Hey, since biodomes are supposed to be sealed and all why not make it inside there isn't any fog effect until outside, so it's easier to see inside and such? I built one recently in a gas giant but still it's pretty hard to see inside.

Part Groups
Some parts in building and spacecraft designs can be named. Besides defining the name of a room in the design, naming is used to group parts together that need to be lit similarly. An exception is the mesh, which cannot be named; it is associated to a room for lighting. This needs to be changed in preparation for custom fences and walls.

Part names changed to a common group property on all parts.

• All parts can now be assigned a group name.
  
• A Group column was added to the parts list. Right click selected parts, in the parts list, to change their group.
  
• In building designs, groups are rooms. The exception is the reserved group name Hull, whose parts are considered to be hull parts.
  
• Parts with a blank group name are considered to be part of the hull.
  
• In fence/wall designs, two group names are reserved: Post and Section, to distinguish between parts of the fence post and the fence section.
  
• When loading older drawings, part names are automatically converted to group names. Meshes associated with a room are automatically grouped with the room and the association is removed.
  
• Meshes can no longer be associated with rooms.
  
• Designer Usage Tips documentation was updated.
  

• Fence/Wall structure added to building designer.
  
• Fence/Wall designs look for parts in two groups: Post and Section.
  
• Post group contains the meshes and barrier of a typical fence post, created at the drawing origin, which will be its ground level location.
  
• Section group contains the meshes and barrier of a typical fence section, drawn from the origin, extending in the +X direction.
  
• Section group +X extent defines the section length, which is also the center-to-center post spacing.
  • When built, the actual post spacing could vary, to achieve uniform post spacing and when conforming to terrain.
    
  • Post only designs should place a tiny mesh underground in the section, to establish the +X extent.
    
• Only mesh and barrier parts are used to create posts and sections.
  
• Barriers are used to define the obstructive parts of the post and the section.
  • These should be extremely minimal, like one barrier surrounding the post and one barrier surrounding the section.
    
  • The section barrier may make the post barrier unnecessary. Likewise, a post-only design does not need a section barrier. Do not add barriers if they are not needed.
    
• Barriers in custom fences and walls obstruct all movement, unlike the built in fences that block movement variously. See their tool tips on the Construction window for details.
  
• Blueprints/Buildings folder contains the Fence .SoH files that are used for the built in styles. If they are used as custom fences and walls, they will not have the special movement rules of the built in fences and walls.
  
• When adding a fence to a building design in the on line designer, the list will include designs in the exchange and in your gear.
  
• Fences in the designer do not automatically divide themselves into section lengths. Each fence segment in a design creates a single section of fence. The Zoo by Haxus fences are long corner-to-corner sections that do not conform to terrain in between the posts. I will update the design when time permits.
  
• Designer preview works with fences.
  • In the on line designer, custom fences will appear in the preview.
    
  • In the off line designer, custom fences will appear as a line of stakes in the preview, as if under construction. This is because the externally referenced custom fence/wall design is not available in the off line designer.
    
• Fence designs can be built in all environments, depending on construction material.
  • Built in designs are made using specific construction materials.
    
  • Custom designs are made using the material selected on the Construction window.
    
• Construction window Walls page was removed.
  
• Sand bag wall button moved to Fence/Wall page.
  
• Brick Wall and Stone Wall buttons were removed. They do not behave differently than custom walls so they will be published in the exchange instead. Removing them from the window enabled consolidation of walls and fences onto a single page.
  
• Built in Brick Wall and Stone Wall designs still exist, for use in the designer, both on and off line.
  

So i really dont like the new designer.

HOWEVER. I seriously loved the old designer type.
This new one is like a full blown 3D model program and i am legitimately unable to make designs. GAME BREAKER. Especially for newcomers.

My idea was to use the old designer but rework it so you dont make block designs.

Specifically i L-O-V-E-D the drawing method. I want it back.

If i was to put it in terms:

Current designer: -2 fun
Old designer: +3 fun

Now if the old designer was reworked so it prevented blocky shapes, it would be perfect. Just make it so it automaticalöy smoothens the shapes or maybe add a exterior hull function and merely make the basics blocky-wise

Best would be an intelligent function, a "smart-designer" that smoothens edges like an anti-aliasing setting in 3d programs. Have it add superfluos matter automatically.

The current building system is a little too complicated. You need massive buildings of each building type, and you need to know the exact blueprint to know what buildings types it works as.
See: (Idea thread) Building Blueprint Simplification

But this leaves us with one big question: Why can't my gigantic super mall building contain both casinos and grocery stores? Or why can't my mega factory building have an electronics floor and a computer factory floor? Why can't I have one huge building that does everything?

If we start with just the idea of "Factory Complexes" and "Civilian Malls", since these functions aren't necessarily unique in their appearance, but are likely best to keep factory and morale functions separate.
Basically the idea would be to design a big building that is without a specific type. Once you have constructed the building, you can go to it and add functions to it. In a sense just refitting it to change the volume allocation for the building.

For example: We construct a giant super mall building and then allocate half of its volume/rooms/floors/whatever to work as casinos, and the other half as grocery stores. Then later we find out that we didn't need that many casinos, we re-allocate most of those to churches.
Same works with factories, allowing us to dynamically allocate the amount of different workshops we want and the amount of each workshops.

Re-allocating the volume/rooms/floors/whatever can cause the building to undergo re-construction. Possibly consume some tools or commodities appreciate for the types. For example allocating computer factory workshops might require some soldering tools, and allocating churches might require stone and wood.

If I make openings on a structure, as room or hull voids and put a guard post on the inside so they can see out, if they see an enemy and they have a gun will they shoot at them? Like a bunker opening?

How about a hotkey that changes road width without having to directly select what you want in the menu? There's one for changing whether it's level or slope grade so I think it would fit.

Shores of Hazeron : May in Review

Welcome to another month in review for Shores of Hazeron! Smaller update as I've been busy away from Hazeron. Lets get started!

Updates:
Three updates this month, Firstly was the widely anticipated Biodomes. Then We saw the re-addition of Drilling rigs. And lastly a smaller update with Capital Jurisdiction

Our Update of The Month for May goes to Drilling rigs, for the addition of platforms! For use on many kinds of planets they allow for all new visual styles in cities where they can be built in the skies, sea surfaces, and over rough terrain.


State of the game:

Unfortunately May seems to be a quiet month. Only 3 updates, despite their vast addition for city content. They have not brought much for those of us who are searching for more space exploration. Hopefully in the coming months we'll see more reasons to take a step back from the designer and take to the stars.



With low updates come low populations, maxing at 10 players in early May and averaging around five. Fortunately It looks like we may see higher averages in the future ending the back half of the month with frequent player counts closer to 8.


In terms of politics the top 5 for the conflict zone remain unchanged for the month last I saw, with the month ending with Reaume del Seint Graal at 5th with 49 worlds, Foxtail with 51 worlds at 4th, Solstice holding 100 worlds in 3rd, Sith being 2nd with 134, and lastly at the top of the leader board with 16 galaxies, 276 sectors, 456 solar systems and an amazing 1,060 worlds we find Weltreich, still in 1st.
These numbers may have changed though, as Empire standings have not been loading for me.

That's all for this month. Fell free to add anything I may have missed below and I'll try to get any changes in those areas out next month.


Also, once Empire standings are back up I'll update this post with the proper numbers if need be, Watch for the bump here.
Till then, fly safe and stay active!

Fence and Wall Construction
Fence and wall buttons on the Construction window do nothing.

Fence and wall buttons are now functional.

• To draw a fence or wall, click the starting location, on the terrain or in the build zone of a platform, then click the ending location.
  
• Shift key can be held while entering the second location, to constrain the angle.
  
• G key can be pressed at the start and/or end location, to grab the base of the nearest fence or wall post. This finds fences and walls that are freely drawn as well as those that are part of a building blueprint.
  
• The segment entered is divided into appropriate length fence sections, or post spacing, appropriate to the fence style chosen.
  
• All fence posts obstruct movement.
  
• Fence sections obstruct movement, with some exceptions depending on fence style.
  • Split rail and 3-wire fences do not block creatures with 100hp or less. They also do not block moving items, e.g. missiles, thrown items.
    
  • Range fencing does not block creatures with 10hp or less.
    
  • Posts-only fencing does not bock movement between the posts.
    
• Fences report themselves as "civilian fence/wall" on the Building page. They are not protected from destruction like typical civilian buildings. Fences and walls can always be destroyed.
  
• Fences and walls can be built on platforms. They will not conform to any terrain created by the platform. They will form a straight line between the points entered.
  
• Similarly, fences at building sites on platforms will not conform to platform terrain. Those fences will appear where they exist in the blueprint.
  

• They are adjusted up/down to the terrain when the building is constructed. This adjustment changes as the terrain changes.
  
• Movement obstruction works the same as stand-alone fence and wall constructions.
  

What the fuck is up with the spammers?

There might already be a thread for this, but I thought I'd start a discussion thread anyways. Money is currently next to worthless and needs some sort of end-game sink. Maybe as a partial replacement, money could be used in the development of single use ship-modules, with exponentially increasing costs for increases in effectiveness.

The game as it is: 


I can't imagine spending even a trillion of that, let alone over two quintillion and rapidly increasing.