Next generation: Advanced carriers

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    This is a relatively simple suggestion that doesn't add any new blocks but instead uses the new logic system. This would be relatively simple to implement and would open a new fighting tactic and ship that are currently broken: carriers
    Manually releasing docked ships:
    The first part of this suggestion is giving players the ability undock a ship while being in astronaut mode. Players would be able to do this by simply looking at a dock and pressing 'R'. This isn't extremely useful on its own but it is essential for the rest of my suggestion.

    Adding logic
    The main part of creating advanced carriers uses the new logic system. By connecting multiple docks to a logic system block (not sure on the exact name) a player could release multiple docked ships at once. This could then be even more useful if you had the ability to attach a logic block to the carriers core, giving the ability to release pre-selected groups of ships, instead of all your ships, from flight mode.
    edit: Delay blocks would also be very useful with this system as you would be able to organize the order the fighters left the hanger. This would prevent lag as your ships rammed into each other causing collision damage.

    Recall
    The new logic system also gives way to the possibility of recalling an AI ship that was previously docked in your carrier. This would be possible by linking the docked ships core to the dock (which in turn is linked to a logic block, which is linked to the carrier's core). This linking, docked ship to dock, could also be automatically made or a pop up message could ask you if you would like to link upon landing (unless your current ship was already linked). Ships could then be recalled by a player deactivating the logic block either from astronaut mode or from the carrier's flight mode. If one of the ships that is linked to a carrier's dock is player controlled, a pop up message would appear telling the pilot that the carrier has ordered all fighters to return to their dock. To allow the player to know which dock he/she is linked to, the dock would have the glowing outline.

    AI exiting and entering a carrier
    The best solution for this problem would be to have place-able 'beacons' that can be connected to a docking station. These would act very similarly to a dock as the ship would simply slowly jump from one to the next until it is at the last one and out side the hanger. The height from the beacon to the ship would obviously have to be adjustable to prevent collisions.
     
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    I like this idea, as it is carriers are more useful as transport ships than actual carriers. Especially the recall part which would make small AI fighters very useful.
     
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    I'm not entirely sure, but I think this was stated as planned in the most recent Q&A. There is certainly carrier recall even for unfactioned ships planned.
     
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    I believe the main thing holding back the development of systems for carriers is the ai path finding isnt good enough.
     
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    I believe the main thing holding back the development of systems for carriers is the ai path finding isnt good enough.
    This would definitely need to be looked into as well but my suggestion is a good first step.
     
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    I believe the main thing holding back the development of systems for carriers is the ai path finding isnt good enough.
    In the Q&A there was a question about this, and that was precisely the reason it hasn't been done yet. If I recall correctly, it's relatively simple to get the AI to return to the dock, it's just difficult to get them there without crashing into anything.
     
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    In the Q&A there was a question about this, and that was precisely the reason it hasn't been done yet. If I recall correctly, it's relatively simple to get the AI to return to the dock, it's just difficult to get them there without crashing into anything.
    The best solution for this problem would to have place-able 'beacons' that can be connected to a docking station. These would act very similarly to a dock as the ship would simply slowly jump from one to the next until it is at the last one and out side the hanger. The height from the beacon to the ship would obviously have to be adjustable to prevent collisions.
     
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    The best solution for this problem would to have place-able 'beacons' that can be connected to a docking station. These would act very similarly to a dock as the ship would simply slowly jump from one to the next until it is at the last one and out side the hanger. The height from the beacon to the ship would obviously have to be adjustable to prevent collisions.
    That could work.
     
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    Or maybe enable clipping for AI controlled ships? If they just clipped through any obstructions or other AI ships controlled by the same faction it might be a good place to start.
     
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    nice idea, even the last part maybe not possible because of the poor pathfinding, but this is a workable idea for carriers to become combat use
     
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    Added my AI exiting and entering to the OP.

    Or maybe enable clipping for AI controlled ships? If they just clipped through any obstructions or other AI ships controlled by the same faction it might be a good place to start.
    My only problem with this is that AI ships would start flying out of the sides of ships. However, if clipping is only enabled while an AI is using the beacons, that would be a good way to reduce lag.
     
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    An alternative simple solution would be to allow you to take remote control a ship while piloting the mothership. This would allow you to launch and dock ships without leaving the carrier. This eliminates all pathfinding issues but it is not as great as it would be to just to hit a "launch all fighters" and "recall" button. Sure a little tedious but it would get the job done.
     
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    An alternative simple solution would be to allow you to take remote control a ship while piloting the mothership. This would allow you to launch and dock ships without leaving the carrier. This eliminates all pathfinding issues but it is not as great as it would be to just to hit a "launch all fighters" and "recall" button. Sure a little tedious but it would get the job done.
    That definitely would eliminate the need for a new block but it sure would be very tedious and wouldn't allow you to fly the mothership while launching your fighters, leaving it, for the most part, unguarded.
     
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    That definitely would eliminate the need for a new block but it sure would be very tedious and wouldn't allow you to fly the mothership while launching your fighters, leaving it, for the most part, unguarded.
    Considering the problems you could have if the carrier is moving as you are trying to have ships dock and undock.... just the fact that fighters can't fly faster than a carrier to dock or undock.

    My carrier can hold 12 fighters in the pockets off of the main flight deck and an additional 7 fighters on the deck, this would be a logistical nightmare using a beacon system. I would need beacons guiding every ship to every dock and back out of the ship again. The ships also have to enter and exit in a specific order for smooth operations.
     
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    Considering the problems you could have if the carrier is moving as you are trying to have ships dock and undock.... just the fact that fighters can't fly faster than a carrier to dock or undock.

    My carrier can hold 12 fighters in the pockets off of the main flight deck and an additional 7 fighters on the deck, this would be a logistical nightmare using a beacon system. I would need beacons guiding every ship to every dock and back out of the ship again. The ships also have to enter and exit in a specific order for smooth operations.
    Well for one you could reuse beacons and for two Delay Blocks!!! I think it would be fun to set up the sequence to have my ships deploy, and since they would return in reverse sequence, you wouldnt have to set the beacons for them coming back. And if the links saved with the ship imagine how much time would be saved since you would only have to make the connections once. Also, the last beacon in the chain could accelerate the fighter, but in reality the carrier shouldnt be moving while deploying the ships since that would even be near impossible for a human controlled fighter to exit.
     
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    Yeah, having the beacon blocks would be good. It would have to be in order though (so one beacon block connects to the next, and so on.) I'm not sure you could have multiple docking ports connected to the same beacon though.
     
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    Not all ships have one way in and out so beacons would have to be able to deal with approach and departure separately, and I imagine you would need more than .5 seconds delay so entire chains would be needed just for a few ships. I doubt multiple docks will be able to share beacons as well.
     
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    Eh, having "launch beacon"s and "recovery beacon"s as two separate blocks wouldn't be a huge issue. As for the delay length, how long do you think having fighters launch will take, 10 minutes each?
     
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    Not all ships have one way in and out so beacons would have to be able to deal with approach and departure separately, and I imagine you would need more than .5 seconds delay so entire chains would be needed just for a few ships. I doubt multiple docks will be able to share beacons as well.
    And to add on to Itmauve, you can add multiple delay blocks to each dock to give all the time needed.
     
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    Lets say my carrier launches one ship every 5 seconds when I hit that button. It has 19 docks so it will take 190 delay blocks to achieve this. It would have to do this in a specific order, and it would have to clear the runway first, then launch the 12 ships in the hanger. When docking again I cannot simply reverse this order so I would need an entire second set of delays to land each ship not to mention all the beacons to guide this entire process. If a ship that is told to land doesn't do so in the appropriate time frame you potentially have collisions and all other sorts of anarchy, some ships getting to their designated docks before hand, the AI will have to know how to line themselves up with the rear of my carrier, my carrier also can carry multiple sized ships so each ship has to dock exactly where it departed from so the specific ships have to be assigned to specific docks.