Hardpoints and planet improvements.

[Daniel L.]

HARDPOINTS: A new kind of docking that basically merges the docked vessel with the mother craft. Good for making stations or modular weapon systems on ships.

PLANET IMPROVEMENTS: You can make a planet load faster by instead of loading all the blocks instantly instead generate the planet from procedural heightmaps and normal maps which would create a deformable 3d model for the planet that can be viewed accurately at a distance and at really close range such as when landed the blocks closest to the player will generate. If you need an example check out this video
The video is not about this particular topic but notice that distant areas of the planet are rendered as a whole model while close in areas render blocks, This would seriously reduce the time and lag that result from trying to load in entire planets while also replacing those ugly Orb things that represent planets in the distance with a custom generated model for each world. Which would also mean dynamic rendering so a planet that has a epic city on it will really stand out

 

[TheOmega]

Hardpoints? Yes. Planets? No. The deal isnt so much rendering as it is storage. If you were to build on a planet, You would have to save all the blocks associated with the entity, then regenerate the model.

Hardpoints however, that is an insanely good idea, but I think it can be added via the structure tab on the docking entity. A "weld" if you so please.

 

[Ithirahad]

Hardpoints? Yes. Planets? No. The deal isnt so much rendering as it is storage. If you were to build on a planet, You would have to save all the blocks associated with the entity, then regenerate the model.

The issue is both. When the entirety of a giant entity is loaded (in RAM) and rendered (in GPU) in full detail it causes issues, and worse, the existence of these giant entities causes database bloat (In HDD/SSD). It would be a lot more efficient to have a 'primitive' low-detail heightmap, or better an algorithm, a seed, and a set of parameters saved, and only render (GPU) and load/generate (RAM, CPU) that until you get closer. Any modified segments could be properly saved as segments of blocks, but the rest can easily be re-generated every time you visit as long as there is a seed system to keep everything consistent.

Hardpoints however, that is an insanely good idea, but I think it can be added via the structure tab on the docking entity. A "weld" if you so please.

No, I think the point is that it is a docked entity type, or maybe (fixed) dock type, that merges stats completely with the main entity and gets its computers put in the hotbar and whatnot.

 

[Sha3es]

I would like to see a hard point system that would in fact allow you to dock an entity and then share stats with it based on what it is docked to. However, then there is a serious balance issue with the stats of the newly docked entity.

if a hard point system would be implemented I would think that

1. the hard point would have somewhere around 75% to 50 % of the main ships shielding applied to it.
2. the shielding of the hard point would break as normal, but would not cause a break in the main ships shielding.

 

[Knack]

A Hardpoint should emerge totally to the main ship and can't be simple undocked at any time. Undocking it should at least cause an System-Reboot.
Would be similar to the copy-paste templates, but could be as big as one want and have different faction permissions without having multiple entities and the problems many entities bring with them.
Often suggested in different forms, never taged as planed, nobody knows why.

I also like the planet idea. Rendering and calculating a far away entity as one one model instead of block should be the goal. Also rendering it as a multiple-part model in near-field as long as not in fight. (Because of recalculating the models).

Planets that are actually spheres would be cool, and bigger planets with more options to do on it would give much more game depth.
Saving the planet don't us so much space as some of you think, cause you have the seed and save only diffs to that seed.

 

[Blaza612]

I disagree with both Sha3es and Knack, why should there be a penalty for refitting your ship using modules? Are you really going to swap out weapon systems (to do so, you'd have to get out of your core) in the middle of battle?

And the planet rendering, as Ithirahad has pointed out, would only cause more lag. So it's a half yes to the whole suggestion :p

 

[Sha3es]

I disagree with both Sha3es and Knack, why should there be a penalty for refitting your ship using modules? Are you really going to swap out weapon systems (to do so, you'd have to get out of your core) in the middle of battle?

And the planet rendering, as Ithirahad has pointed out, would only cause more lag. So it's a half yes to the whole suggestion :p

My suggestion is more or less of a balance issue. I do not think it would be a good idea for a small point defense turret to have the same shielding as the same ship it is attached to. Hence the idea that a turret should have 50 to 75% of the total shielding of the ship it is docked to .

This is not a one time deal either. It will only have a shield charge of 50 to 75 %. Which will have separate recharge rates from the main ship.

It is the elimination of the need for shielding on turrets that is the favorable part of my proposal.

 

[Blaza612]

My suggestion is more or less of a balance issue. I do not think it would be a good idea for a small point defense turret to have the same shielding as the same ship it is attached to. Hence the idea that a turret should have 50 to 75% of the total shielding of the ship it is docked to .

This is not a one time deal either. It will only have a shield charge of 50 to 75 %. Which will have separate recharge rates from the main ship.

It is the elimination of the need for shielding on turrets that is the favorable part of my proposal.

That'll still apply to turrets. What the OP is suggesting is hardpoints, so not turrets. They'll allow for modules that don't act as turrets to be placed, while turrets will still rely on the turret points/axis. I still don't agree with turrets only getting 50% of shielding, since they're still part of the ship, except they move.

And turrets already use shields, I say it be put to 80-100% of motherships's shielding, again since it's just a part of the ship that moves, and is more annoying to replace.

 

[willvette]

willvette has started dabbling in necromancy!

I like this idea, mainly because it seams to be identical to the merge block in Space Engineers which by the way lacks the scale that Starmade gives. Modeler components, interchangeable weapon systems, merging two ships into one (the un-piloted core becomes inactive and can't be entered), self expanding shipyard (the core becomes a power reactor kicking the player out), ect.