Smart Rain Protection

[SWAT One]

Basically we have all these zone brick packs that can be used to keep out rain, but I think it would be nice if we could combine zones with trench mod.  Suppose the pack has a 2x2 plate zone, and when placing these 2x2 plate zones in a 2x2 orientation, it merges them and makes a 4x4 zone plate.  Etc. etc.

It would be really nice to use these for flat rooftops.

[Ad Bot]

[the_stitch]

Quick, someone make this. It's a damn good idea.
/support
We really need this.

[portify]

Quick, someone make this. It's a damn good idea.
/support
We really need this.

If you can solve the minimum rectangle coverage problem incrementally then sure
A simple quadtree structure wouldn't work well

[SWAT One]

If you can solve the minimum rectangle coverage problem incrementally then sure
A simple quadtree structure wouldn't work well

Well what do you suggest, then?

[Lugnut]

Well what do you suggest, then?

congratulations
you've managed to stumble upon a hard problem in computer science!

no really packing stuff efficiently is really loving hard for computers to do, and that's what you're asking us to do. i don't think this sort of thing would be possible to do in real time.

[SWAT One]

I'm not sure if we're understanding each other.  If you are understanding me correctly, then please correct me.

What I am looking for isn't something where zones are freely created by bricks that disappear and leave behind zones.  The zones are still tied to bricks.  Suppose a 2x2 configuration of 4x4 zone plates were created, it would utilize the same system in trench mod to detect configuration (perhaps using an outside tool if needed*), and it would delete the 2x2 configuration of 4x4 zone plates, and replace them with a single 8x8 zone plate.

Should work with other configurations and on vertical levels as well.  Additionally, it should only work with a specific pack of bricks.

*What might be neat is a "Brick Manipulator" Wand that by default is set to "Merge" (Merges bricks together into configurations that are available for its type^†.) and using right click, it switches to "Split" mode (Splits bricks into its most easily as I visible parts^‡.)

^†Suppose a 1x2x5 and a 1x6x5 are lined up, if you hit one of these with the wand, they become a single 1x6x5.

^‡Suppose you have a 4x8, you hit it and it becomes two 4x4s.

[portify]

The thing is that with a quadtree (or as you say, how trench mod does it) it would be aligned to an exact global divisible grid.



If your roof does not 100% perfectly with absolutely no gaps or offsets line up with one of the sections of the quad tree and have the exact same size as one of them, it'll end up having to divide itself far (usually into 1x1 sections), which will lead to a significantly less-than-optimal amount of zones.