Replicator and other mid-end game ideas

Not sure how overpowered a 3D printer would be. In my example, it could only produce wood items, nothing else. So you could make wood chairs, tables, 2-by-4s for building, desks, toy soldiers, rocking horses, etc., but no armor really, and weapons would be limited to baseball bats, bokkens, and primitive bows (I'd argue not even longbows, which would require more craftsmanship). No metal, no electronics, no plastic, moving parts up to a point but no firearms.

I suppose you could then fashion a "3D Resin Printer" or "3D Plastic Printer," which could produce plastic-type items, including a very flimsy but workable gun like the modern Liberator, but A: the plastic printer would be more costly to create than the wood one, and B: it would require a constant input of Plastic or Resin or some building material considerably more difficult to acquire than Wood. But even that might not be overpowered as such, because, again, no metal, no electronics. And of course, the Plastic machine couldn't produce Wood, and the Wood machine couldn't produce Plastic. And then the 3D-printed gun would be very low end, low damage. Kinda like the starting pistol in Wolfenstein. If you're unarmed, print up a crappy gun or a basic bow and arrow, and it's better than nothing.

 

True. I was more thinking in terms of crafting components to build larger, more notable items, but that's just me. Since it is futuristic, I think a plastic printer might make more sense (but definitely making more flimsy things as you said) and add a lot of flexibility. Maybe a useful tool for quickly creating necessities, like shelters, but not so helpful when facing marauding alien plantlife and th like? Oh, and obviously it will need to be put to use for making a fenced off area for pets to play in. Because, cc'mon, my furballs (or scaled critters, or whatever) will need some outdoor time!

 

Pixels are actually 3D-printer fuel, so a money conversion might make sense

 

Heh. So it appears! Welp, that idea is away, then! Although 3D printer seems like it would only make plastic items or something and not food...

 

irl, 3D printers work only with plastic, but it could be possible to use other materials if the tech advances far enough (and in Starbound, it has)
edit: from yesterdays Devlog:

We’re also working on the 3D printing interface, which is very similar to the crafting interface but you’re also able to “scan in” items to reverse engineer them. Almost any object you find in the world can be scanned/reverse engineered to allow you to print it using ‘pixels’. However, anything you make with a 3D printer will be marked as “printed” and will have a much lower value. If you want authentic gear you’ll have to find it.

 

Still leaves the piles of items you get. Oh well, there's always vendors.

 

and lava pits (assuming that items will burn up in lava)

 

But why waste perfectly good money? Unless those are items taken off enemy players, ofc.

 

In minecraft i usually end up with loads of useless junk like dirt. lava solves that problem

 

The replicator shouldn't need money to run, unless we pay for the electricity in some way!
It's just there to mass produce items you have recipes for already. Load it with base materials, select what and how many and boom!

 

Now their is a printer that makes low end copies of items in the game.

But a full replicator would be op i think, star trek tech was always op

 

Ooh, just read the latest game updates. I feel so... involved. Nyah.

 

This is a very good idea.

You mean like using the paint tool to write on the walls? If a typical room is eight blocks high (twice the height of the character), and chests are two blocks high, that gives you six blocks of height to use for painting some sort of label on the wall. Alternatively, there could be furniture decorations that hint at the purpose of the room, like a rack of swords for where you store melee weapons.

Also, they already have a universal replicator in the game and it isn't even late-game technology, as El Barto 277 pointed out. However, you'll still need to have obtained the item and/or recipe in the first place, and it costs pixels.

It makes sense to use currency for the replicator because in a world where you can create anything out of one basic material, it is only natural that the universal currency would become that same material. Think about it: You can buy anything with money, and you can print anything with pixels. It's basically the same thing.

They work with iron, too, but it isn't common.

 

Huh, didn't know that. sounds useful

 

Not really. From what I read, it doesn't result in a very durable product. It's not like actually shaping the iron because it's still just melting dust with a laser in the same manor as one that uses plastic. I wonder what other materials they've tried to use.

 

For reference, since the bot didn't post the link here, the direct link to vote (or downvote) this suggestion is http://playstarbound.com/suggestions/?p=view&id=5537

I like those ideas.

I would like to suggest one more item, though: a single block replicator that takes an absurd amount of said block to make, something like 10K blocks (i.e., equivalent to a solid 100x100 mass of the material, which is likely more than it would take to make a large village out of that material). It should be able to create as many blocks identical to the ones used in making it as needed, as well as absorb surplus blocks from the inventory. Meant mainly as a convenience thing for players that have already gotten enough of that kind of material that dealing with it's logistics is not engaging anymore.

It could also be crafted by turning a single-item "infinite" chest into it when full. Or it could be a kind of teleport receiver, allowing the ship to beam blocks from an infinite chest located in the ship on demand.

Shapeways prints in plastic, alumide (plastic infused with aluminum dust, actually weaker than pure plastic but looks metallic and support higher temperatures), steel (actually printed as a mix of steel powder and glue, then infused with Bronze, assuming the properties of regular steel while keeping it's printed shape), silver (actually printed in wax, which is used to make a high quality lost-wax single cast mold, which is then used to make the silver piece), brass (same process as silver, but can also be gold plated), bronze (also same process as silver), colored sandstone (i.e., you can send a full color 3D model to be printed), and ceramic (which is then fired and glazed; the end result is even food safe). And that is just one provider of professional 3D printing.

 

Totally apporve! A simple idea that will improve the game this much much more!

 

I like the rest of the ideas, but the replicator is questionable.
The reason is because people could spam dirt/ some other useless material, all across a planet.
It would also take away from the point of your mass storage container idea. There would be no point in collecting a lot of a block if it can just easily be replicated in a couple seconds. I just don't like how OP this sounds unique idea, but that replicator needs balancing.
IDEA!
Yknow how dirt can be a pain in the arse.
What if you can "scrap" the dirt into pure energy and atoms, then re-synthesize the dirt into rock or iron, etc for alot of that item.
If anyone has played with collectors in Technic/Tekkit in MC you would see what I am talking about.