[Suggestion] Rail mass limits

[Garrett-C]

Short Description of the suggestion:

All other forms of child entities change their mass limits based on the stretched size of the system, except for the slider which has a fixed 400kg regardless of size or add-ons. In order to encourage fewer child entities, I think it would be good to have the mass limit scale with the length of the slider (Like other systems) I also think that the rail addon should also increase the mass to facilitate even larger doors with minimal child entities. 400kg is fairly limiting especially when you think about larger doors for hangars etc.

[Xerma]

Yep, as it stands sliders can't even handle a 1m thick panel that's a circle of 30m in diameter. Or perhaps we could use capacitors on sliders and the other functional blocks?

[tsunamayo]

There was the same discussion for rotor. I wonder how it work for other games, do they have mass limit and impact? Also people should use longer rail to go further, otherwise it will be weird I guess. But of course I can and will tweak the limit higher. Thx

[Garrett-C]

There was the same discussion for rotor. I wonder how it work for other games, do they have mass limit and impact? Also people should use longer rail to go further, otherwise it will be weird I guess. But of course I can and will tweak the limit higher. Thx

I believe starmade just as mass addon blocks sort of that when connected to a rail increase the mass that it can carry. Not sure what Space Engineers does.

I kind of feel like currently the rail should be stronger the longer it is as that feels intuitive with the current system. That said you are right about the fact that a longer rail should be for longer distance really. Maybe there could be a way to make them wider or deeper for increased mass?

The other option would be some form of universal mass increasing system which can be stacked onto these systems. With decent values this could pretty much eliminate the mass issue in a way that has a cost (more heat/energy consumption)

Or another approach could be the option to weld child entities together like you have discussed if that allowed the rails mass limit to merge you could in theory just build enough rails and separate sections of the moving surface and then merge them into one. The multiple sections could also work well if we had a speed setting on rails like on pistons so you could in theory just synchronise the movements off all the sections. Probably not the best solution but it’s kind of a rough one atleast.

[Gliese-832-c]

The only other similar game that I've played is Space Engineers. The mechanisms in that game have a torque and target speed setting. It works as intended. The target speed is the speed that the mechanism tries to reach, and the torque is the force that it can apply. If the thing that it's pushing is heavy, at low torque settings, it might take a long time to accelerate up to the desired speed. If you are inside a gravity field and try to push something heavy up, it might not even work at low torques, because the gravity is generating a counter force.

That system feels much more natural and intuitive, it does what you would expect, and is also much more realistic. While it might sound more complex at first, after you spend half an hour playing around with it, it is so, so much better. It allows for better contraptions, because you have more precise control over your mechanisms. While Starship EVO does many things better than Space Engineers, this is one of the places where Space Engineers is still better than Starship EVO, and I would like to see a similar system in this game.

[Garrett-C]

@Gliese-832-c Does the Space Engineers system allow for anyway to increase the maximum mass that could be moved by a mechanism or is it a case of x amount and no more? Ideally I think we should have a way to increasr the mass limits at some cost rather than having a hardcoded cap.

[Gliese-832-c]

As I said, there is no maximum mass, only torque. With torque, every mass, no matter how big, can be moved, but the bigger it gets, the slower it becomes, so eventually it's just not viable anymore. The cost could just be a higher power usage and energy generation.

[Garrett-C]

@Gliese-832-c Hmm see that still feels like you hit a hard limit. I feel like there should be some way to increase it further. Your description of torque etc is kind of how it works at the moment. My issue is that you either need a really large limit or some way to increase that limit for a cost.

[tsunamayo]

Thanks for the description. Yes I feel we need a way to get increase the limit in a way... I will see what I can thing about. Maybe an addon block for mechanism? Thanks

[WILDCATreactor]

Like an "enhanced motor" or "high-torque gear box"

[LiquidzBot]

Thanks for the description. Yes I feel we need a way to get increase the limit in a way... I will see what I can thing about. Maybe an addon block for mechanism? Thanks

hey there ! old thread I know but still open so felt redundant to suggest again.

Are there any news on this with the new physics/voxel removal release by any chance ? Currently working on a mass rail dependent modular ship and even though it still moves I am WAY above the weight % limit (*for now) Really feeeling the need for some power hungry , med heat Rail/Hinge/Rotator mass enhancers. (Starmade used something similar back in the day)

I like that lengthening the hinge helps for big mechanisms but would be nice to trade power/heat for a minimalistic option as well.

Thanks Tsuna ! ^_^