A normal cockpit/core and use of consoles

[Visitor]

What I feel is rather critical addition to the current gameplay mechanics is change how pilot interacts with the ship. I'd really like at some point for characters to not magically get sucked into ship's core, but actually use the cockpit for flying the ship - with character staying 'glued' in front of the block as long as the console is still there and operational. Same for weapon, rocket etc ones.

Not only would it encourage more realistic and sane designs - with core being at ship's core, while proper controls at the bridge - but also add some new possibilities like being able to disable the ship and destroy the bridge without causing core meltdown or even kill the piloting crew standing in front of those consoles. I want, after battle, to see drifting hulls of vanquished foes, their pilots taken out with a missile shot at the right time and place. Possibly it would take care of irritating 'exit the ship's core into the space outside of the ship' which still is unfixed and a bother.

It wouldn't even affect balance that much - the pilot would be where the core is now. Though it also could be used as a groundwork for actually being able to control turrets remotely if one could also drop control consoles in the bridge and connect them to the cores of turrets. But that's a separate idea.

 

[therimmer96]

This is something i would love to see in the game and I am amazed it isn\'t the way of controling ships already. Needing to use a helm console would also stop those annoying single core ships

 

[Visitor]

I wasn\'t aware people really are using ships just composed of a single core. Oh well, if it helps against such sillyness too, all the better.

 

[Dman1791]

I\'d rather just have cockpits act as extra access points to the core. Besides, it would make most of the ships people have made comepletely unusable.

 

[Visitor]

Not sure about that, to be honest. You\'d just have to install proper console where the core is for steering now, so the difference\'s of one more block or so. If you want core next to said new block, your choice. Other than that, you\'ll have to have enough space for your character to be able to reach the core for flying - so it can as well stay there, it will be as possible.

Thus, unless those \'most ships\' you talk about are already unusable, such change wouldn\'t make them so.

 

[Kossen]

A great idea, but ultimately it would hinder the game. What if I build a ship too small for the center console? I, and my friends like to make a frigate sized \"drone boat\" and send out small drones which by no means would have a cockpit or a console, but just a core.



I guess my point is that it would limit the possibilities and that is something that we do not want to do.

 

[ribsmccartney]

I agree that this would be an excellent idea, and weould add to overall immersion and realism to construction of ships, turrets, space station etc. I think this indeed a key concept that should be followed up on.

I guess i do not understand the idea of using the \"drones\" you speak of, kossen, Perhaps these are similar to probes?

 

[Kossen]

I would consider a probe a type of drone, but I suppose you could use them interchangably. The way I would define a drone though is smaller then a fighter class and the idea is that they are AI/robots but in the sense that me and my friends use them its a player controlled ship, but the ship at its core is an AI. It\'d be cool to have some sort of remote controll thing so that they are actually on the ship but no matter that.

I also realized I may make it seem like we just use the core, when in fact we do not. It\'s like a mini-fighter.



Also, the way I see it players who use just the core are either dumb or just trying to get somewhere quickly without building a ship, so I\'m just not sure how much sense it would make to implement this just because I do not think its needed at all and the current system works fine. People are motivated enough not to use just a ship core, because its (in most cases)... dumb lol.

 

[Visitor]

Not a problem at all! I actually make ships smaller than majority of the players seem to make - with fighters being under 10 of total mass. one more block of console with space for a pilot doesn\'t make a difference. I can even send some random blueprint if you don\'t believe. Also, actually just a core together with AI block while there is a piloting console requirement would be a great thing to make drones that cannot be magically hijacked and flown.

 

[Visitor]

As you already can see, it\'s hardly a suggestion to implement consoles and characters being near them for the sake of taking care of one-cube ships - that\'s just a side bonus, on top of - let me reiterate:

More interesting designs where placement of the core isn\'t restricted by need for access for the sake of piloting, ability to differentiate between AI drones and pilotable ships, creating situations where command center/bridge and the crew are being killed but the ship remains relatively intact on the battlefield instead of core having to be overheated (which can also lead to introduction of auxiliary controls etc) and ability to actually kill the crewmen who would be as they should - working on the ship rather than becoming spirits of magical blue core box.

Also, while I don\'t consider myself master designer, I dare anyone who made reasonable and decent ship design that they claim are lacking knowledge to adjust and which couldn\'t by any means support one more console block for the pilot to send me their work and I\'ll prove them wrong.

 

[Riftmaster]

While I like the idea of a cockpit you enter and consoles to interact with, the problem I see here is with small ships.

Recently, I decided to attempt a to-scale TIE Interceptor - going off a few pictures and the Wookiepedia site stating it is 9.6meters long, and based on 1 block = 1 cubic meter.



Well, obviously it\'s a bit blocky for a TIE, but the basic appearence was there.

However, I could only fit in a 3x3 cube of cockpit (actually mostly angle blocks, so more like just the core...

No room in there for a full cockpit with the pilot size we have currently.

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Now, a possible suggestion - have the \"Ship Core\" be an enterable room/instance that has very limited space for a few consoles and such - make a SD cockpit the same thing perhaps, maybe on a slightly reduced scale.

That keeps the 1-block size of the core, but allows for customized cockpits.



OR something like that...