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Rail Dock Collector
We have rail dockers for docking from inside the docked object already.
We would do well to have the inverse too. My idea - the Rail Dock Collector. It's a simple block that functions identically to a Rail (ie: it moves blocks in the direction of the arrow if other rails are present in that direction), except with the difference that it can automatically dock other ships to it when it fires a docking beam. Furthermore, collecting an Overheating ship cancels the overheat countdown automatically.
To prevent trolling or ship theft, the Rail Collector would only function when fired at a Docker on a ship in the same faction (and not locked by a higher rank), or a ship with a Permission Module next to the rail docker in question. Edit: just realized that we could have a server setting to allow unshielded ships with no power to be collected, too, to allow for pirate or police style gameplay.
Rail Docker
The Rail Docker itself can benefit from a few small tweaks of its own. Firstly, a Rail Docker with a signal coming from an Activation Module could automatically dock to amy compatible blocks it touches. Secondly, a Rail Docker should be able to dock an entire ship to another entity even if it's not part of the parent entity. Thirdly, any pulsed input (button) should fire the rail docker's docking beam out of the docking face of the block.
Alignment Tool
While I'm on the topic of docking and relative movement between entities... The Alignment Tool is a block that has two functions, and two functions only. The first - when fired like a Rail Docker via hotbar, it Aligns a ship to another ship, allowing the first to move in relation to the second. The second function is that when placed next to an Area Trigger Controller, it functions similarly to automatic gravity for astronauts, in that the entity passing through the Area Triggers is aligned to the main ship until it passes through connected triggers again.
This would, of course, have a maximum range of alignment - I'm thinking no more than, say, 10-20% beyond the bounding box for the "parent" ship.
How Ship Alignment works is simple - all it does is set movement to be relative to the parent entity, and when a ship is aligning to another ship, its velocity is set to the difference between its universal velocity and the velocity of the object it is aligning to. We already have Rails, so moving entities in relation to other entities is already an existing system. No reason we can't exploit it further.
When an Alignment Tool is connected to a Rail Basic, Rail Docker, Rotator, etc., then any object that undocks from that specific block is automatically aligned to the parent ship. IE: Fighter launches don't cause intense collision lag.
First thing I see happening with these changes are extending docking arms (folding, telescoping, etc.). I also suspect that drone carriers will be a little less awful to pilot with the Rail Collector block, too. Ship hangars will be functional when the ship is in motion, to boot.
We have rail dockers for docking from inside the docked object already.
We would do well to have the inverse too. My idea - the Rail Dock Collector. It's a simple block that functions identically to a Rail (ie: it moves blocks in the direction of the arrow if other rails are present in that direction), except with the difference that it can automatically dock other ships to it when it fires a docking beam. Furthermore, collecting an Overheating ship cancels the overheat countdown automatically.
To prevent trolling or ship theft, the Rail Collector would only function when fired at a Docker on a ship in the same faction (and not locked by a higher rank), or a ship with a Permission Module next to the rail docker in question. Edit: just realized that we could have a server setting to allow unshielded ships with no power to be collected, too, to allow for pirate or police style gameplay.
Rail Docker
The Rail Docker itself can benefit from a few small tweaks of its own. Firstly, a Rail Docker with a signal coming from an Activation Module could automatically dock to amy compatible blocks it touches. Secondly, a Rail Docker should be able to dock an entire ship to another entity even if it's not part of the parent entity. Thirdly, any pulsed input (button) should fire the rail docker's docking beam out of the docking face of the block.
Alignment Tool
While I'm on the topic of docking and relative movement between entities... The Alignment Tool is a block that has two functions, and two functions only. The first - when fired like a Rail Docker via hotbar, it Aligns a ship to another ship, allowing the first to move in relation to the second. The second function is that when placed next to an Area Trigger Controller, it functions similarly to automatic gravity for astronauts, in that the entity passing through the Area Triggers is aligned to the main ship until it passes through connected triggers again.
This would, of course, have a maximum range of alignment - I'm thinking no more than, say, 10-20% beyond the bounding box for the "parent" ship.
How Ship Alignment works is simple - all it does is set movement to be relative to the parent entity, and when a ship is aligning to another ship, its velocity is set to the difference between its universal velocity and the velocity of the object it is aligning to. We already have Rails, so moving entities in relation to other entities is already an existing system. No reason we can't exploit it further.
When an Alignment Tool is connected to a Rail Basic, Rail Docker, Rotator, etc., then any object that undocks from that specific block is automatically aligned to the parent ship. IE: Fighter launches don't cause intense collision lag.
First thing I see happening with these changes are extending docking arms (folding, telescoping, etc.). I also suspect that drone carriers will be a little less awful to pilot with the Rail Collector block, too. Ship hangars will be functional when the ship is in motion, to boot.
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