Player Lanterns - Change Radius and Intensity?

[zztong]

When building a POI in the Prefab Editor, we have the ability to set light source radius and intensity.

As a player, we don't have any of those features. In the case of a Player-created and placed Lantern, could players be given those options? With a real lantern you can change how much wick is exposed and kind of control the illumination.

Bases I make as a player sometimes end up being awash in light, which can make reading labels on boxes difficult. I've heard there are performance issues with light radius' that overlap. This might allow players to help themselves a little in their own bases.

This is not a super important feature.

 

[Melange]

Once upon a while in Navezgane, I found that placing the miner's lantern outside of the room gave me the desired degree of illumination. The light would soak through the walls or ceiling (or floor) quite nicely. I can't tell you exactly when that phenomena changed but that method doesn't work so well anymore. One lantern per room is my rule of thumb, sometimes even shading it by placing plates around it to reduce the washout. Having high ceilings helps too and experimenting with different paint textures within the room can make a big difference - avoid the high-reflectant metal finishes and the granite. 

I for one would dearly love to have a choice as to how bright a lantern I could craft. How about this:  At the workbench, using identical components, choose either the default red lantern, a medium intesity lantern or a lantern that's just a bit brighter than a wall torch, perhaps reducing the default's light radius with each step down in brightness.  Same lantern style would do, maybe give each a different body color so we could tell them apart without having to place them first. 

Or maybe craft the default lantern, but then using the Shapes Menu by pressing 'R' we could choose either a High, Medium or Low variant? Only ideas, since I don't know how involved such a request would be.  Heck, I haven't coded since VAX computers were the industry workhorses, so I can only surmise 

I like your idea zztong, yet getting a dev to code the ability for us to custom craft a lantern in-game might be a tall order. Then again maybe there's a flashlight/lantern aficionado on the team who could make something happen while MM isn't looking .

What do you think? 

 

[zztong]

I like your idea zztong, yet getting a dev to code the ability for us to custom craft a lantern in-game might be a tall order.

The feature already exists in the Prefab Editor. When we make POIs and place light sources, we can change all those settings to affect the mood of the POI plus keep light sources from overlapping (which affects performance). I was hoping they would expose that feature in-game, but only for player crafted light sources.

 

[BFT2020]

I understand that at least one mod, Joke Mod, has that capability to adjust the lights in the world.

 

[Melange]

The feature already exists in the Prefab Editor. When we make POIs and place light sources, we can change all those settings to affect the mood of the POI plus keep light sources from overlapping (which affects performance). I was hoping they would expose that feature in-game, but only for player crafted light sources.

Okay. I understood that it could be done in the Prefab Editor. And I learned from you that placing lights too close together can cause grief with performance due to radius overlap (They're too bright for me already, why would I do that?). Never heard of illumination radius overlap prior to this. I just want to be able to dim the lights. But lighting is not as simple as I assumed.  Had no clue.  Thanks for the lesson. 

And I do enjoy your builds. I'm not in the dark about that 

I understand that at least one mod, Joke Mod, has that capability to adjust the lights in the world.

I looked at that mod's description but didn't see any reference to lighting . It does have features (I'd call distractions) that don't fit my play style. Maybe some day I'll delve into it. Thanks for the heads up.