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- Jun 30, 2013
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Well, I'm loving this game, it's awesome, but I have an issue that I hope gets adressed as soon as possible.
Problem is, docking (both normal and turret) is the worst nightmare for people who want to use docks and turrets in internal spaces. The game will always dock the ship/turret in a specific direction, and when calculating if the ship fits or not, only one possible orientation is calculated.
Here's an example (forgive the loading problems):
So, here's the case: that turret was made specifically for broadsiding. My plan was to fit it inside my ship, so it would be placed horizontally while being placed in the middle of the ship (vertically speaking). However, this proved to be impossible. The dock actually has space enough for the turret, but the longest axis sticks out sideways. This way, the game won't let me dock the turret, because it is trying to place the turret on the same orientation as the main ship. This ruins my plan, since the only way I could place it right now would be a terrible waste of space.
So the way Docks currently work not only prevent this kind of sideways-facing turret, but it also prevents different layouts for Docks/Docking Areas. This last part is only aesthetical, but still worth mentioning.
So, my suggestion for solving the problem is simple: allow the player to not only change wich side will the ship dock to, but also rotate wich direction it will be facing.
Next, I would also like to bring up the issue regarding the origin of the docking beam. Currently, the beam will always come from the Ship Core, and that brings two problems:
First, the difference between the point were the player is looking and the Beam's origin can make aiming it near impossible. It is not rare that, looking through a cockpit wiew, the beam hits a point meters away from were the crosshairs are aiming, sometimes even out of the player's field of wiew. This is just completely annoying, and it gets worse on longer ships. Second Problem: The fact that the Beam originates from the Core also cause problems in the following situation: I have a relatively long ship, but not much tall. The core is in the middle of the ship. I'm trying to dock it. However, the dock wich I'm trying to use is covered by a big PlexDoor (the entrance to the dock), in a way that my ship fits exactly in there. Since the beam is originated from the middle of my ship, and the fact that the height of the docking area is much smaller than the lenght of my ship, I can't actually shoot the docking module, since the core is always above the door, and the beam keeps hitting it. Solution for this is pretty obvious and simple: instead of coming out of the core, the beam comes out of the cockpit. Just that. Or, in fact, allowing the cockpit's wiew direction to be changed would also be a solution, since a downwards-facing cockpit could be placed directly under the core to allow docking. This would be only a "semi-solution", however, since that extra cockpit can be aesthetically unpleasing and an defensive weakpoint (no armor).
Complementing that, it would be interesting the addition of a "target" block: a block that would be connected to the docking module, and hitting that block would dock the ship. In conjunction with changing the origin point of docking beams, this would make players lives much easier.
Last point I want to talk about is the placement of ships within the dock (turrets don't count). In the current system, the ship will be docked with the core aligned to the docking module. If the core of the ship is not on the center (centering the core is surprisingly hard), and considering the dock is the exact size for the ship (for example a dedicated dock), parts of the ship will be out of the docking zone in one side and there will be empty space in the other side. Usually, when that happens (in a dedicated dock), it leaves the player two options: 1) using the space right next to the dock anyway, what would cause the ship to intercept with other objects, what would be visually unpleasing and can block important areas of some ships (an entrance, for example), or 2) leaving the excess space empty, what is a waste, since the unused space inside the docking area can't be used. This can also give problems on "multi-purpose" docks, since it would automatically fall into option "A", causing some ships to have problems with overlayed passages.
My suggestion is that instead the ships would be docked according to the actual center of the ship instead of the core. This would help minimize the waste of space caused by the game mechanics (something that the player can't do much about) and would make it easier to design docks, eliminating the "excess blocks" variable.
Anyway, if any of this is going to happen is up to Schema, but it's good to open the discussion anyway. No real hurries for it, but honestly, I hope these issues with docks are solved soon. It's really annoying right now.
Problem is, docking (both normal and turret) is the worst nightmare for people who want to use docks and turrets in internal spaces. The game will always dock the ship/turret in a specific direction, and when calculating if the ship fits or not, only one possible orientation is calculated.
Here's an example (forgive the loading problems):
So the way Docks currently work not only prevent this kind of sideways-facing turret, but it also prevents different layouts for Docks/Docking Areas. This last part is only aesthetical, but still worth mentioning.
So, my suggestion for solving the problem is simple: allow the player to not only change wich side will the ship dock to, but also rotate wich direction it will be facing.
Next, I would also like to bring up the issue regarding the origin of the docking beam. Currently, the beam will always come from the Ship Core, and that brings two problems:
First, the difference between the point were the player is looking and the Beam's origin can make aiming it near impossible. It is not rare that, looking through a cockpit wiew, the beam hits a point meters away from were the crosshairs are aiming, sometimes even out of the player's field of wiew. This is just completely annoying, and it gets worse on longer ships. Second Problem: The fact that the Beam originates from the Core also cause problems in the following situation: I have a relatively long ship, but not much tall. The core is in the middle of the ship. I'm trying to dock it. However, the dock wich I'm trying to use is covered by a big PlexDoor (the entrance to the dock), in a way that my ship fits exactly in there. Since the beam is originated from the middle of my ship, and the fact that the height of the docking area is much smaller than the lenght of my ship, I can't actually shoot the docking module, since the core is always above the door, and the beam keeps hitting it. Solution for this is pretty obvious and simple: instead of coming out of the core, the beam comes out of the cockpit. Just that. Or, in fact, allowing the cockpit's wiew direction to be changed would also be a solution, since a downwards-facing cockpit could be placed directly under the core to allow docking. This would be only a "semi-solution", however, since that extra cockpit can be aesthetically unpleasing and an defensive weakpoint (no armor).
Complementing that, it would be interesting the addition of a "target" block: a block that would be connected to the docking module, and hitting that block would dock the ship. In conjunction with changing the origin point of docking beams, this would make players lives much easier.
Last point I want to talk about is the placement of ships within the dock (turrets don't count). In the current system, the ship will be docked with the core aligned to the docking module. If the core of the ship is not on the center (centering the core is surprisingly hard), and considering the dock is the exact size for the ship (for example a dedicated dock), parts of the ship will be out of the docking zone in one side and there will be empty space in the other side. Usually, when that happens (in a dedicated dock), it leaves the player two options: 1) using the space right next to the dock anyway, what would cause the ship to intercept with other objects, what would be visually unpleasing and can block important areas of some ships (an entrance, for example), or 2) leaving the excess space empty, what is a waste, since the unused space inside the docking area can't be used. This can also give problems on "multi-purpose" docks, since it would automatically fall into option "A", causing some ships to have problems with overlayed passages.
My suggestion is that instead the ships would be docked according to the actual center of the ship instead of the core. This would help minimize the waste of space caused by the game mechanics (something that the player can't do much about) and would make it easier to design docks, eliminating the "excess blocks" variable.
Anyway, if any of this is going to happen is up to Schema, but it's good to open the discussion anyway. No real hurries for it, but honestly, I hope these issues with docks are solved soon. It's really annoying right now.
