drone dock

[HolyCookie]

it always annoys me that you can't bring a drone with you, you either have to get them 1 by 1 or you have to leave them behind. a drone dock would make the difference to that.
using the same idea as a turret dock a drone dock will have a few special commands that you can use from your ship info (like how docks used to be)
commands like: deploy, attack target and return.
this way you can easily send out your drones, and return those who survived. This would totally be logical according to human standards.
also this will make drones more useful as you can focus their powers and repair them at their dock

 

[Jaaskinal]

I somewhat agree and I somewhat disagree. It'd look pretty cool, but at that point they're glorified turrets.

 

[HolyCookie]

I somewhat agree and I somewhat disagree. It'd look pretty cool, but at that point they're glorified turrets.

true, well at least something to make drones jump with you or a special drone dock using the basics of shipyard
and then you can call back a drone..... actually let me change the suggestion into that.
[DOUBLEPOST=1440810170,1440809819][/DOUBLEPOST]that should do it

 

[HolyCookie]

I somewhat agree and I somewhat disagree. It'd look pretty cool, but at that point they're glorified turrets.

changing suggestion again xD well at least this suggestion is refined for sure

 

[StormWing0]

How about just adding some AI settings to where we can tell the AI driven ships to return to their docking point?

 

[Cheapskate]

StarMade definitely needs this. I'm something of a drone-junkie myself and it's always super annoying after battles to track down all my drones and re-dock them. I've tried to consider the coding aspect of this [pathfinding back to the dock and whatnot] and... well that's not really needed. You could just have a button you can press that instantly re-docks all of your drones and AI fighters. If the drone's designated dock is missing [because it got blown off in battle] you could have a "Drone Permissions" system just like faction permissions. You connect a Drone Permissions block to a dock and that allows drones to return to that dock if their original docking place is no longer around.

 

[HolyCookie]

How about just adding some AI settings to where we can tell the AI driven ships to return to their docking point?

that would be really complicated to program.

StarMade definitely needs this. I'm something of a drone-junkie myself and it's always super annoying after battles to track down all my drones and re-dock them. I've tried to consider the coding aspect of this [pathfinding back to the dock and whatnot] and... well that's not really needed. You could just have a button you can press that instantly re-docks all of your drones and AI fighters. If the drone's designated dock is missing [because it got blown off in battle] you could have a "Drone Permissions" system just like faction permissions. You connect a Drone Permissions block to a dock and that allows drones to return to that dock if their original docking place is no longer around.

that would actualy by harder to use than just using a special dock, both require an special block, but with yours you also need to connect the drone with the block.... though this could make programming it easyer

ps: i have 0 program experience.

 

[Cheapskate]

that would be really complicated to program.



that would actualy by harder to use than just using a special dock, both require an special block, but with yours you also need to connect the drone with the block.... though this could make programming it easyer

ps: i have 0 program experience.

It would be harder to program. I've done a lot of work on my own spacey blocky games in the past, and 3D pathfinding with block entities is no easy task. For now at least, the easiest thing to do would make the drones just instantly teleport and dock back to their specific blocks. Imagine a battle where a dozen fighters are spread across three systems. Just think of the pathfinding it would take to bring them all back, navigate through your ship's hanger one by one, and try to line themselves up to dock? Worse yet, can you imagine the pathfinding it would take to do that while your ship is moving? That would be a nightmare. Besides, with StarMade being constantly in development, pathfinding can be added later... To be honest, right now I just want an easy way to reclaim my fighters and drones now. I don't care how pretty it looks xD

On the other note, my system would be more complicated to use, but probably not much harder. You are right, though. Having a dedicated block just for the sake of docking and deploying drones and fighters would be a simpler... especially to code. Though, if this does become a thing, I would like to have some means of controlling which drones deploy and which drones return. Drone-groups, basically. I don't think that would be too difficult to code in. I don't want to accidentally purge all my defenseless repair drones in the middle of a firefight.

 

[HolyCookie]

It would be harder to program. I've done a lot of work on my own spacey blocky games in the past, and 3D pathfinding with block entities is no easy task. For now at least, the easiest thing to do would make the drones just instantly teleport and dock back to their specific blocks. Imagine a battle where a dozen fighters are spread across three systems. Just think of the pathfinding it would take to bring them all back, navigate through your ship's hanger one by one, and try to line themselves up to dock? Worse yet, can you imagine the pathfinding it would take to do that while your ship is moving? That would be a nightmare. Besides, with StarMade being constantly in development, pathfinding can be added later... To be honest, right now I just want an easy way to reclaim my fighters and drones now. I don't care how pretty it looks xD

On the other note, my system would be more complicated to use, but probably not much harder. You are right, though. Having a dedicated block just for the sake of docking and deploying drones and fighters would be a simpler... especially to code. Though, if this does become a thing, I would like to have some means of controlling which drones deploy and which drones return. Drone-groups, basically. I don't think that would be too difficult to code in. I don't want to accidentally purge all my defenseless repair drones in the middle of a firefight.

your idea is easyer to programm, because you assign a drone to a dock. with my idea you don't assign a drone to a dock. lol repair drones?

 

[Cheapskate]

your idea is easyer to programm, because you assign a drone to a dock. with my idea you don't assign a drone to a dock. lol repair drones?

Yeah, I usually keep a handful of giant astrotech drones in a separate hanger under my bridge for post-battle turret repairs [I fly them, they're not automated]. That said, how would your system work with differently sized drones? I assume drones would just go find whatever dock is available.. but the problem is, all docks might not fit all drones! How would this be rectified? If drones were assigned to their own dedicated dock, this wouldn't be a problem.

I can kind of think of a solution. Create a data structure for all the drones that need to be docked, sort them by size, and allow the largest drones to dock first in order descending by size. However, I'm not sure if Java can do that [I'm not a java coder]. This would also eliminate any kind of group-based or individual docking

 

[Zackey_TNT]

This has already been suggested

 

[HolyCookie]

Yeah, I usually keep a handful of giant astrotech drones in a separate hanger under my bridge for post-battle turret repairs [I fly them, they're not automated]. That said, how would your system work with differently sized drones? I assume drones would just go find whatever dock is available.. but the problem is, all docks might not fit all drones! How would this be rectified? If drones were assigned to their own dedicated dock, this wouldn't be a problem.

I can kind of think of a solution. Create a data structure for all the drones that need to be docked, sort them by size, and allow the largest drones to dock first in order descending by size. However, I'm not sure if Java can do that [I'm not a java coder]. This would also eliminate any kind of group-based or individual docking

meh your idea is better because it would just be the same idea as logic wireless signals.... though then I would really recommend a drone rack

This has already been suggested

oh well... it's fun to talk about :P

 

[RavenWT]

By the way, remote control to activate drone's return is a good idea... 1 block to mark the Dock, 1 to mark the matching drone. On activation, the drone move close his dock and..... with the magnetic rail that's planed you're good

 

[HolyCookie]

By the way, remote control to activate drone's return is a good idea... 1 block to mark the Dock, 1 to mark the matching drone. On activation, the drone move close his dock and..... with the magnetic rail that's planed you're good

smart use of up coming features :D

 

[RavenWT]

smart use of up coming features :D

Yup :D but we still need our block to call back our drone