Coloured Blocks

Option 3 all the way!

Option 1 would probably frustrate me to the point of not continuing to play. Not to be dramatic, but option 1 is just plain silly to me...

 

1. I like the ability to choose the colour of the blocks and I think I could risk a bit more inventory space for it. But whatever works, im sure I could paint them over eventually.

 

Option 3 gets my vote.

My heart skips a beat at the thought of having to manage an inventory with multiple stacks of colored dirt, and if they can be colored with the paint tool, then it makes absolutely no difference as far as aesthetics is concerned. It's an increase in convenience at no real cost of creativity.

 

option 3 ofcourse!

 

I would say 3, but It would probably be best if there was some way to "paint" blocks to a different color. That way it's sort of the best of both worlds.

 

czech it:

 

I would vote for option one. I don't mind managing my inventory. If I want a specific color of a material I want to have to gather it from the place I found it. As George said the paint tool will allow you to paint the material block one of about 10 different colors. If the original color of the material you gathered was very specific it would suddenly become generic and can only become one of 10 colors now. I can see that most people are preferring option three. However in my opinion that is a dumb it down approach. If materials keep their original traits ( Although it appears that color will be the only unique variable I was hoping for other things to differentiate one material of a certain type from others of the same type) it would require more inventory management. but if you went to a certain planet with a nice red colored dirt, stone or whatever, then maybe you would want to gather a bunch of it to use in another location. if you don't like the dirt on a certain planet, then you shouldn't take it and clutter up your inventory.

 

I don't think that's avoidable if you plan on doing any underground exploring... I guess you could just throw it out after you dug it up though.

 

Option 3 sounds good especially with the option of a paint tool (developed at a later date, it's not the most important thing in the world)

Same material, different colours that I can choose. You're bound to get some amazing art.

 

I have a question for the developers related to their query, because my opinion might change based on their answer. How many inventory slots does a character have? In one of the videos I watched recently, don't remember which, it looked like there was different tabs for the inventory that each added another 20 or more slots. Did I see it wrong, or..?

 

I like number one. Making a base on a new world would be better if it' feels "alien"

 

I would say option 1, only because the others would somewhat break my immersion. Randomly changing colour blocks, woo~!

Also, easier to place coloured blocks, then - you can paint them where it's easier.

 

I'd prefer option 1.

It might be fun to plant crops on blue soil on a planet that has normal, brown dirt.

Besides, it seems we'll spend a fair amount of time on each, individual planet. So, it's not like we'll wind up with many different stacks of dirt in a short time. I don't see it being a huge problem, unless someone just never uses containers.

 

This here is why I'd be perfectly fine with option 1. If somebody is really concerned about their inventory filling up with dirt, it probably takes five seconds tops to purge or store dirt before going to a new planet.

 

Option 3 all the way, Any help organising inventories is a thumbs up from me, Terraria was a pain to organise with its chests and the potential for Starbound to have that same problem given the scale already is worry-some.

 

I would say option 3, but rather than instant have it change to match the environment over time. Give like a 50% chance to convert each "raw" block in the biome every 60 seconds or something like that. Perhaps make it change instantly if you leave the nearby area, so the game doesn't have to save it differently.

Also, for the option 1 fans give us at least one way to get the non-raw version. Actually, I could argue for having pickaxes work like option 1 and the matter manipulator work like option 3. Would that be doable?

 

#3

 

There was a post ( http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/god-made-dirt-and-dirt-dont-hurt.29126/page-1 ) where that question was massively discussed. Some pretty neat ideas were found, and I want to mention one here that I particularly enjoyed (thanks to Lynx88):

When you pick up a block of dirt, it reverts to the standard brown-coloured dirt block. Then, when placed on a planet, that standard block slowly changes its colour to the dirt around it.

It is quite interesting for three reasons:

- It is as simple for the inventory management as the second and third solutions proposed here. It’s a mix between both of them: you've got only one default "dirt block" in the inventory, but when you put it in a landscape, it does disfigure it as its colour match the ones surrendering it in 1 or 2 seconds.

- It's an improvement of the third solution: the colour of the block you just placed is not directly proper to the planet you’re on, but to the blocks surrendering it. So a block placed in a mini-biome will have that mini-biome’s colour, not the planet’s default colour.

- It doesn't break immersion, as you may explain those changes as scientific issues: the block gets "sterilized" when picked up, so it becomes a default brown block. And when it's placed in an alien soil, it's "contaminated" by it (by it's bacteria, …) , so its aspect “slowly” shift.


I think this idea would be perfect as a default solution. But I would love to be able to right click on the pill of dirt in my inventory and then be able to choose, thanks to a larger menu that popped up, one of the blocks I really picked up and use it directly on another planet for artistic issues (as some people proposed it on this thread).


Finally, I had an idea about the paint-tool: if the one by default have for example 6 colours, why not create some super unique paint-tools with more colours: 12, 24, ... It would become the holy grail for builders. We could even think of dedicated paint-tool: a green paint-tool with 10 variations of green, .... It could be really neat as building is one of the most important aspect of the game!

 

I'd prefer option 1.

Though, out of curiousity, if all these options are already coded and ready to go, how easy would it be to have a world option so the player could make the choice when they create a world? I realise that would take some development time to add, but it would be ideal to have an option on world creation of "keep blocks as they're found" vs "like blocks are all the same object".

 

GeorgeV said to vote for number 3, so I'm going to vote on number 3. Also it makes the most sense