Docking Rail and AI ideas.

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    I'm aware this thread may be a bit redundant pretty soon with the docking overhaul being fairly close around the corner, but I have a few ideas on how this may be implemented in a way that makes carriers fun to play without too much hassle.

    First of all keep the current docking module and enhancers as they are, and add a separate docking rail block which may be attached to the docking module. The rail would then inherit the maximum dimensions of the dock, and can be placed in a path, which when the ship undocks it will follow. This path must be unobstructed, aside from door blocks, but making sure the doors are open during undocking is on the player.

    When the last rail module the game plots a path in a straight line (the direction of which depends on the orientation of the last block placed) out of the ships max x,y,z box, which must be unobstructed if the system is to work, and after following the docking rail out of the carrier the undocking ship will accelerate in this direction until it has cleared the ship.

    I would suggest that multiple docks may be placed in one rail, but it is upto the player designing the carrier to make sure they launch in a sequence that doesn't result in a crash.

    My second suggestion would be to add a recall module to the carrier, which when activated will call the ship back along the reverse of the route it took to get out of the ship. Once again it would be on the player to make sure that if multiple ships are redocking in a line they dock in a sequence that doesn't cause a crash (either via manual recall or with a logic sequence).

    My third suggestion is to add a feature to the AI of the smaller ship, which would remember where it was docked for the recall feature, and to keep it within the sector of the mothership. In the event of it being out of the motherships sector by 1 or 2 sectors over it would prioritise returning to the sector of the mothership, being out by more would result in the ship being lost and would require manual retrieval.


    Once again I am aware that this suggestion will be out of date fairly soon, but as it is right now playing a carrier ship is a bit more hassle than it's worth, and I feel a system like this would be greatly beneficial.
     

    Snk

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    It's too late, he couldn't change it if he wanted to.
     
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    I think Snk is right, its probably too far along to be making any changes to the plans that have been started for docking. Who knows, your suggestions may be what is coming out. We need to wait for the change before we can add more suggestion to the topic.
     
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    Now now kids, remember that he may have mentioned it offhand, we still have the new GUI to come. Unless they're coming together, which I hope they are *Hands shake*
     

    Thalanor

    CEO Snataris Colonial Fleetyards
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    They are not, a credible source in chat said the GUI update will be first, and the docking will be a separate update with no ETA.

    The source is more credible than me though, because I forgot the name and thus cannot cite it.
     

    jayman38

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    I like this idea. I love the idea of a rail serving as a catapult system on a carrier, and can see this being the possible solution to creating a rail system inside ships for things like elevators, escape pods, minigames, and so forth.
     

    Snk

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    They are not, a credible source in chat said the GUI update will be first, and the docking will be a separate update with no ETA.

    The source is more credible than me though, because I forgot the name and thus cannot cite it.
    Can we get an ETA on the GUI?
     
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    That can be applied to any update, hell it can be applied to any constantly updated game.
    They already do it with War Thunder, soon comrade )))) xxaxaxaxaxax
    Anyway with Cities Skylines and GTA V being delayed I think we all could do with this update.