Preface - (Please read the text, don't just look at the poorly made picture) I remember seeing this suggestion by jimeno a long time ago on reddit. While I was browsing the new suggestion feature on the website, I was amazed that it was not anywhere I could see. I know a lot of people have suggested a variety of ways to implement blueprint systems and I would like to weigh in with my personal version of it. My Idea (Schematic name courtesy of 'Combat Me Bro') Making Schematics I propose that in the ship, there is some kind of machine that can be found after you reach a certain point in the game (The player might find it abandoned in some ruins after a storyline quest?). When you use this machine (That I am temporarily calling a 'SchematicMatic'), you are taken to a screen like this: (This is a very quick mockup) So, basically. The blue grid area is where you place blocks from your inventory, it would be like building anything normally except you have full range. The blue grid area also pans and zooms for very large buildings. Not only can you place blocks from your inventory, you can also place other, smaller schematics into a schematic. Once you've finished building you give it a name and save it, the file will be stored locally and you can access the blueprint from the schematic machine, next to the name will show what blocks/items are needed to make it. The file format will be simple, its 0 x co-ordinate will be where the leftmost block is, and the 0 y co-ordinate will be the top most block (or bottom most, depending on starbounds co-ord system) so this means that no matter where on the schematic area you build it will crop away any blank space. The blocks are stored the same way as the world stores them (Im assuming with some kind of reference ID) The files wont be very big at all. Building from Schematics Once you've made blueprints there are 2 ways to build them. First way is to take a schematic from the SchematicMatic, when you remove a schematic it simply makes a copy and puts it in your inventory so its still saved in the machine. When you mouse over the schematic in your inventory it will show you what materials are needed. With a schematic in your inventory when you click on it a transparent 'outline' version of the building in the schematic will appear on your cursor (to handle large buildings you will hold the building by the bottom left when facing right, and the bottom right when facing left) This 'outline' is simply to show you where you can place it, like the transparent 'outline' you get when placing any other blocks or items. The 'outline' image will be normal coloured if there is nothing obstructing where the building will be put, and if you have all the necessary materials. Otherwise the image will be red and you cannot place it down. When you place the building the materials are taken out of your inventory and a small robot slowly builds your structure. The second way to build from a schematic is that there is a button in the schematic machine that lets you 'beam' a building down to the planet you are above. This would be handy to build bases before you land on a planet. The building will find the highest block that is in the range of your building (similar to when a player lands on a planet, but with the width to check depends on the width of the schematic building) and start building it there so that it does not replace any blocks, however this might mean that the building is only held up by a single block and there's empty space under everywhere else. Earlier Tier Schematics As I'm sure you can imagine, the schematic machine will be a late in game kind of item. However as seen in the demo for starbound it can get quite frustrating to build a base on every planet you visit, since you will be going to a lot of them. So I propose that a very basic level of the schematic machine can be found early on. This low level version does not allow you to create or take out schematics. It starts off with a basic base schematic, and more can be found in chest and things. Basically this low level schematic machine will allow you to beam down bases to planets you or anyone has not been to, provided you have the materials. So okay let me go over this again. There is a low level version of the SchematicMatic that can be found/built early on in the game. This machine allows you to beam down bases to planets if you have the materials. You start off with one basic base schematic and can find more in chests and such. This machine does not allow you to make schematics or remove schematics from the machine Sharing schematics When you have a schematics in your inventory, you can pass it to another player (similar to how maps can be exchanged in minecraft) When a player receives a schematic, they can simply go to the schematic machine and store it themselves, which will make a copy of that schematic data client side. While schematics are in players inventory, a copy is stored server side. This is so that players can share schematics freely in multiplayer without them needing to store then I'm their machine and therefore on their computer Dealing with griefers There are two ways we could could stop this. 1) The server admin can disable or enable the use of blueprints for each privilege level (So only allowing moderators to use them and not normal players etc) 2) Blueprints can only be built on planets claimed by players, or they can only be 'beamed down' on a planet that no player has landed on before in that server These would solve a lot of problems I hope Final Note I know this is not the only blueprint suggestion, but I'm trying to incorporate all blueprint ideas I can. If you have any other ideas that are to do with blueprints, please tell me and I will add them to the section below. I'm hoping that this can become a mega thread for all blueprint related ideas. Similar Ideas Original idea by jimeno Variations Suggested by Others A lot of people are suggesting that instead of instantly building, it gets built slowly over time. I think this is good as it balances things a bit more. 'LightHoof' has suggested that instead of building slowly over time by itself, that the schematic buildings should be built by a robot. The general idea is that you place down a robot (which there are many levels of) you provide the robot with a schematic and all necessary materials and it will build the structure over time. Higher level robots build faster. Also placing the robot could cost battery, or the robot could have a battery storage that slowly drains over time and needs to be refilled. As Zellman has pointed out there would be griefing possibilities, so I've added a section on how we can combat this. theslowwonder suggests using a different name as 'blueprints' are already used in game to get recipes. Thanks to 'Combat Me Bro' I have decided upon the name 'schematics'
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That sounds like a great feature, although being able to simply spawn in an entire building could lead to some shenanigans later on, I like the idea of being able to project a transparent version and just build off that. Nice!
I think this would work with a megastructures suggestion that i'm planning. You can build structures, and place them as items in your bleuprint, simplifying the process a lot. It would also be really nice to have some basic operations you could apply to your blueprints. Rotating and flipping being the obvious ones. This would make blueprints just that much more versatile and useful.
I think that instant build is not really good idea. Maybe you should fill the outline with some special tool which automatically selects right materials.
I like it! I like both build ideas, but I like the one where it builds slowly. Preferably by a little hover-robot. If its your home planet, then maybe it can build faster.
I think that blueprints should be part of a robotic constructor, that builds the thing over time. the player will have to set up the constructor, but that'll take nowhere near as much as building a large complex structure yourself. Then you can pump resources into the constructor and it'll build. If you tell the constructor to, it'll build X of the blueprinted structures that it has the resources and room for. So that if you want 7 of a structure for a megaproject, then that's entirely possible. Also, for megaprojects, it'd be nice to have blueprints be part of blueprints, so that if you need to repeat a structure, then you can with the blueprint. If you were particularly crazy, then you could have a constructor that constructs a constructor for a structure that is probably unbelievably huge. Also, the constructor packs itself at the end, so that you can pick it back up. Another nice thing about blueprints, is that the game could do some really cool things of scale with it while not having to fiddle with the engine itself, which would get messy. This way certain projects, such as Dyson Spheres could be actually possible to build. Of course, each block wouldn't be rendered at that scale, you'd probably be working with megastructures nested within megastructures, eventually it'd get put into the world generator as a world that you built, with dungeon blocks being the individual megastrucutres. Of course, the amount of resources required to build a Dyson sphere would be astronomical (oh no, not that pun again.)
I like the idea of using it on an unexplored planet to build a small fort that you can run into in a pinch, Or that temporary base/save point that gets built while you go out and explore.
Nice idea, but I can picture the easy griefing opportunities on servers though. Dirt genitalia everywhere!
so what do i think about the idea?....... i love it, it is an awesome idea, and if we are able to share blueprints then even better.
I've added a section about sharing blueprints Ive added some possible ways to negate griefing Yes, possibly as a reward for a higher tier story mission. I like the idea that you find the machine in some ruins and install it into your ship. I've changed the initial idea so that the blueprints will be built slowly over time Also Pseudoboss, when you've made your megastructure suggestion, give me the link and I will add it to the 'Similar suggestions' section
What if, instead of building the blueprint seperately, you can just "lay out" a print in the world itself? So like you equip the "blueprint block" and you can paint that. It creates a sort of dotted outline in the world but doens't actually affect anything. That way you can just visualize and plan out a structure before committing resources to it.
I feel that this is something that needs to be in Starbound. In most block games, you build in one location and work around it. This is true for Terraria, Minecraft, etc. In Starbound, however, you 'use' a world up and then move on. This would eventually lead to building a base over, and over, and over again. This 'Blueprints' (might I suggest Schematics for a name?) idea would solve this issue. I also suggest that we add something for deconstructing our schematics with our ships for easy transportation and re-using of materials.
Or it can be build with really rare high-tier materials after looting the recepie in some dungeon or from miniboss. So, about that inventory screen you chose blocks from. As the blueprint machine allows pre-building, I suggest that all blocks for the current player tier should be available, not just the ones you have in your inventory. So, inventory screen part is not needed. Instead, there should be a list of materials available with tabs for furniture, decorations and other stuff. That way whole pre-built complexes with all the functionality and decorations can be made and shared, not just building husks.
This would be a good idea, but it would probably lead to a sort of copy-paste attitude towards buildings and such. I like new buildings each time i make something, or if i like a previous design i always improve. That being said, i hate it when some angry space penguin decides to come in and blow up your house, i see this as a good way to quickly recover from an epic boss battle fail. Plus, i think a few people have already said it, instead of it just "appearing" you would need the blocks for it to be built in your inventory, plus time and energy. So, you would make the blueprint then save it, after you found a good spot to put it in, you would need to have all the materials to construct it, and each block will take a certain amount of time to place, say if you had a low tier character it might take 1.5secs per block, with a higher tier you could have each block placed down every 0.3secs. (I wont make a big deal about it, but different "constructor modules"-thats what im going to call the item that would perform this task-could have different levels/tiers) Heck, it may even consume a portion of your characters energy. I also see it as a way to save time building something you want/need, so instead of actually building the structure it would continue building it after you have left the planet, and it might send you a transmission after it has completed. One more thing, it could affect the physical appearance of your ship, say you lay out the design in you ship, give it materials then it shoots down a "construction cube". When it lands the structure would be build there. It may even be a good idea to make them act differently, say a pocket constructor can make buildings in a 10x10 grid on the go, using less energy and then there would be say a "mounted intergalactical ranged constructor initiator" which is a cannon at the bottom of your ship that fires the build at a planet given coordinates, maybe it could build in a 50x50 max grid or something. I dunno, i just thought i would pour my thoughts all over your screen. Dont f*** with space penguins.
