Can we have BOXES and INTERIOR LOGIC TRANSMITTERS please?

[Shade_N53]

When you encounter automation, you immediately contact the Switch and Bus elements. You can't over-exaggerate how neat and tidy the Switch setup is with a single wire coming from a single element (Switch) to the controlled building -- and Bus can make several wires take a single cell. Beautiful. 

And then there's everything else, forming a formless heap around the devices you're trying to actually automate. Also, the duplicants have to deconstruct and build each element and wire segment separately with several runs, which makes reprogramming the device (which is needed when you're trying things out) extremely messy outside of sandbox with its instant build -- which doesn't add to the difficulty, just adds unwanted disorder. So why not tidy it all up inside a Box element? It could take up a tile or four (preferably on the backside, not interfering with Buildings), taking several inputs, like a Bus does, and have several outputs to local buses (or a single one to a single wire). And when selected, it could provide us as a player with an interior "board" with inputs/outputs on different sides and all the logic schematic elements to draw the interaction logic upon. Of course, the circuitry inside should already be paid by the price of the box itself and be instant to change, making experimentation available inside the actual playthrough without infinite Sandbox attempts. 

That would be neat and beautiful, like that simple switch I mentioned at the start -- a single box with sensor (and other) inputs and outputs, without a mess around the devices. In addition to being much more tidy, it could allow for logic circuit blueprint generation to re-use the already working schematics without endlessly re-drawing them. What's more, without the need for physical wiring inside the box, this could probably save some FPS on heavy automated bases. 

And while we're at it, why not add indoor transmitters, akin to those used in space exploration? Logic wires dragging from god-knows-where to gods-know-what destination make base messier without really adding much difficulty. Being replaced with a transmitter/receiver on the appropriate channel would remove this nuisance, allowing for manageable base-wide automation. I see this as an extremely good thing. And if these for some game mechanics reason have to have a limited range, please make it big enough and provide us with signal repeaters to boost all the signals received. 

 

/EDIT/addendum And while we're at it, why not provide boxes and multipipes for piping and electricity, as well? Of course, the pipes and wires inside should be physical (flow rules, heat exchange, etc) and buildable, unlike the logic switching circuits, but having a gas or a liquid flow boxes would drastically reduce the tangle inside the base itself. And multipiping should reduce the spagetti inside the space base. It can be organized like, say, a rocket section which we can look into and map out as we please, and, after delivering all the required materials, a single job for construction/deconstruction can be queued on edit, with a single animation (even if it has to be a longer one, considering how many segments need to be built). 

Also, perhaps there's a way to provide special tiles with built in pipes and cables, like wall panels on space stations. That would allow for building a more logically laid out bases. 

[Sasza22]

There were ideas before to add an electronic box that would work like the rocket interiors. The building would be best a 2x4 structure so it can provide 4 inputs and 4 outputs. Inside it would be a 10x10 box with pre build ladders but would still require metal for the wires and logic gates themselves. It would use the existing system for rocket interiors so not much work would be needed for that.

Adding stuff like this for pipes or electric wires would be interesting. I`m not sure if needed but i`m sure someone would find a use for them.

[Shade_N53]

12 hours ago, Sasza22 said:

There were ideas before to add an electronic box that would work like the rocket interiors. The building would be best a 2x4 structure so it can provide 4 inputs and 4 outputs. Inside it would be a 10x10 box with pre build ladders but would still require metal for the wires and logic gates themselves. It would use the existing system for rocket interiors so not much work would be needed for that.

A power junction box would definitely be usable, too. In my opinion, it's better to have a different interface for logic and electric boxes, with just a drawing board opening on interaction for both, but with wires being physical. When edited, these could be generating (possibly multiple) delivery jobs and one rebuild animation. For the gas ones? I think the limited space is fine, but having ladders inside and duplicants running around building it segment by segment is unnecessary. Just making them deliver everything and someone using a building animation on the box itself from the outside is more than enough. 

If Klei doesn't make this a reality -- then a mod that allows doing this stuff based on the current rocket section interiors would be more than welcome, if possible. 

13 hours ago, Sasza22 said:

Adding stuff like this for pipes or electric wires would be interesting. I`m not sure if needed but i`m sure someone would find a use for them.

Well, having stuff like this go into a single box would drastically declutter a base, for example. It may not seem as much on the outside, but using Blender's node interface with its group creation capacity (with reduction of a complex node group to a single square with inputs and outputs), I can definitely tell this will us to do so much more with base complexity.