Can projector keep building an existing static grid?

[Husky306]

Is it possible to automate tunnel building? As separate blocks of choice added at the right place when there's room, connecting them to the main structure? Or as a preset shape of a segment that would connect to it? If so, should the projector be on the built structure or can it be a part of welder machine?

There are tons and tons of examples of building ships but never a base building. Like floor, walls etc.

[Burstar]

Yes you can do this. You could make a tunnel blueprint 1k blocks long. This would be the easiest way because it would be 1 projector placed once projecting a long tunnel that you can make as long as you want (up to 1k or whatever the length of the BP is).

If you want to make an infinite BP tunneling concept you can do this too. The technique is basically similar to any 'auto building space elevator' method. You use a small repeatable segment BP. Have the projector on a piston for crawling along and use merge blocks to walk the thing down the propagating tunnel.

[Husky306]

Originally posted by Burstar♿:

...

Hmm. I'd have to make a separated tunnel first, right? I can't make a BP of a part of a larger grid, can I? Can the segments be one, without dividing the tunnel into 1000s? Meaning, is it possible to make a snap to existing grid? It would make possible to place projector on a truck and move it, not rebuild it.

[Burstar]

That's the point of the merge block. Merging the projector to the tunnel in progress snaps the projection to the tunnel otherwise you'd be making 1000 different segments and that's not what I'm suggesting at all.

Just google it. There are many examples out there.

[Husky306]

Originally posted by Burstar♿:

...

It works! It does connect grids. Thanks! =D

As for Google, it's full of ship building via projector tutorials, and not one that I found was about base building.

The dream of a lazy engineer came true. Now I can slack all day watching the tunnel gnawing through the mountain, sipping cold beer. ^__^ It was a hell - going 16 blocks and building again, to have a base for wheels. Now it's 1 button.

[fabricator77]

You can include existing blocks into a projected blueprint, as long as you line them up and attach them to the same grid as the projector. I use this trick to put existing fully charged batteries and Jump Drives into new ships.

Point is projectors count existing blocks of the correct type as already welded up ones, so you can overlap sections if you wish.

[Husky306]

Originally posted by fabricator77:

You can include existing blocks into a projected blueprint, as long as you line them up and attach them to the same grid as the projector. I use this trick to put existing fully charged batteries and Jump Drives into new ships.

Point is projectors count existing blocks of the correct type as already welded up ones, so you can overlap sections if you wish.

You can blueprint a full battery and then project and weld a fully charged instead of half-empty?! XD That would be a sweet bug-abuse =D

[Buzzard]

Projection-building a battery is the same as building it normally. Creative-mode pasting blueprints would allow for placing of full-charge batteries.
Basically, he's using the 'creative tools' from the Alt-F10 menu to make things happen this way.

[fabricator77]

No I meany physically an actual battery, say from you're last failed ship build, into the projector field. Then built the ship around it.

[Buzzard]

Ahh, rebuild from the remains of the last one. Is also the basis of the 'repair projector' concept. Check the box to 'keep blueprint' after the build is complete, finish the build, then keep the projector in the grid as a fast means of rebuilding parts that got ...lost, somehow.

There's been more than just a couple times where the repair projector has made my life so much easier. Turn on the repair system, fly through the shipyard nice and slow, emerge with a fully intact craft.

[Burstar]

Along similar lines, you can blueprint distinctly designed sections of ships, and piece them together to make a fleet of different ships that all share similar design concepts. Think Star Trek's starfleet where all the ships are different but have similar saucer, nacelles, etc...

[Husky306]

To not start a new topic, is there a limit to blocks per grid? I turned limits off but the info panel says I've got a base of like 20k blocks of 65536. Is that how much one grid can take? I'll need to make segments of about 50k to not overload it?

Because my tunnel will take about 2-3k blocks and each block-step is minimum 13 wide and 13 tall. 156k blocks the tunnel alone, not counting base and other structures. So... I'll have to make separate segments with their own source of power to keep lit and functional?

It's a shame there's no more U on Earth-like. Have to go to space and bring it down to base. Well, in the other hand, that makes it a bit more interesting. =D

[Burstar]

The info page has a shape limit that you can't avoid. The game engine itself has a hard block limit that isn't displayed. When you get close to it the games physics go out the window. Walls of blocks become un-interactable etc. Depending on the grid you can get to this limit before the shape one (ie a gianormous cube would have like 6 shapes even if it is a bazillion blocks big or whatever).

On top of that, there's a distance limit. I recall people citing 16km regardless of block or shape count.

Save yourself the hassle and don't try to go huge. You'll just end up wasting your time.

[Husky306]

Originally posted by Burstar♿:

...

You mean the block limit for the whole world? Or one grid? Or within the set visible radius (default 15 km)? Can I have over 65k blocks on each planet?

I may be spoiled by Minecraft where blocks are only limited by visible range and your HDD space. ^__^

[Burstar]

It's per grid iirc. It seems like minecraft but the dynamic grids means the hardware pressure is much greater so you won't get the detail you could in MC.

[Husky306]

Originally posted by Burstar♿:

...

Still, I'll try and make segmented base. Or at least finish this tunnel. It's like a big aim now. I wanna see the light on the other end. =) I suppose, the usual rule applies. If it's possible - someone already made it. If there's no big cities in SE, it means it's not possible even on NASA PCs. But gosh what words could we build! It's nice to dream big once in a while.