The cost of this absolutely ridiculous

[tecnix]

Seriously, this is ridiculous, it costs more than the useful things of the rest of the game.
I was going to build all this with diamond, but the cost was like a knife in the throat.
Klei, half this price at least 

 

Kle

[Erasmus Crowley]

The problem with your request is this:

The heat simulation in this game takes into consideration the mass of the object being simulated. Across the rest of the game, the mass of an object is directly related to it's resource cost. The more an object costs, the more mass it has, and therefore the more effective it is at influencing the heat simulation.

For an object whose sole purpose is to be a powerful modifier in the heat simulation, reducing it's resource cost (which then reduces it's mass, which in turn then reduces it's effectiveness at it's only job) seems counterproductive.

[Technoincubus]

Yeah, I, too, was surprised when I suddenly discovered that I run out of DIRT.

Also, shift plates have a nasty feature that you should place them one by one, and if you drag them you can build dozens of dozens in the same spot.

[BlueLance]

800 is cheap considering how useful it is.

Well for me it is useful and I do not see 800 as much of a dent if its out of dirt alone I could build about 500 of em. And I have no other use for dirt.

[Coolthulhu]

Build them out of cheaper materials. It's a good resource sink - something this game is severely lacking in otherwise.

[CantBreathe]

How do these function?

Could you provide examples?

[Risu]

They are a 1x1 building that exists as a 3x3 building for temperature influence. Basically their purpose is to average out the temperature in a room.
 

[Cilya]

I believe they are there to replace showers, statues and bridges in PO² boilers and bubblers.

It feels less cheaty with them, since it's exactly their purpose. They have been made wide and heavy, so I think they really became better than any other used alternative as for now. They are useful to cover an issue we had with the very low heat conduction of any building or pipe. If the heat conduction from liquids/gas to pipes is not fixed, it still not ideal though.