Silo Packing

[Korial]

Currently the footprint for the Tiered Human Silos is a regular octagon. However, the default orientation of these is such that the vertices are aligned N/E/S/W, not the faces. Now, because the vertex-to-vertex diameter of a regular octagon is larger than the face-to-face diameter, you can 'pack' silos just that little bit closer together.

How? You need to rotate each silo so that the faces, not the vertices, of the footprint are aligned N/E/S/W (assuming your plot is aligned similarly). The magic angle for this is 22.5 degrees. Of course, Horizons doesn't deal with half degree rotations, so either 22 degree, or 23 degrees, will be close enough.

The result of such 'packing' looks like...

[Gilresk]

Should you really encourage even more cramming of silos onto plots?

The silos you have pictured there visibly over-lap on top. I still don't quite understand why their footprint doesn't cover the size of the roof of the silo. Although that seems to be the case with structures like trees too.

[Korial]

Warning: the following image is not suitable for those who dislike people building silos.

http://www.blackcat.eclipse.co.uk/ho...s/silofarm.jpg

But it shows how regular octagons fit nicely together when faces are aligned together. If you wish to reproduce this and offend "anti-siloists", I recommend setting the silos to 0 degrees then rotating them clockwise 23 degrees. With this rotation, I had no "intersect" errors from the planner, whereas a 22 degree rotation did produce spurious intersects.

[LaiAhna]

Well I don't know about the antisiloists but, I do know that I like your post as it helps me with space saving. Thanks [:D]