Catwalk stair mounting points are difficult to work with
I should not have to block out my staircases like this before placing the catwalks and stairs to make it line up with the grid. It adds a needless tedium to the game that distracts me from the fun.
Making the catwalk stairs taller than 2.5 meters (2.75 meters without the railings, railings are inconsequential here and can remain unchanged.) was shortsighted and makes them incredibly difficult to work with. There are two awkward half steps that have the grating cut in half making the model look unfinished and unpolished at the top and bottom of staircases, I get that it is there to make the steps when tiled look seamless, but there are better solutions, having the catwalk stair be self contained is a much better solution.
They need to act like a 2.5 meter slope when placing, which these do not. Anything else makes them difficult and annoying to work with, requiring extra effort to make a simple staircase. Not to mention they look ugly and have an extra lip and cutoff grate if you use them as "intended", you shouldn't have to build an off ramp for your stairs.
If you really need to tile them upwards while still looking pretty, you can just use sloped detail blocks, there is no need to have the feature baked into the block itself, adding an unnecessary complication you must work around to every other use-case, making me never want to use the blocks in the first place!
Solution: Make them like the Space Engineers 1 catwalk stairs, a cosmetic version of the 2.5m slope, no extra features, no hassle. Entirely self contained within itself, and easy to work with!
I think that they are too short. The flooring between floors will not be 2.5m blocks, builders will use the flooring tiles above the 2.5m block height and 2 layers for colour differentiation making the the floor to floor height 3m.
Looking at the custom corridors this may be even higher.
Working to 2.5m in the unified grid system is not going to be the norm, it will be a mix of sizes.
Short stair lengths are required for flexibility and some longer ones too.
There is a problem with head room clearance.
I think that they are too short. The flooring between floors will not be 2.5m blocks, builders will use the flooring tiles above the 2.5m block height and 2 layers for colour differentiation making the the floor to floor height 3m.
Looking at the custom corridors this may be even higher.
Working to 2.5m in the unified grid system is not going to be the norm, it will be a mix of sizes.
Short stair lengths are required for flexibility and some longer ones too.
There is a problem with head room clearance.
The solution could be quite simple - shorten and narrow the stairs and platforms by the smallest module - i.e. not 2.5m wide and high, but only 2.25m wide and high, and introduce two "filler" blocks, one 2.25x0.25x0.25 block (possibly also a block with a handrail post) and a 0.25x0.25x0.25 "cube"
This should make it possible to squeeze the stairs and platforms into a normal 2.5m modulus structure and cover them with a thin wall, without disturbing the regularity of the structure.
But the best solution for interior structures like a staircase, work platform or ladder would be a dynamic, dynamically generated "self-expanding" element, capable of connecting two endpoints/elements at some (reasonable, up to 10-25m) distance
The solution could be quite simple - shorten and narrow the stairs and platforms by the smallest module - i.e. not 2.5m wide and high, but only 2.25m wide and high, and introduce two "filler" blocks, one 2.25x0.25x0.25 block (possibly also a block with a handrail post) and a 0.25x0.25x0.25 "cube"
This should make it possible to squeeze the stairs and platforms into a normal 2.5m modulus structure and cover them with a thin wall, without disturbing the regularity of the structure.
But the best solution for interior structures like a staircase, work platform or ladder would be a dynamic, dynamically generated "self-expanding" element, capable of connecting two endpoints/elements at some (reasonable, up to 10-25m) distance
Replies have been locked on this page!