Factories don't have to print a lot, though. A magnet with a bit of power is enough to lock onto an opponent and throw off their center of mass. If I would see a single race use that involved good sportsmanship, I would reconsider, (Has anybody seen effective use of factories in a race that's more' legit'?) but it looks like it's all magnet blocks and infinite fuel.
I really think fuel and energy should build empty. Anything functional should be able to sustain itself; if you only manufacture storage, it can charge up before you release it. The current model really doesn't add much, and makes exploits available.
The first use I thought of (and attempted to work with) for the factory parts were for throwing forward sensors to send feedback to the main race ship. The goal being to increase reaction time at high velocities. My first attempt was basically a spring net with proximity sensors, position trackers, one small fuel tank, and thrusters on the ends to seek out acceleration and deceleration strips and guide the ship to the position trackers on the acceleration or away from the trackers on danger or deceleration. This technique took too long to print and required my main ship to be quite slow to be effective, but I am not very good at optimizing competitive play, so others may have better luck with that.
Patchnotes 0.6.0 Early Access Preview
in Announcements
Posted
The first use I thought of (and attempted to work with) for the factory parts were for throwing forward sensors to send feedback to the main race ship. The goal being to increase reaction time at high velocities. My first attempt was basically a spring net with proximity sensors, position trackers, one small fuel tank, and thrusters on the ends to seek out acceleration and deceleration strips and guide the ship to the position trackers on the acceleration or away from the trackers on danger or deceleration. This technique took too long to print and required my main ship to be quite slow to be effective, but I am not very good at optimizing competitive play, so others may have better luck with that.