Prevent "floating" tiles

[Colin]

Floating tiles can be very unrealistic when someone builds a "floating" bridge.

So I propose that when a player walks onto a tile, it does a simple X condition to see if the floor is connected to a support (i think 2 tiles connected is fair, since it is possible to build like this - with higher carp the length could be higher, e.g. 3-4 tiles), the support doesn't need to be all sides, just as long as 1 wall piece is below that tile.

If the floor tile has no connection and support, it collapses to the ground (the tile below) as unusable wood/planks and of course the player falls also which may cause damage....

 

On the 3 example images, the circle represents the player, the brown squares are tiles (floor), the green X is the conditional check, the blue box is a wall or support.

Image 1 we see the player is in the middle tile, there is a wall on the tile to the left so it is ok, same goes for image 2, there is a wall connected to the tile above the player. But on image 3 the wall is an extra tile up, so the condition fails and the tile the player is standing on should crumble and drop.

The condition check should be increased with carp level, if the tile looks bad condition it should support only 1, level 3 should be 2 tiles, 7 should be 3 or 4 tiles. (the images would represent a level 3-4 carpentry)

 

This would also be useful for building structural traps for other players or zombies.

What do you think?

Edited October 23, 2016 by Colin

[Hicks]

Yep need something like this. Online is a maze of skywalks and sky bases. Kills any immersion.

[CaptKaspar]

Great use for those wooden pillars!

[Magic Mark]

This is a good idea, however having that small of a support radius is kind of counter-intuitive as it makes it terrible for people wanting to build cabins with larger main rooms.

[Colin]

3 hours ago, Kim Jong Un said:

This is a good idea, however having that small of a support radius is kind of counter-intuitive as it makes it terrible for people wanting to build cabins with larger main rooms.

 

Actually, I think this will not be a problem. At level 1, they could build a 2x2 room, which for real, if someone can't build a wall without holes, they certainly can't build a roof that is stable... at level 7 at 4 by 4, they could build a 8x8 room, which could be extended even larger by using columns

[Keshash]

Sounds cool and is definitely needed. 

4 hours ago, Colin said:

.. At level 1...

It could be tied to the new wall level, you know.

[Colin]

Probably, if a tile is "unstable", it should also use the lowest quality sprite, even if you have level 10... so if you build a tile outside of the possible range, it will use a level 1 floor sprite, this will give users a chance to think about whether it is safe to step on.

There is also the possibility that it could instead receive damage as you walk on it and play a "creaking" sound, with enough time to turn back before it collapses.

[DresdenBBQ]

Well not necessarily if someone has bad carp skill or even good they could only make a 2x2, you could use pillars to add a bit of structural integrity.

9 hours ago, Kim Jong Un said:

This is a good idea, however having that small of a support radius is kind of counter-intuitive as it makes it terrible for people wanting to build cabins with larger main rooms.

 

[Magic Mark]

I understand that, but I'm thinking about how this would damage the ability to build something super extravagant without the ability of more kinds of supports that aren't totally intrusive. I'm confident that if it's introduced in the way the OP says I should be fine, but the radius should be a fair bit more generous. Either way people with skybases will be forced to produce a realistic compound so it's a win-win, I just think it shouldn't be so harsh.

[Colin]

Although I'm primarily an Assembly coder, I decided to give a shot making a very simple proof of concept lua script for testing, however I have zero experience with the PZ API and having a little difficulty finding the documentation for the API to perform tile/IsoObject destruction, currently I am testing with object:RemoveTileObject(floortile) which seems to work, however, it does not replicate over MP/network or remain permanent, there are a few other problems with the API so far but as a test bed to see how it would work I think it is fine.

 

If anyone can tell me how to get RemoveTileObject to replicate on network, please do, I am very short on time at the moment, but if I solve this problem and make a few further adjustments I will post the script/mod as my first of hopefully many PZ mods.

[trombonaught]

Not much to add except for OHMYGODPLEASEYES. My server took to adding wooden posts to our expanded second story walks because it looked too silly. Maybe if there were a roofing build mechanism that didn't require supports, this could still permit elaborate single floor structures but demand more forethought for taller buildings.