Configured Shipyard Core Anchor position with offsets in the Shipyard Computer

[aRottenKomquat]

Right now it can be tricky to work with some ship designs because of placement of the Shipyard Core Anchor. If it's not positioned just right, especially in smaller shipyards, the design will extend beyond the shipyard's boundaries and won't fit. Then it can be trial-and-error of entering build mode and moving the anchor around until it works.

I propose that we add X Offset, Y Offset, Z Offset, and Facing input fields to the Shipyard Computer's user interface. And you can change the values to move the anchor block around without having to mess with it in build mode, and if a design is already loaded then the entire design moves or rotates to match the new position.

Additionally, bounds-checking a known design against the known build area ought to be simple enough to auto-calculate a usable anchor position so you don't even have to mess with it when trying to load an existing design, or throw up an error message if not possible (like if the design's width is larger than the build area width).

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Right now it can be tricky to work with some ship designs because of placement of the Shipyard Core Anchor. If it's not positioned just right, especially in smaller shipyards, the design will extend beyond the shipyard's boundaries and won't fit. Then it can be trial-and-error of entering build mode and moving the anchor around until it works.

I propose that we add X Offset, Y Offset, Z Offset, and Facing input fields to the Shipyard Computer's user interface. And you can change the values to move the anchor block around without having to mess with it in build mode, and if a design is already loaded then the entire design moves or rotates to match the new position.

Additionally, bounds-checking a known design against the known build area ought to be simple enough to auto-calculate a usable anchor position so you don't even have to mess with it when trying to load an existing design, or throw up an error message if not possible (like if the design's width is larger than the build area width).

Yeah, this is a problem with the existing anchor.

I was thinking some kind of moving repositioning rail or current anchor would sort that issue. But then in the case of a rail, you run into the issue of not being able to have the rail joined to a rail network for automated delivery.

I thought another option would be to use the existing mechanics of the fleet carrier order and the pickup point.
This would then allow us to continue using the existing anchor and rely on fleets controls.
The idea would be to integrate the fleet carrier options or create new ones for shipyards to then undock the ship from the anchor and have it automatically fly and dock to a predetermined/preconfigured pickup point.

In theory you could do this for turrets and any other docking entity, but it would be way slower than simply materialising the entity docked as we do when created docked entities in advanced build mode.

 

[philthy mcnasty]

Why not a "ship yard ghost docker" block for the ships? that way not only can we dock in ship yards better, but we also have a means to move the ship's core inside the ship yard.

 

[terra mining corp.]

How about just get rid of the anchor all together,if the ship fits physically in the yard its go time.

 

[aRottenKomquat]

How about just get rid of the anchor all together,if the ship fits physically in the yard its go time.

That was my original suggestion, but I changed it when I started wondering how you'd dock an existing ship to the shipyard.

 

[Edymnion]

Honestly? I'd like to see shipyards just auto-center you at the start, and then every time you load a design in it compares the bounding box of the load to the bounding box of the shipyard. Long as one bounding box is smaller than the other, you're good. Stop with the positioning entirely.