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FINCH Combo Pack (Red/Green/Blue/Purple)

The Finch is the primary utility craft designed specifically to interface with the Osprey, a mobile mining and production platform intended for a highly immersive survival experience that is convenient, practical, versatile, and multiplayer compatible.

NOTE: This blueprint currently only works in worlds with air-tightness enabled. I will release a version for non-airtight worlds soon(tm).

Related Blueprints:

Osprey - Mother Ship
Osprey Printables:
Feather - Relay/Spy Satellite
Egg - Light Armor Decoy
Egg - Heavy Armor Decoy
Talon - Kinetic Gravity Torpedo
Beak - Stone Filled Gravity Torpedo

This blueprint is intended for survival. If you want to build it in survival, there is a few minutes of set-up necessary after construction is complete. Click here for quick video tutorial and written guide.

Hardware Overview:

• 21 Small Cargo Containers
  
• 4 Small Reactors
  
• 25 Vanilla Drills
  
• 28 Small Ion Thrusters
  
• 2 Forward Facing Cameras
  
• 2 Backward Facing Cameras
  
• 2 Docking Cameras with a view of connectors and merge blocks
  
• Inventory Display
  
• 9 Welders, OR:
  
• 9 Grinders with Landing Gear Tug
  
• 1 Beacon
  
• 1 Med Station
  
• 1 Cryo Pod
  
• 1 Ore Detector

The Finch uses a combination of the Easy Automation Script and Taleden's Inventory Manager (both linked below) to achieve a function that many players will appreciate - automatically pushing and pulling inventory at the press of a key. By default, all of the Finch's inventory will automatically transfer from the Finch to the Osprey as soon as the ships dock. Whether you are mining, or salvaging, the Osprey mothership will take in all cargo from the Finch, leaving you free to go on another mining/grinding run without mucking around in the terminal. However, if you would like to intake components (for example, to make repairs or weld a new ship), you can simply press the component intake button and the Finch will withdraw all available building components, while leaving ores and ingots behind in the Osprey mothership. The Finch's main display will show a message indicating whether you are intaking or dumping components, and will then use the Automatic LCD Script (linked below) to display the inventory of the Finch itself, as well as the inventory of all connected ships, if you scroll down.

As with the Osprey, the Finch utilizes a combination airlock and gravity elevator to move players around in airtight survival with as little effort as possible. Anyone who has tried to make survival airlocks knows that there is a lot to design around - such as oxygen tanks filling themselves and being unable to drain airlocks. Using the Easy Automation script, I've taken care of all of that. No need to put on a helmet or even move your legs when moving between ships. One button press and a gravity elevator will whisk you through automatic airlocks.

The Finch has one fully functioning top-facing airlock, and a simple sliding door on the bottom. The system is smart enough not to let you depressurize the cabin by opening the bottom door - it will only open if there is a functioning airlock on the other side to receive you. In addition to docking with the Osprey, Finches can dock with each other, and pull components from each other. The physical shape of the Finch is designed to that they will not stick together when merging and in-merging, and they will automatically toggle their own thrusters to avoid damaging each other or the Osprey when thruster damage is enabled.

Since it is easy to inadvertently cause damage when lining up merge blocks and connectors, for docking I use the Easy Automation script to make the task much simpler. This is easier to show then tell, so please refer to the video above.

Easy Automation Controls (same for both forward and rear facing flight seats):

• Tab 1: Button 8: Bottom Undock Toggle
  
• Tab 1: Button 9: Top Undock Toggle
  
• Tab 2: Button 4: Main Display Scroll Down
  
• Tab 2: Button 5: Main Display Scroll Up
  
• Tab 2: Button 9: Component Intake Toggle

This blueprint comes with four copies of the Finch utility ship, linked by a light armor sprue that you can delete in creative, or just not build in survival. Each ship comes with unique name tags to allow the scripting to identify which ship is which, even when they are merged together with each other, or with their mother ship, the Osprey. Two of the finches are welder variants that do not have landing gear, as it can get in the way of weld jobs. The other two are grinder variants that do come with a landing gear, as it is very difficult to chase down loose blocks without something to grab them with. I usually use the landing gear to tug the grind job over to the Osprey, attach it to one of the mother ship's landing gear, and then grind the target up once it's locked in place.

• Easy Automation V2.0 - Coren
  Coren deserves piles of respect for this script. I have no coding background and could not have have completed this project without his script. He is above and beyond with responding to questions, and is a pillar of the community. Thanks Coren!
  
• Taleden's Inventory Manager - Taleden
  This script is extremely powerful, and can do even more paired with Easy Automation. It's great for dedicated servers. Thanks Taleden!
  
• Automatic LCDs 2 - MMaster
  This script is on every build for a reason - it rocks. This fills in a huge need in the game, and will probably influence how vanilla turns out in the end. Thanks MMaster!

I sincerely hope you will give this build a shot in creative, or even better, build her in survival and let me know of any issues you encounter. There will be more ships, modules, and stations in the fleet, each fitted with modular docking points and intended for a different role in your survival world. Including all related blueprints, this project was a huge labor of love, taking over 250 hours of game time to design. So please feel free to rate and comment, and thank you for visiting!