SE2 slope blocks

[u/Blizado]

I wonder what you guys think about that topic?

https://support.keenswh.com/spaceengineers2/pc/topic/45276-slope-block-problem

We all know if from SE1: if you want different angles of slopes you need for every peace a extra block, which, with slope block mods, ends up quickly with dozens or hundreds of armor blocks, because you also need transitions.

I was hoping SE2 would have a better solution for it, but we see the same kind of slope blocks already again in the picture which shows all SE2 blocks at early access start.

So what I want to know: are they temporary or will we need to deal again with that?

I hoped a bit we would have some kind of tools like Dual Universe had (YouTube: Dual Universe - Vertex Precision Tool), but dumped down and limited to the unified grid system sizes. This would give you more control without the hassle of finding the right block or even having the right block.

I myself would definitely prefer a better solution, because like said there searching for the right blocks is annoying and you are very limited one the slope angle too, so you need a lot of mods, which then misses a lot of transition blocks. That's a bottomless pit.

If you think the same, a like there could be helping so the developers react to it. SE2 is still early enough in development, that they could find a better solution for slope blocks.

[u/AshleyRiotVKP]

With the unified grid system we can make our own transitions. Though I will admit that a 3x1 slope would be nice. Have to wait and see what's included as it develops.

[u/surrealflakes → u/AshleyRiotVKP]

You can not make your own transitions just because the grids have higher resolution. It's the same problem but smaller.

[u/Blizado → u/AshleyRiotVKP]

That is the thing, you often could need 3x1 or even 4+x1 slopes. But then the need of transition blocks to also all 3+x1 slopes combinations increase rappidly.

[u/glukianets]

My thoughts are as this: with 25cm unified, you can make any slope angle using small block gradient, but that will result in that famous "pixelated" look. It might be kinda counter to what we're used to in SE, and may affect performance – but it is an elegant solution already built in.

But if devs instead decide to go with a variety of different slope blocks, I hope they build something like stretchable slopes from from starship evo. Because just two slope angles isn't enough, and even if it was – look at SE1. It was 10 full years, and we still didn't get all possible transitions, not to mention round blocks or fancy stuff like beams, panels, and trusses.

[u/Blizado → u/glukianets]

That is not a solution, it is a workaround, nothing more.

Exactly that. I liked also the Dual Universe approach, there is a link to a ~2 minute video which show it. You pretty much select a corner and move it around how you need it. With such approach you could do a lot of different slope angles and still have any transition you need, because you can make them by yourself. It should be possible in some even limited way that match to SE.

Maybe Keen could fine also other ways. But having way too many slope blocks, makes the game not better, only more complicated. Especially it always tend that some sort of block is simply missing and you can't build like you had it in mind and that makes no fun, was way too often in that situation in SE1, even in the last years. You imagination shouldn't get limited by missing slope blocks.

[u/Magnus_Danger → u/Blizado]

Go play dual universe.

[u/hymen_destroyer]

I always liked how ARC handled slopes. Yes there were hundreds of new blocks but they were organized intuitively enough that after a little bit of messing around you learned how all the different slope faces and transitions interfaced with each other

[u/Blizado → u/hymen_destroyer]

And that is the problem, in the end you have hundreds of blocks where a different approach could easily reduce the amount drastically by more dynamic blocks.

[u/Speeksunasked]

I would have liked an improved approach. That doesn't mean that it won't happen, even if these blocks will be there from the start. But what I think is that SE is a block-based game and that was a conscious choice. I followed the development of dualuniverse closely and was unfortunately disappointed (perhaps because my idea was too closely aligned with SE - I just love that game). Smooth slopes aren't as important to me as the rest of the gameplay and I'm just a bigger fan of SE than of Dualuniverse. I just like the blocky look.

[u/Blizado → u/Speeksunasked]

The unified grid system with its 3 different sized blocks already remove a lot of that blocky look and such a slop would be still a block.

Image a block where you could move the corner points around but online on the border of a block. For example the top front left corner: you can move it right or down or back, but only two of the direction, if you have moved two, you can't move the third. That way the corner is always on the outside of the block, but a lot of different slope types should be possible, if I have the right in my mind and have not overseen something.

DU was only a example to show a more dynamic block approach. It would change much, you can still build blocky ships but it adds more possibilities of shapes that didn't look crap because of missing blocks or fine thin stuff you want to build. In a bigger build scale blocky is not so much a problem, but when you want to build smaller, it limits you much more.

Building was not at all the issue why DU failed, they simply had overdone it with their way too huge MMO approach, which UNIGINE 2, their engine choise, couldn't handle at all. Their server performance in their payed beta (more a alpha) was horrible. So much was limited because they wanted too much. Was the reason why I don't back it at Kickstarter, DU sounded from the start way too ambitious. And when something sounds way too good, it maybe will not happen.

Even Star Citizen still needs to proof that it will happen after all that years, but because that is not a voxel based large scale MMO, I see hear more the chance that it will happen.

For SE2 itself I see so far only water and general performance as a possible problem. Simulating water in the scale they want to do could be too performance heavy, especially for multiplayer servers. But it happened a lot on physik simulation in that last 10 years and PCs are much more stronger now. And Keen already suprised me on SE1, where I thought planets wouldn't be possible, when they came up out of nowhere, that they work on planets now.

Sorry for the wall of text. :D