Hello everyone!
Last devlog we talked about trains, so let's look at your other option today: Space Belts. You'll likely be using these a lot, so let's take a look at what we're working with.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/
News
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Alpha 20
Not only do you get Devlog 020 today, Patreons also just got access to Alpha 20! This new build includes everything mentioned in this blog, plus a bunch of new features and visuals. Updated content includes train collision avoidance, simulation improvements, map generation improvements, new visuals for a couple of buildings and much more.
Disclaimer
Just a reminder, everything shown in this blog is still in development and is still subject to change. They're not quite placeholders anymore, but the visuals of the Space Belts are not finished yet. Your thoughts and feedback are welcome, as always!
A brief history
Space Belts are an essential tool to transport large quantities of shapes between platforms. Ideal for short distances, they allow you to easily cross a gap or connect a train station to your factory for pickups or deliveries. However, their original design was quite different from what we’re working with now. Let’s walk you through it!
Just build it yourself!
Initially, you were expected to build connections using these platforms manually. You would place platforms and then build belts and launchers on them to create connections. It quickly became obvious that this is very burdensome to do all the time for every connection (as you may expect), so we started working on improvements.
Old build
Space Tunnels
One of the first improvements was the addition of special tunnel platforms. These allowed your connections to transport shapes under other platforms, making connecting across sections much easier. Additionally, their ability to consistently transport large quantities of shapes essentially made them function as Space Belts, but without the flexibility of seamlessly splitting and merging. The tunnels exist as their own form of transport alongside the buildings you know from shapez 1, as well as Shape Launchers.
Old build
Hyperbelts
The first step towards improving space platform connections was Hyperbelts. Despite the fancy name, it was just a tool that allowed you to easily place prebuilt versions of the space platforms with belts & launchers without having to build all of it yourself. It was based on the idea of belt placement in your factory, but very simplified - it didn't support merging or splitting unless you manually made platforms to do so.
Old build
This system is what you saw in the demo and this is – as expected – something we got a lot of feedback on. Technically we could’ve made more prebuilt versions to allow for more complexity, but it would still be clunky and not very pretty. We can do better.
Space Belts
With a ton more feedback under our belt, the Hyperbelt’s flaws became clearer and clearer. Aside from the lack of complexity we already mentioned, it was also just very slow. They moved shapes at the same speed as all other belts in your factory, and when you’re crossing larger distances, it really did take a while before your shapes got anywhere. Essentially, what we needed was a system that had all the functionality of regular belts, but much larger, faster and independent of platforms. So, we made just that.
Enter: Space Belts. They’re huge belts that support up to 12 regular belts across 3 layers, move shapes way faster and retain the flexibility you expect from belts, all without needing platforms to build on! This makes Space Belts your best option to connect platforms over shorter distances. If you need to move something over long distances however, Trains are the better option.
Shapes moving across the Space Belt
When there are Space Belts, you also need Space Pipes. With the recent fluid system rework, it became possible to transport fluids across notches with pipes. This then allowed us to make the prototype of the Space Belt’s younger brother, Space Pipes! These work identical to Space Belts, but move fluids instead of shapes and have a different look to reflect this. Have a look at the concept below.
This may or may not be what it will actually look like
Merging with Tunnels
For close-distance transport, we would now have both Space Tunnels and Space Belts & Pipes. The key difference between the two is that Tunnels can move shapes under a platform, bypassing it without slowing down. However, they can only go straight and have a range of 4 chunks, which is where Space Belts and Pipes come in.
Now, you’ll likely come across a situation where you’d like to place your Space Belt across a platform, without connecting to said platform. That’s where you connect a Space Tunnel to your Space Belt! However, keeping Space Tunnels and Space Belts separate doesn’t make much sense anymore as they work closely together now. So, Space Tunnels now have a brand new visual that matches that of the Space Belts, they’re both part of the Space Belts category in the UI and Tunnels can now be integrated into the smart-placement tool.
What’s next?
Space Belts are already in a really good state, but there are some improvements yet to be made. As we just mentioned, the Space Tunnels still need to be integrated into the placement behaviour of Space Belts. That’s to say, Tunnels should automatically be placed when you drag a Space Belt across a platform.
We are already considering other ways of improving them even more, however: a topic that has come up internally is that merging or splitting across different factory lanes and layers in space is too troublesome for too small of a result. To make this easier, we are evaluating Merge/Split Balancers. These special space platforms would have one side that can receive up to 12 belts and another 36 split across 3 other sides. The Merger takes up to 36 input lanes and distributes contents evenly across up to 12, while the Splitter takes up to 12 input lanes and distributes the contents evenly across up to 36.
Well, that's everything for now. The bottom line is that Space Belts should act similar to regular belts, but a lot bigger. Anyway, progress is going very well and we have plenty more to show, so we hope to see you again for the next devlog.
~ Tobias & the shapez 2 team