Light-weight blocks

[Indigo]

The various armor blocks are great and come in all sorts of useful shapes for building some really impressive looking vehicles.

I'd love to see Lightweight versions of these same blocks, perhaps constructed from Aluminum and Carbon.

Why? Hover and flying vehicles could be constructed with more elaborate designs and actually function more properly. We construct aircraft of lightweight, high-tensile aluminum, not steel, for this very reason.

Of course, lightweight blocks should be less durable, so when we get to the point of damaging vehicles, there would be some obvious advantages and disadvantages here.

[JAAHAS]

A good start would be to re-evaluate the mass of each passive block that weights more than its volume in 1x1x1x steel blocks, otherwise using them in mobile bases tend to require adding far too many extra airblades to counter the weight penalty.

[_Pax_]

Another good step would be to give unfinished, frame-only blocks HALF as much weight as their final versions. So if you just want an unprotected, lightweight "strut" or spar ... don't finish the plating, just leave it an exposed frame. (And they already do have fewer HitPoints, so ...)

[Menzagitat]

if animals will destroy our vehicles and reduce them to girder state, I wonder if we would like the vehicle to become easier and having funny jumping behavior.
But the weight would be nice to be configurable in some xml file...

[Vrmithrax]

This thread parallels a few suggestions we've had bouncing around for a while. I wholeheartedly agree that blocks should have 2 weights (frame only and fully plated) so that we can shave some weight when we just want some basic scaffolding or placeholders in our flyers.

I also agree that we should have the option to make aluminum versions of blocks to save some serious weight - at the cost of block durability, once the planned block damage is introduced into the game. Always good to have alternatives with pros & cons. The tricky part is how to introduce different material blocks into the game without block bloat (I personally love that there isn't 40 bajillion blocks that I have to sort through when populating the hotbars to create my build palette).

And, I'll just throw this other previous suggestion into the mix here: floating blocks. The idea was that we should have small floating blocks available early (basically just a frame and fabric maybe?) that would fit the need for very lightweight blocks PLUS give us the ability to make small floating vehicles if we desire.

[Indigo]

This thread parallels a few suggestions we've had bouncing around for a while. I wholeheartedly agree that blocks should have 2 weights (frame only and fully plated) so that we can shave some weight when we just want some basic scaffolding or placeholders in our flyers.

I also agree that we should have the option to make aluminum versions of blocks to save some serious weight - at the cost of block durability, once the planned block damage is introduced into the game. Always good to have alternatives with pros & cons. The tricky part is how to introduce different material blocks into the game without block bloat (I personally love that there isn't 40 bajillion blocks that I have to sort through when populating the hotbars to create my build palette).

And, I'll just throw this other previous suggestion into the mix here: floating blocks. The idea was that we should have small floating blocks available early (basically just a frame and fabric maybe?) that would fit the need for very lightweight blocks PLUS give us the ability to make small floating vehicles if we desire.

I think there is a floating block already, though if I'm not mistaken, it's incredibly heavy. I do agree though - small floating blocks would be great.

[Vrmithrax]

Yes, the floating foundation is huge and takes more advanced frames. The idea with a small flotation block was more for those situations where you are on a world with lots of water - I've had more than a few seeds where I spawned on a small island and it was nearly impossible to make the trip to find the higher tier materials to actually build hoverpads or fan blades to actually get over the water. It used to be easier, until they severely nerfed the wheel traction underwater you could just drive under the sea to other land masses to find the materials you needed.

But, it has other benefits beyond just that early situation and the benefit of just having lighter blocks to use in general - like making a solar flyer that you can set down on land or water to recharge. It's a block to encourage flexibility and giving us different approaches to solving some basic problems.