- Joined
- Jul 30, 2013
- Messages
- 195
- Reaction score
- 84
Rail Dry-docks
My first suggestion, one that I believe is built off an earlier suggestion from December (Can't remember where), is to be able to use rails to build ships. The core of it would be thus:
1) Being able to display some sort of a ship 'frame' or outline
2) A weapon or tool system that would place blocks in a ship outline by clicking on it
3) The possibility of linking storage between docked entities.
4) Possibly a kind of "Joint" or "Hardpoint" that would temporarily dock an entity until it's done being built. (May be able to slide things off onto rails as long as the joint lines up with a rail dock (Would pretty much be only applicable to fighters and turrets as it would be too bulky to handle on the larger ships.)
You first place an outline on a station or a ship.
The outline would be attached temporarily to a "Joint" that would act similarly to the original dock's based on the position of the core. The core would be centered above or to the side of the joint based on ship orientation. If the ship blueprint had a rail docker mounted to the outside the joint would dock to that instead, and allow for sliding off of it afterwards.
Once a ship outline is placed onto a joint the ship could then be built by other ships by use of the ship builder weapon/tool system. The ship builder would start at the opposite side of the outline and build towards itself like a 3D printer. The builder would take items out of the ship's/player's (If the player is in the ship) inventory and begin to fill in the outline.
Here's where the rails and inventory linking comes in: The inventory linking is necessary so that entities docked to rails could take items from a larger ship, slide along their rail, and automatically build ships with their building/printing tool system.
My idea behind this system was so the player could have a way of printing and launching fighters from a mother-ship during combat. The size and nature of the system would put a limit on how quickly fighters could be produced. Further restrictions could be applied based on mass of the outline VS the mass of the attached ship, further preventing players from printing ships the size of the ship they're in in the middle of nowhere. The chunk loading system would prevent players from 24/7 printing ships and clogging up sectors, and perhaps the weapon could have some sort of print cap per mothership/station per day.
I'm by no means suggesting the old system of buying ships from shops be abandoned, i'm simply suggesting an interesting, and self-balancing way of building ships.
Auto-linking Wireless Logic
My second suggestion is a much simpler one. A System of Auto-linking either wireless, or a separate block similar to the wireless blocks via sliding them directly past one another by rail (One entity would be docked to the rail and sliding, the other would be the mothership entity the docked one is attached to). This would allow for interesting auto-docking mechanisms for turrets.
I am well aware that the rail system is not completed and released yet, however to my current knowledge there are no systems similar to these planned.
My first suggestion, one that I believe is built off an earlier suggestion from December (Can't remember where), is to be able to use rails to build ships. The core of it would be thus:
1) Being able to display some sort of a ship 'frame' or outline
2) A weapon or tool system that would place blocks in a ship outline by clicking on it
3) The possibility of linking storage between docked entities.
4) Possibly a kind of "Joint" or "Hardpoint" that would temporarily dock an entity until it's done being built. (May be able to slide things off onto rails as long as the joint lines up with a rail dock (Would pretty much be only applicable to fighters and turrets as it would be too bulky to handle on the larger ships.)
You first place an outline on a station or a ship.
The outline would be attached temporarily to a "Joint" that would act similarly to the original dock's based on the position of the core. The core would be centered above or to the side of the joint based on ship orientation. If the ship blueprint had a rail docker mounted to the outside the joint would dock to that instead, and allow for sliding off of it afterwards.
Once a ship outline is placed onto a joint the ship could then be built by other ships by use of the ship builder weapon/tool system. The ship builder would start at the opposite side of the outline and build towards itself like a 3D printer. The builder would take items out of the ship's/player's (If the player is in the ship) inventory and begin to fill in the outline.
Here's where the rails and inventory linking comes in: The inventory linking is necessary so that entities docked to rails could take items from a larger ship, slide along their rail, and automatically build ships with their building/printing tool system.
My idea behind this system was so the player could have a way of printing and launching fighters from a mother-ship during combat. The size and nature of the system would put a limit on how quickly fighters could be produced. Further restrictions could be applied based on mass of the outline VS the mass of the attached ship, further preventing players from printing ships the size of the ship they're in in the middle of nowhere. The chunk loading system would prevent players from 24/7 printing ships and clogging up sectors, and perhaps the weapon could have some sort of print cap per mothership/station per day.
I'm by no means suggesting the old system of buying ships from shops be abandoned, i'm simply suggesting an interesting, and self-balancing way of building ships.
Auto-linking Wireless Logic
My second suggestion is a much simpler one. A System of Auto-linking either wireless, or a separate block similar to the wireless blocks via sliding them directly past one another by rail (One entity would be docked to the rail and sliding, the other would be the mothership entity the docked one is attached to). This would allow for interesting auto-docking mechanisms for turrets.
I am well aware that the rail system is not completed and released yet, however to my current knowledge there are no systems similar to these planned.
