Hello everyone!
For today’s blog post I’m going to show you work in progress on the blueprint system that we have started working on a while ago. Please be aware that we’re overall pretty early in the development process, so everything you see is almost certainly not in its final form.
Basic copy and paste (WIP)
Those of you who have been using the Duplicationer mod before will see some similarities here. That is because Erkle, who has made it and countless other mods, has been working on our team for over two years. And now he’s doing the development on the real blueprint feature. Our official blueprints will not be exactly like the mod, but given how well received it is (5 stars, with over eleven thousand subscribers), it is a great starting point.
Rotation of blueprints (WIP)
There is not a lot to explain about blueprints in general: The idea is to save you time and effort, by giving you the ability to copy and paste existing groups of machines. The interesting parts are more in the details about how it works. In the videos we’re sharing you can already see a bunch of “how it works”, but for today I don’t plan to go too deep into the details, because many things aren’t fully decided and a bunch of features you see here are just the first iteration we’re trying.
Copy and paste of workstations with robots (WIP)
We plan to pretty much support every object for blueprints, although we haven’t fully decided on modular building yet, as those cannot just be placed in the world.
Also works with trains! (WIP)
Gamify or not gamify?
In all the previous videos placing the blueprint just instantly placed the buildings (given you had the necessary items in your inventory). That could be the final version, but it might not be. The main question for us to figure out at this point is if we “gamify” the feature or not. What that means is if we should make it into actual gameplay, compared to just being a usability tool.
How could that look? One version could be that the blueprint only places ghosts, and either your construction industry ships, or the personal mining drones (might need a name change) would then build them for you. This has its upsides and downsides, but ultimately it would make the feature feel more like a ‘game’.
If you have some thoughts on what you prefer, let us know in the comments. We’ll keep you up to date with our plans, as the feature develops.
Before we conclude today’s episode, here is one more video showcasing advanced features:
Advanced copy with extra elements outside the “main box” (WIP)
Thank you for reading and see you in two weeks,
-mrmcd
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