Advanced Scripting Option

[Kintar]

I love playing as the programmer, but building things out of basic logic circuits is obnoxious.  I'd love to see an option to place "logic space" blocks to grant lines of code or some similar metric in an editor in order to make wiring tags together more convenient.  Variables would be nice, too.

[TAW]

Or maybe a block where you can put multiple logic parts inside to save space, however the logic parts are used up in the campaign and this special block is more vunerable for balancing.

[Vibr8gKiwi]

I second this.  The fun of this game is in programming the drone to solve problems, yet the programming tools are too limited, too restricted, use too much space, weigh too much, etc.  There is no reason the programming needs to tie into the physical structure so that the more logic you add the bigger, heavier and uglier the drone gets.  Have ONE logic board piece you can add to a drone that holds all the logic gates.  Registers (variables) and ways to manipulate the registers (load/store/add/subtract/etc) are a screaming need.  Scripting would be great (though I can see how that might not fit the "hardware" theme).  Basically anything that expands the ability to program beyond awkward blocks of logic gates is sorely needed.

[Zoey]

I bought this game for the programming/building but it is so limited that I had to uninstall, and I mean limited by the amount of tediousness you have to go through to give your drone basic functionality.  They have NEVER touched this side of things and made it clear in the steam forums early on that they didn't plan to, and so I have never come back, but if they did I would install this again for sure.

[Konchog]

On 5/21/2020 at 1:12 PM, TAW said:

Or maybe a block where you can put multiple logic parts inside to save space, however the logic parts are used up in the campaign and this special block is more vunerable for balancing.

I put this as a feature request.

[Konchog]

I actually have mixed feelings about this.

It would definitely be good to have some number-based work (eg. decrements / foreach are a pain) - and the ability to access switches/variables as inputs, rather than build-time settings would be sweet - but I really like the 'scratch' style of using logic parts.  However, I think we do need logic container parts - (along with component libraries) - and then we can work on our own cool logic modules without having to breakout into code.

I code for work 40+ hours a week. I would then want an IDE, and a RT debugger and an oscilloscope.. Would just begin to be a different game...

There's some awesome physics engines out for that sort of stuff.

[Orange Guise]

I think there's an important balance point that has to be implemented here. I once played this great game called CARNAGE HEART, which essentially broke logic down into blocks. We could take their idea of "Subroutine chips" to a logical extension here.

If you implement a [6x6, 10x10, 15x15, 20x20, 30x30] space to cram only logic parts into, and it only takes up a 1x1 block, and call that a "CPU"...

then that CPU should constantly draw energy whenever it has to run a logic command. And the more commands it simultaneously executes, the more extreme the energy drain should get. Also, this should be expensive technology, with multiple tiers. The smallest ones (6x6) should have less drain than the big honking ones, per square.

 

I am not opposed to condensed logic design, but hardcore thinking isn't free! Compact design or energy efficiency, which is more important?"

 

[Reunion]

I like this, especially the variable part. it should be also added outside of the 'logic space'  and to quickly assign it you can drag variables from a special tab towards the equipment. This will only work for triggers, everything else you'll have to manually assign by typing it.

Following this, new way To assign keyboard controls is to press enter when you're done so the game can tell if you're using a variable or a key for that. 

[Ky3He4iK]

May be add controllers like in Zachtronics games? (TIS 100 or SHENZHEN IO)

They will have a few lines for asm-style commands and 1-2 buffers and can communicate with other blocks via keys or analog signals (from another request)

Size like drone core (for the reasons of balance)

[Super Powered]

On 5/23/2020 at 9:39 PM, Konchog said:

I code for work 40+ hours a week. I would then want an IDE, and a RT debugger and an oscilloscope.. Would just begin to be a different game...

Same boat, and I agree. 
The reality is I kind of like having the blocks for the logic. I've actually been having my son take a stab at the game, and the blocks are something he can at least (somewhat) comprehend. I'm hoping it helps set up a better foundation for logic based thinking going forward...

I mostly think we just need some more advanced parts. Parts that can store and manipulate variables, parts that can loop and iterate, parts that can store a set of logic as a function. Right now we're basically just writing giant if statements, which is fine and all (I mean, That's basically all that they used for the Age of Empires AI) but it's cumbersome, for sure.