Station Design: How to stop a module changing orientation on snap

[Scoob]

Hey all,

This issue, when it occurs, is infuriating and prevents building as desired.

Picture this: I'm trying to place a module, oriented in a very specific way. I get it set EXACTLY how I want, and it then drag it to the desired snap point. It then CHANGES that carefully set orientation so the snap fails.

For example, I'm doing a little recycling station. I just oriented the Scrap Recycler module, rotating it 90 degrees over two axis for the PERFECT orientation to snap to another module. I then drag the correctly-oriented module and it reverts to DEFAULT orientation as soon as it touches the snap point, goes RED and fails to snap as a result. If I then release the mouse, it snaps back to the CORRECT orientation but not at the snap point. Snap point is 100% valid, I have the appropriate green lines showing viable connections. It's just that the game CHANGES the module orientation out of my control.

Is there some way to prevent this happening? I orient that snap modules all the time yet, every now and again, a perfectly oriented module will do this. It's so annoying! I'd had to undo and re-design entire station builds when the station builder bugs out like this.

Note: this isn't an allow overlap issue, nor does descrete angle have any influence. The game simply changes the orientation of the module so it becomes invalid.

[vvvvvvvv]

Is there some way to prevent this happening?

Nope. No way I know of, at least.

Basically, the moment it starts happening, move the module away, then carefully try to find orientation that glitches less. Thankfully it is not very common scenario, at least when you're building in grids. Like this:

viewtopic.php?t=470726

Using "copy sequences" instead of individual placements will also help.

[Raptor34]

Dunno if it's related. But sometimes I do a nice long spur, copy the whole section to duplicate it on the other side, then it flips the whole ****** thing 180 degrees upside down.
Worse if it's one of those XL bays, then the only time I realize what happened is when I pop in and see ships being constructed upside down.

Also happened when I fortunately stuck an admin on it too, so it was immediately obvious when it flipped. I've tried a whole bunch of tricks, like confirming station plans first, then reconnecting, not much helped. Basically just keep brute forcing and finally it decides to connect correctly.

Sometimes I wish for the old build system back, I never made use of the extra freedom anyway because I like to build symmetrically, and the new system has these oddities. Oh well.

For the devs, please give an indication for fab/maint bays as to which side is up... Just an arrow pointing up would be nice.

[Scoob]

Thanks for the replies. I ended up changing the design entirely.

I've had a glitch where I've oriented a module in a set way, and it's rotated it say 90 degrees on one axis each time I try to place it. In situations like that I've compensated for the forced 90 degree rotation when initially setting up the module, then it's snapped correctly when I finally place it. Hope that makes sense. Doesn't work every time.

I think, once the player has manually adjusted the module's orientation from the default, it NOT rotate again under any circumstances, even if that means it can't snap at all. I mean, I didn't carefully rotate that module for fun - well, I did, I'm doing the entire game for fun, but you get what I mean lol.

I don't really do mega factories any more myself. I just build as follows:

- Tier 0 - A Warehouse, or multiple Warehouses which are the drop-off point for Raw materials.
- Tier 1 - A Station that takes Raws and ECs and turns it into refined goods
- Tier 2 - A Station that takes those refined goods, EC's and makes intermediate Products
- Tier 3 - A Station that takes those Intermediate Products and ECs and makes the high-end stuff.

Finally, I have food production totally separate, taking in water and producing everything to give Food(s) and Medical Supplies.

These stations never really get that big, I keep them as compact as possible. I usually start with three of each Module Type, I add more - I design the stations in such as way that they're easy to expand - as needed. End consumer is a Wharf/Equipment Dock or a full shipyard. I like the economic side.

Dunno quite why I went off on that ramble, other than to reinforce that I like station building so this issue does frustrate at times.

[Raptor34]

I think, once the player has manually adjusted the module's orientation from the default, it NOT rotate again under any circumstances, even if that means it can't snap at all. I mean, I didn't carefully rotate that module for fun - well, I did, I'm doing the entire game for fun, but you get what I mean lol.

It should be a setting imo. Assuming I'm not misunderstanding.
The way I build is I rotate it to around where it'll be roughly aligned, then snap to it. I sure as hell don't want to properly align everything.

Thinking about it further, it should be split into 3 settings. One for each axis. That way, assuming you aren't building something that isn't off one of the planes, you can lock the axis you most definitely do not want to change, but you also don't have to accurately align it to connect properly.

So say I'm building off a standard 4 way connector or whatever you call that piece with 4 connectors at each cardinal point and 1 up/1 down. I can build on one side, copy that to the other side, rotate the piece to connect, but lock the axis where it rotates... up and down? or whatever it's called, so it won't flip upside down.
Well, the devs should get roughly what I'm talking about.

[vvvvvvvv]

I've had a glitch where I've oriented a module in a set way, and it's rotated it say 90 degrees on one axis each time I try to place it. In situations like that I've compensated for the forced 90 degree rotation when initially setting up the module, then it's snapped correctly when I finally place it. Hope that makes sense. Doesn't work every time.

Yes, I've encountered this, but this is very uncommon in "fish skeleton" designs I use. It is also difficult to trigger this issue on purpose.

I think it usually happens when the module you're attaching is already rotated, but not just 90 degrees on a single axis, but over multiple axis. For example, if you take QUE's rounded arcs, and rotate them so they're vertical, and then try to put them on top of cubic connector, they're probably gonna be flipping.

The case could be multiple different things, but it is something related to alignment code. Could be an advanced form of gimbal lock, could be some cross product resulting a zero and the game uses wrong fallback axis to align axis, etc.

One possibility is to move away glitching module, reset its rotation, and rotate into suitable orientation in a simple way. That's still a guess, though.

[Falcrack]

Hold down CTRL when dragging modules, this prevents the module from snapping to another module.

[Scoob]

I've had snapping issues when trying to attach to a module that's been rotated, game seem to want to align to that already-placed module, rather than the current one I'm trying to place. However, in this instance, the existing module is just a default-placed six way ARG-style connector piece, nothing special.

Hold down CTRL when dragging modules, this prevents the module from snapping to another module.

I do actually want it to snap though. I know things don't have to snap to work - which I do find a little odd outside of Defence Modules - but I do like to have things neatly snapped.

The issue remains though, I orient a module how I want, game changes that upon snap. The silly thing is, if the game kept my orientation the snap would be valid, however, as it changes it, the snap is then invalid - module showing red. This is fairly rare, but it has upset designs I've done several times, as the game simply will not allow the module to be placed as desired.

Is there any value formally bug reporting this? I could put together a basic Station template, then give a screen shot of the module (and orientation of said module) I'm trying to snap. Perhaps then a developer can see what's going on. It might be a good test simply to see if I can reliable recreate this in the station designer...