Configurable light switches

[LostManAbroad]

I think you should alter the way the switch works. Instead of making a switch that turns on all the floodlights and leave the regular lights so they need to be turned on manually, could you not just have a switch that you can link to any light that you want it to turn on.

Personally I would like three switches at my base. One that switches on all the internal lights, one that switches on all the external lights (normal lights NOT floodlights) and one that is my emergency switch that turns on all the external lights (Floodlights AND normal lights).

My suggestion would be to have a craftable screwdriver. In the same way you use a hammer to repair or upgrade the base, you could use the screwdriver to link or unlink lights to switches.

[Zuleica]

+1

[MV-Play]

Great ideas +1

[Fins]

If we're talking this idea, then why "invent the wheel"? 3 switches will grow "too few" rather soon, i think. Players will always want more.

The ideal solution to it - is what we got in Fallout 4. There, you can connect any sort of electrical equipment with wires, and put a circuit breaker (a switch) whereever you deem fancy, thus allowing to create any number of switches controlling any number of fully customizable sets of equipment (even possibly overlapping).

For example, all the lights on my Fallout 4 skyscraper were controlled exactly that way, so i was easily able to turn them all on and off with a single switch.

[LostManAbroad]

I only suggested a simple setup as the game is still simple and in my experience people love to jump all over other people's ideas with all sorts of explanations about why the ideas won't work or will not be good for the game.

I am definitely up for this going full on complicated. Bring in switches, computer consoles, circuit breakers and any number of other electrical component to make this game more interesting. In its base form though, I would very much like to see the configurable switches I described, just so that I can light up the inside of my house without having to run around turning everything on individually.

[Zuleica]

Actually the way to do it is that every switch installed is assigned an ID. When a light is installed you can set the ID of the switch that controls it. Hold Your Own does this quite nicely.

[LostManAbroad]

Yeah but doing it that way will mean that each light can only be controlled by one switch. It should be possible to have multiple switches control the same light. That way you can have different combinations of lights controlled by different switches, i.e. having just the internal lights come on with one switch and having both internal and external lights come on with another.

[MV-Play]

Still another approach would be to give every light source or other device a numbers and letters combination.

Like:

switch 'SW01'
controls
lights 'L1-L2-L5'

switch 'SW02'
controls
windmill 'W01'

etc...

[Fins]

Originally posted by LostManAbroad:

Yeah but doing it that way will mean that each light can only be controlled by one switch. It should be possible to have multiple switches control the same light. That way you can have different combinations of lights controlled by different switches, i.e. having just the internal lights come on with one switch and having both internal and external lights come on with another.

Exactly. Fallout 4 system allows to do this, as well as other kinds of combinations like 1st switch for internal, 2nd switch both both internal and external, 3rd for "dimly lit base, saving power mode" where only few of both internal and external lights are on. Requires a bit of extra wiring, but nothing too difficult. :)