building Basic building improvements

[Tooltip]

Howdy all!

I'm a long time survival player and recently picked up Grounded. What an awesome game! I love the style and feel and atmosphere. Very happy to be playtesting this awesome game. I recently unlocked the ability to build and have started to lay out my first base. One thing that immediately jumped out at me is the choice of basic building materials (square and triangle).

I noticed that Obsidian chose to go with a 90°-45°-45° triangle piece rather than a 60°-60°-60° which unfortunately limits our building shapes, especially circular building. I've created a little graphic that shows the most basic implication of this choice of triangle. 

alternate link: https://i.imgur.com/Kt0TOcV.png

As you can see, a 90°-45°-45° triangle has sides: 1, 1, sqrt(2) = 1.414 instead of 1, 1, 1 in a 60°-60°-60° triangle. This means that one of the sides cannot connect to the square piece. The outcome of this in the most basic sense is that we can't use triangles to make a closed shape other than a rotated and slightly larger (~ +.414) square. With an equilateral triangle, you can make a hexagon which allows you to make much more rounded structures. For a strong demonstration of the power of this system see Conan Exiles which uses these triangles.

This game is so charming, and the aesthetic of the grass/sticks is so awesome that I'm really hoping the building system is adjusted to unlock some great building flexibility.

 

Thanks for reading, I can't wait to see what comes next!

-Tooltip

Edited October 15, 2020 by Tooltip
slight typo, managed to add inline image

[McSquirl Nugget]

love it.  i'll 2nd this.

[Gearhart]

I wonder if this is the reason doors and triangle walls only rotate 90 degrees instead of 45; they would create gaps because their models aren't extra wide like regular walls are. I can see this change opening up more flexibility in door placement, and would also allow angled roofs to be placed more easily as you would no longer have to cycle between interior and exterior corner pieces.

That said, roofing would create a significant problem for implementing this; outside corners would need to be re-modeled to use 60° angles instead of 45, a 60° variant of the interior corner roof would need to be made (the 45 one would still be needed for 90° angles), and regular roofs need to be modified to rotate in 60° angles instead of 90°.

Of course, roofing is an issue with building design currently with its lack of gable and pyramid roofs, so...

[Tooltip]

1 hour ago, Gearhart said:

I wonder if this is the reason doors and triangle walls only rotate 90 degrees instead of 45; they would create gaps because their models aren't extra wide like regular walls are. I can see this change opening up more flexibility in door placement, and would also allow angled roofs to be placed more easily as you would no longer have to cycle between interior and exterior corner pieces.

That said, roofing would create a significant problem for implementing this; outside corners would need to be re-modeled to use 60° angles instead of 45, a 60° variant of the interior corner roof would need to be made (the 45 one would still be needed for 90° angles), and regular roofs need to be modified to rotate in 60° angles instead of 90°.

Of course, roofing is an issue with building design currently with its lack of gable and pyramid roofs, so...

These are great observations. There's no doubt that making these changes would require extra work, however that's exactly why they have an early access period. Hopefully we can get a Dev response as to why they went with the current triangle, and/or the likelihood of transitioning.

Nearly all sandbox games eventually become about creativity and free building. At some point you are kitted out and skilled enough to dominate any baddie on the field. All objectives are accomplished and you're sitting pretty. At that point, a very flexible building system is very important to facilitating creative gameplay and really interesting builds. That's why I think this somewhat costly change is easily worth the investment.