Caution: Shipbuilder can remove some decorations

[chipartist]

After editing decorations in one of my ship's Habs, I made a very small paint change on some Structural modules. I discovered that the process of using the Shipbuilder deleted some of the items I had placed in a particular Hab.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3279684408
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3279684684
The Hab module affected is the Nova Galactic Mess Hall 3x2 (Empty). I reloaded an earlier save, redid the paint, and it happened again, so it's repeatable. I realized I had seen this before with another ship, same Hab module, but wrote it off as a one-time glitch. In both cases, the items deleted were located in the forward part of the Hab module -- about 1/4 of the length (the 2-unit dimension) was affected. As far as I could tell, no other decorations in either ship were affected.

I don't know if other Hab types are also affected, or whether other Shipbuilder operations besides Paint can cause this, but it'd be wise to be cautious about making Shipbuilder edits after doing interior decorations.

[HeyYou]

Should post this where beth will actually see it, and possibly fix it.

[chipartist]

Originally posted by HeyYou:

Should post this where beth will actually see it, and possibly fix it.

Done.

[HeyYou]

Originally posted by chipartist:

Originally posted by HeyYou:

Should post this where beth will actually see it, and possibly fix it.

Done.

Good deal. :D

[chipartist]

Addendum: Further work on yet another ship shows that 1) the problem is not restricted to the single Hab module I mentioned above, and 2) Shipbuilder actions like moving decorated habs around can (and likely will) definitely cause at least partial loss of decorations. The second is not hard to understand given that re-connection of habs may result in different doorway/hatch and ladder placements. It can also result in some placed decorations being "frozen" in sometimes awkward places, like hanging over a ladder portal, unable to be moved or removed by any means. Always save before doing such work on decorated modules, so if something crops up that can't be fixed, you can at least reload the "clean" save.

[Unchangeling]

all I can think is that decorations that are "near" a door that gets added or deleted will get sent to inventory (this happens with base building too)

not sure if it's something to do with that, maybe repainting the module recreates the doors and/or vertical hatchways

edit: you can see from the pattern of vanished objects it's probably to do with that hatchway

[chipartist]

Originally posted by Unchangeling:

all I can think is that decorations that are "near" a door that gets added or deleted will get sent to inventory (this happens with base building too)

not sure if it's something to do with that, maybe repainting the module recreates the doors and/or vertical hatchways

edit: you can see from the pattern of vanished objects it's probably to do with that hatchway

But then why not all the other hatchways? And the painting was all done on un-connected structurals, not the hab itself. The ship I first noticed the problem in had two connected empty Mess Hall 3x2s, but the decorations vanished in only the forward part of one of them, also the farthest forward in the ship design, where there was no hatchway, just some portholes. The rest of the ship was fully decorated but noting else was affected. If there were consistencies it might be sensible, but I cannot see any.

[-WIN-]

Originally posted by Unchangeling:

all I can think is that decorations that are "near" a door that gets added or deleted will get sent to inventory (this happens with base building too)

not sure if it's something to do with that, maybe repainting the module recreates the doors and/or vertical hatchways

edit: you can see from the pattern of vanished objects it's probably to do with that hatchway

I agree. I noticed items against a certain wall will get deleted. I run a ship with Hope Tech Habs (Love the curved dark lit Submarine Naval aesthetic...) - The Mess Hall Aft/Mid/Entrance = Back Middle will erase all items after you change any random gun/structure/hab/equipment... Please FIX.

[Unchangeling]

Originally posted by chipartist:

But then why not all the other hatchways? And the painting was all done on un-connected structurals, not the hab itself. The ship I first noticed the problem in had two connected empty Mess Hall 3x2s, but the decorations vanished in only the forward part of one of them, also the farthest forward in the ship design, where there was no hatchway, just some portholes. The rest of the ship was fully decorated but noting else was affected. If there were consistencies it might be sensible, but I cannot see any.

cannot answer any of that, but you can practically SEE the rectangle around the hatchway that it's used to remove objects. maybe something about that hab type in particular?

[chipartist]

Originally posted by Unchangeling:

cannot answer any of that, but you can practically SEE the rectangle around the hatchway that it's used to remove objects. maybe something about that hab type in particular?

I do see the "rectangle" area that seems to be affected, but that is specific to the pictured situation. In the other ship with the same hab (two of them, in fact), the deletion was across the entire front part of only one hab and not adjacent to or even near any hatches. Just not enough consistency to pin it down, other than it seems certain to happen to one degree or another, hence the cautionary OP.

[Geldric™]

Originally posted by chipartist:

After editing decorations in one of my ship's Habs, I made a very small paint change on some Structural modules. ....

To clarify, I've been using the bug you describe since like day one... I realize we could not decorate (add items) back then.

Example: I just captured a new ship and before I sell it I would go into build mode, select all and change just one color, save and exit. This would automatically remove all the good & junk loose items from the ship and place them into the Cargo hold.

While I'm leveling I just place one small tardis (storage box) in the cockpit since I do not change those. I will swap out habs a lot to suit my leveling needs (workbench vs passengers). I will often change the entire color scheme of my ship and so far this has never removed my cockpit storage chests.

I can see how this is indeed an oversight of this new ship "decorate" feature and thanks for submitting the bug report

[chipartist]

A related issue with ship decorations: Just using the ship (e.g., launching, fighting in orbit, landing, etc.) can trash the placement of "loose" objects, meaning those subject to physics (non-static). For example, an entire long table full of tools in my custom Workshop ended up scattered throughout the ship (and it is a BIG ship!), as well as a great deal of food/aid items I had placed on counters in my custom galley. Carefully placed Blackjack hands were scattered as if a stiff wind had swept through the ship. This may seem a natural consequence if not that similar items remained unmoved, and those items that come pre-placed in furnished Hab modules only get knocked around by player and NPC activity.

It is possible to make non-static items static by using the Decoration mode to select and place them, but the options for placing these converted items are severely limited, as they cannot be placed too near one another. which makes detailed and natural-looking arrangements (such as a bowl of fruit) impossible.

Ship decoration needs some serious TLC to make it worth the time it takes to do it right.

[Alyx]

Is this happening with the new, built-in (scanner) build mode? If not, then it's simply an 'issue' as old as the game itself.

[chipartist]

Originally posted by Alyx:

Is this happening with the new, built-in (scanner) build mode? If not, then it's simply an 'issue' as old as the game itself.

I open the scanner and press R to decorate in ships, just as in outposts. TBH I have not used the Decorations panel but once, as it seems to produce the same mode and is less convenient.

Yes, stuff creating messes in ships is a day-one issue, but the difference is that no one spent hours placing those trashed items, so it's a lot less of an annoyance. Plus what I have seen with decorations is a lot more extreme than the stock furnishings can suffer. Things don't just fall off shelves, they get blasted throughout the ship. I found tools from my workshop in five different habs, only two of which were directly connected to the workshop hab. If decorations are to be a viable part of shipbuilding and "immersion," it would be good if playing the game does not trash a player's efforts.

It seems to me the options are to fix whatever causes the non-statics to be displaced, or make those converted to static easier to place naturally. Once converted, none of the usually non-static items I placed ever moved, though they can occasionally sink into surfaces.

[Unchangeling]

I didn't experiment much but I verified that when you paint parts of a ship, the internal hatches for modules close even if they're not near to the painted part, which I still think is related - but it didn't clean up any objects I placed near to them (just using 2x1 habs and 1x1 corridors), so I think it's specific to certain habs.

also I don't use the Decorate panel because nearly 100% of the time I forget it's there.

[Unchangeling]

(while we're discussing this they should improve ship painting also, it's kinda awkward)