As I said, I'm not against the old designer's "room painting" method as a supplementary tool. It'd be great for people who are intimidated by 3d modelling and don't have the time to learn. Just not at the expense of the improved way. And certainly not to enforce a given interpretation of "non-screwiness" (not that I don't appreciate the gameplay concerns).
I find the new designer faster in almost every goal-oriented case (rather than just painting on the fly). "Put a pillar here, put a window there": that was unintuitive in the old designer. It was often a puzzle game rather than a 3d asset-creation programme, even if it was quick once you'd learned the puzzle. In the new designer, however much some may call it unintuitive in return: if you want a pillar, you jolly well draw a pillar. You don't create two rooms which meet half way, disguise the meeting point with wall openings, then have a third room in the middle to represent your pillar, then copy the entire thing onto eight different levels, one of which doesn't work because there's accidentally a room already there with the same number. "Oh, you want your hull door only half as wide as your ship? Better have your two rooms and three wall openings ready." Want a table in your cabin? "Oh, you're going to have to make a tiny patch of lounge just there, sorry about that. No, I'm not telling you how!" Just remembering it makes me steam at the ears. Now, at least, any idiot can make something that looks like the Enterprise, without having to type into Google "minecraft make circle from cubes calculator" - i.e., without having to use skills more related to logic puzzles than design. You want a circle, you draw a circle. You want a window, you draw a window. It's not always quick, but it makes a lot more sense. To this idiot, anyway.
![[Image: 65DqVAf.png]](https://i.imgur.com/65DqVAf.png)
![[Image: yX0xMsS.png]](https://i.imgur.com/yX0xMsS.png)
Anyone think they can copy this in the old designer while screaming fewer than, let's say, 5 times? No, seriously. I'll give you 5 quid, one per non-scream. Oh, and you have to eliminate the weird floating floors, too. And why yes, it does indeed still look like crap; thank you for noticing, kind sir.
Now, it's possible that a thoughtful room-painting addon could solve my gripes better than the old system ever did. I'd hope for that, rather than a straight rehash of the bad old days. I would add to Anr's point that making a design with specific functions is actually easier now, even if on-the-fly editing is not. Want a ship with so much shield power? In the old designer: "oops, can't fit enough shield units here. Better add some more hull. Oops, now it's too heavy. Add more grav units. No space - add more hull. Over TL limit. Sigh". Everything's numbers now. All you need to do is look up how big a cube you need and you can plan everything in advance. Make the cube, assign the volume. Done. Worry about aesthetics later. Creating functionality brushstroke by brushstroke was not always life's purest and most unalloyed pleasure...
Anyway, everyone's fundamentally agreed here. A room-drawing system would be a good addition. Wholehearted support here. Just don't force it on the rest of us. Celarious, let's stay courteous. You're getting almost as bad as Kohta ;)
EDIT: Mortius got in there before me. Now, that's a cool ship! And good points made, too. Freedom of function, things like gravity direction, is even more important than aesthetic freedom. Let's have a show of hands. We encounter an alien species in 2019. Their ships are either a) screwy b) non-screwy. Keep them up while I count.
I saw Quake's post later. I take the point, but I believe some way of downloading enemy void plans would be a good solution. No functioning ship is truly non-navigable. I have boarded four or five unknown new designs, without a guide, and found my way around without too much trouble. About two of them had intentional "mindscrew" traps, which were far from insuperable.
I find the new designer faster in almost every goal-oriented case (rather than just painting on the fly). "Put a pillar here, put a window there": that was unintuitive in the old designer. It was often a puzzle game rather than a 3d asset-creation programme, even if it was quick once you'd learned the puzzle. In the new designer, however much some may call it unintuitive in return: if you want a pillar, you jolly well draw a pillar. You don't create two rooms which meet half way, disguise the meeting point with wall openings, then have a third room in the middle to represent your pillar, then copy the entire thing onto eight different levels, one of which doesn't work because there's accidentally a room already there with the same number. "Oh, you want your hull door only half as wide as your ship? Better have your two rooms and three wall openings ready." Want a table in your cabin? "Oh, you're going to have to make a tiny patch of lounge just there, sorry about that. No, I'm not telling you how!" Just remembering it makes me steam at the ears. Now, at least, any idiot can make something that looks like the Enterprise, without having to type into Google "minecraft make circle from cubes calculator" - i.e., without having to use skills more related to logic puzzles than design. You want a circle, you draw a circle. You want a window, you draw a window. It's not always quick, but it makes a lot more sense. To this idiot, anyway.
Anyone think they can copy this in the old designer while screaming fewer than, let's say, 5 times? No, seriously. I'll give you 5 quid, one per non-scream. Oh, and you have to eliminate the weird floating floors, too. And why yes, it does indeed still look like crap; thank you for noticing, kind sir.Now, it's possible that a thoughtful room-painting addon could solve my gripes better than the old system ever did. I'd hope for that, rather than a straight rehash of the bad old days. I would add to Anr's point that making a design with specific functions is actually easier now, even if on-the-fly editing is not. Want a ship with so much shield power? In the old designer: "oops, can't fit enough shield units here. Better add some more hull. Oops, now it's too heavy. Add more grav units. No space - add more hull. Over TL limit. Sigh". Everything's numbers now. All you need to do is look up how big a cube you need and you can plan everything in advance. Make the cube, assign the volume. Done. Worry about aesthetics later. Creating functionality brushstroke by brushstroke was not always life's purest and most unalloyed pleasure...
Anyway, everyone's fundamentally agreed here. A room-drawing system would be a good addition. Wholehearted support here. Just don't force it on the rest of us. Celarious, let's stay courteous. You're getting almost as bad as Kohta ;)
EDIT: Mortius got in there before me. Now, that's a cool ship! And good points made, too. Freedom of function, things like gravity direction, is even more important than aesthetic freedom. Let's have a show of hands. We encounter an alien species in 2019. Their ships are either a) screwy b) non-screwy. Keep them up while I count.
I saw Quake's post later. I take the point, but I believe some way of downloading enemy void plans would be a good solution. No functioning ship is truly non-navigable. I have boarded four or five unknown new designs, without a guide, and found my way around without too much trouble. About two of them had intentional "mindscrew" traps, which were far from insuperable.