Surprise Dev Update

[Crimson-Artist]

i hope logic can make those things move... would really love to have spinning parts on a station :D
also
i think transformers could be a thing...

The next great Starmade Build!

 

[SkylordLuke]

cant wait for the textures,so its more intuitive. :P
and cant wait to see some crazy creations

 

[kiddan]

Time to make Unicron... (I spelled that right, I hope...)

 

[Jaaskinal]

I wonder, is this planned to work with ai?

 

[Trekkerjoe]

Hype! So many questions! Can modules contained in the body be in the same weapon group as in the barrel? Does the rotating block have colliders to prevent it from clipping the main ship? Will AI modules have to be on the barrels, or is a system planned for the AI to recognize the parts of the turret? And my final question: Will there be a way to control the rotation via logic or the ship's hotbar?

 

[schema]

I can't awnser too many questions yet, but if you're wondering bout the versatility of this system, this should give some awnsers

AI is designed to use a virtual camera (projecting targets onto a 2d plane) using the same method as using the mouse, so this system will be fully compatible

 

[Comr4de]

Ok but will weapons linkage spread across the two grids that account for lateral and longitudinal movement? The system is cool and all but I can see it being extremely limiting for larger turret designs.
[DOUBLEPOST=1427908941,1427908875][/DOUBLEPOST]

I can't awnser too many questions yet, but if you're wondering bout the versatility of this system, this should give some awnsers

AI is designed to use a virtual camera (projecting targets onto a 2d plane) using the same method as using the mouse, so this system will be fully compatible

BUT I really appreciate how smoothly the whole thing looks. really impressed.

 

[schema]

they are two ships. You need one Y-axis rotator and one X axis rotator (Y is up, Z is right, and X is right). Both rotators are going to be combined into one block and depending on their orientation up/bottom or left/right, the movement will be defined. There is no Z axis to modify with mouse movement (at least not yet) as that would be roll, and I want to keep it as simple as possible.

The only restriction on this system is that I'm going to try to implement a collision system so you can't rotate into the blocks of your mother ships or other docked/railed/sub systems, so I hope that will be purely intuitive.

It's one of those things that are nearly impossible to explain with words, but once you see it in action you will probably understand it right away
[DOUBLEPOST=1427909474,1427909390][/DOUBLEPOST]all 'super' movement is still completely compatible with rails. That means you can build a gallery shooter on rails (a turret that moves around on your station/ship/planet on its own while you aim)

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

they are two ships. You need one Y-axis rotator and one X axis rotator (Y is up, Z is right, and X is right). Both rotators are going to be combined into one block and depending on their orientation up/bottom or left/right, the movement will be defined. There is no Z axis to modify with mouse movement (at least not yet) as that would be roll, and I want to keep it as simple as possible.

The only restriction on this system is that I'm going to try to implement a collision system so you can't rotate into the blocks of your mother ships or other docked/railed/sub systems, so I hope that will be purely intuitive.

It's one of those things that are nearly impossible to explain with words, but once you see it in action you will probably understand it right away
[DOUBLEPOST=1427909474,1427909390][/DOUBLEPOST]all 'super' movement is still completely compatible with rails. That means you can build a gallery shooter on rails (a turret that moves around on your station/ship/planet on its own while you aim)

I guess you have not worked out the logistics of these entities being able to share aspects such as weapons and shields. In regards to turrets big turrets with articulating barrels are a problem. If all the weapons and shields must be contained in the barrel than this really limits the ability of big turrets. Having the body of the turret giving shields to the barrels would help a lot but the damage output of your guns would still be limited to a potentially smaller portion of the turret.

 

[NuclearFun]

they are two ships. You need one Y-axis rotator and one X axis rotator (Y is up, Z is right, and X is right). Both rotators are going to be combined into one block and depending on their orientation up/bottom or left/right, the movement will be defined. There is no Z axis to modify with mouse movement (at least not yet) as that would be roll, and I want to keep it as simple as possible.

The only restriction on this system is that I'm going to try to implement a collision system so you can't rotate into the blocks of your mother ships or other docked/railed/sub systems, so I hope that will be purely intuitive.

It's one of those things that are nearly impossible to explain with words, but once you see it in action you will probably understand it right away
[DOUBLEPOST=1427909474,1427909390][/DOUBLEPOST]all 'super' movement is still completely compatible with rails. That means you can build a gallery shooter on rails (a turret that moves around on your station/ship/planet on its own while you aim)

In Addition to Svens comment... will there be a system so we do not have to load in the parts of the turrets separately?

 

[schema]

sharing of stats will also be redesigned so turrets can be designed any way. however turrets will still be somewhat exposed. with other systems that are planned in mind (ship and armor hp), they will be able to get a lot from the mothership (like they will share shields up to certain point) but they won't get full protection.
[DOUBLEPOST=1427910068,1427909990][/DOUBLEPOST]as for loading, I'll definitely make a system that can replicate turrets for debugging purposes which is probably also going to end up in the game somewhat

 

[Gamel]

 

[jorgekorke]

Wow, nice !
Tho, at first, I was a bit worried when I saw what day is today..... Hehehehehehehehehee

 

[schema]

probably combined with the ship yard system where you could place turrets directly from the blueprint menu onto your ship

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

sharing of stats will also be redesigned so turrets can be designed any way. however turrets will still be somewhat exposed. with other systems that are planned in mind (ship and armor hp), they will be able to get a lot from the mothership (like they will share shields up to certain point) but they won't get full protection.
[DOUBLEPOST=1427910068,1427909990][/DOUBLEPOST]as for loading, I'll definitely make a system that can replicate turrets for debugging purposes which is probably also going to end up in the game somewhat

Wow really? All I wanted was for the turret body to share it's shields with the rest of the turret and now your telling us that turrets will be partially protected by the mother-ship?! That is monumental news! What about shared weapon components between turret entities? Like the barrel contains the master and the body contains slave and tertiary?

 

[LukeSalmon]

By my moustache!

 

[schema]

Wow really? All I wanted was for the turret body to share it's shields with the rest of the turret and now your telling us that turrets will be partially protected by the mother-ship?! That is monumental news! What about shared weapon components between turret entities? Like the barrel contains the master and the body contains slave and tertiary?

I don't know yet if that would be a good idea in terms of balancing. The more ties there are between ships the more those ships are bound together and the more meta data there is, so I try to avoid it. It would cause a lot of menus of what goes where and if anything is assigned wrongly it would be hell to find the mistake.

While power consumption and shields are very straight forward, weapon stat sharing is unfortunately a whole other story
[DOUBLEPOST=1427910775,1427910612][/DOUBLEPOST]To be general: I try to make things simple while still complex if that makes sense. I don't like having to configure a ship for hours even if it's done building.

I like to use the advantage that a block grid system gives us, which is that we can put the data in the actual structure of the entities

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

I don't know yet if that would be a good idea in terms of balancing. The more ties there are between ships the more those ships are bound together and the more meta data there is, so I try to avoid it. It would cause a lot of menus of what goes where and if anything is assigned wrongly it would be hell to find the mistake.

While power consumption and shields are very straight forward, weapon stat sharing is unfortunately a whole other story

I figured that would be the case. I wonder if linking the output could be a simple solution. All weapons (master/slave/tertiary) are contained in the body of the turret but the output itself, where the shot originates from, is linked to a block at the end of the barrel. So you have the option for more powerful turrets but the barrels will at least be shooting.

 

[schema]

I figured that would be the case. I wonder if linking the output could be a simple solution. All weapons (master/slave/tertiary) are contained in the body of the turret but the output itself, where the shot originates from, is linked to a block at the end of the barrel. So you have the option for more powerful turrets but the barrels will at least be shooting.

Sorry i don't understand completely. On the same structure the output is defined and can be set. Do you mean that the Y rotating part should feed into the weapon. If yes, that part isn't really generally vital in terms of room saving. remember, those docking areas are gone, so you can have a giant cannon as the turret, while the thing it's rotating on is just a few blocks
[DOUBLEPOST=1427911264,1427911110][/DOUBLEPOST]but you have a point. for a style like real battleships where the rotating part is the biggest you would want them to pack power for the barrels shooting. i'll see what i can do

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

Sorry i don't understand completely. On the same structure the output is defined and can be set. Do you mean that the Y rotating part should feed into the weapon. If yes, that part isn't really generally vital in terms of room saving. remember, those docking areas are gone, so you can have a giant cannon as the turret, while the thing it's rotating on is just a few blocks
[DOUBLEPOST=1427911264,1427911110][/DOUBLEPOST]but you have a point. for a style like real battleships where the rotating part is the biggest you would want them to pack power for the barrels shooting. i'll see what i can do

Yeah that's what I mean. In most cases the barrel of a turret is going to be the smaller part of the turret. These will have to be their own entity in order to articulate. In this case they must contain all the weapons but this would really limit the turret as the only thing you can put in the larger body is power and shields production/capacity. If we had a way to make the barrel emit the shot so it can be aimed properly but the body themselves contain all the modules it would give us the flexibility we need/desire without the two entities having to share weapon modules. I really have no idea how feasible this would be but I believe it would give the community what it wants from turret articulation while not sacrificing their weapons output capability.