will generally avoid walking through each other, though there are occasionally idiots who like to go against the grain. 😉

warbird100

Yes, you can remove doors. Go to build>sell like normal, and make sure you hover RIGHT above the door. Zooming in helps.
I do like how crew will try and scramble around to preserve the ship, but I have three shield generators, and if I connected those parts to the other corridors, The generators would literally do nothing. Here's a picture of what I mean, the shields disconnected:

image https://i.imgur.com/2SihyfO.png
(Shielded Viking Mk.3 C)
Each quarters and radiator directly below the shield gen. are only connected to the shield gen..
Plus, even though I have a two wide hall, crew will cross the hall just to walk into each other.

warbird100

Walt
What I mean with the shield generators is in combat. They almost stay up the whole time, but when I connect them and guns have been blazing for a while, they start to quickly lose priority.

By walking around, I don't mean take time to go across the hallway. Pretend there is a vertical, two unit wide hallway:
An Ammunition Factory is at the bottom left, just underneath the
Reactor, which is also near the bottom left, which supplies a
Laser Turret also on the left. The Power and turret have no quicker route.
However, a cannon is on the right. The ammo production has two reasonable paths:
Crew walks out of the facility, go up the left side of the hall, and cut across.
or Crew cuts across first, then goes up the right.
by going up the right, they completely avoid the power supply line.
when they travel up the left (which seems to happen by default) They are delayed and delay the power, with the same distance route.
I know it seems like it has to be specific conditions for both problems (not really problems, I'm just salty 😉) but it seems to happen all the time in battle. I don't mean to complain, just that these two things could be changed.

Walt

warbird100 What I mean with the shield generators is in combat. They almost stay up the whole time, but when I connect them and guns have been blazing for a while, they start to quickly lose priority.

Gotcha. I think this problem will be solved once crew assignments & priorities are implemented.

when they travel up the left (which seems to happen by default) They are delayed and delay the power, with the same distance route.

So crew do try to avoid congested areas. If you have enough crew traveling both directions in a 2-wide hallway, the will sort themselves so that crew traveling one direction use one side and crew traveling in the other direction use the other side. However, you have to have a pretty large number of crew for this behavior to kick in. I'll look into making this behavior kick in with fewer crew. Thanks!