With each hit of lightning blasts a charge into batteries so you can build up power in storage maybe

@General Space That's pretty sad...
In this case, you should go to one of the modding forums, perhaps they can help you refine your mod.
Unfortunately, I don't have any examples of such groups. (but I know there are some).
There's nothing else I can help you with =\

Hopefully you'll figure it out some day...

@Zen, unfortunately, life and career got in the way before I could really finish this, but the plan was to add built-in scripting that would intercept lightning damage and nullify it (or nearly nullify it). I've never was able to figure out how to do the damage interception, though.

and when damaged, requires much more material than the same bait. What is the point of such a device?

Interesting, but the durability is too short. Repairs are expensive.

@General Space I'd have to play on my SMP server a bit more during thunderstorms and get back to you on that.

@Skallabjorn, in theory I'm okay with that, but before you proceed I would actually like your insight on a proposed change to this mod that might solve the problem. I'll DM you.

@Lonestar, That would be helpful! I'll DM you as well.

@Peekofwar @ShatteredPumpkin, I haven't had any time to poke my head in here in a while, so I didn't see your comments. Are you still having issues?

it would be cool if it could generate electricity if hit

I have a lightning rod at my base, and yet I get directly struck by lightning trying to build a plane...? Not even the steel blocks I place down on a landing gear were touched. Just me, the player.

Hi Author,
Would you be interested in a localization of your mod?
I've played a bit with the concept of mod localization the other day and took your mod as learning-test base. If you want, I can give you the changes for Data/CubeBlocks_LightningRod.sbc and language files for English and French.

Author,

May I republish this but with more component use ( thus physically stronger ) ?

Full credit and links of course to original would be provided.

Cheers

Looks like the small grid decoy has been fixed in the Warfare update.
The Lightning guide got also updated and it sounds like the small grid decoys are working again.
I can't tell since I don't play much recently.

this mod causes my world to close randomly and kicks me to main menu screen

Head's-up everyone, you can now find me on mod.io! I'm here: https://mod.io/members/generalspace . The lightning rod will be available there soon, I'm just having some minor trouble with the source files. If you're awaiting the release of the lightning rod on that platform, you may want to follow me there to see it as soon as it goes up!

It sounds like we straight up in The Expanse rn :D
love the mod

All good. Thanks again.

Sorry, holden! I'll look into it when I get off work today.

Just a friendly reminder in case you've forgotten. :)

Awesome. Thanks.

@holden4ever, yeah I'll look into that on my weekend (which is Monday-Tuesday)!

Any chance you could upload this to mod.io for Xbox users? As long as it doesn't have client side scripting it will work.

Okay, after getting a bit of feedback, I'll just convert the small lightning rod from a decoy to an antenna. I'll just set the max broadcast range to 0 and remove all the antenna controls from the terminal menu.

According to the ligthning guide, it hits only antennas that are on, given that if one turns off his antennas (during a storm) or per default when parking the small grid, the Lightning rod would still be hit 100%. With the exception of remote controlled grids that are depenedent on the antenna.

I certainly would miss the small grid lightning rod if you would decide to remove it, even though it's twice the size of a small grid antenna I quite like the design.And not being hit by lightning is actually a plus for me :)
If you work an an antenna version, why not add it and leave the current one as it is?

Ah, they are a cheap "decorative" option in small grid i guess? But yeah them having little actual use in small grid version can agree with them being taken out. Not like you can add in "does nothing to stop lightning hitting other things" on the small grid version. As for range, happy with it as it it tbh, yeah do need them everywhere, but that's fair enough right? suppose you could release various ranges? :S ehh but that sounds a little much

I too have been using them in my latest play through. Not the first time I've used them.
Right now having fun on an ice lake building a refuel station for hydrogen ships. Weather changes quite dramatically.

@Author - I hope you do increase the range. I feel like I need to put them all over the base to ensure there are no gaps.

@Winx, yeah, I've heard of some possible crashes in SE right now related to distant lightning. Glad you're enjoying the lightning rods! Any feedback on the small grid lightning rod issue I mentioned in the comments a couple days ago?

okay, mod removed still having crashes

Have been using your mod on and off for ages, and do love it. But have been having some crashes when lightning hits +1km off. Will remove just your mod to make sure its yours...

Supposedly, lightning *will not* prioritize decoys unless they are on station grids. Since small grids can never be made stations, the small grid lightning rod is currently doing nothing whatsoever for lightning safety. Thus, in order to avoid misleading people who want lightning protection, I am considering discontinuing just the small grid lightning rod . Or, as an alternative, turning the small grid rod into an antenna so that it still ranks above most of the functional blocks.

For the large grid version, it will stay a decoy! No changes there, except I miiight tweak the protection range.

#1 Why would you discontinue?

#2 Lets say you don't use antena but keep the decoy variant as base, what are the remaining issues with that?

I have two potential concerns about #2: I am as yet unsure if I can strip all the antenna functionality out of it, and I am pretty sure I cannot force it to take priority over any other antennas on the grid, so it wouldn't be 100% reliable.

Has #2 any downsides ? If internally it is handled as an antena and as long it does not gvie away our position or connects us to other antennas ... . If it acts still perfectly as a lightning rod ... walks like duck

Engineers! The time is coming for GSI to return to the forefront of innovation. But we prefer to innovate according to the wishes of our loyal clients; thus, a referendum is in order. There are two options for handling the malfunctioning small grid lightning rod:

#1: we can discontinue it and focus our efforts on the large grid lightning rod.

#2: we can persuade the STIC-OS that it is actually technically an antenna instead of a decoy, despite the fact that it lacks all the functionality of an antenna.

Which course of action should we pursue?

Yeah, the safety radius is default. I'll be looking into the whole small-grid thing tomorrow, and you may see some tweaks come through.

Same as vanilla (the decoy block) probably. I think that's 50 meters. 10m for small grids

What is the radius of the protected area the rod covers?

@JarutheDamaja, that's actually super informative, thank you!

I think I might know why the small grid Lightning Rods don't work. It's not because of your mod, but that also the vanilla small grid Decoys doesn't work. There is a new guide about Lightning, I think you should check it out. Any chance you can make into an Antenna? (Just the SG one)

My last comment on Feb 9th said more details in the next couple weeks, but then I got trapped in a winter storm, then I moved to a different state, then I got married, then I started another job, and now here we are. I actually just fired up Blender and Visual Studio for the first time in a while two days ago.

@MisterMann, I actually was/am working on a system like that. I haven't leaked any details of it, but it will have a number of new blocks and features.

Well I needed this after being hit with a electrical storm every 30 minutes on the desert planet. Though I thought this broke down the electricity as well to convert it into power to the batteries on the grid its on. Then again that might have been another rod mod.

@dreadnaught227 I have that *in development* right now. Now that I have been shown how to interface with the Space Engineers damage system, something like that becomes possible. More details coming in the next couple weeks (moving out of state this week), but stay tuned!

Love to hear it! GSI, Inc. appreciates your business, engineer.

Ok, followup to my previous post.. I started a new play through and now the lightning rods work. It's great.. :) No more death from above unless I happen to get caught outside when a storm rolls in. Not sure what the deal was with adding the mod to an existing game.. probably a random bit of weirdness but I'm happy to report they work like a charm now so thank you General Space, Capt Megavolt and Nzkiwi442!!! You guys are awesome!

Damn.. that's a WHOLE lotta changes at once... Here's to happy ever after for ALL of those changes!!!

Congratulations!

Oh geez. Sorry to hear they aren't working! I'm in the midst of wedding planning AND moving to a different state AND moving jobs, so I've got a lot on my plate. But I will certainly investigate these issues and see what I can do. I still have plans to enhance the functionality of the lightning rods, just have to wait for right time.

"Your lightnings suck keen" is a good alternative.
No more lightnings at all. Or very rare, not sure about that.
Did not see one since using this mod.

Confirmed... I've been killed several times by lightning and I have TWO of these on my small vehicle.. both times I was in the cockpit and it came right through like it was nothing.. killed me and threw me out of the vehicle. The rods are literally inches away from the cockpit so I don't see how distance could be an issue.. unless I need to insert one them up my butt lol :)