[Feature Request] Early limited copy-paste blueprints

[emorrp1]

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Getting up to the level that unlocked blueprints (13) was needlessly tedious, especially since the game text strongly encourages small repeatable designs. Sure the first few levels are great as a tutorial, but at a certain point it should be possible to repeat small patterns without as many clicks. I've attached my save game, so you can see if I missed anything obvious: emorrp1.bin

For the details, I can see that every single repeatable pattern I have needed so far fits within a 5x5, so perhaps the first copy-paste could have a limited range of a single 3x3. This would still have been very helpful even before the merger is unlocked, as it can be used with the extractor-balancers and the cutter-rotators which you can see I haven't yet replaced in the bottom left.

I've just replayed the early game to check where it would fit progression wise and I was starting to desire it during level 5 to get up to 170 of the domes. I don't think it's 100% needed there though, and the tunnels unlock more possible complex cutter patterns. I suggest level 7, after painting so the user can see there's more to the game than just shapes and also gives a bit of a breather which they can use to catch up on "Mixing and Painting" upgrades.

The cost could be something from the tier 2 category, perhaps a Sr----Sr? This best complements the other upgrades at the time - requires cutting and rotating, brings forward the need to extract Star and benefits from clever use of tunnels and balancers. If you were willing to allow it at level 6 before the color is introduced, then obviously it would be uncolored instead. Would probably want to spawn an additional Star resource, perhaps somewhere to the South-West.

What do you think? I only intended to share the idea initially, but I got carried away thinking of the design, so of course feel free to change specifics.

[Scripter17]

I assume the idea behind copy/pasting being unlocked (as well as it having a cost) is to make sure the player appreciates just how big it is. And while I agree it would be nice to have it unlocked earlier, I don't think "copy/pasting but small" is the right answer
As an alternative, I propose being able to duplicate belts before you draw them. It's similar enough to fill the need and it stops needing to copy/paste belts or draw basically the same path multiple times

Just had a brainwave while writing this: You know how some levels require certain rates instead of certain amounts? What if the number of belts you could draw at once was tied to that? It would partially alleviate the problem of the lategame basically just being waiting, and it'd just be cool in general.

[emorrp1]

My issue was patterns of different buildings, in fact I rarely maximised even a single belt's item speed, so I'm not sure how multiple drawing helps.

Admittedly I am coming from Mindustry, which has blueprints (and mirroring) from the start, but I hope my suggestion shows that I appreciate it must have been a deliberate decision to make them cost in Shapez.io. There's nothing to appreciate if some users would give up from boredom before being able to enjoy the paid levels (I was only motivated to continue despite this with the bait of eventually benefiting from my carefully planned factory).