Space Engineers

Space Engineers

Mechanical Expansion
68 Comments
FantazeR 20 Apr @ 11:47am 
small suspension hinges have different colored bases, noticed i can't make symmetrical mechanisms with same angle directions cause of it. Using same block on left and right of my creation is fine, but angles are different
hope this mess is understandable
FantazeR 1 Jan @ 2:55am 
ty, santa!
DontFollowOrders  [author] 31 Dec, 2023 @ 5:48pm 
@Raiden Definitions got mixed up somehow, they should be sized appropriately now
@FatazeR wish granted
Raiden 22 Dec, 2023 @ 5:08pm 
For some reason the right rotor only spawns the 3x3 advanced rotor head, i can't get to spawn the 1x1, anyone knows why?
Thanks
FantazeR 9 Jul, 2023 @ 5:58am 
can you add a small suspension hinge with a smaller base? without this flat base, that ruins the looks i need
DontFollowOrders  [author] 22 Apr, 2023 @ 2:11am 
Oh, the track plates get built directly on top of the hinge heads, so that there are no gaps when they are at 0 degrees. You're looking at it from the bottom and trying to place on the front
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2965582985
Nips 21 Apr, 2023 @ 4:55pm 
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2965442107

I did -1 on lower limit and upper limit as well.

My placement orientation right? I can show more angles
DontFollowOrders  [author] 21 Apr, 2023 @ 4:29pm 
Try -1, I might have fudged it a little
Nips 21 Apr, 2023 @ 11:44am 
Can't get the tread to paste even after settings the previous 2's limits to 0. Any chance for short vid?
Sensational Being 11 Apr, 2023 @ 8:34am 
Thank you
DontFollowOrders  [author] 11 Apr, 2023 @ 4:12am 
Yeah they seem to not be at 0 default for some reason, and they are too tightly packed to be able to paste them either, you'll have to manually set each track link limit to 0 temporarily while you build them
Here is a length of track that fits about 5 3x3 wheels
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2960907659
Sensational Being 10 Apr, 2023 @ 8:55pm 
I wish there was an example video for assembling the treads. I have to be doing something wrong, because I get two together, and then I can't attach anymore to the chain.
SunGod 4 Mar, 2023 @ 6:33am 
Makes sense, but I suggest at least calling that out in the mod description here in the Workshop. I almost uninstalled the mod after thinking it was broken, because there was nothing making it obvious that I had to adjust the force to make it work.

Now I know, but just giving feedback as a first-time user how my experience went. Seriously, this is a lifesaver mod... why it's not vanilla is absolutely beyond me. It should be. Thanks for your work on this mod and sharing it with the community.
DontFollowOrders  [author] 3 Mar, 2023 @ 10:56pm 
Totally intentional! Allows 0NM pistons to be used in the world without restarting the game. Unfortunately, vanilla piston code means minimum force pistons can set in UI or by timer blocks is 100 NM, meaning only way to tell an existing piston have 0 force is edit save file. 0 force minimizes vibrations when piston controlled solely by external forces, such as vehicle suspensions. This is because piston can only move in direction of Velocity specified in UI, so by adding reverse piston command to timer block that triggers itself can extend or retract piston instantaneously as needed. Thus Velocity must be nonzero and force must be zero, else piston will amplify impacts rather than dampen and be prone to jamming and clang. Indeed, new built piston doesn't work, but once force is given this can't happen again on that piston.
Having pistons not work unless UI slider is moved once is better than restarting the game, in terms of what I want to do, so I won't change default values. Sorry!
SunGod 3 Mar, 2023 @ 3:23pm 
For anyone that puts in the block and struggles to get it to move, play with the minimum force slider and raise the NM level. Chances are you're putting a connector on this, and the weight of a connector exceeds the default minimum force exerted by the piston. By raising this level a bit, the piston will have enough force to move the attached block.

Suggest the minimum force level for the 1x1 piston be increased a touch.
SunGod 3 Mar, 2023 @ 8:17am 
OMG OMG OMG - a 1x1x1 piston that extends 1 block and a sideways version of the same. This is exactly the block I've needed for 10 years and never knew existed. Bless you for creating this.
PepperJack 19 Feb, 2023 @ 5:37am 
Found a few issues while making my IO compatibility mod
File=DFOMechanical_BlockVariantGroups.sbc should be
<Id Type="MyObjectBuilder_BlockVariantGroup" Subtype="RotorGroup" />
<Icon>Textures\GUI\Icons\Cubes\motor.dds</Icon>
<Id Type="MyObjectBuilder_BlockVariantGroup" Subtype="ExtraHingeGroup" />
<Icon>Textures\GUI\Icons\Cubes\CenterHingeSmall.dds</Icon>

and

File=DFOCubeBlocks_MechanicalExpansion.sbc should be this on all pistons otherwise I have been needing to manualy adjust each one after placing.
<DefaultMaxImpulseAxis>100</DefaultMaxImpulseAxis>
<DefaultMaxImpulseNonAxis>100</DefaultMaxImpulseNonAxis>
Rusted Droid 20 Dec, 2022 @ 9:41am 
Hope you add hinge that consist of 2 blocks long and have rotating axis in middle of blocks.
For rail switch bending mechanism.
DlriumTrgger 19 Dec, 2022 @ 7:27pm 
im not sure how your g menu is set up but when i have this loaded i cant see the 3x3 advanced rotor base anymore.
VivaVii 5 Dec, 2022 @ 5:33am 
I would -love- a version of this that's just the 2block wide hinge, piston and rotors :U
BIV 29 Nov, 2022 @ 5:55am 
These look great mate. I like mods that try to cater for smaller builds as so many are designed to make things bigger and badder when sometimes small and sneakier is what is wanted. Thanks for sharing your bain stuff and the work time too. Good onya.
Dragon Fire 813 24 Nov, 2022 @ 2:37am 
Any plans to have large grid versions of the rotors and hinges? I really need the 2x2 advanced rotor base for a center line turret on my even width ship.
Projekt Pleasure 23 Nov, 2022 @ 12:17am 
Just asking, my past reply talked about how the tracks where/are missing rollers/bogies

Has this been added or is it still planned?
Madam Music 3 Oct, 2022 @ 5:55pm 
i had never had Piston Head Tools before so that's why I was confused, but I got it and problem was solved, thanks
Although, the new groups for the modded pistons and things are kinda buggy, but I don't know if that comes from another mod or not....
DontFollowOrders  [author] 3 Oct, 2022 @ 2:09am 
The attach button comes from Piston Head Tools, vanilla pistons do not have that at all
I removed the script from my mod and suppose I forgot to set a dependency for that mod, should be fine now
And there are starting to be too many blocks to have everything in the same variant group now, so I've separated the vanilla stuff and from now on my blocks will belong to their own groups
Madam Music 2 Oct, 2022 @ 5:09pm 
Did you do an update or something? because now a) the pistons' "attach" button is gone for ALL pistons, and b) they are no longer in the same block on the toolbar as regular pistons
Dragon Fire 813 1 Oct, 2022 @ 9:37am 
Thanks for the fix.
Rusted Droid 1 Oct, 2022 @ 4:09am 
I think you "can" make 2 block hinge with axis in between 2 block space for merge block use.
I made 2 block rotor just by adding wheel from suspension block as Rotor_part and correct basic offset on stator.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2781491626
Projekt Pleasure 1 Oct, 2022 @ 2:10am 
dont mention it
i also thought exactly as you did when i built it
DontFollowOrders  [author] 1 Oct, 2022 @ 2:01am 
@Dragon Fire 813 I have identified and solved the issue, will go in the next update

@Rusted Droid What you described sounds like my wide hinge or long hinge? Otherwise it's not possible to have an even width hinge top be centered, as the bounding box is always aligned with the cube grid and the bounding box is what's centered on the motor dummy

@Projekt Pleasure You know it didn't even cross my mind lol but obviously that is a problem, I got it hang on
Projekt Pleasure 29 Sep, 2022 @ 7:20pm 
Are you going to add tank rollers?
Because with the tracks i've made i noticed that the "teeth" or remodeled rotor is that the tanks wheels sit on that part, which leaves a massive possibility for the tank track to slip off.

what im saying is that if you look at real tanks you see that they have teeth in the middle of the tank track, this part slides into a cut out and prevents the tank track from slipping off.
But with my tank tracks i cant find a way to do that, and the wheels just end up sitting on those "teeth".
Is this something im not doing right or has it just not been implemented yet?
Rusted Droid 29 Sep, 2022 @ 1:05pm 
any plan add 2 block hinge?
Base be 1/5 block and moving part also 1/5 block so the axis will be in middle of 2 blocks making 1x2 hinge.
Asking for friend, that use merge blocks and cannot use vannila hinge as stator and rotating part are at same block space (1 block hinge).
Dragon Fire 813 29 Sep, 2022 @ 8:57am 
I just tested some more it seems to only happen when it's not fully built specifically the one placed in survival. I placed one with creative tools and it worked fine even with the build states. But the frame placed in survival just ejected the head out the bottom unless it was fully built.
Dragon Fire 813 29 Sep, 2022 @ 8:37am 
I'll get the save when I get home today.
DontFollowOrders  [author] 29 Sep, 2022 @ 1:00am 
@Ytrbpt Hsbom Should be fixed now

@Dragon Fire 813 I can't reproduce this, the subparts stick through the bottom of the base but they don't have any collision and the piston head spawns on top okay for me. Can you upload a save where it's not working and maybe I can figure out what's going on?
Dragon Fire 813 28 Sep, 2022 @ 11:22pm 
The wide piston base tries to place its head underneath its base and is therefor unusable. I'm guessing that the head placement position is in the wrong spot.
Ytrbpt Hsbom 28 Sep, 2022 @ 11:12am 
The Right Rotor seems to have problems with the rotor head, it keeps falling out for me at displacements below 15 cm.
Rusted Droid 19 Sep, 2022 @ 9:50am 
Finally Long Hinge with rotation axis inbetween blocks.
Must be vanilla!
Skorpion 16 Sep, 2022 @ 9:51am 
Can you mace some picture how it works please?
Tank Track Hinge
DontFollowOrders  [author] 10 Sep, 2022 @ 4:45am 
Thanks! Moved mount point from "Bottom" to "Left" so now it's actually on the bottom lol
W.D.M.L.Bllll 9 Sep, 2022 @ 1:33pm 
Hi! Long hinge have error - this block can placing only on the side. His rotation isn't support to placing on the bottom.
Dragon Fire 813 9 Sep, 2022 @ 12:20am 
No prob, glad it was an easy fix.
DontFollowOrders  [author] 8 Sep, 2022 @ 11:44pm 
Oops sorry I forgot to rename them when I upscaled from small grid, easy fix (:
Dragon Fire 813 8 Sep, 2022 @ 9:29pm 
The large grid pistons won't transfer anything including your piston head. Looking at the conveyor ports with Build Vision's port overlay, you seemed to have marked them as small conveyors. I'm hoping it's an easy fix for you and that it could be fixed soon, but there is no real rush though.
shadow2121 5 Sep, 2022 @ 10:13am 
this mod is really cool looking
Titan Nya 31 Aug, 2022 @ 8:27am 
Well I'm playing a limited survival (everything at 1x making it take a LOOOONG time to start the game before I activate all NPCs and all) and it's limited world size, no planet (less voxel = less lag hopefully) so unless I create a buggy for my base with artificial weight I won't use these... Just saw the block and subbed for futur use (after I've upgraded my PC fully)

I may test it out on a creative world but not for now... I kinda want to have my base core online so that i can accelerate the whole process... but need a pause as I kinda let the game process thing at night and all but need to reload as my RAM get full and I do something else for some time... not that you'd care :p just ranting
DontFollowOrders  [author] 31 Aug, 2022 @ 7:17am 
are not axially aligned*
DontFollowOrders  [author] 31 Aug, 2022 @ 7:16am 
It doesn't disallow it, it has a mount point so you can build anything on it including a merge block if you really want to
I can't say these are 100% immune to clang, but they should be more tolerant than pistons to external forces and they only really have enough propulsion force to help straighten them out when they get bent, so shouldn't be inducing any massive clang events by themselves even if they are axially aligned
I should probably put indicators on them...
Titan Nya 31 Aug, 2022 @ 6:45am 
Just saw in the block list the damper... Haven't tested it yet, but as it is technically a wheel suspension does it allow for the subgrid (where the wheel should be in a regular suspension) to be merged with another one? as I've tried to make use of 2 suspensions with wheels in the past to make a linear damper and then it is merged CLANG is angry... So was wondering how it would work here xD
Anyway great work!
DontFollowOrders  [author] 9 Aug, 2022 @ 6:20am 
They also have double the traction of a vanilla wheel to compensate for the fact that the voxels don't conform to our treads and give us the traction we deserve when we use tracks