Game Mechanics Pre-hammered blocks

[Starwort]

I feel that the ability to have all blocks placed pre-hammered into positions (read: hammer state set with a radial menu similar to the Grand Design, toggleable like Mechanical Lens/Mechanical Ruler/Paint Sprayer, etc.) would massively speed up building long slopes or hoiks (or just long surfaces that should be half a block tall).
It could be mitigated with the requirement of still having a hammer in your inventory (like quick wall replace), but would speed up building massively.
Thank you.

 

[Laluzi]

Oh, that would be nice. Not to hijack this suggestion, but being able to place blocks pre-actuated or pre-activated (i.e. gemspark blocks) would also be fantastic for cutting down time while building.

Though I'm not sure how quick prehammering would be in practice, because you usually aren't placing multiple blocks in a row with the same orientation (unless it's the half-block, in which case yes, mega time saver.) Even if you're building a slope, the blocks with the same diagonal face aren't placewise-adjacent to each other. So time spent fiddling with the hammer might just end up being time spent fiddling with the menu in a lot of cases.

But there are also cases where I'd rather not hit things with a hammer for fear I'll accidentally remove a background wall (painted, unobtainable, etc.) So I'd definitely use this feature if it were implemented.

 

[Starwort]

pre-actuated or pre-activated

Yes, definitely

you usually aren't placing multiple blocks in a row with the same orientation

One word. Hoiks (I also mention this in the post!)
EDIT: For clarity, when I first posted this I was hoiking a Large world hellevator haha (already dug, just was improving surface-to-hell time)

for fear I'll accidentally remove a background wall (painted, unobtainable, etc.)

I hadn't even considered this - but yeah, mega relief with that!

 

[Mental Mouse]

Well that's the thing -- hoiks are amazingly powerful, but they're also a PITA to build. That's balance. If they were easy, they'd be OP.

 

[Starwort]

Well that's the thing -- hoiks are amazingly powerful, but they're also a PITA to build. That's balance. If they were easy, they'd be OP.

To that extent, I expect you don't use the Grand Design? It makes wiring far easier and quicker, but I don't see anyone complaining about its introduction

 

[Mental Mouse]

To that extent, I expect you don't use the Grand Design? It makes wiring far easier and quicker, but I don't see anyone complaining about its introduction

That's a straw man.

The Grand Design is a tool for wiring that was designed into the game, and which is working exactly as intended. Hoiking is an "ascended bug", an unintended consequence of the collision mechanics that the players discovered and exploited, and the devs decided was worth keeping. But part of why they decided to keep it instead of fixing it, has to be, that it wasn't breaking game balance.

And the reason it doesn't break game balance, is exactly because those spectacular effects like hauling the Golem around, involve a lot of picky placing, hammering, and in some cases actuation... and if you screw it up, your victim gets loose and you get to fight them instead of laughing at them. Or your hellevator leaves you stuck in a wall, or your items get dumped, or whatever. That's balance -- effort (including tedium) and risk to gain a reward. If you can lay down perfect hoiks at full block-placing speed, then you lose that balance and hoiks become a balance problem.

 

[Laluzi]

Personally, I always thought the gate on hoiks was wiki knowledge/spending time in the community. They're extremely counterintuitive and unlikely to be figured out by a first-time player. They might stumble into an angled block and get some weird physics for a moment, but figuring out how to manipulate this and how to set them up is not something you'd work out on your own pre-x00 hours of gameplay.

In any case, placing hoiks isn't any more tedious than making pretty slopes in a garden or letters out of illuminated blocks, and I know that's what I'd use this feature for.

 

[MadmanLava]

This could be useful for hoiks, seems simple enough. Supported!