Hawkeye Black Labs (whiteboarding thread)

[Saelem Black]

I've decided to jump into modding for terratech. At present I'm a novice (but not a neophyte), so these may take a while to fully build. I wanted to outline blocks I have planned for discussion and to ask for some help from the modding folks. This thread will also serve as a suggestion thread for Black Labs blocks that folks might want to see. If/when these blocks come to fruition, I'll make a separate thread posting the blocks themselves like others have done. In no way are all/any of these blocks promised. Just brainstorming for now.

Black Labs Blocks - I'm leaning into TT lore here, given that I'm referenced in-game as a Hawkeye researcher. These blocks represent the blocks that are developed out of my "lab". They are meant to extend the functionality of hawkeye in line with the airship creations I enjoy building the most. Many of the blocks will be quality of life blocks meant to improve the aesthetic of building with the corp and cut down on the visual block-spam of larger techs. They will also be based out of suggestions I've made in the past which probably won't get implemented. The theme for Black Labs blocks is military near-future space faring. Think the Daedelus/Promethius from Stargate SG1 or the Caldari from Eve Online.

Near term:

• HE Ram Scoop Engine
  • This is basically a linear motion engine, except it's flat and wide (2x2x1) and 3-4x stronger. All hawkeye's stuff is heavy, so it makes sense that an LME style block would lift proportionally more.
• HE Big Daddy Trailer Wheel
  • It's a big daddy wheel with no passive braking. Meant for trailers with large, HE themed wheels. *Should* be relatively easy to make.
• HE Hurricane Prop
  • Imagine the twister prop, but with the outside fairing extended/reshaped slightly so that it visually merges with a neighbor when stacked up in a column (like how the twister props are usually used). This way, it will look like a single, long engine instead of a bunch of individual blocks. I'll boost the power output and price just a hair, also.
• Body blocks
  • There are a few more body blocks I want. It will be a series, but in line with what's already in-game, just a few more options.
• HE HUD Computers
  • I want a speedometer, altimeter, fuel gauge, and power gauge as HE styled blocks with attachment points on all sides to be placed internally.
• HE Armored Window
  • This. Lights up at night like the HE cab.
  • 
• HE Wings
  • I've done a bit of work on wings also. One wing will simply be a flat panel with no motion control on it which blends seamlessly with its neighbors in all directions.
  • A second will be a steep-sloped wing for more aggressive fighter-style jets.
  • A final one will be an angled tailfin. Most military aircraft have aggressively tilted rudder fins.
  • Possibly others
• Small HE engine
  • Don't have details yet, but I'd like something somewhat like the venture zero prop (without that awful windup toy sound).
• Black Labs Hawkeye skin. Inkier black with purple accents.

Long term:

• Weapons
  • Railgun-based weapons. I've requested a big railcannon from Potato, and I'd like to expand to have some mid-sized and naval-gun sized ones as well. I don't know, though weapons seem complicated. We'll see.
  • Aerial bombardment mortar/cannon - right now I frequently use monster mortars mounted underneath my airships for their long projectile life and projectile homing capability. They feel better, more concussive, than the paladin bombs. I want to spend some time to develop this idea.
  • VLS integrated missile launcher
• HE Carrier Engine
  • This is essentially a large, powerful rotor. Think the heli-carrier engines from the MCU. It is ring-shaped with attachment points around the outside. I'll probably try to give it a fiery jet engine effect, too.
• HE Frigate Drive
  • A large engine with a particle effect, similar to the BF Ion drives.

This thread will be updated as new information becomes available.

 

[caljam6164]

noice
sounds good

 

[Helios]

Bless you for the Fortress Corners, and the Armored Window! We could always use more variety and decorative blocks.

Think you can make something to cover up the sides of Warp Armor? The Outside Corner Edge Armor is a perfect match for Medium Warp Armor, but no equivalent for Large or XL Warp Armor.

 

[Saelem Black]

Bless you for the Fortress Corners, and the Armored Window! We could always use more variety and decorative blocks.

Think you can make something to cover up the sides of Warp Armor? The Outside Corner Edge Armor is a perfect match for Medium Warp Armor, but no equivalent for Large or XL Warp Armor.

Yes, good call. That shouldn't be too difficult. I'll add it to the list.

 

[Saelem Black]

5.5.2020 Priorities (mostly in order)

• Requested body blocks
• Cascade Turbine Nose Fairing (basically will make the front of a column look like a jet intake)
• Small red blinking lights
• Red light strips
• M, L, and XL armored sloped windows
• Big Daddy Trailer Wheel
• VLS Missile
• Autocannon railgun
• Naval railcannon
• Triple naval railcannon
• Bombardment mortar (probably also railgun based)
• Medium/Large Landing Gear Wheel
• Small propeller
• Medium gimballed Rotor/propeller
• Compact medium rotor (A Hawkeye LME, basically)
• Helicarrier rotor (maybe gimballed if it works properly)
• Black Labs Custom Skin

Wing blocks are on indefinite hold until wing code gets fixed in TTMM.

 

[General Douglas]

VLS Missile FTW!

 

[YaYYeeT]

I suggest that you make a dual barrel quick-firing gun that is mid-range(in terms of price and unlock level) and has damage about 1.5x that of the 3-pound cannon and slightly larger splash radius at half the height of the megaton.

 

[Saelem Black]

This next project might take me a little while, but I wanted to throw out a preview. Please let me know your thoughts!

These are 0-directional shields. They block your own weapons as well due to limitations with how modded shields work. So instead, the goal is to only shield where you actually need it. These shields are small, very cheap, and consume very little power. This is the smallest variant, and I can easily see this as a 5-6 block set of different sizes and angles of shields.

 

[General Douglas]

Awesome!

 

[YaYYeeT]

This next project might take me a little while, but I wanted to throw out a preview. Please let me know your thoughts!

These are 0-directional shields. They block your own weapons as well due to limitations with how modded shields work. So instead, the goal is to only shield where you actually need it. These shields are small, very cheap, and consume very little power. This is the smallest variant, and I can easily see this as a 5-6 block set of different sizes and angles of shields.

View attachment 32451

I've wanted those for so long!

 

[Saelem Black]

Update on Hardlight shields:



Development issues/decisions (please feel free to weigh in).

1. These shields are intended to be stronger, but more limited in placement than regular bubble shields. What I had intended was that they are supposed to block your own projectiles, but offer explosive protection in exchange. I was hoping to leverage the behavior of the R&D test chamber's signs (they simply delete projectiles) for this purpose. However, after extensive testing, I was not able to recreate the projectile-deleting behavior. Other expert modders have offered some insight, but at present, it's not working.

2. A big issue with these is the number of different panels required to shield a tech effectively. Right now, I have two, a small and medium flat shield. I am also planning corner and sloped variants. However, I don't yet know how many, what angles, and what sizes all these need to be. I don't want this set to be 20 shields.

3. What do the emitters look like? Right now, I just have an armor-panel shaped emitter. Good for some places on exteriors, but bad for techs dominated by corner or sloped blocks. The alternative is to use a proper cube-shaped emitter (like the existing shields), but then there's the even/odd width building issue.

4. Color/visual effect. As it turns out, the shield materials/textures in vanilla are designed only to show up at the edges of the sphere. This looks visually clean and eliminates visual noise. However, they work poorly for flat panel shields, making the shield look like very clear glass. The fix to this is as I have shown, to use a transparent glowing material. However, this can look very noisy if there's a lot of panels on a tech.

5. What shape should the colliders have? This is the actual barrier that blocks damage. if the barrier is only where the glowing panel is, it may feel as if bullets can sneak through at corners very easily. I addressed this with a collider which actually is more like a box between the glowing face and the emitter, however, that might make it more difficult to build "holes" in the shield for weapons to shoot through.

All of these things need answers eventually, so lots of work to do on these.

 

[Saelem Black]

Black Labs Block List and Priorities: 6/21/2020
All things subject to change.
I'm not taking commissions at present, but I will again after I crank though a few more blocks on this list.

Near Term:

• HE Battleship Cannon - railgun conversion
  • This will do similar damage to the HE battleship cannon, have similar volume and spam factor, and a similar model, but with Black Labs railgun projectile performance
• Railgun Mortar
  • Details of this are still fuzzy. Primary purpose is actually aerial bombardment, but I want it to work as a regular mortar, too. It will be relatively large (2x2x4 or 2x2x6) and have projectile homing as well as much Black Labs projectile behavior as I can preserve and still get the functionality I want.
• Vanilla HE Railgun - Black Labs upgrade
  • relatively simple upgrade to the vanilla railgun. It will be 1x1x4, do less damage per shot, but have a higher rate of fire. Black Labs railgun behavior, of course

Intermediate Term:

• Bracket Blocks (by request)
  • T and elbow brackets that fit the vanilla bracket blocks. Also some streamlined body block/bracket adapters
• Type B Delta wings (by request)
  • Simply removing the visual ailerons from the HE delta wings so they can blend seamlessly with other HE and HE/BL wings
• Angled rudder fins
  • With the release of the diagonal wings for GSO, I can finally make the diagonal rudders for HE.
• Black Labs Nanite River
  • This is an oversized repair bubble. 2x2x2, perhaps non-spherical area of effect, which has no visible green bubble. You can leave it on and it's not a visual mess. The area of effect is also very large, though the repair rate is somewhat slow. Basically to give the illusion of passive healing. If I get clever, i may create an auto-lightning effect with green lightning to make it look like a literal nanite river if you repair non-attached exterior blocks.
• Black Labs hardlight shields (maybe). Some primitive version were accidentally released, but they were incomplete.
  • Per the above post, when I can figure out how to make the hardlight shield block explosions, I'll release a set of shields ( @WhitePaw2002 this is what I need your help with)
• Hawkeye Autominer
  • Don't you hate how the GSO autominers try to run for the hills the moment they take damage? Wouldn't it be much better to have an autominer that grimly bore the assault until you arrived? That's what I have in mind - an autominer which will never detach/unanchor, has a robust health pool and perhaps some in-built armor. Also should be easier to place than the GSO one.
• Hawkeye conveyors
  • @Rafs cracked the code on these with his excellent Green Tech conveyors, so I'll be somewhat replicating them in HE style. The purpose will be fully enclosed conveyors to create internal pipes for inside harvester techs.
• Hawkeye mobile refinery
  • This will be a mobile refinery which has APs on many sides and interfaces with the hawkeye conveyors.
• Hawkeye mobile delivery cannon
  • A mobile delivery cannon which interfaces with the HE conveyors. Will be narrow, but with a tall, smoke-stack like launch tube
• Hawkeye Tactical Windmill
  • An anchorable windmill which passively produces power at all times of day. Relatively large with lower power output per volume than solar panels, but provides reliable power. Credit to @Licflagg for the original idea.
• Black Labs Skin

Long term:

• Hawkeye Mining Tusk
  • This is a heavy plasma laser, but turned on its side so that a long, powerful beam is stretched between two emitters. It will act basically like a cheese knife for mining, providing massive damage against rocks and trees in a package that works well on the front of techs, but poorly as a weapon.
• Carrier Engine
  • This will be either a rotor or an antimatter engine (per the engine already released) used principally for airships. Very large, very powerful, with attachment points on the outside. Think helicarrier engines from the MCU.
• HE Light set
  • Various red accent lights and white and red illumination lights
• Cascade engine cowl
  • A nose cap for cascade engines

Someday, maybe:

• Sloped armored windows
• Railgun autocannon
• triple naval railgun
• Laser-guarded wheels
• larger HE landing gear

 

[YaYYeeT]

spam factor

Make it more powerful than the Mk3 but waaaayyyy more unwieldly.

 

[Saelem Black]

7/6/2020 Priorities Update:
All things subject to change.

Near Term:

• Railgun homing projectiles Cancelled
  • I want to add slight homing to the railguns. They're meant as snipers, just a sliver of homing will make this really shine.
• Railgun Mortar Cancelled
  • Details of this are still fuzzy. Primary purpose is actually aerial bombardment, but I want it to work as a regular mortar, too. It will be relatively large (2x2x4 or 2x2x6) and have projectile homing as well as much Black Labs projectile behavior as I can preserve and still get the functionality I want.
• Railgun AA cannon
  • Dual barreled, stronger homing, and rapid tracking.
• HE mobile resource compressor
• Requested Body Blocks
• Angled HE Wings/Rudders

Intermediate Term:

• Black Labs hardlight shields (maybe). Some primitive version were accidentally released, but they were incomplete.
  • Still on the backburner for now.
• Small Disruptor
  • Similar to the Ivaldi, but smaller and less damage. Probably a circular dish
• Large Disruptor
  • Similar to the Ivaldi, but fixed with a massive dish and much greater damage and energy drain
• Plasma Bomb
  • Think cluster bombs, but with large, brilliant explosions and projectiles of red plasma. Large and meant for bombers.
• Plasma Torpedo
  • Think cruise missile, but with a large plasma bolt for the projectile.
• Large HE Ion Drive
  • probably 2x4x4 with red trails - significant thrust, but heavy
• Buff to Huginn antimatter engine
  • I've gotten feedback that these aren't as useful as they could because of the AP layout and still relatively weak thrust. These are hard to balance, so I'll have to spend some time studying the problem
• Muninn Antimatter engine
  • A smaller version of the Huginn which is basically a straight upgrade to the LME.

Long term items tbd.

I have also joined the TT modding trello, so feel free to take a look at the progress of my highest priority items there.

 

[Ghosty-Jr]

Any plans for a hover-bed of some kind? The regular Hawkeye ones are nice but could use a little more power behind them since they seem to struggle with heavily armoured airships. Maybe something taller? or even make these giant propellers your making function similar to hovers?

 

[Saelem Black]

8/1/2020 Priorities:
All things subject to change

Near Term

• Jotnar Frigate engine
  • A 1x1x4 ion drive with approximately double the thrust of the BF small ion drive.
• Jotnar Battleship engine
  • 4x4x12 or 4x4x16 ion engine. Absolutely massive thrust
• Small Disruptor
• Large Fixed Disruptor
• Plasma Mortar
• Plasma cluster bomb bay

Intermediate Term

• XL Carrier Engine
  • I've been talking about this for a while - a very large, pretty rotor, essentially. With some cool particle effects.
• Hardlight Shields
• Railgun AA Cannon
• HE Mobile Resource Compressor
• Requested Body Blocks
• Mining Tusk
• Black Labs light set
• Nanite River
  • Its a fancy heal bubble
• Cascade Engine Nose fairing
• Plasma cruise missile

Long Term

• Black Labs skin
  • Requires me to master GIMP, which I'm not really in the mood for at the moment. Still want to do this, though
• Large Motorcycle wheels
• Long landing skids for helicopters
• Triple naval railgun
• Gatling railgun

Maybe, if I feel like

• 2x2x1 HE battery
  • The GC gets full APs, why not the HE one?
• HE tesla coil
• Large landing gear
• Type B Delta Wings
• 2x2x1 Hover

 

[eddie]

May I request a smaller version of the black lab angled wing? this will work great on smaller builds

 

[Helios]

Suggestion: Hawkeye Target Designator

You know, a fixed coaxial laser pointer, for completely fixed large guns that shoot in a straight line, like your Naglfaar. Could be very useful on custom swivel turrets, especially in POV mode since it lacks crosshair.

The vanilla HE Laser Targeting has its own targeting so can't be used for that purpose. Its range is also somewhat short, for something like Naglfaar the red dot has to be visible from much further away.

 

[Ghosty-Jr]

Can I request a much stronger Black Labs Gyroscope? something small and compact that also costs a ton, something like the Geocorp gyroscopes but much stronger so that compact airships with limited space dont need to be so pedantic about weight distribution like a 4x4x4 Gyro

 

[Saelem Black]

Suggestion: Hawkeye Target Designator

You know, a fixed coaxial laser pointer, for completely fixed large guns that shoot in a straight line, like your Naglfaar. Could be very useful on custom swivel turrets, especially in POV mode since it lacks crosshair.

The vanilla HE Laser Targeting has its own targeting so can't be used for that purpose. Its range is also somewhat short, for something like Naglfaar the red dot has to be visible from much further away.

I like this idea, but I'll have think about how to do it effectively. Even fixed guns aim a bit in TT. The Naglfaar was actually built as a truly fixed gun, but after I experimented I realized you can hit anything reliably without at least a tiny amount of aim, so it has a 2.5 degree aim now (which is very small, but critical to be able to hit reliably). The laser sight would have to do this as well. I'll put some thought into it.

Can I request a much stronger Black Labs Gyroscope? something small and compact that also costs a ton, something like the Geocorp gyroscopes but much stronger so that compact airships with limited space dont need to be so pedantic about weight distribution like a 4x4x4 Gyro

I've thought about a gyro. Rafs came up with an interesting variation with his ecobalance gyro which might have some application in Black Labs. However, it's very important to understand that every block I make is balanced very carefully. Making "god" blocks is strictly against my philosophy. However, given Black Labs is often focused on large airships, an XL gyro makes sense. I'll consider it.