Way to rotate ship in editor?

[Dahak]

So.... I may have somehow managed to build an entire ship facing backwards...

Is there any way to rotate the ship at all? Like editing the save file or something? I really don't want to spend another 4 hours re-building the whole thing facing the other way!

[Mojack]

sadly there is not.
I made that fun mistake once.
Learning the hard way.
That backward Blueprint is for the trash can.
sorry.

[Mojack]

Well,
I just tought of a possibility.
If you place just the cockpit in the right direction, and leave everything else like it is,
you will fly forwards.
It does not matter, which direction your engines/thrusters are facing.
They will always provide forward thrust, even if facing forward or sideways.
Same with thursters. Does not matter were you put them, only how many.

[Dahak]

Well that is hilarious!

Guess it is time to start over. ARGH! I was so happy with this one too!

[Mojack]

but maybe it looks awesome, if you fly it backwards !
just rebuild the bridge/cockpit section

[Ra]

There is no implemented way yet, bu-u-ut...

<CExteriorProp>
        <PropTypeString>ext_242_Class2_IonEngine_01</PropTypeString>
        <Position><X>-14</X><Y>0</Y><Z>2</Z></Position>
        <PaletteIndex>0</PaletteIndex>
        <Transform>
          <M14>0</M14><M24>0</M24><M34>0</M34><M44>1</M44>
          <LocalX><X>1</X><Y>-0</Y><Z>0</Z></LocalX>
          <LocalY><X>0</X><Y>0</Y><Z>1</Z></LocalY>
          <LocalZ><X>-0</X><Y>-1</Y><Z>0</Z></LocalZ>
          <Translation><X>-13</X><Y>1</Y><Z>3</Z></Translation>
      </Transform>
</CExteriorProp>

All ships are described with such codes, so-o-o... If someone (not me) would kindly spend his time to make a tool which will rotate all the coords around the point-0 and will find the way to pack all the modified data back to .shipz file, it would be possible :D

PS. You can export the ship to .shipz archive from ship editor save menu, technically it acts just like .zip archive, so feel free to investigate.

[Dahak]

Well that is good to know! Now if only I could code well enough...

[TomNewJelly]

i too have just falle foul of this, built my ship over the arrow so i couldnt see it, after a few rotates etc i forgot which way forward was!

[Dahak]

Yep that is exactly what I did!

[Wolf]

<CExteriorProp>
<PropTypeString>ext_MountedTurret_01</PropTypeString>
<Position>
<X>8</X>
<Y>-8</Y>
<Z>12</Z>
</Position>
<PaletteIndex>1</PaletteIndex>
<Transform>
<M14>0</M14>
<M24>0</M24>
<M34>0</M34>
<M44>1</M44>
<LocalX>
<X>1</X>
<Y>0</Y>
<Z>-0</Z>
</LocalX>
<LocalY>
<X>0</X>
<Y>0</Y>
<Z>1</Z>
</LocalY>
<LocalZ>
<X>0</X>
<Y>-1</Y>
<Z>0</Z>
</LocalZ>
<Translation>
<X>9</X>
<Y>-7</Y>
<Z>13</Z>
</Translation>
</Transform>
</CExteriorProp>

So this code indicates exactly where, for example, a turret block is in the space of the editor in relation to a 0,0 origin. There doesn't seem to be any roll, pitch, or yaw for us to rotate the entire ship around. An awesome coder wouldn't be able to even edit the yaw to rotate the ship without programming it into the base game. Sorry.

[Ra]

Well, here one ext_GirderBlockSmall_01 block is sequentially rotated around its internal vertical axis (Z?) by 90 deg per time.

<LocalX><X>1</X><Y>0</Y><Z>0</Z></LocalX>
<LocalY><X>0</X><Y>1</Y><Z>0</Z></LocalY>
<LocalZ><X>0</X><Y>0</Y><Z>1</Z></LocalZ>

<LocalX><X>0</X><Y>-1</Y><Z>0</Z></LocalX>
<LocalY><X>1</X><Y>0</Y><Z>0</Z></LocalY>
<LocalZ><X>0</X><Y>0</Y><Z>1</Z></LocalZ>

<LocalX><X>-1</X><Y>-0</Y><Z>0</Z></LocalX>
<LocalY><X>0</X><Y>-1</Y><Z>0</Z></LocalY>
<LocalZ><X>0</X><Y>0</Y><Z>1</Z></LocalZ>

<LocalX><X>-0</X><Y>1</Y><Z>0</Z></LocalX>
<LocalY><X>-1</X><Y>-0</Y><Z>0</Z></LocalY>
<LocalZ><X>0</X><Y>0</Y><Z>1</Z></LocalZ>

Only two potential problems I see are a) calculations (need time to realize how all of it works); b) "hash", because if that hash file is calculated on the base of edited ship layout file, game will refuse all changes due to the hash mistmatch.

[dichebach]

This is painful missing feature.

[Ichangedmyname]

Originally posted by dichebach:

This is painful missing feature.

This and a few others, I'd say
Ah well, time to get rebuilding!

[XLjedi]

I just came back to this game after a few months... was hoping to see some progression and improvement in the ship designer interface.

Sadly, nothing has changed and it's still the worst ship designer interface of any other sandbox building game currently in existence. I could easily name at least 5 right off the top of my head that are leaps and bounds better in this respect. So I have to ask myself, why do I bother creating anything with this?

I just don't see people continuing to endure it. The sad part is, the only thing fun about the game right now is the ship design. ...and the tool is still just horrible. I'm shelving it again and will give it one last shot, maybe in December.