Dev Blog 10th March - Is this the rail life?

Original Post
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Hello everyone! I dunno how it could possibly be Thursday already, but here we are. Let's talk about rails!


The rail system is something Metadept started over the Christmas holiday, and we've since taken a little bit of time to polish it up so that it's ready in time for 1.0. We've tried to include the key elements of the Skyrails mod by Apjjm as well as craftable elevators in order to create something that's more in line with Starbound's design: general purpose, flexible and creative!



The core of the system are rail materials, which are non-colliding blocks that players place in the world. These materials will automatically connect to each other and to adjacent rail objects, so it should be easy to create anything from simple elevators to large rail networks!

Players can currently make use of the rails in two different ways: by placing self-propelled moving platforms, or by sliding along rails using a special rail hook item driven by gravity.



In addition to basic rail tiles, there are also several objects to make more complex rail networks possible: a rail bumper that caps rail endpoints and sends riders back in the opposite direction, a rail stop that stops and starts riders based on a wire input, a rail switch that connects and disconnects rails based on wire input, and a rail sensor that triggers a wire output whenever a rail rider crosses it.



We'd like to expend the system in the future with more types of rails, objects, and things that travel along them!
What do you think?

 

Couldn't come up with a witty remark this time.
THIS is why Starbound is the most innovative game ever.

Nice work Devs!

More things that move along rails, you say?
Turrets maybe?

 

Really good job.

 

My main takeaway from this blog post is scriptable blocks, and my reaction is "holy crap".

 

Time to make a reskin of those platforms, to look like doors.

Edit: It's like skyrails and the current elevators were mashed together, and created something better than either one!

 

@Letrune is gonna love this, I tell you hwat.

 

Finally something to replace those god awful elevators.... i hope.

 

All of my "YES!"

Also , turrets in general getting more love(dev attention) would be nice.

 

Aw yes. I'm not sure if it has been fixed (or if I goofed), but could you also make it so NPC's understand how to use/ride elevators?
I have 2 glitch guards at the bottom of an elevator upwards but they don't know how to use it so they can't socialize with other village people.
So sad to see.


Except for that, again, aww yisss, very nice.

 

Vechicles that move along rails! Yes, please!

Great news overall .

 

The best news all week!

I can't wait to make an underground tram system!

 

That looks interesting.
Will they replace the current elevators, or will they simply be a new part?

 

Oooo this is too cool I cant wait to try it out!

 

I now fully expect a 'Fanta-sea' biome...

 

This immediately came to mind;

 

I hope we can launch these platforms off the rails like in thrillville!

 

You know what'd be awesome? Being able to put containers like crates and chests on these things. We could make our own automated cargo-holds that way. We push a button, and the crate of our choice comes zipping towards us. We take out what we want, push the button again and it zooms off.

'Course for that to work we'd need it to be able to stop on both ends. In the pictures above it loops back once reaching the end, so we'd also need to be able to make points which force the platform to come to a stop, similar to the switch node shown above.

 

For real. Hits me instantly.

Might as well add those flipping platform, right?

 

You don't know how frustrated I was with the previous elevator system. I can't tell you how awesome this is.

 

OR, we could do it the fun way and put like a million delay gates up to keep the cargo supplies out for as long as you'd think you need them. Five-second timers would work, too, but it doesn't look nearly as impressive when you wire it all up.