Lurkily

Mmmmmm. Sherbert. You're already ahead of the game with an alias like that. Welcome on board, and enjoy your stay; we're always glad to welcome a new voice. Be sure to let a mod know if there;s anything we can do. Whether it's helping you use the forum tools, or resolving a dispute, we're here. Having an interest in genetic games, have you ever taken an interest in artificial life, genetic algorithms and simulations? Galapagos and some of the more obscure, clunky artificial life sims were something I would run as screensavers, once upon a time.

I've made a number of suggestions on the subject myself, and me and Mister got to brass tacks a while ago and tried to really grind on the subject. We ended up with that suggestion he linked. It does address your needs, and I've tried to challenge it, and get others to challenge it, by finding a usage-case that it can't address; it's been very difficult to find anything. Without getting overly weird or confusing or complex, I think that suggestion approaches an ideal solution. In short, we localize logic so that it needs a connection, (besides making sense, it also provides information about disconnection that logic can use,) and instead of connectors, we pair up a transmitter and receiver part. Receivers poll all transmitters, and reproduce the signals that reach the transmitter. They don't act as a hub, like connectors do now, (which is why they also act as splitters,) but they produce a signal like a 'button' logic part, speaking to parent and child parts. Receivers and transmitters both have the option of either a whitelist or a blacklist, with an empty blacklist (all signals pass) being the default. That gives you control over the direction signals travel - from brain to subdrone, one subdrone to another, or subdrone to brain, whatever you like. It also lets you control what signals pass. Only certain signals, or all except certain signals. It also provides feedback, if you engineer well, about when parts are connected. You can design subdrones so that they can communicate back-and-forth with the drone brain, but using signals wisely, you can prevent any of the signals they use for command-and-control from being transmitted, so they can't interfere with each others' operation. It does what you need and more; I'm still interested, though, if anybody can find a problem with it. The best way to test an idea is to honestly try to defeat it.

This seems like a popular one, so I'll weigh in. One of my favorite superpowers was from Jumper; the movie was somewhat intriguing, and though I found the books to be too concerned with explaining and exploring the uses and limits of the power rather than telling the story, I did enjoy that the author had so clearly defined the ability, its limits, and extrapolated a number of possibilities. In short, it's the ability to teleport. The limitations involved were that you had to have visited the place; have a sensory or emotional impression of the place, how it smelled or made you feel to be there, and that you couldn't escape constraints with it; if you teleported holding something, you either took it with you, or you could dislocate things trying to. You couldn't move a car by tying yourself to it, but you might break some ribs against the ropes when you tried. Thus, you could still be captured and contained. The author extrapolated this out into a number of uses; very rapid teleporting between two places to effectively co-locate yourself, and to bridge two places together, and the ability to teleport not only to a place, but into a frame of reference; that is, you could teleport into extremely fast movement, and skip the step of acceleration. So, next question. If you could instantaneously develop any (non-supernatural) skill or body of knowledge that you aren't already focused on developing, (so no artists wanting to be artist+,) what would it be?

This is a rare one in several ways. Firstly, it's quite personal. This was written shortly after my father died, (Some years ago now,) but not revealed for a long while afterward. Secondly, it's rare for me to say so much about myself, let alone on the internet. Lastly, this is nonfiction. My nonfiction is very rare, but always very personal. I know that punctuation in a title is improper, or at least unconventional, but it's too appropriate to the title and the subject matter to leave out a period. I was unable to source the image, despite the initials given as a clue, and today can't even find my original source for it. Grief. Grief. People deal with grief in different ways. For me, I visualize it as a pool of water, quiet and still, hidden underground. Every now and then when things are nice and quiet, I visit it. I hike up the river, climb behind a waterfall, go into a hidden cave, follow the hidden marks inside the labyrinth, and pull on the torch mount to open the secret door. Then I’m there. I sit, and I dangle my legs into the water. Absorb a little of it, just for a little while. Then I leave it, hidden and quiet. I go back to my life until I have a quiet, lonely moment to visit it again. That’s what grief is, for me. A pool that you can drown in. Waters that I indulge in a little at a time, during the quiet times and lonely nights. Every time I touch that pool, I absorb a little of it, and maybe one day, I’ll reach the bottom of it. Maybe there is no bottom. It doesn’t matter. It isn’t a goal. There’s no achievement to unlock. But as long as the water is there, I need to go there occasionally. Not for me. Not for the water. Just because.

Welcome on board! We're glad to add your voice to the community. Though I'm generally on the Nimbatus end of the forum, feel free to contact me or another mod if you have any questions about the forum or problems within the community.

The engineering solution to that is what you described - more cowbell. I mean, more thrusters. The engineering problem to this is strapping bombs to yourself. Both seem a bit clumsy to me, especially as TNT is weaker than any other part. I'm willing to admit it may not warrant a change to fundamental mechanics, but I do think that these requests speak to something more fundamental than "I'm missing a part I need."

TNT has recently been updated so that they can predictably destroy parts; previously, a part would regen hp between two explosions, so that two TNT pieces doing 500 HP of damage couldn't destroy a 1000 HP part. That's been corrected by disabling regen for a moment. There IS a lot of clumsiness on full breakdown, and a lot of various self-destruct ideas have come up. Most of them, though, are very niche ideas, serving only one purpose. The one I liked most was making TNT more customizable; making it a small radius heat-bomb instead of the massive concussion weapon it is now would let you start fires without a heat-resistant heater in the build. I like it becauses it does enable full breakdowns like this, but it also serves many different potential purposes in making TNT more versatile. I've experimented with heaterst that start fires, then are destroyed by weapons after the fire destroys a signal, and turns the heater to debris. But that's a really complex and clumsy solution to a very simple requirement.

I'm gonna mention the transmitter/receiver suggestion again; it would be able to cut through splitters the way you need, and have the filters you requested elsewhere. Mouse control is problematic because the camera moves when the mouse moves, so precise clicking might not be easy. I am also concerned about unintentional activation while using weaponry.

Thanks! This one strikes a lot of balances that I like a lot. I love that they have so much depth, but still have pet names. On a random note, Benji was a nod to Benji mouse, from the Hitchhiker's guide. Murine, though I expect a niche fan is more likely than most to catch it, is for mice, variant of canine and feline.

What I do is have a protected TNT piece that is the parent of any logic of cameras. Any child of a destroyed part becomes debris, and cameras and logic will stop functioning. Heaters that start a fire can help if you need to destroy the last bits of a drone for OCD reasons, but it will leave a heater behind.

You should be able to control all of that with a keyboard key or tag controlling a logic toggle that acts as a dependency for the automatic navigation logic, though. Is this unsuitable to what you're doing for some reason, or is it more a matter of preferring mouse control?

You can use TNT as a parent; used with a decoupler to separate a part from anything you want to keep intact, you can use it to reduce anything connected to debris. Another method often used is to use a heater to start a fire.

Input-only? If there's no output, what does the input control? Turning the connector on and off? If might help if you linked to the suggestion that you're basing this on, so we're on the same page.

If you mean ManTheMister's transmitter/receiver paired connectors, I think it involves a whitelist and blacklist on both transmitters and receivers.

Considering that the camera moves when the mouse moves, this might not be easy to accomplish, especially on moving drones. What's the need, specifically, that key-activated signals aren't suited to? Clone drones?

Glad you liked it. There was one of an armored mouse on a battle scarred cat, but it w clearly medieval. I might have used it anyway but couldn't contact the artist.

This one is special to me. I had a ton of fun writing this. I love how whimsical and wacky and deadly serious it is. I think this one works best without explanation, so I'll include the prompt at the end. Murine Honor The enemy lined up in the distance. Their snarls and growls made me shiver, the tremble shaking me to the bones. “Steady on,” my mount purred. I took a breath, calming myself, reaching forward to scratch behind his pointed ears. “Nerves like steel, whiskers like wind.” I repeated the battle mantra, imagining the steel in my bones. It was a pretense, imagining strength where there was none – I knew how easily my bones, tiny in comparison to the enemy, would break. And yet, it worked. I was calmer, and ready. All around me cats rose to their feet, howling and hissing at the enemy. The enemy barked and growled back, competing for the fear on the battlefield. Our commander rode across the front line, standing atop his mount. I pulled my helmet on, buckling the cheek flaps down behind my whiskers, and hefted the lance another mouse handed up to me. It was heavy, but bracing it in the cup on the back of my saddle, it was manageable, balanced. Sweat dripped into my eye, but with a hand on the reins and a hand on the lance, I couldn’t brush it away. Then the flag rose up. This is it, this is it, oh hell, this is– Suddenly I was slammed back into my seat. “Hold on, little partner! Battle comes!” My mount practically howled the words. I had a moment to contemplate his battle scars. What mouse had last died on his back? Would he protect me any better? Then we were on them – and they on us. I remember only flashes from that time. Struggling to reach a dog’s eye with my lance. Jabbing at a vulnerable nose to draw the enemy’s attention, turning his flanks to my comrades. Blood splashing my chest, and not knowing if it was mine. That night, we buried our dead, the privilege of the victorious. They were bigger, fast, coordinated, it was true. But they were a pack, and we were a unit. We had a plan. In the end, that was the edge we needed. I heard feet on the ground behind me, and turned, looking up at my mount. I was fully aware that in the normal course of events, I would be prey. “Tigger.” “Benji.” There was a long, tense silence. “You wonder why my last rider died, and I survived.” “Mice die. It’s battle.” My gaze was tense though, and I was certain Tigger could smell my tension. No, call it what it was – fear. “Nibbles was a warrior. He was tough, for someone so small. But when a canine lands directly on your back . . . it’s where the scars on my side came from.” “Why are you telling me this?” “I would have died for him. Nearly did, avenging him.” He noticed my surprise, his slotted eyes bearing down on me with predatory intensity. “Yes, I avenged him.” I remained silent. There was a time for words, but there was a connection here, between me and this predator. Something I sensed might become important, something so tenuous that it might blow away with a hard breath. “You fought well. You took too many risks, but we’ll work on that. You’re a fighter, and you can trust me, Benji.” “That’s going to take a while . . . but I won’t turn on you. I have your back, Tigger.” To prove it, I gave him my back, baring myself to his predator’s teeth and claws. I picked up the shovel, and went on digging Marshmallow’s grave. We were partners now . . . I might die if I trusted him, but I’d certainly die if I didn’t. Postscript: This was written in response to a random discussion on Reddit. A post went up about cavalry in WWII, and a discussion evolved to discuss the Russian's honest-to-god exploration of the possibility of bear cavalry. Someone mentioned the idea of wildcat cavalry - I don't remember if it was lion or tiger or what - and I found the reply "If you’ve tried to ride a cat into battle, you should know it doesn’t turn out well." I love the names in this one. I love the whimsical nature of it, contrasting the confrontation of death. I love the honor and the uneasy alliances. This world is a wild little ride into blood and whimsy.

Nice. If there's one thing I remember from trying to generate a believable iris in photoshop, it's that eyeballs are really really hard to get right in detail.

We're glad to welcome your voice! I hope you enjoy your stay here, and be sure to let a mod know if there's anything you need, or if you have questions about how the forums work.

What? You have a wonderfully expressive face. Own it, it's an asset. Gives you a character of appearance that is valuable, in my opinion.

Well, significant changes are coming, The devs have mentioned progression as something that they'll need, and that a significant overhaul of the campaign may be necessary. I'm not sure how much the game will change, but I don't think it will gain more than niche appeal as an engineering sandbox unless it makes some moves to start examining reward mechanics and starts pursuing a balance of increasing challenge and increasing capability.

I think there should be some benefit to tuning coverage precisely, instead of just making every shield big enough to cover the furthest part.

I think if we were to implement this, I'd rather see current shields adjustable with a balance between strength and coverage.

You should drop your enemy ideas into feature requests, each as a separate suggestion, of course. That'll get each concept into a place people can vote on it, and where devs can get an idea of their popularity.

Yeah, but look back to air resistance. We get a lot of suggestions for propellers, and it's not because people really want propellers - it always comes back to people being frustrated by high air resistance. People don't really want the part, they want relief from a problem they have with gameplay mechanics. That's why I suggested limiting air resistance, and instead ratcheting up weather effects in dense atmosphere. I think adding a niche part to support a niche need is not worth it. But the PART isn't actually what people really want. If a trivial change to mechanics can soothe the OCD with near - zero impact on other players... it might still be a bad idea, but I think it's worth considering. (Is it not zero - impact to players unconcerned with debris? It seems like it should be, but am I wrong?) As for engineering solutions, TNT is a clumsy and ugly solution; I've found a few better. I just think that so many suggestions focusing on one gameplay mechanic are a sign that this mechanic is not fun, or rewarding to overcome. I could be wrong and the suggestions come from lazy or casual gamers, but I'm not convinced that's the case.