Distance measuring device

[Assailer]

I play without map, so especially underground it's hard to figure out the distance unless i slowly count blocks - very tedious for 1000 block distances.

It would be nice to be able to craft a device which could tell me between two points how far they are. Right click to set base point and left click just prints distance in chat 

 

[Thorfinn]

Not critical, just curious -- why would one want to know something like that?

But you will need to do something more with that, since left and right click are already taken. Maybe Ctrl-K B to mark the begin block and Ctrl-K K to end it?

[Assailer]

I'm building an underground tunnel system that connects traders and perhaps one day other important POIs like the archives.

This is of course a very low priority request from me. Teleportation feels too much of a cheat

Edited December 21, 2023 by Assailer

[Venusgate]

On 12/20/2023 at 12:34 PM, Thorfinn said:

Not critical, just curious -- why would one want to know something like that?

But you will need to do something more with that, since left and right click are already taken. Maybe Ctrl-K B to mark the begin block and Ctrl-K K to end it?

I can imagine if you know ore depth ranges, it would be useful to know vertical height even with the map turned on.

Horizontal distances could be used for surveying to estimate material costs of build plans (like perimeter fence).

For implementation, I imagine just holding a metered rope and being able to deploy it while walking backwards like ropeladders. Then just hold RC at either end to spool it back up into a stack of 128

[Thorfinn]

Fair. That's a game mode I don't play much. I don't do a whole lot of terraforming. My constructions instead adjust to whatever the terrain is. A perimeter fence is just wherever looks about the right distance and stops short of where hills would make the pasture have to do something weird or make them close enough for wolves to hop over. And I've gone out of my way to avoid the wiki as much as possible. If I do need to know depth, there's always a stack of ladders. Paths are however long they need to be to connect locations I want connected, not any specific distance.

About the only things I don't do by gosh and by golly are apiaries, which are easy 2-space things that don't need measuring, and cropland, which, I lay out such that they are easily covered over with greenhouses if I ever feel the need. But those, too, are trivial. The basic crop "tile" is 3x3 with the central block being water. Put 16 of those "tiles" together in a 4x4, wrap with a single row/column of good soil, and you are at 14x14, i.e., greenhouse sized. No measuring.

I'm sure I could do things more efficiently but for me part of the charm of VS is doing what you can with what you were given.

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against a measuring device. I just doubt I'd ever use it, so I'd vastly rather see it be a mod that gets so popular that it becomes obvious that it should become a core function.

[Venusgate]

55 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

I'd vastly rather see it be a mod that gets so popular that it becomes obvious that it should become a core function.

We'll see how metrology goes.

For me, a lot of the charm of VS is the tactility. So anything that is an item over a UI element is a plus in my book, even if I use it once and then put it on a shelf in a workshop; the knowledge that all the "stuff" in the workshop DO things gives the warm and fuzzies.

Edited December 24, 2023 by Venusgate

[idiomcritter]

seems i recall that one of the things cave explorers do, is spool out rope/line as an easy way to not get lost.  for the rope to dual as a type of distance measure would be fitting idk