Base block ideas
Falco
Germany Join Date: 2015-06-05 Member: 205271Members
Germany Join Date: 2015-06-05 Member: 205271Members
1) Ladders are currently the only way to change vertical levels in bases. (Apart from going outside and using another hatch) Currently they can not be rotated, which results in them randomly being in the way in the middle of a hallway, or being in an annoying rotation at the end of one. It would be nice to let them rotate. Then to build ladders over multiple floors, you need to build a horizontal corridor or junction to place the ladder. In this case it is annoying to find the spot where to climb down. It also looks stupid from the outside. I propose a vertical ladder tube: you place it above a corridor and it creates a normal ladder at the bottom. You can then connect up as many more as you want on top, not creating any floors in between. On the top you place another corridor and it creates a normal hatch. When you click either side it goes all the way to the top or bottom.
2) Bulkheads: Used to save yourself from flooding the entire base at once. Basically it's a corridor with a door in it. Anything on one side of the door has it's own base strength, independent of the other one. It should cost around +2 base integrity to both sides to allow building on and should cost ~5 titanium to build. Perhaps with a little window (adds glass to the building materials). It also is silly that you can have all your reinforcements in one place, and then have a stupidly long tube with windows all over in another. The larger the base fragments the more penalty should be on the integrity when adding to it, perhaps with a distance to the nearest reinforcement added to it extra.
3) Airlock: I find it silly that you apparently just open the hatch and somehow no water streams in like crazy and you're just in the dry, with the water dripping off your body. Basically this is a small chamber (tube) that is flooded with water, then you open the door, you get in and close the outside hatch. After that you press a button and the water gets drained. After that you can go into the main part of the base. To go outside, you reverse the process. This would also allow for seamless base entering and leaving.
4) Slants/Slopes or whatever else you want to call them. Basically a 1*2*2 block for a base that spans two different levels with a slope without the use of ladders. May use stairs instead of a flat floor.
5) Dedicated module that snaps to the grid for power, perhaps a larger room, instead of the freely placeable generator. It is just weird how the generator sits either outside in the water all by itself without easy access from within the base, or squeezed into a T or X corridor. A larger standard room that would allow more freedom around, (perhaps 2*2*1) would also solve this problem. Of course such a room would be incredibly unstable...
6) Pure glass tube: Glass all around! (Perhaps let the floor be metal)
7) Upgrades to the modules that can be added to the tubes, using the sturdy glass and plasteel for better integrity.
8) Outside lights: Self explaining.
9) Beacons: Just a module that emits a beacon signal that can be slabbed on in any position that a window might also go. Mainly because it feels weird to know that I have a floating thing sitting under my base that is not anchored or anything and might be washed away by a current or snatched by a stalker, even though at the moment both of those do not occur.
10) Battery charging station: Goes with solar or advanced power production (Geothermal?). Putting depleted batteries and/or power cells into those will charge them back up slowly.
On top it would be nice to have a snap to grid mode thing for placeables like lockers, the fragment analyzer or the fabricator, for people like me who want them EXACTLY spaced out and tight to the wall and all that fancy stuff without counting pixels xD
2) Bulkheads: Used to save yourself from flooding the entire base at once. Basically it's a corridor with a door in it. Anything on one side of the door has it's own base strength, independent of the other one. It should cost around +2 base integrity to both sides to allow building on and should cost ~5 titanium to build. Perhaps with a little window (adds glass to the building materials). It also is silly that you can have all your reinforcements in one place, and then have a stupidly long tube with windows all over in another. The larger the base fragments the more penalty should be on the integrity when adding to it, perhaps with a distance to the nearest reinforcement added to it extra.
3) Airlock: I find it silly that you apparently just open the hatch and somehow no water streams in like crazy and you're just in the dry, with the water dripping off your body. Basically this is a small chamber (tube) that is flooded with water, then you open the door, you get in and close the outside hatch. After that you press a button and the water gets drained. After that you can go into the main part of the base. To go outside, you reverse the process. This would also allow for seamless base entering and leaving.
4) Slants/Slopes or whatever else you want to call them. Basically a 1*2*2 block for a base that spans two different levels with a slope without the use of ladders. May use stairs instead of a flat floor.
5) Dedicated module that snaps to the grid for power, perhaps a larger room, instead of the freely placeable generator. It is just weird how the generator sits either outside in the water all by itself without easy access from within the base, or squeezed into a T or X corridor. A larger standard room that would allow more freedom around, (perhaps 2*2*1) would also solve this problem. Of course such a room would be incredibly unstable...
6) Pure glass tube: Glass all around! (Perhaps let the floor be metal)
7) Upgrades to the modules that can be added to the tubes, using the sturdy glass and plasteel for better integrity.
8) Outside lights: Self explaining.
9) Beacons: Just a module that emits a beacon signal that can be slabbed on in any position that a window might also go. Mainly because it feels weird to know that I have a floating thing sitting under my base that is not anchored or anything and might be washed away by a current or snatched by a stalker, even though at the moment both of those do not occur.
10) Battery charging station: Goes with solar or advanced power production (Geothermal?). Putting depleted batteries and/or power cells into those will charge them back up slowly.
On top it would be nice to have a snap to grid mode thing for placeables like lockers, the fragment analyzer or the fabricator, for people like me who want them EXACTLY spaced out and tight to the wall and all that fancy stuff without counting pixels xD
Comments
The lack of airlocks also has kind of bothered me (but, game, early release, bases are only at their most basic stage, I'm willing to suspend belief), as there is already a filling/flooding mechanic, one imagines it wouldn't be too difficult to add a dedicated section that fills then drains when you enter, before you enter the main base. As well as base realism it would make the player manage their oxygen more carefully around bases, as you would have to have a few seconds left to deal with the airlock (I'm always waiting until I'm out to duck back into my base and fill up). I get the impression that the Cyclops was meant to have an airlock-type space (probably just simulation at this stage at least, not actually one that filled up when you entered or exited), but of course the door was open as doors didn't work until the last update.
Of course, airlocks are also for equalizing pressure when exiting, as well as entering. So, if we were going all out, we would also have to wait for it to fill up before exiting the base.
I think the airlock would be an excellent addition, but I'm sure it would annoy some people who prefer freer play where you don't have to manage things quite so carefully, so, if it could be implemented, perhaps it would be best if it were necessary in hardcore but optional in lower modes. So, if you don't build an airlock in basic or survivor, you can still enter your base without it flooding. It works, but is basically just cosmetic. But in hardcore, if you don't use the airlock, your base floods a bit every time you enter it (and drains, but perhaps loses some integrity each time), and when exiting without the airlock you could have a health hit, or minor pressure sickness if they manage to add that kind of mechanic at some stage (such as for depths and ascending). It would be something more than permadeath to distinguish hardcore from survivor (I would like them to add more things to distinguish hardcore, at the moment I find that there isn't really a point to survivor mode).
I'm not so sure about the bulkhead idea. I think it is good in principle, but might be quite difficult to implement (I don't know anywhere near enough to say for certain). I imagine that the airlock could be added as a separate module, that isn't actually the same environment as the base: you enter it, then enter the base proper the same way you do now, it floods and drains completely separately. But to have bulkheads would mean dividing up the main base environment at the discretion of the player and then being able to tell which sections fill and which stop filling then drain at different times and/or rates. I imagine that could be difficult to get to work properly, but I could be wrong.
Ladders definitely need a bit of a rethink, they are terribly clunky at the moment. I'm sure the devs will get to it down the track. Multi-story ladders or at least longer ladders would be great, as would having them in their own dedicated section so they aren't sitting in the middle of a corridor.
An airlock should be a separate module comprised of an entry hatch and a pressurized compartment, physically separated from the base by a bulkhead and access hatch.
If decompression is fully implemented, the airlock could also be used as a decompression chamber. I'm not suggesting a lengthy real-time DC sequence, though.
Make the sequence roughly 2 minutes in duration, and have the base AI announce something like "Decompression cycle complete. Nitrogen saturation levels are nominal."
If for some reason the Survivor needs to enter the base quickly (repairing hull breaches, manning a defence station, etc.) have an over-ride control that allows instant entry, but have a game mechanic that imposes a no-decompression health penalty until such a time as the player re-enters the decompression chamber.
Also, a snap-to-grid component positioning system would be immensely useful. I've had to hide my power generators because they always end up in some random position on the foundation plate. Sounds like a minor annoyance, but it plays absolute havoc with my sense of symmetry.