Thrusters and new rail system

[Krougal]

Is thrust shared between docked ships now?
If not are there any plans?
This would allow some really cool things.

Danube class runabout from Star Trek universe is an excellent example. It is modular in design. It uses a warp sled, that has the jump drive (going to stick with Starmade terms now) and presumably most of the thrusters. The command module has some thrusters as well. Then you have different mission modules.

The problem in Starmade is that you would need to pilot it from the warpsled. The command module (hereafter CM) would need it's own thrusters, but they are just deadweight afaik until you seperate. Also any weapons on the CM you couldn't have direct control of. If you piloted from the CM then the warpsled is deadweight. You also can't use the jumpdrive.

 

[Krougal]

Some more thoughts. and questions.

Case in point, the ship I am currently working on could easily become 5 seperate (front, back, 2 wings, landing gear) ships plus turrets. So say I've got a defensive Ion effect on the main ship. Does it apply to the rest of the ship? The turrets? Does it take their mass into account?

Another thing, so Bench's X-Wing is 6 pieces. I also noticed that the turning speed shows what you would expect out of the main ships size and mass only. So even though it has a wide wingspan, they don't affect the turning radius (at least displayed, I haven't flown it around much). That would be a good thing for the ship I am building, but a bit cheaty. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before someone makes a little tiny command module that goes in the center of a huge ship, remote controls all the weapons and has insane turning speed.

Simplest thing would be if all effects used total mass of all attached ships and applied everything to all attached ships. Shields too for that matter. With the remote control it becomes viable to put effect modules or jump drives elsewhere (if we use total mass you couldn't cheat and make a tiny j-drive turret to instacharge and jump your 100k mass ship).

 

[Malacodor]

As far as I know only shields and energy can be shared, and only down the docking chain, not up.

 

[Krougal]

As far as I know only shields and energy can be shared, and only down the docking chain, not up.

Yeah, kinda limiting. I guess I should make it a suggestion. Was hoping for some discussion on it, but everyone is busy re-building their turrets and docking systems

 

[Keptick]

Some more thoughts. and questions.

Case in point, the ship I am currently working on could easily become 5 seperate (front, back, 2 wings, landing gear) ships plus turrets. So say I've got a defensive Ion effect on the main ship. Does it apply to the rest of the ship? The turrets? Does it take their mass into account?

Another thing, so Bench's X-Wing is 6 pieces. I also noticed that the turning speed shows what you would expect out of the main ships size and mass only. So even though it has a wide wingspan, they don't affect the turning radius (at least displayed, I haven't flown it around much). That would be a good thing for the ship I am building, but a bit cheaty. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before someone makes a little tiny command module that goes in the center of a huge ship, remote controls all the weapons and has insane turning speed.

Simplest thing would be if all effects used total mass of all attached ships and applied everything to all attached ships. Shields too for that matter. With the remote control it becomes viable to put effect modules or jump drives elsewhere (if we use total mass you couldn't cheat and make a tiny j-drive turret to instacharge and jump your 100k mass ship).

Mass of docked entities is added to the main ship, so if you want to move around a massive turret or use a fast jump drive it will need to be equally proportionate to the turret's mass. And passive effects don't share between entities. Jump drives can't be charged with logic either, so you can forget about that idea.

As for the super fast turning ginormous docked ship. Yes, you could do that, but it couldn't move or jump in any reasonable time interval for the reasons explained in the first paragraph.

 

[jayman38]

It's a shame thrust can't be shared. I remember a certain VTOL/vectored-thrust forum thread being quite popular among several players.

 

[Darkduck]

Thread ambush!!!!
Has anyone else's weapons not working? I was attacked by pirates and my beams which pre patch could annihilate a pirate ship can't even destroy a single ship.

It seems like you need to keep the beam on the same block for x seconds to do damage which well, simply is impossible in space combat

 

[NeonSturm]

Mass of docked entities is added to the main ship, so if you want to move around a massive turret or use a fast jump drive it will need to be equally proportionate to the turret's mass. And passive effects don't share between entities. Jump drives can't be charged with logic either, so you can forget about that idea.

About passive effects: If you boost your ship's front side with ions, will it take only the front's mass or all mass?

OP, if only the outer hull layer's mass counts.
UP, if you need the same array and energy several times when you want your whole ship protected.
I'd like to be able to build fragile windows combined with a though ship.​

And as much as I like shared thrust for modular design, have shared thrust with docked drones+ships would be OP

 

[Krougal]

About passive effects: If you boost your ship's front side with ions, will it take only the front's mass or all mass?

OP, if only the outer hull layer's mass counts.
UP, if you need the same array and energy several times when you want your whole ship protected.
I'd like to be able to build fragile windows combined with a though ship.​

And as much as I like shared thrust for modular design, have shared thrust with docked drones+ships would be OP

How would it be OP? I'm saying count the total mass.

Example A: You you made a ship of 3x 100 mass pieces, all with 100 thrusters (10%). Ship should have whatever 10% thrusters give you. Detach a piece, still the same thrust/mass ratio.

Example B: You made a ship of 3x 100 mass pieces, 1 with 300 thrusters, 2 with none. Again the overall ship has 10% thrusters. If you detach a piece that lacks thrusters, then you gain thrust. If you detach the piece with the thrusters you're SOL.

Same for other effects.

You aren't gaining or losing anything, what I'm proposing is just treating all docked entities as 1 ship.

 

[Keptick]

About passive effects: If you boost your ship's front side with ions, will it take only the front's mass or all mass?

OP, if only the outer hull layer's mass counts.
UP, if you need the same array and energy several times when you want your whole ship protected.
I'd like to be able to build fragile windows combined with a though ship.​

And as much as I like shared thrust for modular design, have shared thrust with docked drones+ships would be OP

As far as I know effects only take the mass of the entity it's on into account, since it only affects that entity.

 

[NeonSturm]

How would it be OP? I'm saying count the total mass.

And passive effects don't share between entities. Jump drives can't be charged with logic either, so you can forget about that idea.

You forgot to quote and read THAT
EDIT: Ninjaed by keptick

Imagine this:

PW SH SH SH SH SH SH SH ||
PW SH SH SH SH SH SH SH || all around your ship
PW SH SH SH SH SH SH SH ||
PW SH SH SH SH SH SH SH || PW = power; SH = shield

|| = hull barrier with MAX ion effect,
only counting it's own mass - not the parent's shields which are used.​

 

[Krougal]

You forgot to quote and read THAT
EDIT: Ninjaed by keptick

Imagine this:

PW SH SH SH SH SH SH SH ||
PW SH SH SH SH SH SH SH || all around your ship
PW SH SH SH SH SH SH SH ||
PW SH SH SH SH SH SH SH || PW = power; SH = shield

|| = hull barrier with MAX ion effect,
only counting it's own mass - not the parent's shields which are used.​

I did read what Keptik said. The overall mass counts, the overall thrusters don't. I digressed right into suggestion territory from there I guess.

What you just said raises another question about current effects. So I'm getting the shielding of the parent ship, how do my Ions interact with that? Is the effect applied before/after/not at all(only to own shields)?

This update adds a lot of good needed features, but raises many questions about mechanics.

 

[Krougal]

Honestly, after spending the last several hours trying to refit a simple turret, I can say wholeheartedly this new system is overly complicated and just plain sucks ass and I now hate this game. Sorry, just felt the need to rant and didn't seem worth starting a new thread to rant.

OK, I'm better now. Went out, had a few cigarettes, re-thought the whole design process. Just need to fully abuse the mechanics of being able to have as many blocks of empty space as you need and make the barrels just barrels and the turret housing the base.