The "mathematics" of SysX or any building system
Well, Richard was asking for a mathematician to solve the problem of a new building system. I don't know if we would not be better of with asking an architect. Well, as a software architect I might incorporate both sides a little bit, so I decided to give it a try:
I came up with three principal points a successful building system should fulfill:
1. completeness
2. scalability
3. universality
1. completeness
I am not sure whether or not this is the right term to be used here, but I am refering here to the basic feature that you should have a building solution for any construction you can imagine. Like with Lego bricks I should be able to basically build everything. Well, lets restrict on buildings though. But this means, I should be able to construct a shopping mall just as well as the taj mahal using the basic parts. It should be possible to place the parts on a certain set of angels and there should be counterparts, as for outer and inner roof corners. So far, several sysX (and steck) building parts are violating the universality of the building system: Lets take for example the set
4400 - Post OfficeIt includes a new roof system, nice and usable for other buildings also. But the roof is only available with an
outer roof panel, dramatically limiting the use of these roof parts. Just the same holds for the
connecting strips not only in this set. They are important pieces to stabilize wall elements when not using another base plate element. But it is not possible to build them in complex structures, as there are only two pieces, a
straight one and a
corner strip. E.g. it is impossible to put them into a simple square as there typically is only one connector in sysX-base plates (see attached sketch).
2. scalability
In short: The small parts together should be like the big parts and a big part should be as being put together by small parts.
Lets stay with the post office. There are base plates in several sizes, here we have a
small one and a
big base plates. Three of the small ones would result into one big one. But obviously, there are some more holes in the build together than in the big piece. We also have a
basic base plate, which is 2x2 units big. Well then, the scalable parts would need to look like in my attached sketch. With much more holes that finally would enable to place walls in all possible configurations.
Okay, it is obvious why there are less holes on the big boards: Because all these holes look ugly. I agree. But without these holes it is not scalable. To solve this for SysX or a new system, I suggest to design some new connectors that allo "half" connectors to fill the holes. Like the toasts are doing in steck buildings. I also sketched them. Simply, add a little relief and place the connecting moulds a little deeper into the surface. Then a new connector can attach there.
The cool thing about my idea and these new connectors is that you basically could use all your old sysX parts and combine them into the new system just by exchanging the connectors.
3. universality
This is a key feature that made playmobil a success in the first place. Each constuction worker could become an indian or a knight could become a cowboy etc. Well, sadly enough, the klickies are not like that anymore, but this is off-topic for now.
Universality is reached to some degrees, but the designers at playmobil should focus much more on this principal feature, as this is what makes a knights fan to buy a zoo set. Here are some examples and ideas to this point: Definitely get rid of these huge parts. Well, it might be difficult to set up a castle then, but, hey, kids learn a lot of statics by building up a castle and they have great common time (on christmas, birthday or other occasions) with their parents! I think, this rather an advantage than a drawback, buildings should not be fully setup in ten minutes!!! I stressed this set before, but take another look at the beautiful
rock castle: There are some great parts in it like
this connector or this
archway, but on the other hand there are parts that completely undermine the universality of the building, see e.g. the
tower top, a perfectly missed opportunity to introduce a nice set of castle wall tops, and of course this
crazy piece... (I am out of words for this one)
Well, but they also had some good ideas, e.g. the universal
cabinets, also found in the post office set. You can extend them easily into a
treasure chamber, a
butchers shop shelve or simply as a cabinet in your
police station. This is a great universality and this could be further extended with DS-equipement to fill your shelves (like they did with the sets
butcher barber and
barber shop).
Also, they already offer great extensions. But they should not be limited to set extensions. Rather they should extend them e.g. to a roof piece assortment, bags with connectors, a bag with sysX pieces useful to setup roman civilian buildings...
If they restrict themselve on a unique system, they can reuse several sets for these themes. I am especially thinking of the new holiday home and the new zoo. It would be so cool to have sets in the DS to extend the
holiday home to a ancient roman house and the
asian zoo buildings into something historical asian.
So, this should be all for now!
Looking forward reading your thoughts on that.
best,
socrates
