CometShine

Thank you! I used an art program called Paint Tool SAI and also a Wacom drawing tablet

right, makes sense. I agree that it would be better if you didn't have to turn it off. That was just an idea in regards to the problem of needing to see certain things. But yeah, functional parts shouldn't have to be designed around cosmetics, rather, cosmetics around functional parts. I see the cosmetics being like little pieces you can put together. triangles, squares, rectangles, similar to the pieces already in game, and you can place them wherever and however around objects. Indicators like I said before is a great idea if you want to cover things. but like you said dont necessarily need to be used if a certain aesthetic is desired.

eh, I guess I see your point with weapons. This may also play into the player's own choices of needing to see them and designing cosmetics around them and their needs. You don't have to cover up the weapons if you don't want to. It may even look cool to have weapons show through, like a line of lasers with hull bordering them would look pretty cool. I get your point on not wanting to turn transparency on and off, and rendering cosmetics pointless in a way. In that case I can see indicators may be better, but depending on how many is needed I feel the indicators shouldn't be too big because it will just look like clutter. fuel, power, resource, and factory indicators can be made. Shields can even be moved to the outside layer so you can see each one and their levels. LEDs can also be moved to the outside layer as that can actually make sense depending on what they are used for

Hm, I feel like some things are not necessarily needed to be seen though. Like weapons don't really need to be seen because they don't indicate anything. While building the drone, you already know they are there and will work. Even if you did want to see everything for some reason, I feel the best option is to add an option to toggle opacity. I've went ahead and tested out how this will work by drawing it up on the drone itself and changing opacity of the outside layer. First testing 50%, then 30%. I feel fine with the 50% but tested a lower one. The toggle will work so that if you press a key (such as an fn key), the opacity will go down like pictured and you can leave it on while you're playing, or turn it off by pressing the key again to keep it at 100%. The one on the far right is where I played with indicators, but having an indicator for literally everything besides a few will be too much I feel. But I agree that it would also be up to the player if they want to add cosmetics, and where.

Another idea with needing to see indicators, is maybe having a button to toggle between needing to see underneath the cosmetics while you play (like a lowered opacity), or like you said add a special indicator specifically on the cosmetic layer which is a neat idea

Implement a feature to add outside hull shapes similar to how the nimbatus ship looks as well as the ability to color parts and lights. Can make it a separate layer from the functional pieces and would be purely for aesthetic. I've drawn my drone with a single layer of shapes on top and customized the colors of various objects as an example (also it was a lot of fun to draw) EDIT: added some images of different solutions of playing the game while with cosmetics. You could have an option to toggle opacity if you would like to see what is underneath your drone while playing by pressing a key (such as an fn key) and the opacity will lower unless you press it again to bring it back up to 100%. I've tested 50% and 30% opacity here. Another solution is to add indicators to the outside layer as shown on the far right which would show the overall drone's power, fuel, factory, and resource levels.