hello after the personal chat we had about your ideas i had to comment as you asked from me,
i agree on your console idea, i however have a lot to say on this subject to make it viable so enjoy the wall of text:
i agree on the consoles but not as you describe them, or the lack thereof, also you make the game solely group based and let the lone wolf/sole player/forever alone guy starve in a universe where eveything only works with multiple people, luckily we are going to get ai followers but this is not what should happen in the future.
if i understand correctly, you want 4 types of consoles, and you would be able to sit on them physically, this is possible due to the new player model:
-1- a captains console, granting ship controls and camera views.
-2- a turret console, granting acces to single turret controls with linking blocks.
-3- a drone console, granting acces to control multiple drones with linking blocks.
-4- a engineering console, granting power to build while in combat, adjusting power levels of wepaons and shields etc.
now this is what i think of these;
-1-
the captains console, i fully agree on having a captains chair, this makes having a bridge or central control point viable, however, besides being able to fly the ship and view different cameras from around the ship, you should also be able to fire at least any and all frontal forward viewing weapons (and minelaying). this to make this console viable for either fighters/bombers, but also to give the lone wolf of the game his standard controls, you should not however be able to fire frontal weapons to the side and magic like that (unless guided missiles) as you can do ingame now via 3rd person abuse.
there should be a 3rd person available though, but a proper one at that.
-2-
a turret console, i love ths idea, this invites players over to your ship and lets them acces weapons from the inside, and not having to expoe yourself to enemy fire jus to acces another turret is awesome. however, get rid of the link blocks, the core should be able to handle that, its the future, the core is a supercomputer that should be able to handle all transmissions, this also ensures you dont need any extra hasssle of adding more blocks then needed.
the you also said to me, you\'d be able to control 1 turret, why 1?
the console should be able to control any turret that has the same view/orientation/location/level of height/ in the vicinity of or otherwise makes it similair that it can fire in the same directionas its brother. i am taking uss missouri battleship turrets as an example here, youd take control of all three in the front, not just the middle 1. this also makes for more efficient targeting.
when there is no player in the console or the player leaves, any and all turrets (except minelaying) should be able to be activated and guided by a retarded ai (bobby but dumber in targeting, it just fires somewhere towards the target).
to link a turret or group of turrets to a console, link them to the console as if you would link a weapons system.
-3-
a drone console, this should be a handy console, but it should have 2 modes, tactical and first person, tactical lets you guide a swarm of drones/all the drones on the ship but without directly controlling them, you simply give them commands (attack,defend,repair,retreat,launch,dock,self destruct,kamikaze,etc...).
the fist person mode gives you control over just 1 drone but as if you were flying a regular ship.
again get rid of the linking block, the core is modern enough to receive transmissions... dangit.
also there should be a set range a drone can fly from its parent ship, when the player is in control a max of 2 or 3 adjecent sectors, when the player is not in control or the player leaves, 1 adjecent sector around the parent max. this to avoid having lone wolfs control a complete fleet.
there should also be a weight limit on drones (a minimum of 250 and a max of 500... top maximum 750 mass?), so you are not flying drone titans so to speak.
to finish it off, every console only has enough computing power to control 15 drones maximum. and when a console gets destroyed any of the 15 drones would be rendered inactive at once, stopped dead in their tracks.
-4-
the engineering console, just a plain NO, this console will only work as a limiting factor on the game.
you speak of roleplaying, then no building the ship mid combat, at all, repairing blocks via drone is okay though. the only role this console could have would be that is is able to set weapon settings, divert energy to weapons or shields alike... but nothing else really since it will almost only work agaisnt the nature of a sandbox game by adding limits by adding micromanegement.
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you also spoke of getting rid of the core for it provokes core drilling, how about NO, just use them like this:
A:
a core is used to either build space ships, space stations, or planetary/asteroid bases (acting as build block)
B:
a ship is not destroyed when the core is almost destroyed or damaged, it is merely unable to fire its main weapons, move, and have online shields (this does not count for the turrets who have their own independent core). when the core is repaired for more then 37% shields can be up etc...
C:
to destroy a ship you must destroy all critical components, this being the player consoles, the core and any ACTIVE critial computers (currently that would only be weapons computers i think, but i dont doubt there will be more in the future). this ensures that ships cannot be core drilled, have a longer survivabillity and would have strategic points to attack to bring a ship or base down.
the core can be destroyed, but also be replaced. (or brought down to 1% health... and all criticalls must be destroyed before the core is able to be destroyed)
D:
a ship is destroyed when less then 7% of its original total mass is left, at this point the ship simply explodes with a small blast radius (to be discussed elsewhere)... the original total mass is the mass a ship had prior to taking any damage, a ships total mass is recalculated when a ship takes no damage for more then 43 seconds this to exclude exploits, exiting build mode also recalculates the total mass but only after 43 seconds have passed if damage was taken during or prior to build mode.
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also a suggestion for console size would be 3x2x2
a length of 3, [console][player][chair]
a height of 2, [chair][player]
a width of 2, console corners, player arms and arm rests, etc...
as for function, consoles would function as if you are physically there controlling the core/camera/object, arrow keys let you switch to different views/objcts/setups.
a consoles function or purpose can be identified by its color,it should be the same block, but different colors (ala star trek shirts) each color defining a function.
currently 3 main, but the turrets having an alternate setting for broadsides making the total:captain, turrets, broadside weapons, drones.
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in later posts you spoke of the addition of food... i hate that idea, its to much realism for a sandbox game.... i left minecraft just for that stupid reason... it wouldnt bother me however if it took a rather long time to you becoming hungry or needing to refill the air tank.
and the addition of skills? just NO, there is no practical reason for it... minecraft implemented their pyramid skills/perks/enchantments jsut to get rid of whiners, but imho its useless. pilot skills? why? me the person behind this screen is flying the ship with my own skills, thats enough already, the only skills id like to see is crafting skills and material tiers so youd have a reason to mine/build explore, and multiple tech tiers., and then the top skills should be hard to reach to begin with, so they stay rather rare and unique.
