Wall Lights, Wall Power Nodes, Wall Thermal Regulators

I feel like it should be possible to place these items against the wall overlapping at least some other objects, like a light above the bed in a room, or a thermal regulator  above a grow bed, or a power regulator above a gas scrubber. As it is, right now it uses up the same space as a lamp, a standard thermal regulator, or a power node. The only advantage is that your crew can walk past it. (You also can't put objects over in-floor power nodes, so a similar problem.)

Still, love the game, and really enjoying my emergent stories! Keep up the good work!

Would be nice. The problem lies with the game being tile-based and stuff can get broken. Some items are more important than others to be available for repair, the power node especially since it is a really vital object. There needs to be a path free or otherwise it won't work since the AI won't have access to it

Yeah, I understand this. My concern is actually more for the lights than anything else. Would it work if maybe lights didn't get broken so long as they had power? Some 21st century breakthrough to make lights last forever? (Yesterday's solution today for grow pods or something?) It just gets a bit difficult to illuminate places when you're cramming systems and furniture into a small place because you haven't got enough hull blocks in the early going to make rooms the size you'd prefer. Cramming four bunk beds, a toilet (with walls around it) and a temp regulator plus lights into a 6x5 room because that's all the space you can afford to give your crew makes it a little difficult to find spots for wall lights, especially since anything up against a wall blocks lights.

But if not... shrugs... my Havenites can live without lights in their bedroom/bathroom for a little while until I can afford the hull blocks they need to get bigger quarters or even (gasp!) individual rooms.

The problem is more that the lights are objects, which can be broken by taking damage. Systems are built up in the code to react to various events, like objects reacting to turret fire etc. Having to start to create exceptions, like having
indestructible things starts causing problems with well, will the player accept that a light gets blasted with a missile and it does nothing, and is it worth all the work of adding the exception and testing it all works

Everything is so tied together, that what might seem like a simple thing is not that simple. The path needs to be clear for the AI to reach the object and be able to repair it if it gets destroyed, without the player having to build everything up again, place objects etc.

Perhaps something can be done in the future, but compare Space Haven with Spacebase DF-9 and you'll quickly realize how much more freedom there is in Space Haven, and that there were big problems those Spacebase DF-9 developers were facing too, and decided to add a tile around the whole object as space to ensure paths are open.

I understand this. Thanks for explaining. Like I said, my Havenites can live without lights until I can expand their quarters appropriately.

How about freeing the space in front of wall-mounted objects BUT, allowing repairs from the other side of the wall ? And then, if both sides of the wall are blocked by objects, just raise the warning that says 'no path for task'.

Would that be the same kind of messy code as making exceptions for undestructibles wall powernodes ? ( which would also break the game )

Role-playing wise, wouldn't it make sense to be able to reach the circuits of a lamp or heater by unscrewing the back panel rather than working directly in front of the device ?

Now let's be even crazier and imagine mounting lamps on the hull wall then blocking it with a desk : this could allow cramped rooms at the cost of sending crewmembers out in space to make repairs.

Any thoughts ?