Current crafting/building system Vs. physics

sayerulzsayerulz oregon Join Date: 2015-04-15 Member: 203493Members
I really just don't like the current crafting system. The fabricator and the workbench appear to work by turning the materials we put into them into energy, then directing it into beams, which turn it back into matter. This makes no sense for two reasons. The first is that, since energy is mass times the speed of light squared, while matter can be turned into energy, it creates an enormous amount if energy. Consider an nuclear bomb. The average fission bomb uses an amount of uranium or plutonium of similar mass to say, a stasis rifle (or at least, how much I expect a stasis rifle to weigh). The huge explosion that that creates only actually turns a tiny amount of that mass into energy. For the fabricator to function, it would have to store an enormous amount of energy. And then it would have to direct that energy through the air. This would cause an enormous explosion, greater than anything humanity has yet created. Not what one wants to happen when crafting. The other issue is that if you had a machine that could turn matter into energy and back, then it would not matter what matter you put in it. You could turn it into anything, provided the two objects had the same mass. The builder has the exact same issue.

An alternative: instead of some sort of laser crafter, simply give us a portable factory sort of thing that serves the same function. To build, we can use the factory to make things like titanium plates and glass, and weld them together, space engineers style. The little drones that make our subs could be equipped with similar devices.

Comments

  • LightdevilLightdevil Austria Join Date: 2015-06-10 Member: 205381Members, Subnautica Playtester
    Hmmm... id say just deal with the future and game logic here. xD Althought welding would look very cool.
  • BritemacBritemac Texas Join Date: 2015-07-20 Member: 206290Members
    Actually the company that makes the tech used in the Stasis Rifle, Repulsor, Terramorphic is canonically a user of nanomachines for how they make things, so likely those 'beams' are more activators for nanomachines built into the workbench and fabricator.
  • sayerulzsayerulz oregon Join Date: 2015-04-15 Member: 203493Members
    Britemac wrote: »
    Actually the company that makes the tech used in the Stasis Rifle, Repulsor, Terramorphic is canonically a user of nanomachines for how they make things, so likely those 'beams' are more activators for nanomachines built into the workbench and fabricator.

    While that makes more sense, I still don't really like how the fabricator looks. It just seems silly that a machine seems to create everything you need like that.
  • ArkStrikeArkStrike Venezuela Join Date: 2015-05-06 Member: 204212Members
    sayerulz wrote: »
    Britemac wrote: »
    Actually the company that makes the tech used in the Stasis Rifle, Repulsor, Terramorphic is canonically a user of nanomachines for how they make things, so likely those 'beams' are more activators for nanomachines built into the workbench and fabricator.

    While that makes more sense, I still don't really like how the fabricator looks. It just seems silly that a machine seems to create everything you need like that.

    I agree, it both amazed me but bugged me since day one.

    I'm not 100% sure how it works but while it isn't impossible it does look magical. Maybe build times could fix that? Like that way at least it shouldn't be creating things so fast? Like a 3D printer would.
  • SeldkamSeldkam Join Date: 2014-01-01 Member: 191213Members
    I wouldn't be surprised if that's placeholder guys...
  • sayerulzsayerulz oregon Join Date: 2015-04-15 Member: 203493Members
    Seldkam wrote: »
    I wouldn't be surprised if that's placeholder guys...

    I sure hope so.
  • SeldkamSeldkam Join Date: 2014-01-01 Member: 191213Members
    sayerulz wrote: »
    Seldkam wrote: »
    I wouldn't be surprised if that's placeholder guys...

    I sure hope so.

    I just say that because the Peeper is too large for the fabricator (it looks a bit silly)

    On top of which making something larger looks very strange indeed :P
  • Racer1Racer1 Join Date: 2002-11-22 Member: 9615Members
    It is not creating material. It is using existing material (inside the unit) and reforming it.

    Liquid 3D printing today is very similar, although it uses a different source for heat than a laser and is much slower.
  • sayerulzsayerulz oregon Join Date: 2015-04-15 Member: 203493Members
    But 3D printing something requires you to melt it, and melting many of the things that are used in the fabricator would render them useless by breaking them down into their component elements.

    Not strictly related to the crafting system, but isn't it odd that the ship is supposedly powered by dark matter, when the definition of dark matter is that it emits no energy?
  • JoolJool Join Date: 2015-04-26 Member: 203846Members
    sayerulz wrote: »

    Not strictly related to the crafting system, but isn't it odd that the ship is supposedly powered by dark matter, when the definition of dark matter is that it emits no energy?
    Technically, no.

    Most theories use WIMP's (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles) as their candidates for Dark Matter, which means that it only interacts with the outside Universe via Gravity. This means they could theoretically be swallowed by a Black Hole and be converted into Hawking Radiation as the Black Hole decays.

    There have been several proposals for Interstellar rocket propulsion that involves reflecting Hawking Radiation with a Parabolic Dish and directing the energy, but most are held back by the fact that a Black Hole small enough to emit enough usable energy would be too short lived to be useful for long term travel. However, Dark Matter would be able to pass through a ship and be absorbed, which could keep the Black Hole alive while keeping its mass low enough (Theres not enough Dark Matter for it to truly grow that much in interstellar space.) for effective use.

    The explosion of the Aurora could be explained as the Black Hole responsible for its propulsion evaporating completely, likely due to a lack of enough movement through space to collect enough mass (Technically it is still moving, but not covering enough volume.), which means the Hole would be unstable and would emit radiation rapidly. The radiation would be because everything after the crash would be irradiated in X-Rays from the Black Hole.

    Of course, all of this is hypothetical, there are some challenges (Getting an appropriate charged Black Hole, and the containment necessary using charged plates or something similar.), and many things in game would be incorrect (It isn't an actual reactor, and the Gen Room would more likely be a energy storage and rounting station for ship systems.) but it (may) work.

    (Although, I'm pretty sure the devs didn't think of this when making the game XD.)
    [And this is a really convoluted solution that is uneccessary, but thats neither here nor there :) ]
    {Also, I feel like that is just supposed to be an Awe-Inspiring Sci-Fi statement: "This ship is powered by Dark Matter!"}
  • BritemacBritemac Texas Join Date: 2015-07-20 Member: 206290Members
    Jool wrote: »
    sayerulz wrote: »

    Not strictly related to the crafting system, but isn't it odd that the ship is supposedly powered by dark matter, when the definition of dark matter is that it emits no energy?
    Technically, no.

    Most theories use WIMP's (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles) as their candidates for Dark Matter, which means that it only interacts with the outside Universe via Gravity. This means they could theoretically be swallowed by a Black Hole and be converted into Hawking Radiation as the Black Hole decays.

    There have been several proposals for Interstellar rocket propulsion that involves reflecting Hawking Radiation with a Parabolic Dish and directing the energy, but most are held back by the fact that a Black Hole small enough to emit enough usable energy would be too short lived to be useful for long term travel. However, Dark Matter would be able to pass through a ship and be absorbed, which could keep the Black Hole alive while keeping its mass low enough (Theres not enough Dark Matter for it to truly grow that much in interstellar space.) for effective use.

    The explosion of the Aurora could be explained as the Black Hole responsible for its propulsion evaporating completely, likely due to a lack of enough movement through space to collect enough mass (Technically it is still moving, but not covering enough volume.), which means the Hole would be unstable and would emit radiation rapidly. The radiation would be because everything after the crash would be irradiated in X-Rays from the Black Hole.

    Of course, all of this is hypothetical, there are some challenges (Getting an appropriate charged Black Hole, and the containment necessary using charged plates or something similar.), and many things in game would be incorrect (It isn't an actual reactor, and the Gen Room would more likely be a energy storage and rounting station for ship systems.) but it (may) work.

    (Although, I'm pretty sure the devs didn't think of this when making the game XD.)
    [And this is a really convoluted solution that is uneccessary, but thats neither here nor there :) ]
    {Also, I feel like that is just supposed to be an Awe-Inspiring Sci-Fi statement: "This ship is powered by Dark Matter!"}

    Well, dark matter also has a higher than normal gravitational influence (if memory serves) so instead of being a black hole style propulsion system, that could very well have been a generator room, using the dark matter to make high efficiency gravitational generator systems in those large tubes. Now, if that were the case and the super condensed and contained dark matter containment systems were to malfunction...that would explain the explosive catastrophe that didn't mushroom cloud that much or condense the Aurora into a singularity.
  • Soul_RiderSoul_Rider Mod Bean Join Date: 2004-06-19 Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
    You are all overcomplicating it.

    The answer in Subnautica is the same as in NS2.

    Nanites.

    This is a game, and nanites are the thing that allows UWE to do 'magic'.

    If you want a 100% scientifically accurate experience, you are looking for a simulator, not a game.. :)
  • ZixinusZixinus Hungary Join Date: 2015-07-22 Member: 206338Members
    edited July 2015
    I always thought that the light-show we get is lasers projecting the correct matter and powering the nanites. Or even they aren't actually lasers but something like tubes that contain the nanites and have them blow back and forth at the right aspect of the material.
  • TrystTryst UK Join Date: 2015-05-03 Member: 204138Members
    What about viewing it as a futuristic 3D printer that can use many different materials and not just a limited range of materials?
  • sayerulzsayerulz oregon Join Date: 2015-04-15 Member: 203493Members
    Even putting science aside, I don't like the crafting system for gameplay reasons either. Having one machine instantly make everything you need is not really very fun.

    Perhaps the fabricator can craft any item given time, but other machines can craft only certain items much more quickly?
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