Getting the Pilot out of the BOX

[Valiant70]

Sitting was added to the game some time ago, but astronauts still wind up stuffing themselves into boxes to control things. Weirdly, an invisible 'ghost' takes up the seat, preventing anyone else from sitting there. How hard would it be to add a visible astronaut to the seat? (This should apply not only to cores on ships, but to all computers on all structures.)

Right now the pilot (in the box) is invulnerable, and I find this strange. The bridge of a ship is logically a weak spot, meaning if you blow it up the ship will not function. You shouldn't HAVE to destroy it to kill the ship though, and destroying the bridge should not cause the ship to explode. It just makes it impossible to control until it's repaired.

Some players favor a cockpit-style bridge for stylistic or role-play purposes, or they might prefer the gameplay mechanic of an invulnerable pilot, so pilot vulnerability should be a server config option.

Afterthought: The most realistic warship bridge would be heavily armored and located inside the ship with visual recording equipment feeding to it from outside. It would be best protected from attack that way. To prevent loss of vision, there would likely be several redundant sets of cameras. An auxiliary set of controls might be located elsewhere with a non-electronic view of the outside. Civilian ships might still use an unarmored bridge with a traditional windshield-style view.

 

[Winterhome]

Or they'll just end up doing it the way that it's done in Star Trek, and have the bridge entirely internal like I do.

 

[Ithirahad]

Or they'll just end up doing it the way that it's done in Star Trek, and have the bridge entirely internal like I do.

Uh... eh? Star Trek bridges are actually external... That odd knob on the top of a Star Trek ship's saucer section is the bridge.

 

[hunterRAE]

I do believe there should be a representation of the astronaut in a cockpit style way, where they could die for being shot in said seat if boarded, allowing those to capture a ship without having to destroy it. Also, most bridges, be it star trek, star wars or any sci-fi design, the bridge is external, but heavily shielded and is well defended by point defense systems.

 

[Valiant70]

I do believe there should be a representation of the astronaut in a cockpit style way, where they could die for being shot in said seat if boarded, allowing those to capture a ship without having to destroy it. Also, most bridges, be it star trek, star wars or any sci-fi design, the bridge is external, but heavily shielded and is well defended by point defense systems.

Well, the only problem is that we can't concentrate shielding on a specific point (yet).

 

[hunterRAE]

I am not saying we should be able to center the shielding, the shielding is already everywhere and is equally strong everywhere, I mean that this is how it works in those designs.