Recognized Expansion of Test Sectors

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    Ok, I swear I'm going to do my best to be brief, but I was raised amongst a bunch of English nerds, so we'll see how well that goes.

    We have test sectors that can be reached through a command in the shipyard. At the moment, they're just an empty sector you can fly around in to make sure you didn't mess up on power or thrust, basically. I know there are some plans for more features, but I frankly don't remember ever seeing what those plans were, so if I repeat any of them, I'm sorry.

    This is a list of possible uses for the test sector. Feel free to add on your own (as if I could stop you).

    1. menu option to spawn in other ship designs as enemies or fleetmates. Help with combat testing, docking/undocking debugging.
    2. menu option to spawn an asteroid. Help test miners.
    3. option to enter already initialized test sector from the computer. Join your friend in the sector, either as an observer or, with option one, an active participant.
    4. Option to set up a fight. Kind of like setting up a race, you spawn some ships, once the timer starts people jump into them, other people watch and place bets, all the fun of PVP without losing a ship, just an entrance fee.
    5. Option to spawn pirates. Yeah, this is the one that I'm 90% sure is already planned.
    6. Option to 'attack' one sector from a computer on the same station. OK, this one I'll explain a little more. Basically, you have a computer with your designs, they have a computer with their designs, you both set up your fleets seperately, then run a mock fight to see which would win. Once again, possible bets, prizes, very straightforward tournaments, etc.
    7. Option to load in stations to the test sector. Because if you've implemented the other stuff, might as well have this one too.


    Questions? Comments? Some deep seated, completely obvious way in which this suggestion would unravel the very fabric of the game? Let me know!
     

    kiddan

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    It would sure be awesome to have more virtual stuff for Shipyard Computers, I really like the idea of fighting against each-other in the test sector. It could be a fun way to train faction recruits without actually putting your faction points at risk! The idea of betting would definitely add to the fun, you could set up your space-pub where people could come to bet for money, blueprints, or anything the management could get their hands on!

    It would be neat (/may I suggest) to be able to save test sectors into some sort of thumb-drive to load in later. This way you could set up displays and demos for you ships with targets and such to show them off for other players to check out. It would also allow players to create minigames and save them onto a thumb-drive so that they can bring them around the universe!
     
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    Test Sector mini games. That is beautiful. And this way you can still do silly stuff on a "serious" server without building a giant, trap-filled space circus and getting a stern talking to from the admins. Not that I'm planning on doing that. nope.
     
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    Keptick

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    This is a pretty neat idea, what better way to test a design than actually... test it. Ofc you can just get in single player and test it with admin commands but that's rather immersion breaking.
     
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    This is a pretty neat idea, what better way to test a design than actually... test it. Ofc you can just get in single player and test it with admin commands but that's rather immersion breaking.
    I agree. I'd go back to playing online if I didn't have to switch back and forth to make sure everything worked right. The other thing is that this would be one way to have pvp, which I've seen a lot of suggestions about.
     
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    I do think this would be absolutely great. If expanded upon, maybe a solar system of space at some point could be set up and used for mini games. That would add tons of versatility and the possibility of having PVE servers where PVP is done only in these sectors. Of course, only at the discretion of the admins. ;)
     

    Criss

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    1: Probably will happen.
    2: There will probably be an asteroid or two every time you show up there.
    3: Certainly a possibility.
    4 + 6: We have plans for real sector "dualing". Setting up fights in a test sector is a probability but we will likely save any sort of betting for real space.
    5: Probably will happen.
    7: Probably will happen.