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Coloured Blocks

Discussion in 'Starbound Discussion' started by Tiy, Sep 25, 2013.

?

Choose which ones you'd be ok with.

  1. Different coloured blocks are stored in different inventory slots.

    238 vote(s)
    51.3%
  2. Different coloured blocks are combined into a single block for easier storage, default coloration

    44 vote(s)
    9.5%
  3. Different coloured blocks are combined into a single block for easier storage, planet coloration

    240 vote(s)
    51.7%
Thread Status:
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  1. Tiy

    Tiy Lead Developer Chucklefish

    Hi guys,

    Quick question to gather your thoughts.

    Many of the environmental blocks in Starbound are randomly coloured. For example you might find green dirt on one planet and brown dirt on another. There are hundreds of different shade of block.

    We have a handful of options when obtaining/placing these blocks and I wondered which you guys think you'd prefer.
    Note, the engine is ALREADY capable of all of these things, so there's no development time involved. It's purely picking which to go with.

    1. Different coloured blocks are stored in different inventory slots. Placing those blocks places them in the colour you found them in. i.e. a green block remains green, even if you place it on a red planet.

    2. Different coloured blocks are combined into a single block for easier storage, placing that single block produces a block in its default colour.

    3. Different coloured blocks are combined into a single block for easier storage, placing that single block produces a block that matches the colour of that block as found on the planet you're on. (if that block isn't present on the planet, it would be the default colour).

    So, discuss!
     
    Gene, Axe Garian, tassina and 16 others like this.
  2. Katzeus

    Katzeus Chucklefisherman Chucklefish

    I'd say option 3, as long as the player retains the ability to change the color using the paint tool. Then everybody gets what they want (aside from those who want to have no inventory space)
     
    Juice Box, Gene, Breather and 25 others like this.
  3. Pentarctagon

    Pentarctagon Over 9000!!!

    1) Needs a poll.

    2) How about option 3, except you could shift+click (or some other combo) to rotate through all the dirt colors you have in that stack?
     
    Solum, nababoo, onerb2 and 16 others like this.
  4. Kraiten

    Kraiten Guest

    Option 3 sounds the best to me. I want blocks to match the world I'm in, but I don't want to go crazy organizing hundreds of different colored dirt blocks.
     
    Gene, DeadlyLuvdisc, Renlou and 3 others like this.
  5. I would say option 3 if they are natural/biological blocks, such as dirt, mud, etc. with the exception of wood-type blocks. For instance, a player may want to build a house made of a type of wood that does not exist in that particular planet.

    Also, why not a poll? :)
     
  6. M0du5

    M0du5 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    I'd also have to go with option 3. 2 and 3 are basically equivalent, but I suspect people are more likely to use the color that matches that planet's variation, making 3 better. There is always the paint tool for people that want to change things up. 1 is awful. TOO much inventory management.
     
    DeadlyLuvdisc and carcrasher65 like this.
  7. Jarlyk

    Jarlyk Astral Cartographer

    I'd also vote for 3, as a reasonable pragmatic compromise. If they were separate piles I would need a large room (or maybe small planet) just for storing the different colors I've accumulated. If they had a Hoarders TV show for game PCs, mine would be on it. :)
     
    DeadlyLuvdisc likes this.
  8. Dagorran

    Dagorran Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    I want to say option 3 for being easy to manage but option 1 would make for some awesome builds...
     
  9. GeorgeV

    GeorgeV Art Director

    Option 3. Everyone vote option 3. :chucklefish:

    Maybe at a later date we could give more control over the color, but as Tiy said these 3 options wouldn't require new code and giving ultimate control over the color would. (via terraforming, mouse scroll wheel or whatever)
    Option 1 produces an inventory issue in that you'll likely have a bajillion stacks of different colors of dirt (and other stuff). Option 2 just means you won't be able to match the blocks to a planet unless that planet happens to have the default color.

    Option 3! The devs have debated this a lot.
     
  10. natelovesyou

    natelovesyou Oxygen Tank

    I think option 3, BUT we can ONLY produce colors of the that dirt or stone or whatever if we've mined it and maybe scanned it or something so that it can be duplicated. Makes it science-y and we can still just get one stack of generic dirt/stone. AND it requires the player to still explore and acquire and discover the color they want!

    For example: you've mined and scanned red dirt, green dirt, and blue dirt, all of which are now consolidated into a single stack of generic brown dirt. But you're now on a planet with light pink dirt - you cannot place light pink dirt down until you mine that dirt color and scan it as well.z

    So I guess mine isn't quite 2 or 3.. Option 4, I like this one more. Best of both worlds, it could be explained that the instrument you use to place the dirt or stone requires knowing the elemental makeup that cause that block to be that color, so you have to find it first.
     
    Baneironhand likes this.
  11. Scruffy

    Scruffy Pangalactic Porcupine

    Option one would be nice but problematic for inventory management while option three solves that problem but less building materials. But, I would say number one as you can always store the blocks into chests.
     
  12. Eventar

    Eventar Void-Bound Voyager

    I am not quite sure if it oly applies to dirt blocks, but also to wood, stone, rare materials?, dungeon etc.

    For that I would like to have something like Katzeus said, a paint tool, but with the limitation, that you can only choose colours you already picked up! With that in mind, I would be for option 3.
     
    Trowzers and Nanofire like this.
  13. Lesterzz

    Lesterzz Tentacle Wrangler

    I think option 1 would be very important and nice for creativity. But it would really add to the game if option 3 was the standard. Option 3 is a pretty solid and neutral option whereas option 1 is a more specific and good-at-what-it-can-do option. Personally I would prefer option 3 if a choice has to be made.

    Edit: In light of GeorgeV mentioning what he mentioned below, option 3 is a solid choice!
     
    Trowzers and DeadlyLuvdisc like this.
  14. Seviron

    Seviron Void-Bound Voyager

    Option #3!

    The reason I see this working best is because:
    1) You won't have a head-ache organizing each coloured dirt block
    2) You won't get unusual looking transitions of block colour

    The one down-side is people could probably create some amazing things with the extended variety of multiple colours!

    Edit: As George said, there's so many tiles already to be creative.. who needs multi-coloured dirt. A clean inventory = win.
     
    DeadlyLuvdisc likes this.
  15. I'm stuck between option 3 and option 1.
    Because, even if there are different planets, you won't necessarily be going back and forth all the time. So, unlike minecraft and terraria, your inventory will not fill up as fast, because there just aren't any of those blocks to be found on the planet you are on. Also, chances are, when you go to a new planet, you'll be dropping your excess items off in your ship/base.

    For now, I'll say 3.
     
    nababoo, Trowzers and AstroBlast like this.
  16. Nanofire

    Nanofire Void-Bound Voyager

    I would agree with option three but still having the ability to paint the dirt whatever color you wanted... then It wouldn't matter that the color changed from green to blue... you can just paint it blue again!
     
    DeadlyLuvdisc likes this.
  17. GeorgeV

    GeorgeV Art Director

    To the people that think option 3 will limit creativity:

    We have a poo-load of tiles in this game. There's always a LOT of options.
    Also we will have a spray paint type of deal that you can do to tiles that'll change them into one of like 10ish colors. (this works somewhat atm, not for all tiles yet)

    As a guy who makes a lot of the mockups for Starbound I've never felt limited by the lack of ability for stuff like dirt to change color on command (to one of it's way too many color variations). I really feel like you'll be more bothered by inventory management than by being able to pick a dirt of a very very specific color. :)
     
    nababoo, Thanel, PlayMp1 and 11 others like this.
  18. Miss Andry

    Miss Andry Cosmic Narwhal

    I've always liked Option 3. We had this thread by Deadlyluvdisc and talked about it a lot there too.

    Then, when you want to change the color of the dirt block, you just use the paint gun.

    OPTION 3 TEAM RULES YEAAAAAAAAH
     
  19. Nanofire

    Nanofire Void-Bound Voyager

    you mean a po-load? :iswydt:
     
  20. Fyreflyte

    Fyreflyte Pangalactic Porcupine

    #3 seems least problematic for now. I'll admit that exploring different parts of the galaxy to obtain new colors would be really fun for creative types though. That could be something for the future, of course: Unique rock patterns and dyes.
     
    DeadlyLuvdisc likes this.
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