Chairs, and viewscreens.

[Ithirahad]

(Yes, I am aware this is a resuggestion. However, I'm not entirely sure how people feel about this...)

-Rename current "Cockpits" to "Cameras," as per their texture and use.

-Implement true "cockpit" blocks, a.k.a. pilot seats, that can be used to enter a ship, so that cores don't have to be exposed/accessible for the ship to be usable, and so that players don't get "sucked" into cores, which doesn't really make much sense, or look very good. There would be a non-pilot version of this as well, one that doesn't control ships. You could link things such as weapons computers to these "normal seats" so people can control weapons through them. "Normal seats" could also be oriented in different directions, and it's possible to link them to faction permission modules (Generally by placing the seat on top of said module, putting it out of sight, though it's obviously possible to put it behind the chair or whatever.).

If a ship's core is destroyed, this would allow players to escape the ship before it explodes, since they won't die - which makes sense. It would also allow other players to kill the captain and capture the ship, without having to mine a hole in the ship with AMCs - which also makes sense. Furthermore, it increases immersion - who wouldn't want to take a gravlift to deck 1, enter their bridge, sit down in the captain's chair, and fly off to the far reaches of the StarMade galaxy, where nobody has gone before, and explore strange, (hopefully more interesting than they are now,) new worlds - then sit down in front of a table in the mess hall and have some food when you're done. (Or while you're flying, assuming Schema finally fixes people being booted out of gravity by sector changes.)

-Possibly implement a viewscreen block-construct, that would link to a camera (current cockpit) block and display that viewpoint on a screen of variable size (Up to a maximum of maybe 6 by 6). Though I don't know the coding and performance feasibility of this, it would just be nice for bridges and monitoring rooms and whatnot (even on stations or planets - I could see some kind of top-secret monitoring facility or bunker with hidden cameras all over a planet, hooked up to various 1-block viewscreens), and would also allow for things like windows without having to actually put yourself and your AI crew & guests right next to the outer hull, which could result in something like what happened in that one DS9 episode where Quark and one other guy barely avoided getting blown up by a faulty torpedo that got stuck in the ship's outer hull - which was also the wall of the mess hall.

 

[NeonSturm]

Just allow a player to freeze close to them, remaining orientation and position with the ship.



At this point, I would like walls be able to be just 1/2 meter/mass. but that will likely never happen.

 

[Mosshadow]

+1

I would like to have the player still be \"there\" rather than disapearing into the core. It would also give us a chance to use the escape pods if the core gets hit instead of dying instantly



Also it would be nice if the cameras could be linked to a series of turrets so that you can have other players manning banks of weapons

 

[rece ktore leczo]

+1

Pilot/passenger/weapon-aiming-dude seats would be nice but ability to get inside a ship by entering a core should stay, because flying around in just a core is too comfortable

Maybe ships with pilot seats should get some advantage? Or make few different pilot seats to different types of ships? Like fighter, bomber, capital? There was a topic to make different cores for different types of vehicles but i think it could be done just by placing different seats on ship. I.e. fighter seat will give a ship +20% to maneuverability but also -20% to shields.
And to place capital seats the ship will need to have at least 100k mass. I think devs don\'t like the idea of official classifying ships (in my opinion it\'d be nice to have some sort of classes) but you get what i\'m saying. This could also change the shapes of diamonds on screen (or there would be additional info on the nav menu)

Well, the seats don\'t have to be different, you could just place one and then choose from the menu which one you like. But after choosing one, changing the type of your ship would take some time, so it wouldn\'t be changed during a fight.

Oh, and of course the classes to choose from with different perks could be changable by admins.

It\'s just a loose idea i got when replying, so i guess it has big holes in it, which i honestly don\'t see right now.



As i properly recall, during Q&A Calbiri talked about new destroying ships system based on ships HP rather than damaging the core. Just a little note, because You mentioned damaged core. Of course it\'s not certain but I guess there will be some changes to present mechanics.



Viewscreens would be soooo AWESOME. And i really want them.

 

[Mosshadow]

What if by having a pilot seat, when the core gets hit you leave the controls and take 50% health loss instead of dying. so that you can go run to a fighter or escape pods etc on a big ship

 

[SnakeMittens]

Do want. Maybe with a pilot seat, cores can actually be protected by huge blocks of hardened hull... not sure if that\'s a good thing.

 

[BearishMushroom]

I like this idea a lot.

 

[PlagueDoctor42]

http://1d4chan.org/images/c/cc/Lord_of_Mankind.jpg



That guy agrees with this!

FOR THE EMPRAH!

 

[Ithirahad]

Pilot/passenger/weapon-aiming-dude seats would be nice but ability to get inside a ship by entering a core should stay, because flying around in just a core is too comfortable


You can just as easily fly in a core with a seat on top. The core should retain its capabilities as a camera viewpoint, and seats don\'t have collision, so it\'ll still be like flying a core, from the vantage point of said core.


Maybe ships with pilot seats should get some advantage?


That\'s easy - the ship is flyable. :P


Or make few different pilot seats to different types of ships? Like fighter, bomber, capital?


You yourself said that the devs - and most other people - dislike that idea, since it places forced classifications on things, and besides is more complicated than necessary. :\\


Well, the seats don\'t have to be different, you could just place one and then choose from the menu which one you like.


Now THAT is a good point... but it would be better if the pilot seat(-s possibly) were linked to the core via C and V. (Would also allow for someone else taking command if the bridge is destroyed/compromised)

 

[Ithirahad]

That IS a good thing, and in fact part of the reason for my suggestion. It also means that we can put ship cores inside of big glowy armored structures that don\'t have any entrance (Like Star Trek warp cores) and when they die, it makes sense that the ship\'s going to blow up - \"WARNING: Warp Core Breach in T-300 seconds. Starship destruction imminent.\"

 

[Winterhome]

I approve. If we got viewscreen blocks, I would hope they wouldn\'t acfually be blocks so much as static entities so we could fine tune placement and rotation.

I mostly just want hitting the core to not kill the pilot. Core gets hit, overheat timer starts and is visible to all onboard. Make cores overheat if HP hits 0, but the overheat only stops if the core is repaired 100% by astro beams or something.

 

[Ithirahad]

That\'s the idea. Another suggestion of mine, though I haven\'t posted it, is (slow) handheld repair/healing beams, so that if a bunch of people got to Main Engineering/the core room in time and all shot their repair beams at the core it could bring it back up to 100%.

 

[jzimmerman4]

+1 though the only way to save your ship from dying should be to heal the core, to help prevent players from just burying their core in the middle of their ship. Also, the player should die if the chair he is in gets destroyed.

 

[Ithirahad]

help prevent players from just burying their core in the middle of their ship


Well, if a core got hit, there must be a hole sufficient to fire a technobeam through, right? Doesn\'t really matter how deep or not deep the core is buried.


Also, the player should die if the chair he is in gets destroyed.


If the chair is destroyed, then the player just gets ejected as through he simply got up out of the seat... However the player entity should still be able to take damage, or at least a fraction of damage that hits him... So unless he gets the heck out of the bridge really fast, he\'s probably going to die.

 

[jzimmerman4]

Good point on the hole to the core but I think it would be a shame if players stopped building core rooms.

And the damage taken by being in a chair the gets destroyed should be almost fatal, so essentially you would need a med package to stay alive.

 

[ltmauve]

Especially now that the core could be destroyed during combat without loosing the ship, I think seats, as a way to control the ship without a core, are an excelent idea. However, small shuttles, fighters, and other craft that might not have room for a seat should still be able to use the core as a control mechanism. Also, coreships would be about a third of the convinence if a seat had to be placed on top first.

 

[Ithirahad]

Personally, I would continue building core rooms... but I\'d just route my longest \"power snake\" through the center or something rather than the actual Ship Core. It would actually be a lot less restrictive... I could start building massive columns like I want to because I don\'t need to be able to reach up and \"touch\" my core to operate the ship. Right now, my core rooms are just a way to make a flawed mechanic look decent. :\\

 

[Ithirahad]

Coreships break immersion anyway; though everyone, including myself, uses them, I\'m not a supporter of the ability to fly a \"blank\" core.

 

[ltmauve]

Well, until we get jetpacks it\'ll have to do.

 

[Ithirahad]

...Add jetpacks then. I doubt that it\'s that hard.