Lurkily

In practice, the struts exert force on the part, and the physics eventually breaks the part, at which point parent connections disappear. Realism is nice, but you have to trade off dev time with added value; I'm not sure making strut breakage more technically realistic is fun enough to justify investing in, personally. I don't think springs and struts are fundamentally different, in part because spring connections basically fulfill every role and behavior of a strut, just with adjustable physics and variable length, one thing struts can't do at all. Rigid drones are possible, but they're a logistical challenge, and logistical challenges are the whole point of engineering games. It's not unachievable, though, even now; there are some pretty stable 1,000-plus part drones displayed on the forums. The devs ARE looking at solutions to make stability not quite so challenging - a rigid starter chassis, inertial dampeners, and limited availability of rigid struts are all things that have been put on the table. But making it impossible to build an unstable drone isn't one of those things.

On a side note; my favored notepads are mnemosyne 162, or the Front Page Reporter by Field Notes. They're both narrow for easy pocket-carry, but tall, giving you enough space for a long checklist and status notes for complex tasks. They both flip over the top easily, letting you cycle through tasks and return to start. Maruman's Mnemosyne notebooks use better paper, 50 instead of 30 sheets to a pad, and still somewhat less expensive, where I shop. The pages are also perforated instead of ring-bound, for a clean separation. Rings typically flip more easily, but the cover is creased so that it folds over each corner if the pad's dimensions easily. https://www.jetpens.com/Maruman-Mnemosyne-N162-Memo-Pad-Graph-3-x-7.8/pd/14510#index=1 EDIT: Lihit Labs deserves a mention. They don't have a pad in the dimenions I prefer, but they have a squeeze-open ring system, which means you can keep separate notebooks with notes only for specific things, and transfer notes behind them; like taking notes out of an 'active tasks' notebook and putting it in a 'closed tasks' book. Additionally, they also sell a hole punch to fit their ring binding, so you could MAKE a pad of any dimensions out of it, if you wanted to just use the binding and punch your own sheets and cover. That also lets you slip photos and receipts into a notebook with a ring binding similar to spiral notebooks. https://www.jetpens.com/Lihit-Lab-Aqua-Drops-Twist-Ring-Memo-Notepad-Squeeze-Open-3-x-4.1-Lined-Black-Brown/pd/20554

Nice. I honestly thought this had to be a user mistake at some stage; good work.

You're right; if it were a compounding of forces, the blocks on the right would be the first to be crushed, and instead, it's the opposite. Are they connected in a stack or all to one part? Could the order of the stack be influencing the stability? (For instance, if each part is connected to its rightward neighbor, perhaps the successive connections give the leftward blocks more flex to be unstable with.)

I think he means collecting terrain as a resource that is only available in that mission, like fuel or energy, harvested by collecting dirt. I think I'm good with this one. I think I like this. The factory can draw mass at exactly a rate that matches its present cooldown, but you can add a limitation on factory insanity by making you either work for or engineer a solution. Normal couplers or someway to reconnect parts would be needed. You would have to be able to transfer a storage of mass to another drone; that means the tank would need to be physically coupled, so the factory could eat mass from the tank.

You could put a magnet on the drone, and decouple/reprint your ore tanks, have the drone carry the first ones off. I put all my ore tanks onto a courier sub-drone, so I reprint the whole drone, tanks and all, when harvesting is done.

I do purchasing for a gov't agency; supplies, toner, training, shipping, printing. It's always a constant struggle to stay focused, because if I procrastinate, things go sideways and pile up fast. That's usually my issue. I keep a set of post-its with open tasks; when I'm stymied, I can switch tasks, and when I lose focus, I have a reminder in my face.

The devs have stated that too much rigidity probably isn't the way they want to go; that it makes it difficult to build badly. In the meantime, linking parts in interwoven zigzags can 'lace up' a drone, so that parts pulling away from the left side are resisted by a part on the right side, and so forth.

I'm not sure what you mean by several things. Do springs break with distance? I don't believe they do; perhaps as a result of the physics damage breaking the part, but not because of the distance. Correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't used them under very taxing conditions for a while, but I seem to I'm not sure why it would be harder to tell if a part of your drone died, if it were linked by a spring rather than a strut. It sounds like you're looking for shipwide rigidity; it's not difficult and has been tried, but the devs didn't take to the way it led to there being no real wrong way to build a drone, vis-a-vis stability.

You probably caught this already from the sound of your edit; the drones built from the factory would still crosstalk - the splitter has to be a child of the factory so that copies of the drone don't talk to each other. You're right that sometimes people put their sub-drones on decouplers - more, probably, when progression is implemented, and factories aren't something every newbie can throw around willy-nilly. I don't think there's much advantage or disadvantage for that scenario, where logic is either wired or wireless. No worries; you're bringing exactly what I hoped for. The real gold only shines through when you REALLY try to defeat an idea, and fail, not when you try to support it, and succeed.

I'll grant you that; any necessary part reduces survivability. You can mitigate it, just as you can mitigate the vulnerability of a battery, by having a backup. And as it's a factory-built drone, (in most cases it would be, I'd think,) you could always build another. I think logic should localize, though. If that does happen, this will not be any weaker than our current wireless connectors. If it does not happen, and you continue to require splitters to avoid crosstalk, you still need connectors on those drones, and it will be no weaker than they are now, and provide advantages in avoiding crosstalk there, as well.

Sorry, yes. I had the square measurement (2 square units, 4 square units) stuck in my head, not the dimensions. Yes, 2x1, and 2x2.

Both 400 and 4000 are aberrations; the TNT on the low side, the factory's ridiculous HP on the other. Every logic piece, connector included is 1000; every 2x2 sensor is 1000, every 1x1 is 500, and every 4x4 sensor is 2000. Logic and sensors are not particularly fragile. You just notice it when they break, because everything goes sideways. Every gun, the regular and jump thrusters, 2x2 power and fuel, and the 1x1 armor block is 1000 HP, by comparison. All sorts of crucial stuff is 1000 HP. I am of the opinion that logic will need to go local eventually; this architecture eliminates any ambiguity and weirdness, like connectors blocking signals.

My first guess would be that each block compounded adds the force exerted upon it to the next block in line. But I don't know exactly what layout you're using, so I'm only guessing.

Logic is actually kind of robust; all logic blocks and every 2x2 sensor has as much HP as the small armor block does, 1000 HP. It's on the low end of the middle ground, but it is pretty middle ground. They're exactly as tough as thrusters or guns. Connectors as well, currently have 1000 HP, but i expect that HP amounts, being pretty generic and footprint-based, will get heavily rebalanced at some point.

I actually had a picture commissioned for a character I played. This was Vincent Dru'gotti, who went by the moniker of Lurker, to those who hadn't earned his name. He's a rogueish sort who was a teddy bear to those he knew and trusted, but I aimed for 'unmitigated brutality' in his dealings with people he didn't know well. The art is by the talented Gin May, who it appears hasn't posted new artwork in a while. Her B&W work is fantastic, which is why I decided against color on this one.

This is the follow-up (not exactly a sequel) to "Expression" and "Unarmored". Remember the infuriatingly persistent guy our heroine hated so much from the first entry? They finally go to the woods he mentioned. I really like this one. There's good chemistry in these two. The personalities really intertwine into an experience for the reader, I think. I hope. I'm 99% certain that's supposed to be a girl on the guitar, (I seem to recall from comments on the art,) but the first rule of writing prompts is that you don't have to stick to the prompt. Impression Artwork:RV, by Kleg(DeviantArt) Original The RV – and me, laying on top of it – came into sight on the laptop’s screen as I piloted the drone up the hillside. My fingers danced over the keyboard, angling the camera to keep the RV in view. I eased the drone into the corridor that the road carved through the forest, and had it shed altitude as it closed in for a landing. As it settled to the roof beside me, I saw myself through the drone’s camera, shadowed but illuminated by the laptop’s screen. I smiled to see myself, and I watched my lips twitch into a smile. I’d never quite get used to that. I turned onto my side to dismounting the camera from the drone, connecting it to my laptop. I heard the ping that indicated the footage was downloading. It was a digital camera, of course. I typically shunned digital cameras as being the tool of the unskilled, but I needed lightweight video, and lightweight video meant digital. I looked up from my perch atop the RV’s roof and looked at Brian’s back. He was perched on the hood, playing his guitar. The drone’s noise hadn’t disturbed him – I wasn’t even sure he’d noticed it. He looked entranced, and suddenly I didn’t want to interrupt him. I watched him and listened as he played. He’d seemed so shallow when we met. A boy is looking to get friendly with a girl. But his interest in my photography had been genuine, and he respected my boundaries; boundaries that shrank, as my trust in him grew. Though we had different talents, we were each interested in each other’s work, and we both wanted to be good at what we did. You could tell how much he put into his music just from moments of listening, the notes sweet and smooth as honey, each one carrying you into the next. I couldn’t see his face, but I knew his eyes were closed, his brow furrowed with focus. The last notes trailed off, and I knew it’d only be a few moments before he started something new; this was my chance to interrupt. “I got the video.” “Oh, cool!” He hopped off the hood, setting the guitar carefully in its case. “Let me see. Where did you go?” He climbed up the ladder to join me on the roof, laying on his stomach beside me as I cued up the footage. “I took it down the hill to the river, and kept her low,–” “Her?” “–Yes, her.” My tone challenged him to laugh – to his credit, he did not. “I kept her low all the way up over the river, and came back when the signal got weak. Look. I caught a bear.” He smiled, and I felt his arm around my waist, felt his warmth close as he watched with me. With anybody else I’d dated, I would get uncomfortable, but with him, I trusted his intent. I couldn’t let him get too confident, though. He’d get cocky. “Watch it there, mister.” “Yeah, yeah.” He knew I wasn’t too serious. But he also knew that I wasn’t a ‘no means maybe’ kind of girl. He lifted his arm, settling it between us, and his fingers laced through mine as we watched the video run. “You weren’t afraid it’d go down in the water?” “I was terrified. It was worth it.” I felt my cheeks heating up as he squeezed my hand. Sometimes I hated the way I couldn’t keep myself from smiling or blushing around him. Nothing else made me feel less in control of myself. But nothing else made me feel like he did, either. It was terrifying. It was worth it. The video was ending, and I saw the scene where I came into view. I watched the girl on the screen see herself on the screen. She smiled to see herself from an unusual perspective, and then the image froze, the video over. “I don’t know how you do it. You always just seem to know how to look at things.” “It’s not about me knowing how to look. Well, it’s that, too.” I squeezed his hand, then pulled his arm over my back, leaning into his warmth. The same grip I’d warned him about before, but this time it was my choice. For some reason, it was better that way. “You also like looking at things the same way I like to.” “If I recall, the very first time I met you, I said that your choice of subject matter was ugly, and stank. But that photo was amazing.” “If I recall, I also told you I didn’t need you.” “And now?” I was quiet for a minute. His question was . . . complicated. “I don’t . . . I’m not a girl who needs people. But I want to be with you anyway. Is that okay?” He smiled, and I felt his lips brush my temple, and my cheeks burned. “That sounds exactly like you, so honest it hurts sometimes. But don’t ever stop being you. I wouldn’t like you so much if you weren’t you.” I pulled my laptop closed, and burrowed into his side, wishing I could hide my face. “Will you play some more, tonight?” I felt his fingers scratching at my back. I tried not to give away how nice it felt, but I’d already let out a contented sigh. Where did that come from? His voice was close enough to feel his breath on my ear when he replied. “Sure. For you.” I shivered from the spill of his breath over my skin. How does he do that to me? He got up, then, and climbed back down to the ground. It was getting darker, and we’d have to go in soon. For now, he perched on an old fallen tree and lifted the guitar from the case. He strummed the strings, and I climbed down to sit on the steps by the vehicle’s door, watching him. I could see his thoughts on his face as he sought a song. He was listening to the lingering notes, and I could see him looking for a song in them. I saw it in the furrow of his brow when he found it, the moment his seeking became determination, and his fingers began to dance on the strings. He opened his eyes to look at me, and I knew he wasn’t just playing for me, but to me. I once found myself surprised that this boy might have a chance with me. Tonight, I felt the same thing all over again when I realized that I might love him.

Sure. None of these are contests or anything. These forums are pretty open; the developers are basically just providing a space for people to get talking. The rules are pretty much don't be a jerk, don't spam us, and try to avoid obscenity if you can help it. Beyond that, go nuts; people who posted their playthroughs are pretty much just writing whatever they like, so feel free to do the same. Write the story of the glorious battle your nichelings died in, and how they find Valhalla when they arrive, if you like. Go nuts.

for some reason, I saw 'the meaning of home' and thought 'Ohana means family'. Then my demented mind took a side detour through the wrong part of town, and I was suddenly stuck with an image of a marine with akimbo machine guns firing into the night screaming "OHANA MEANS NOBODY GETS LEFT BEHIND!" I'm done. That will be all.

I think empty blacklsit being the default is probably easier. For the UI's sake, you can have the whitelist/blacklist selection appear to be blank until you click the arrows to toggle between them.

I missed this earlier. An empty blacklist typically results in nothing blacklisted, all requests approved. In this setting, a transmitter with an empty blacklist would carry all signals. You could use a whitelist on a transmitter and a blacklist on a receiver, but there's no clear precedence when they're processed at the same time, and you typically only need one or the other. EDIT: Whitelists and blacklists don't mix; you use either one of the other. Whitelist means only listed signals can pass. Blacklist means anything EXCEPT listed signals can pass.

You should add new topics for new suggestions. This is a tracker, as well as a forum, so the topics here are used to track user interest and completion status, as well as discuss ideas. For that reason, it's only useful to the developers if each thread is only one subject, so it's clear what the votes on the features, and the completion status actually refer to. EDIT: This is also why we're a bit more aggressive than normal about merging things in the feature request, bug report, and drone part request forums.

For one thing, a lot of us engineering types are a little OCD, and don't like our finely crafted machines having blemishes just hanging on them for no reason other than that they once were useful. For another, explosive decouplers are a request that's recurred a few times. (Edit: In fact, the decouplers originated in requests for explosive-bolt-style separation, if I recall correctly.) It seems like a trivial change to make them consume themselves instead of hanging on like a zit on your well-oiled machine. I wouldn't say it's important enough to spend a lot of time on, but if it is trivial, I know what I prefer. To get back to the subject at hand, what it WOULD do is remove a hub, if decouplers acted as hubs when decoupled. So, like factories, if that were implemented, the direct children would have to become hubs.

Fading in visible damage with a shader, like heat or cold, was also my favored solution. I merged you into a topic that already existed on the subject, so you can find that further up this thread, now.

Jump right in! Each topic is a separate thread of discussions. You can add a topic or comment anywhere you please; the only thing different about the message board format is that we try to stay on topic in a thread, and open other discussions for other things, though it's not a rule or anything. Welcome on board!