2019-05-16 Drilling Rigs, Platforms

[Haxus]

Drilling Rigs
Drilling rigs have never been implemented.

Drilling rigs are now ready for use.

• A drilling rig model will be found in the exchange, after the servers are up and I have a chance to post it. It has an interior room with a door to the outside, so it can be used effectively as a transporter destination, without ending up in the water.
  
• Its blueprint can also be found in the Blueprints/Buildings folder, called Drilling Rig 10.SoH.
  
• Design properties now enables selection of Sea Surface Building structure.
  
• I haven't actually tested them to see that they work like a well, though.
  

Platforms
Platforms have never been implemented.

Platforms can now be built.

• Construction window has buttons to create aerial, ground and sea platforms, on the Superstructures page.
  
• Platforms create a structure on which other buildings can be built.
  
• Design properties now enables selection of Aerial Platform, Ground Platform, and Sea Platform structures.
  
• Some platform designs will be available in the exchange after I have a chance to post them. Their blueprint files are distributed in the Blueprints/Buildings folder as Aerial Platform 820m.SoH, Ground Platform 400m Square.SoH, and Sea Platform 500m with Harbor.SoH.
  
• A new Build Zone part type was added for platforms. A build zone defines the area on a platform where buildings may be built. A build zone also creates a floor against gravity and it acts as a 3m tall hull void. The floor is active even when the platform is under construction, so you can land on top of it to build it.
  
• Platforms can incorporate the Environment Void part, added for biodomes. Environment voids on platforms will create an enclosed environment space just like a biodome.
  
• Biodomes can be built on platforms.
  
• Aerial platforms can be built in all atmospheres, including gas giants and vacuum. The UI needs work on gas giants. It is currently very difficult to build an aerial platform on a gas giant because you must be at the core; that will be fixed shortly.
  
• Sea platforms can be built in lava if they are constructed of vulcium or adamantine. This has not been tested.
  
• Ground platforms can be built on dry land or on sea bottoms, including under supercooled seas. I'm not sure they have much use.
  
• Most buildings can be built on platforms, including farms and orchards.
  
• Building sites are not visible on platforms. To insure buildings under construction are visible, a minimum amount of structure is shown even when no construction has been done.
  
• Aerial and sea platform building sites are not visible on the terrain. They actually don't allow site meshes. To find them when they are under construction, a minimum amount of structure is shown even when no construction has been done.
  
• Plants appear on platforms at designated plant locations in building designs, such as crop rows at a farm or landscaping at a building.
  
• When a platform is destroyed, all buildings on the platform are destroyed.
  
• It will be possible to break building construction rules using a platform. e.g. HQ on a platform is destroyed with the platform; that could leave military buildings behind on the surface. We will see if any significant problem is caused by this.
  
• Transporter can beam to and from a platform. When beaming to a platform, you could (currently) end up inside a building. If a platform has buildings, it is better to beam directly to one of them.
  

Spindle Smoothing Broken
Whenever I make a spindle, the lighting is wrong on the faces. I have to flatten them then resmooth them to get the correct result.

Fixed smoothing error in spindle generator.

Paste Radial
It would be nice if there was an easy way to make a copy of something in a circle, in the designer.

A Paste Radial command was added to the Edit menu. It works a lot like Paste At, except that the rotation of the pasted object rotates radially around the origin of the design plane, in the design plane.

This enables polar coordinate input to be used effectively to specify exact radials for placement. To paste radially 10m from the origin, at 30 degrees, enter p10,30 into the edit box.

Select Contiguous Faces
I have a large complex mesh and I want to select part of it that forms a huge flat surface with hundreds of polygons. The shape and other geometry makes it impossible to isolate for a box-drag-selection. Can I have a command to select all the faces in the same plane?

Select Contiguous Faces command added to the Edit menu. It pops up a dialog with a single option, to specify the angle tolerance for deciding if adjacent faces are in the same plane. The default is 1. 180 degrees or greater would effectively ignore the angle test.

Hull Void Spindle
Spindle tool for making hull voids would be welcome.

Hull void spindle tool added to the Part menu.

[Vectorus]

This is all very cool.

Possibly a stupid question, but how is the height of floating platforms actually specified? In the design, or is there some control in-game?

Does the build area have to be flat?

Does the building site modify anything at all on the platform surface?

What are the actual rules for platform destruction? It sounds as if they can be destroyed before military buildings?

Can you build a ground platform under a lava ocean? Can you build anything under a lava ocean? It would seem to make sense that you could, now, using vulcium.

Does sea-surface stuff require underwater-level HEV protection or open-air protection only?

[Haxus]

When placing an aerial platform, the MSL altitude is shown. Mouse wheel raises and lowers it +/- 100m. Shift changes the increment to +/- 1m. It cannot be placed below some minimum (1m?). The cursor also shows the remaining space above the platform, for buildings built on top of it.

The area where buildings are built does not have to be flat, though it is recommended. Multiple build zones can exist at different altitudes. The check to insure a building is on the platform, for construction, only insures all the site vertices are in build zones. The final altitude of the building is where you place it. The building is always oriented level to the platform's Z axis. The building's site meshes do not modify the underlying platform.

At present platforms are considered to be civilian structures.

Military rules probably mean that I should consider a platform with military buildings on it to be a military building. Making an enclosed biodome-like platform would then enable me to make an inaccessible, thus indestructible, HQ inside it. Hmm.

All three sample platforms have armor level 10, to make them extremely difficult to destroy. They are also configured to be built in any environment. The drilling rig is not so equipped, so the basic rig wouldn't require so much to build.

Ground platforms cannot be built under lava seas. I would need to develop a good "submerged in lava" visual effect to enable construction there. Deep red fog doesn't really work. That effect could then be adapted to an "underground" visual effect, for subterranean vehicles or riding subterranean creatures, something that has been on my list for a long time.

Sea surface construction uses the atmosphere construction requirements. I have a note to add that kind of information to the report, when reporting suitability for other environments.

[Deantwo]

What are the actual rules for platform destruction? It sounds as if they can be destroyed before military buildings?

You can actually destroy any building even if it is protected by a Capitol or Military HQ. But they won't be fully deleted and citizens will repair them.

I am assuming that the same is true for biodomes.

So I guess biodomes and platforms aren't protected by capitol or military base? Or do they just become destroyed and have to be repaired by the citizens? I assume that everything inside the biodome or on the platform is destroyed completely, even if it itself is protected.

We might need a more clear distinction between "destroyed" and "completely destroyed and deleted".

[Vectorus]

Yes, I mean fully destroyed, associated buildings deleted and obstruction model voided, without possibility of auto-repair! There is definitely some confusion of meaning there, true.

[Deantwo]

We might need a more clear distinction between "destroyed" and "completely destroyed and deleted".

Could call buildings that are protected but at 0 HP "ruined".
As in the buildings that can be repaired are only ruined and not destroyed.

[Vectorus]

That would be sensible.

[Haxus]

As it happens, the platform won't do anything to its buildings until it is deleted from the universe. It can be in the destroyed state without affecting the buildings.

[Haxus]

The platform becomes a building of a city if it falls within its jurisdiction.

I built a capitol building and a small police station on an aerial platform. The police jurisdiction area did not completely cover the platform. This allowed me to build buildings on the platform that were not part of the city, allowing for some interesting story situations.

[Haxus]

Also, you cannot build roads or landscapers on platforms. You can build bridges.