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Walkers, jumpers, and other unusual methods.


Lurkily

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So . . . . . I've made a couple of walkers.  I've tried a few things, but my best efforts always involve thrusters for feet.  I made a roller that is capable of rolling uphill, even across a ceiling.  I made a rover that could, clumsily and without reliability, crawl down into a narrow hole and back out again.  I'm currently working on a jumper.  It uses one directional sensor to thrust down and forward, and slam down onto springs.  Those springs are angles to tip it forward, and jump thrusters pound it back into the air, using a second directional sensor to launch it up and forward (tipped right).  It's not going terribly well, but I'm making progress, and I'll complete it. 

 

I have identified a number of things that are really limiting my ability to make drones that are really interesting and distinct and unusual. In my quest to make walkers, rollers, rovers, landspeeders, climbers of all types, these are the issues that keep cropping up again and again.

 

I wish directional sensors could be tuned to 'closest terrain'.  I could make legs, wheels, and thrust that adjust themselves to climb weird terrain.  Want to climb a wall?  This could rotate a leg assembly to actually point at a wall, or lift and lower a wheel to match raised or lowered terrain  On a side note, make directional sensors round or octagonal, so we can precisely aim them without having to put them on a stalk.

 

I wish directional sensors had a 'angle' setting and at least double the range.  (Decrease the max range as you increase the radius, for balance.  They might even be effective enough at being consistently triggered that the above tweak to directional sensors wouldn't be needed.  It'd still be helpful as hell, though.  Also, I'd kiss you if you could make them smaller.  I know they get harder to read, but this is just an absolute necessity if you're going to put it on a hinge to control moving parts.

 

I wish I could 'pair' directional sensors and a 'range' sensor, so they'd read the direction and distance between the two blocks.  Then I could make formations, like unconnected 'snake' drones and orbital sub-drones that spread out and seek enemies to fire at, then zip back to their station if they're too far away.

 

I wish I could start an impulse gate, for just one cycle, on a keypress.  Flip a switch on a delay after an event occurs.  I need this for complex legs.  I need this for simple jumper logic.  I need this for transforming drones.  I need this for so many things it's not even funny.

 

I wish hinges had angle restrictions.  I can get around speed controls with impulses ( .1 delay, .9 speed for 90% - .9/.1 for 10%, .1/.1 for 50%.)  It isn't ideal, and it introduces destructive wobble sometimes, but it can be done.  Effectively controlling autonomous events though requires sensors, and sensors sometimes don't get triggered - uneven terrain, whipping around because of some wobble, whatever.  There's no way around requiring angle limitations on hinges.  Someone will say directional sensors - but they are so big, and heavy enough, that they're implausible on most hinges, and only work when the entire ship is upright. 

 

 

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That’s alot of wishes...

 

I wish they had lua programmable blocks which had a console function so I could make my drone scream when it sees an enemy. Ok, in all seriousness, a programmable block would be SWEET!

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I do have a lot of wishes, but the game has a lot that it lacks.  I don't mean to knock the devs.  We're not even into alpha yet, so there will be things missing, and that's okay.

 

A few of these (wide-angle directional sensors) the devs have mentioned as being things they plan.  Others (hinge limits, better impulse blocks or some kind of 'macro' block) have been requested by others.  This list, though, is specifically the limitations that prevent me from creating crazy, off-the-wall bonkers shit like functional digitigrade legs that adjust their feet's facing to climb walls.

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