- Joined
- Jul 15, 2014
- Messages
- 506
- Reaction score
- 111
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Once again I am aware that this suggestion will be out of date fairly soon, but as it is right now playing a carrier ship is a bit more hassle than it's worth, and I feel a system like this would be greatly beneficial.
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.