Hello, Starbounders! Today I propose a solution to some of the coding challenges that came up while attempting to write a modification for a new tool in the game, a vastly more advanced and powerful laser mining tool. To start off I'll go over the basic principles of what the mod set out to do, and what happened as a result will come after, followed by my proposition to the devs for a (hopefully) small rewrite of the source code. If anyone has found any solutions to by problems, please, share them with me, as I have yet to discover any way around them without truncating the source code (something I do not wish to do for multiple reasons, the first being future compatibility and second being invested time, etc.) So, here's my mod idea: Modified Mining Laser A tool that clears (totally removes, not able to pick up afterwards) blocks it fires upon in a 4x4 grid, upon surface contact. The tool would require a charging time before hand, so as not to be fired all willy-nilly, consume energy at a rather high rate, and use durability, causing its use to be expensive, and rather end-gameish. A tool like this would be very useful for editing terrain and making bases. Now that you know what we set out to do, here's what we discovered: the .miningtool file type is limited in a few things for this mod. 1) It can't consume energy 2) It can't destroy blocks, only displace them to be obtained. 3) It has a fixed range, not one set on your eventual desired position based on cursor placement. Seeing this, I decided to try using a .gun file type instead, seeing as guns can fire explosives, leading to a closer result of what I was after. Here's what we discovered about THAT: The .gun extension cannot do the following: 1) use large image icons in the case of a unique item (instead, it enlarges the icon for the tooltip) 2) use Durability (I found this odd, considering the fact that you could make new weapons that, while overly powerful, have limited uses before having to be expensively restocked and/or entirely replaced) 3) have a parameter superseding the fixed energy cost formula 4) completely obliterate blocks instead of displacing them (by extension, this applies to the projectiles, explicitly the explosive ones) So I propose that all tools and weapons be reworked into a new, singular file type, that covers all aspects of tool/weapon use and therefore expand the use of BOTH said items, as well as any other future items, and failing that, to instead implement the missing (and in my mod's case, vital) parameters from the mining tool into all weapon categories. I currently do not have a link to the mod, but I do have an image I will share with you of what the mining laser looks like. Thank you for your time.
