• A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    2 days ago

    I mean… you cant exactly be shocked, when cube/square based objects are the second most efficient shape in a cube/tile based world.

    As for what the most efficient shape is, well, anyone familiar with RCE should know that one by heart.

  • Soapbox@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    2 days ago

    Starfield. I want it to look cool. But I also don’t want to climb the damn ladders inside my ship, so I end up with a big flat slab.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      2 days ago

      It STILL pisses me off how god awful starship building was.

      Its like… how can you not fucking conceive that I might want stairs in my ship.

      or control where the fucking doors/ladders go.

      but no… we have to generate laberinthine messes because apparently the power core is a goddamn minotaur.

  • TachyonTele@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    62
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 days ago

    I’ve never even seen a ship. I didn’t even know there was a ship until a year or two after i started playing.

    I’ve still never seen it.

  • Lemminary@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    43
    ·
    2 days ago

    Me playing Terraria about to build my third epic shoebox base to hoard all the items I’ll never use.

    • Cliff@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      But they force you to build several distributed shoebox housings for the NPCs now instead of one big for all of them.

      • msage@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        2 days ago

        I once watched a speedrunner build NPC houses and it’s hard to resist building that every time…

      • Nelots@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        2 days ago

        I really dislike building pretty things, but I dislike ugly buildings even more. It’s such a terrible combo to have.

        It wasn’t a big issue when I could build like 2 huge houses next to each other and shove every NPC in them back in 1.3, but now I’m “forced” to build like 8 unique sets of houses every play through and it’s rough. I’d sit there building the best looking biome-specific houses I can while dreaming of doing literally anything else.

        Nowadays I just refuse to build lol. I found out my standards aren’t as high when it’s not something I’ve built.

    • Ŝan@piefed.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      Very þe same. You can not beat the layout of a bar. I prefer vertical, but the hardcore ones I see are just a long, wide bar. I can’t bring myself to do þat, despite it clearly being þe endgame configuration; it just looks too dumb.

      I wish þere were some advantage to style, or some advantage to differentiating platforms. But, no: you figure out þe optimum rectangle and just copy/paste it for your fleet.

  • Phoenix3875@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    2 days ago

    In space, shape doesn’t matter as much as mass center. Here’s the spaceship Sidonia from Knights of Sidonia

    Sidonia from Knights of Sidonia

    • Synapse@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 days ago

      Cool design ! This sent me for a small research loop, wondering if there is any connection to the song from Muse Knights of Cydonia. The song came out in 2006 and the first manga in 2009. Most likely explanation is they are both named after the Cydonia region of Mars. Probably, the manga got translated back from Japanese phonetically.

      • Soupbreaker@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        Thanks for doing the legwork on that! I’m not familiar with the manga, and I immediately thought of the song.

      • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        Yeah, can’t have that pesky air resistance slow you down. In…space.

        Edit: Okay, now I’m actually super curious at what speed this would come into effect. I know space isn’t 100% vaccuum, so there is some point where this would become a necessary factor to consider. However, it must be at truly insane speeds, no?

  • Apocalypteroid@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    2 days ago

    I’m surprised anyone has the patience to get to a space ship. I get bored late midgame when you run out of steel and have to juggle caravans and a colony which is constantly beset with attacks and adverse conditions.

  • Evotech@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    2 days ago

    Honestly it’s kinda fult of the game maker to not enforce some constraints that would force some cooler designs.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      2 days ago

      I’ve tried to think of an algorithm that would make it at least allow for less boring designs being nearly as optimal, but I can’t. It could be a surface area requirement to break cubes, but then you just end up with circles. The tile limit promotes cubes for the fewest wasted tiles to walls. The range limit doesn’t do much except add a gameplay and design component on how you want to expand.

      I don’t know what constraints you can add (or modify) to improve the design. Maybe having the option of different types of engines that don’t have to be on the rear (or facing out whatever direction you decide)? Maybe they could change how ship defence works to make you need to design more interesting defences into your ship?

      There’s no good algorithmic solution I don’t think. It just needs to be some external force that makes the existing optimal design not as good in some way. It’s the same issue with the kill tunnels though; they can tweek it forever, but there’s always going to be an optimal method players will abuse.

      • squaresinger@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        2 days ago

        Haven’t played the game, but maximizing surface area for cooling would work. IRL, cooling is a big issue for space craft that do more than just coasting with an occasional short course correction burn. Space might be cold but its near-vaccum is an incredibly good insulator.

        So if heat management is a thing in a space game, this would encourage ships with more surface area (so non-boxy, non-circles). At the same time logistics within the ship would favour boxy/circle-shaped ships, so you’d have two contradictory design goals requireing you to find a good compromise between both. That should lead to some more interesting designs.

      • chilicheeselies@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        2 days ago

        I dont think you need a fancy algo, just some simple contraints.

        For instance, maybe the grav fuel cell thingies emit radiation in a certain radius.Make certain parts like the jammer require no obstructions on N sides (like the wind turbine)

        There are already little constriants like this in the game for vanilla structures.

      • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        2 days ago

        In avorion the physics simulation is pretty accurate, for example RCS thrusters placed farther away from the center of rotation are more efficient. However, still no air resistance in space so I just make bricks with struts coming off them.

      • Evotech@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        You could just enforce some level of aerodynamics or similar real world esque constraint. Even if not applicable for space, you could invent some.

      • JackbyDev@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        Maybe if they changed the way heat dispersal worked? That would be minor though. Currently a freezer is optimal when rectangular because each side (and not diagonals) contributes to heat transfer.

        Maybe adding more things you could mount to the sides of the ship like external storage that don’t need to be inside and then make them shaped like nose cones? That might make ships look even worse though lol, a square with spikes.

    • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      2 days ago

      Mildly impossible, there are some limitations of geometry itself that make certain designs optimal no matter how railroady the game mechanics, and naturally players will optimize the fun out of anything.

    • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      2 days ago

      Unless you artificially constrain it, it mostly just makes sense to make rectangle shaped spaceships

      If we could make spaceships in orbit, you’d bet they’d be quite rectangular too

  • 13igTyme@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    2 days ago

    I played Cosmoteer before this DLC came out. Everything ends up being a box. I’m guessing FTL and similar games also have that problem.