Block-based vehicle creation

Discussion in 'Mechanics' started by Ketoth, Jun 9, 2013.

  1. Ketoth

    Ketoth Phantasmal Quasar

    We were talking about one of the updates in the IRC and this idea struck me.
    what if:you could build a structure out of blocks as usual and then add some sort of wheel part to it that would then turn it into a vehicle,adding physics to it and such ( i have really no idea of how this would be done,i'm no coder) this would be very interesting,since it would allow someone to build some sort of huge spaceship and then fly it around (a personal dream) or build something like the NASA crawler with a rocket on top and then move it into a launch site and then fly it into space

    this would work in a quite simple way,you build your vehicle and then add two separate blocks,a pilot's chair,some sort of item to give you control of your building and wheels or engines to give it propulsion anything connected to the chair and not connected to the ground would then become part of the vehicle once you interacted with it,and once connected back to the ground it would loose its proprieties and reverse into a building (so you could dock your boat to the shore for instance)
    Perhaps each block could have its weight which would then be calculated into the final acceleration of the final physical object

    OP will be edited as i come up with new ideas
     
    Hyperex likes this.
  2. The idea looks nice! But this doesn't looks possible. They don't want even to add things as Elevators to the game because for some reason moving blocks won't work in servers for performance reasons. I don't know what will be their final approach in this :rolleyes:
     
  3. frostybubbles

    frostybubbles Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    I like the idea but there should be a limit to how many blocks you can put on one another because If you put as many as possible you could just make a house that could go into space and there would be no need for a home base or a spaceship.
     
  4. Ketoth

    Ketoth Phantasmal Quasar

    frostybubbles i agree,but it just could not be too small or it would loose its point entirely
    and bacon,it would not be moving blocks,it would be more like the spaceship,the blocks get turned into an object,one that would be capable of having blocks put into it,but only if its in block form (connected to the ground) if not it would work as a normal vehicle
     
  5. frostybubbles

    frostybubbles Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    what could be done is you could have a table for building these types of things. When you go into the table its lets you build a vehicle but the blocks are smaller then normal so you can add more detail (if that makes any sense) :3
     
  6. Ketoth

    Ketoth Phantasmal Quasar

    it actually does..maybe it would put you into this "VR" kind of thing,were you can use everything you put into it (so you don't have infinity blocks but are not restrained by inventory size) and then just build the thing
     
  7. The Question

    The Question Ketchup Robot

    EX: Air Ship Mod For Minecraft. It Requires Tons Of Resources To Not Lag, It Can Be Abused Easily, And In A 2D Game It Just Wouldn't Fit In. Terribawful Idea. Though I Love The Air Ship mod, It Would Be A Mess, Especially Because Of Walls.
     
  8. Ketoth

    Ketoth Phantasmal Quasar

    it would not really work like that mod,from what i saw from that mod it keeps the block's proprieties as blocks,this would turn them into one single physics interacting object that could then be changed back into blocks for editing,that would make it much easier to implement and balance though it would be a little less fun for players
    also i don't quite understand about how it would be abused,please clarify
     
  9. wraithbone

    wraithbone Pangalactic Porcupine

    The problem comes down to the block system the game is built upon, to have moving blocks that are also interactive, requires them to follow a set of rules that the rest of the block based world does not comply to.
    Bascally, you build a 20x5 vehicle, you move it 10.356 blocks, now when you come to edit it and you start placing blocks, all the blocks are offset 0.356 blocks from the grid that the rest of the game world runs on, this means that the math to calculate where blocks go and edges etc are more complex and creates performance issues in building.

    That would fix this problem, and would prevent the abuse. But..

    Now you have to have a physics system that works on general bodies, of any shape and size.
    Ive seen this done, it almost never looks as good as a carefully crafted animation that compliments the physics system.

    Look at a game called planet explorers for a good example of a voxel game that lets you build your own vehicle.
     

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