Automation Circuit Boards

[suicide commando]

First off, I love the new logic gates in the upcoming automation update, however, there is one problem with all the awesome logic gates.

That problem is Space, if you want to make more complex circuits, such as memory circuits, or other forms of higher end circuits, you will need to make a lot of logic gates to implement them. now resource wise, it's fine that these will cost a lot, however, there is one resource that you really need and won't have enough off to do this, and that's space. a logic gate takes up 2x2 + the connection wires, if you want to use say 10-20 of them, that is a LOT of space wasted on making a circuit. Yes, they are on the new layer, but even so, it will be hard to create such circuits.
So what I'd like to see added is CIRCUIT BOARDS!
A 2x2 or 2x4 object which can even be on the 'normal' layer. When you click on this, it will open a 'subspace' inside it which is say 10x10 or 20x10 for the big one, where you can put logic stuff ( and only logic stuff obviously ). The 4 or 8 spots on the outside can be used as connectors to the rest of the world, and would be nodes on the side of this internal circuit board you can use for your automation circuit.
This way, you can easily implement complex logic circuits without requiring a zillion amount of space to do this. possibly also add a 'copy' function to duplicate the internal design to another circuit board for easy building.

[manu_x32]

+1 on this  

I had exactly the same idea, I'm sure Klei has already thought about that.  This would be so awesome. You would be able to create custom devices with that, and maybe we could have a machine to print them based on design templates...

Ideally we would also be able to create automation inputs and outputs on the new devices to connect them to regular automation boxes and triggers.  Nested graphs basically.

[suicide commando]

A machine to print them wouldn't be feasible nor desirable in the game's spirit, as they would be buildings, so have to be built by the dupes. However, being able to create computational controls on various things would be entirely feasible and very fun to play around with.

The only challenge would be to implement the 'subspace' bit where the inside of said circuitboard would be. If they can add that then everything is fine and dandy.

[BlueLance]

I definently agree, even if the resoure cost was a lot higher I wouldnt bat an eye, at the moment I have very small designs, but I also find the actual Logic board to be a bit of an eyesore with how they overlap each other etc,

[manu_x32]

10 hours ago, suicide commando said:

A machine to print them wouldn't be feasible nor desirable in the game's spirit, as they would be buildings, so have to be built by the dupes. However, being able to create computational controls on various things would be entirely feasible and very fun to play around with.

The only challenge would be to implement the 'subspace' bit where the inside of said circuitboard would be. If they can add that then everything is fine and dandy.

Not sure I fully understand your comment.

What I meant is a printing machine that can print new custom boards based on the logic designs that you made in a subspace.  Those printed boards would be tiny (1-4 tiles big) compared to the enormous logic graphs that they can contain. The printed boards would all look similar except for their inputs and outputs that might be different depending on what you designed.  So on the machine you would see a list of the designs that you made and would queue the one you want to have dupes print.  

I don't know if that's what you meant, but I guess that the problem that arises is how do you place that new printed device somewhere in the world since that mechanic doesn't exist in the game yet. The mechanic would need to be added, or instead of a printing machine, we would need a new build icon at the bottom that contains all our board designs, and we would just build them like any other buildable object..

[AlexRou]

I see just one small problem with allowing people to create smaller circuits, they would be consuming the same amount of processing power (real CPU) if not more than the full sized circuits. Therefor making it easy for people to create smaller sized circuits will mean people would be doing much more complicated stuff, which in turn will eat even more CPU and lower the FPS.

So I do not think this would be a good idea unless they find a way to optimize processing circuits by maybe simplifying complicated circuits into the smallest number of instructions possible. 

[Neotix]

I agree with this idea to add microchip where we could build some logic contraptions. It would save a lot of space.

Only problem is that we won't be able to see entire setup if some gates were in microchip and others outside. For more experienced players it wouldn't be a problem but for others it might be.

About printing machine. It's not needed. Dupes just would see that microchip need materials and worktime to build internal logic gates and wires.

[HitrPr]

+1 to this, But i prefer expensive (like 8 blocks) programmable circuit, where I can write expressions.

[AlexRou]

56 minutes ago, HitrPr said:

+1 to this, But i prefer expensive (like 8 blocks) programmable circuit, where I can write expressions.

There is already a thread for that and everyone pretty much agrees that it is a bad idea or something very unlikely to be added. 

 

[HitrPr]

Ok, code-programming may be replaced by visual-coding (boolean blocks)

[AlexRou]

4 hours ago, HitrPr said:

Ok, code-programming may be replaced by visual-coding (boolean blocks)

It has similar issues as code programming, still takes a long time to develop.

[suicide commando]

On ‎18‎-‎11‎-‎2017 at 8:52 PM, AlexRou said:

There is already a thread for that and everyone pretty much agrees that it is a bad idea or something very unlikely to be added. 

This is why I suggested the 'subspace' solution. It would require less work as only the subspace would have to be implemented, and it would keep things relatively simple in terms of what it can do, but still would be a powerfull tool as you can make memory circuits and the like more easily this way with the existing tools.

[AlexRou]

13 minutes ago, suicide commando said:

This is why I suggested the 'subspace' solution. It would require less work as only the subspace would have to be implemented, and it would keep things relatively simple in terms of what it can do, but still would be a powerfull tool as you can make memory circuits and the like more easily this way with the existing tools.

Was replying to that one guy asking for coding not to the first post.

Your idea is better but it does not increase the maximum circuit complexity. This is because having a subspace would take just as much CPU time as the it being full size. So sure you can make smaller circuits but how complex they are would be about the same or less than just making them full size. It's a good idea for making it simple to use repeating circuits and save some building space. But how complex the circuit could be is still as limited, maybe even more so.

Just wanted to clarify if your intention was to build more complex circuits than you can without lagging the game or just to use less space and easier to use repeating designs.

[i dunno my name]

His idea may simply be to create an IC that can modify the logic inside the IC(3pin~16pin). If only the IC does not need subspaces, only multiple ICs need to be connected together.
If you write a program on the IC, I think it is not necessary. This requires learning to play the game code, feeling a bit weird. (In the game industry's tone, is to add more learning curve)

[sadovsf]

Actually this stuff exists even in real world and it is called programable logic gate and you can even implement different CPU's (read ALU) inside them. This woudl be great!