Read by Schine Core Overhaul - Something to consider for capital ships

[Blaza612]

Capital ships have been discussed quite a lot recently, with the new effects update about to come out (as of the time of writing this) and the fact that capital ships are most likely soon to come. One problem that has affected the argument is how are the capital ships going to be obtained? What'll determine when a ship becomes a capital ship?

I present to you,

The Universal Core Overhaul

The UCO is a matter of being able to determine what kind of core your core is. This core can solve multiple problems, such as that of cargo as well.

When creating a ship, you can open up a menu which will show you all of the types of core, being (so far):

• Standard Ship Core
• Cargo Core (used as the cargo that's stored)
• Capital Ship Core
• Station Core
• Component Core

The Standard Ship Core is the ship core that we know and love.

The Cargo Core is the cargo that'll be provided with the cargo update (not entirely sure on this one, would like more opinions on it) you shove all of the cargo onto it, and it'll create a shape of your choosing, using cargo storage blocks, which'll be completely transparent in astro/ship mode, but in build mode can be seen. (will have all shapes of hull) This will allow an extremely easy way to move cargo from place to the other, as you can attach thrusters/power and fly, and allow cargo to fit your ships more nicer.

The Capital Ship Core is the core of a capital ship. Once your ship reaches a certain mass, you can choose to upgrade the core to a Capital Ship Core, which will require some resources (ores/shards or credits maybe?) and will allow your ship to access the feature of a capital ship.

The Station Core provides a new way of setting up stations, you can fly out a ship to some point in space, and turn it into a station core, not requiring any cost (since you aren't having to use up one of the many precious magical spawning blocks of magic) and allows you to turn your ship into a station.

The Component Core is a component that can be attached to a station. It allows station only blocks, such as warpgates, to move as a ship, and thus be moved using rails. So your Monsters Inc. style warehouse can finally become possible! Movement of the Component Core would be limited to the sector in which it's created in, preventing people from flying a warp gate around into other ships.

All upgrades would be permanent, so once you upgrade the core, then it's stuck like that forever. Obvious balancing issues is the reason for this.

So there you have it, my proposal for obtaining capital ships, with a couple of extras thrown in.

 

[CyberTao]

I thought we were moving towards removing cores?

 

[Dire Venom]

Sounds pretty cool though!
I like it

 

[Blaza612]

I thought we were moving towards removing cores?

We were? They seem to be crucial to the gameplay in general, but when it comes to flying ships, cockpits would be the better option. I still believe that cores should be used for the creating of a ship, and thus can be upgraded, but I think that cockpits would be best for flying

 

[TomW1605]

would standard cores have a max and capital ships have a min? and could you down grade?

 

[alterintel]

I like these ideas, but I think they would be even better without the cores altogether.

For Capitols, I like your idea of once a ship gets to a certain mass it can be upgraded. I also really like the idea of being able to turn a ship into a station, however I do believe there should be some cost associated, especially if turning your ship into a station allows you to get home base invulnerability.

As far as cargo goes, The best idea I've seen so far is reusing the old docking port blocks, and filling their boxes with "cargo" blocks.

 

[Bench]

I thought we were moving towards removing cores?

I believe we're moving away from all the functionality for ship interaction being solely core based (i.e. there's been a lot of discussion previously about how piloting or captaining a ship will eventually become feasible through some form of block/chair/feature that is present on the bridge rather than through the core) however the core block will most likely remain as the starting block from which your ship is constructed. All the data needs a point of reference. Also included in that is the existing ability to link a system computer to the ship through C & V so that it appears in your weapons panel (rather than linked through logic which will disconnect the link to the core to allow for logic control). Also as mentioned in the shipyard update, ships will eventually have the ability to store their design, to allow shipyards to reconstruct/repair them including blocks lost. This will most likely also be a core block feature. So while a lot of the interaction with cores will move away from them, they still have some practicality to them with regards to other functionality.

As far as cargo goes, The best idea I've seen so far is reusing the old docking port blocks, and filling their boxes with "cargo" blocks.

For the cargo system we're also considering that suggestion as the best direction to go in terms of a concept to build upon.

 

[Zaphord]

I like these ideas, but I think they would be even better without the cores altogether.

For Capitols, I like your idea of once a ship gets to a certain mass it can be upgraded. I also really like the idea of being able to turn a ship into a station, however I do believe there should be some cost associated, especially if turning your ship into a station allows you to get home base invulnerability.

As far as cargo goes, The best idea I've seen so far is reusing the old docking port blocks, and filling their boxes with "cargo" blocks.

I'd make the change from ship to station a permanent one way change. Once you deploy as a station, your stuck as a station. So no shifting into station mode to get invulnerability, then shifting back and flying away when all the pirates are dead.

 

[Blaza612]

For Capitols, I like your idea of once a ship gets to a certain mass it can be upgraded. I also really like the idea of being able to turn a ship into a station, however I do believe there should be some cost associated, especially if turning your ship into a station allows you to get home base invulnerability.

When a ship becomes a capital, I expect that there may be a minimum mass, but there wouldn't be any way to change back. Reclaiming the core could return some of the resources.

I believe we're moving away from all the functionality for ship interaction being solely core based (i.e. there's been a lot of discussion previously about how piloting or captaining a ship will eventually become feasible through some form of block/chair/feature that is present on the bridge rather than through the core) however the core block will most likely remain as the starting block from which your ship is constructed. All the data needs a point of reference. Also included in that is the existing ability to link a system computer to the ship through C & V so that it appears in your weapons panel (rather than linked through logic which will disconnect the link to the core to allow for logic control). Also as mentioned in the shipyard update, ships will eventually have the ability to store their design, to allow shipyards to reconstruct/repair them including blocks lost. This will most likely also be a core block feature. So while a lot of the interaction with cores will move away from them, they still have some practicality to them with regards to other functionality.

This continues to go in the same direction as you're planning to go with cores. We make it that they aren't used to actually fly the ship (maybe the still could be, maybe) but they're still the center piece for actually making (and possibly upgrading) the ship, they're still necessary to the existence of your ship.

I'd make the change from ship to station a permanent one way change. Once you deploy as a station, your stuck as a station. So no shifting into station mode to get invulnerability, then shifting back and flying away when all the pirates are dead.

Station would obviously be a permanent change, the example you provided is the most obvious reason.

I should probably put in that all upgrades would be permanent :P

 

[Andem]

I believe we're moving away from all the functionality for ship interaction being solely core based (i.e. there's been a lot of discussion previously about how piloting or captaining a ship will eventually become feasible through some form of block/chair/feature that is present on the bridge rather than through the core) however the core block will most likely remain as the starting block from which your ship is constructed. All the data needs a point of reference. Also included in that is the existing ability to link a system computer to the ship through C & V so that it appears in your weapons panel (rather than linked through logic which will disconnect the link to the core to allow for logic control). Also as mentioned in the shipyard update, ships will eventually have the ability to store their design, to allow shipyards to reconstruct/repair them including blocks lost. This will most likely also be a core block feature. So while a lot of the interaction with cores will move away from them, they still have some practicality to them with regards to other functionality.



For the cargo system we're also considering that suggestion as the best direction to go in terms of a concept to build upon.

Moving away from cores like that could cut out some of the "micro-fighter" designs people have been using if you aren,t careful in it's implementation.