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Add a lightning rod.

Darren Harper shared this feedback 3 years ago
Completed

A lightning rod could give you a bit of protection against lightning storms and could also be used to harness the electricity charge batteries a bit. It would take damage but would lower the chance of your base getting hit.

Replies (13)

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We will consider this feature. Keep voting.

Thank you for your feedback!

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Do or Do Not, There is no try ~ Yoda Star Wars (Watched it today)

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I am brand new to this game. I agree with a lightning rod for protection and energy. I am on the alien planet. During one thunder storm both of my wind turbines were destroyed and I was struck 3 times. Once right after I was healed. That was twice in less than a minute. I have seen something about making a decoy but can't find out how to build it. Please add lighting rods and make them available in the very beginning. Maybe a grounding rod with the survival kit and an upgrade/advanced lightning rod later for energy collection.

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Conversely I'm a long term player and while the lightning was a "surprise" to be overcome, it would be nice if the part list descriptions mentioned or hinted at the aerial and decoy components to draw a strike but cause damage to said component; a more advanced lighting rod taking zero damage, naturally.

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So lightning is super cool and all, but it does WAY too much damage to structures. You would think a giant metal hangar well-connected with the ground would dissipate the energy of a lightning strike no problem (like the real world!)


Keen, I propose a realistic solution consisting of the following changes to lightning:

1. Lightning does not damage large grid armor blocks.

1a. Still damages functional blocks such as refineries, hydrogen tanks, antennas, solar panels, etc. in a direct strike.

1b. Still damages any small grid blocks it strikes. (Not enough mass to dissipate the energy)

2. When lightning strikes a grid, it always creates a momentary power disruption in anything connected to that grid.

2a. Applies whether or not it damages the block it strikes. This encourages more thoughtful "realistic" base design. (Protective outer shells, faraday cages, etc)

3. Lightning preferentially strikes higher features (manmade or natural) in the surrounding area

3a. Ex: Strikes a wind turbine tower that protrudes much higher than the rest of a base, or strikes a tall mountain instead


With these three proposed changes, lighting in the game would be much more realistic and less game-breaking. If you want to give biomes a better purpose, essentially forcing players out of certain ones is not a good solution.


The changes I proposed create a fun new gameplay element rather than adding an annoying feature that most people would want to turn off.

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I completely agree with Toasty, but I'd like to add some of my thoughts:

  • Lightning should not charge batteries. After all, it's a static charge, while electronics usually uses alternate current and in fact is impeded by static.
  • I agree that lightning strike should overload the grid, disabling it and requiring player to manually switch it off and back on (by pressing Y). That'll make lightning a nuissance to the player, but not a critical one.
  • Lightning should not outright destroy blocks. If it's possible, I'd say it rather should damage block down to certain %, rendering blocks inoperable and making player repair them. Yes, you're gonna have you precious fighter all on fire and disabled, but not completely destroyed.
  • Addition to above: active blocks have more lightning priority. That is, lightning will prefer next non-damaged block to the damaged one.
  • It does same with armor blocks and large/small grids alike.
  • Instead of lightning targeting players all the time, it should target closest block of closest grid/player. Thus it'll only target players if they're closest entity to strike.
  • Lightning don't have to always strike vertically down. They can slant to the sides to a certain degree or even jump in the sky between clouds.
  • Lightning rods are a must. My suggestion: lightning rod is large grid only block which suffers no damage from lightning and has topmost priority to be struck. Power surge may or may not still apply.

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Well said shady one!

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I hope this will applies PC too because I'm PC player

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logic of faraday would be welcome. nuf said i think?

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Personally I think that whilst the addition of weather has added a nice bit of variety... lightning is a mechanic that either needs removing, reworking or... as this suggestion puts forward... to allow for some form of mitigation.


As a game mechanic, it sucks.

My experience of lightning so far has been "splat... dead!" and "F**k. Which part of my base is broken now?".

Even more so, if the lightning damage hits parts of the base that are out of visible sight during the storm.


If I could maybe die once and then do something about it... it would still suck, but at least I could feel I have some sort of player agency. It's too disruptive and too impactful.


Personally, I would think that a lightning rod would (hopefully) make lightning pointless. So maybe it would be better to remove it completely.


To compare it to another genre... If I get one-shotted with a headshot in a First Person Shooter - I at least can do something about it in the future. I can alter my movements. I can head-shot someone else myself. But mainly, I can respect the player skill involved. Whereas lightning in Space Engineers is more akin to an anvil randomly falling out of the sky with a 100% fatality rate, it's just plain NOT fun. It's random and unavoidable. Certain zones/biomes may be more prone than others, but if I randomly spawn as a newbie in one of those areas... random ruins my day again.


Remove it... or allow the player to mitigate it.

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Moving my comment to a different thread.

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Hi guys,


you can use Decoy block, it attracts Lighting!

Have fun!

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It's not exactly an obvious solution is it?

I mean, it's like "I keep getting eaten by piranhas" -- "Oh, you need to wear a mosquito net!". Sure, it might work 100% of the time, but it's hardly where someone without a WIKI or google would look to for a solution.


At the very least, perhaps the tooltip for the decoy block needs updating to say that.

It's hardly like reading "draw fire from enemy AI controlled turrets" is an obvious solution to getting hit by a weather effect.


Maybe even it's name needs updating to reflect this new use. I'm not sure what would be better than decoy... but when I read "decoy" - I think cardboard cutout rather that something that attracts lightning. Perhaps "Countermeasures Pod"? or something. Kinda hard to come up with something good on 15 seconds notice.

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Not even close to being the same thing as a lightning rod and what it can do.

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add a lightning rod to the game its not that hard!!! and not a decoy block players ask for lightning rod

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Had a decoy block up and were still struck by lightning in the bottom of a mine shaft 50 M below the surface not sure if it was a glitch or what but might need to relook at the decoy block

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That is not true. Lightnings tend to ignore decoys and grids in general. They always target player, no matter where he is.

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I tried with decoy blocks and the lightning never hits it. I'm on Pertam and every lightning strike is aiming for the player.

If I'm hiding inside the base the lightning keeps striking it over and over until it punches a hole through the base so it can get to me. If I'm flying or in a rover the first strike always hits the cockpit I'm in.

The only solution is to log out from the server and wait for the storm to be over, otherwise every building and vehicle I'm near will be totally wrecked.

Please fix this, I would rather have missiles randomly rain over my base, at least you can shoot those down and they don't have a 100% chance to hit you.

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please give us something that will help us with the lightning or simply tweak it so it wont destroy large grids easily

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The decoy blocks have to be broken because i had a ring of them around my base and lightning never struck them ONCE.. either fix the decoy block or please add a functional lightning rod! Tired of my grids being destroyed at random with nothing i can do about it. Also noticed lighting striking grids that are fully underground, which makes literally no sense

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They just suck.

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Pleeaasseee give us Lightning Rods or tweak the settings on this lightning. Lightning has been trolling my group on Pertam. We've all been struck and killed by lightning numerous times, and its wreaked havoc on our structures. We LOVE the weather system but the lightning is very obviously broken. I've been struck 4 times in a row plenty of times. PLEASE FIX!

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Decoys do not work. Add a lightning rod.

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Kind of odd because the ones I've built work just fine....

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