Poll

Opinions

Good concept in Blockland.
Bad concept in Blockland.
It's possible, but not practical.
It's practical, but not possible.
I don't take drugs.

Author Topic: Large-Scale Empire Mechanics (VCE based)  (Read 2153 times)

Good day, I am Nova Flare Emperor Q in-game.

I would like to post an idea that I had quite a while ago about creating an event system / baseplate pack with events that allows for structures with an actual function, perhaps based on VCE but plug-and-play for general player usage.  It would be similar to the 'you pay money in order to place bricks' add-on.  Each base-plate would further require a certain set of brick-models that are scripted to do a particular thing (such as a blast furnace in the steel mill) and those bricks would further require different scripted bricks in order to function, such as the slag/steel separator.  The steel mill would require a transportation system leading from a materials quarry, and both the quarry and the steel mill would have their separate total power requirements based on the power requirements of the total from all the individual brick-components.  All of this would require a power system of some sort, as different types of power stations have their advantages and disadvantages (Coal-burning, nuclear reactors, hot-air greenhouse towers, etc.)
Since they can be damaged with projectiles and other weaponry, it would be important to build over them with standard bricks.
Here is a list of structures that I made for a layout schematic I drew using them:

*Master Computing Facility (Organizes the harmonious compatibility between the slave computing facilities, but you can also control all of the facilities using it)
*Slave Sub Computing Facilities (They have their own baseplates and special bricks, but they are required for systematic control of all facilities)
*Research Centre(s) (For theorising new ways to improve technologies, among other things)
*Lab(s) (For testing the technologies theorized by the Research centre.  Requires the research centre to be useful and vice versa)
*Main Habitation Tower(Emperor Tower) (A tower to house you and your teammates / those who are under your control.  Or just you, if you like pure automation like myself)
*Intercommunications Facility (Required to connect the Master Computing Facility to the Slave Sub Computing Facilities, among other things such as bot management and internal transportation)
*External Communications Facility and Array (You need this to communicate with other empires that also have an External Communications Facility.  Crucial for requesting to send or receive materials to and from another empire, among other things such as relaying research data to allies)

*War Factory(ies) (For producing weapons, bots, brick tanks, etc.)
*Pre-Fabrication Factory(ies) (For producing pre-fabricated parts for the War Factory in order to speed up production.  It also enables you to build structures more cheaply, among other things)
*Steel Refinery/Mill (Required for filtering out steel from the ORE:_FILTEREDMATERIAL (%) that the Material Quarry Refinery puts out, as well as BIPRODUCT:_RICHSLAG (%).  It would initially have a 1/5 chance of filtering steel, but that would increase as the mill got more efficient.  Outputs BIPRODUCT:_SLAG (%), which if you have a recycling facility, can be used as a building material)
*Concrete Production (Vital for producing buildings without money, and converts ORE:_FILTEREDMATERIAL (%) directly into Concrete, and also outputs rich slag that can be re-processed by the Steel Mill)
*Material Quarries (Required to produce ORE:_QUARRY (%).  You must have a Material Quarry Refinery in order to reprocess all that raw material, otherwise it would seriously effect the efficiency of the other buildings required for materials production)
*Material Quarry Refinery (Required to process ORE:_QUARRY (%) and convert into ORE:_FILTEREDMATERIAL (%) without this, it would give the steel mill and concrete producer a hard time, since they would have to filter out everything.  Produces BIPRODUCT:_HARDWASTE (%) which can be reprocessed by the recycling facility)
*Combined Storage Facility (For general storage for materials, tanks, fuel, etc etc)
*Recycling Facility (Basically converts waste into usable materials, such as ammo, etc.)

*Nuclear Reactor(s) (Produces extreme amounts of power both day and night.  However, it produces biproducts both radioactive and non-radioactive.  Examples would be BIPRODUCT:_Q-METAL (%) Which is another name for depleted Uranium which can be used for boosting the production of vehicles, and other vce names for  131I, 137Cs, and 90Sr, which you must either dispose of or hand over to the Laboratory for studies)
*Green House Funnel Generator(s)  (Only works when near a considerable amount of heat or if the sun is present.  Produces power by forcing hot air made from the greenhouse up through a giant funnel in order to spin fan blades to high rotational velocities.  It functions through hot air, so there is no need for direct sunlight unlike solar panels)
*Coal Quarry (Produces ORE:_COAL (%) for the Coal burner to use.  Produces BYPRODUCT:_SLAG (%) and is also cheap to construct.  Great for a starting empire, but takes it's toll on any filtration systems nearby.  Also poisonous to any miners inside, so make sure you have a medical centre up and running )
*Coal Burner (Very cheap to produce and with a high energy yield, works both day and night.  Great for a starting empire, but seriously hinders any filtration systems from working at their fullest potential due to smog plume.  Reduces the efficiency of any nearby machinery that needs oxygen to work, like gasoline engines in vehicles.)
*Oil Refinery (Required for refining ORE:_OIL (%) into FUEL:_GASOLINE (%).  Required for engines.
*Oil Extractor (Extracts ORE:_OIL (%) from the ground.  Not as cheap to make as a coal mine, but yields good results in the long run.  It is required so that the Oil Extractor can produce FUEL:_GASOLINE (%) for engines )

*Internal Transportation (For the transport of resources between different facilities.  Also for transporting you to other areas of your mechanical empire)
*External Railways (Mainly tram systems, but also includes train systems) (Required for making the transfer of materials between two empires much faster.  Required for moving large amounts of materials quickly to start a supply line for war efforts, among other things)

*Agriculture (To keep workers alive.  You won't need this after you develop bots.)
*Water Resivour(s) (For nuclear reactors, mainly.  Can also be used for barges on industrial cbrown towns, among other things that require water.
*Medical Centre(s) (Whilst you still have workers, you will need this so that they can recover from radiation poisoning / toxic plumes / lunchbreak disasters etc)

Of course, there are more vital structures that I haven't listed, but you get the idea.  Discuss and share your ideas.


this sounds like it would require more than VCE, or at least much more easily done and managed using scripts instead of VCE.

a lot of what you describe here sounds like an entire build-and-manage-a-city thing, which is a huge endeavor for any mod. its likely not going to happen unless you simplify this considerably.

this sounds like it would require more than VCE, or at least much more easily done and managed using scripts instead of VCE.

a lot of what you describe here sounds like an entire build-and-manage-a-city thing, which is a huge endeavor for any mod. its likely not going to happen unless you simplify this considerably.

Well, every facility requires a sub-computer in order to function, so you wouldn't need to manage it.  They manage themselves, which is how I personally like it. As long as they're protected, you can let them do their thing. 

It sounds complex even for a mod, IMO.  It would be great, but this looks like it'd require a great deal of simplification in order to be a feasible goal.

It sounds complex even for a mod, IMO.  It would be great, but this looks like it'd require a great deal of simplification in order to be a feasible goal.

I suppose you'd only have to get the main systems sorted out, like electricity and materials production, then release all the other things in updates.

I was doing this before finals. Trust me, VCE is pretty useless for all of this. You NEED to know how to code or atleast code the brick placement and add VCE events to the special bricks placed.

I suppose you'd only have to get the main systems sorted out, like electricity and materials production, then release all the other things in updates.
That doesn't reduce the amount work needed. I mean I'm not trying to kill your innovation, but you should probably simplify this or make it yourself.

That doesn't reduce the amount work needed. I mean I'm not trying to kill your innovation, but you should probably simplify this or make it yourself.

Mmm, good idea.  I can see how this could become a bit messy without proper documentation.

I'll work on revising it and see what the community thinks about that version, and get back to learning Torquescript and C/C++.  I'll do some research looking for other implementations of this as well, so that I don't entirely have to reinvent the wheel.  I should produce a much more refined version of this after doing the proper research.  I'll modify my original post and add the refined version under the old one, so expect me to bump this topic in the future.

Actually, it can be fine with VCE, only if you have like two weeks to spare in creating it and another day to spare in reformatting a copy every time someone wants a new empire.  OR if you're smart, you organize everything through weird combinations of variables in the minigame plane.

Actually, it can be fine with VCE, only if you have like two weeks to spare in creating it and another day to spare in reformatting a copy every time someone wants a new empire.  OR if you're smart, you organize everything through weird combinations of variables in the minigame plane.
this wouldn't help you prevent certain bricks from being placed, or auto-apply events to certain bricks the moment they are placed. it would also be a pain in the ass to manage since changing basic values on any single type of brick would involve finding all examples and wrench-eventing them differently.

changing basic values on any single type of brick would involve finding all examples and wrench-eventing them differently.

Scripting a modular system would be better as one of the users suggest, I believe.

EDIT: Quartz suggested.
« Last Edit: February 23, 2016, 05:05:13 PM by C-Zech Chrome Ind. »

Possible but it would take a ton of work