How to place just a Top Piston Part?

[EmberStar]

On some of the ships you can buy from the NPC stores, there is a Top Piston Part placed as a decorative item. I can't figure out how to duplicate that effect though, since there doesn't seem to be a way to place just the Piston Part as a separate block.

Am I missing something and there is a way to place just the part? Or is there some other trick involved? It's a neat idea for covering empty conveyor ports, so I'd like to make use of it if I can.

[Karmaterrorᵁᴷ]

Random guess (creative only) make a piston, detach the head, copy piston head part, paste onto grid. Not sure though never tried it :)

[Blacky Watchy]

It was before a normal block but now You only can do It by that metothe

[EmberStar]

I tried this. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but the piston part won't paste using Ctrl-V. I move into position, place it how I want and make sure I'm clear of the block (hitbox turns green.) As soon as I hit Ctrl-V, the piston part rotates in a random direction and doesn't paste.

I guess this is currently an unusable detail. Until / unless they restore the Piston Part as a separate block.

[ShadedMJ]

At first I thought you meant a rotor top, and was going to correct you.

So yeah, the piston top is not a selectable part. Maybe in the future it will be like a rotor. Once the top is taken off the piston, might as well remove the piston.

The ugly way to place a piston top is to place a piston, build stuff there, then remove the piston body.

[EmberStar]

Unfortunately that won't work for what I'm doing, because I wanted to use the piston tops as caps to cover the empty conveyor ports on hydrogen tanks. There's at least three ports to cover on two separate tanks, currently already attached to the ship. I'd have to spend hours doing something weird with copy - paste and merge blocks to even attempt to get the covers on.

It's not really worth that kind of effort right now. Not for a minor detail that basically no one is likely to even notice if I shared the ship. :( It's just a little annoying because it clearly *was* something you could do at some point. Since the ships you buy from NPC stations use Piston Parts extensively for exactly that purpose. (To cap off unused conveyor ports on hydrogen tanks.)

[Dan2D3D]

Have you teid the available ones on the Workshop?

Some have already shared the Bp, Workshop search =

https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse/?appid=244850&searchtext=piston+head&childpublishedfileid=0&browsesort=textsearch&section=items&admin_view=1&requiredtags%5B%5D=Blueprint

[Dan2D3D]

Oh! Sorry, those are hidden items that only me can see.

I will go in-game to share one with you, bbl...

[EmberStar]

Originally posted by Dan2D3D:

Have you teid the available ones on the Workshop?

Some have already shared the Bp, Workshop search =

https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse/?appid=244850&searchtext=piston+head&childpublishedfileid=0&browsesort=textsearch&section=items&admin_view=1&requiredtags%5B%5D=Blueprint

Not really sure what those are supposed to be for. None of them looks like they'll help, because the Piston Top Part is not currently treated as a valid block that can be placed without a piston. I can already place a piston, grind away the main body to just get the part. But then I can't *DO* anything with it, because it's impossible to paste it onto the ship.

I don't want to use mods. DLC yes, because it's in the game and the ship will function now even if someone doesn't have the DLC. They just can't repair the blocks. And the search results you linked seem to be mostly "Weird things made with pistons" or actual mods.

[Dan2D3D]

Indeed, it is very easy to Blueprint the piston head

+ we can place on one side only

+ can't use its converyor port but use the head as "Deco".
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1971293661

[EmberStar]

Originally posted by Dan2D3D:

Indeed, it is very easy to Blueprint the piston head

+ we can place on one side only

+ can't use its converyor port but use the head as "Deco".
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1971293661

That's exactly how I was placing it. And as soon as I hit Ctrl-V, it rotates 90 degrees in a random direction and fails to paste. At least it does with the large grid version when trying to attach it to the sides of a hydrogen tank.

[Burstar]

Place a piston.
Place an armour block on the piston head
Grind away the piston base

At this point you can BP the block + head or you can grind the armour block away and BP the head only BUT you need to be aiming at the front side of the head that binds to the armour block. The back and sides are invalid and will confuse the game.

If it's still misbehaving project the BP via projector to force the issue.

[Dan2D3D]

I'll say; "Work harder, Engineer!"

Well I was able to do this and it was very easy tho I had to position my character properly so the box goes green.

May use the "B" key to Lock/Unlock from bounding box, may help you.

[FvJ]

I had this problem too, but in Survival Mode and solved it with the help of other players. You have all the details in tis topic : https://steamcommunity.com/app/244850/discussions/8/1642052612850693100/ Good luck!

[EmberStar]

Okay, the issue was that I was apparently targeting the back (blank) side of the Piston Top and not the conveyor port side.

Steps that worked (In Creative Mode):

Place piston

Grind body of piston by hand, leaving just the head

Move so that the conveyor port on head is facing the player (yellow side out)

Ctrl-C to copy the piston top to the clipboard.

Ctrl-V to create a copy to place

Line it up on the target so that the yellow ports are facing each other.
(Make sure there are no blocks of any kind touching the sides of the head. It will refuse to place next to even "transparent" blocks like half blocks and blast doors. Apparently.)

Left click to place the Piston Top.

[Dan2D3D]

There is always a solution to find in this game, well done Engineer!

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