Has anyone come up with a viable elevator design?

[coldbeer72]

Have been playing around trying to come up with something myself, but the skills are, shall we say, "somewhat lacking"
I realise this game is in the very early stages of development, but as these systems are pretty much an integral part of almost any starship design, thought there would be something simple in place to address this need.
We have the "plex-lifters" for stations, and my thought was if these could be used on ships, made directional, and able to be controlled with logic....presto.....one multi-directional elevator system.
As I said, my knowledge is fairly limited, so there maybe issues with this idea that I am unaware of, but surely there needs to be something a bit better than the "gravity lift" idea I found on you-tube, which seems to be the only option out there at the moment.

 

[NeonSturm]

I you may be able to use gravity and area-triggers (logic) to change gravity automatically.

I recently worked on it by using doors to limit the fall height (falling up down) and area triggers to detect when it should close the door you would fall when being put in normal gravity again as a fixed 0.5 or 1 second delay was too few challenge for me.

I failed when trying to make it use-able by multiple persons simultaneously as long as they do not cross the same door.

Would that be something for you?

 

[Planr]

Spoiler: I hope my answer in this other thread is helpful here

Long ago I remember schema saying he planned to eventually remove plexlifters in favor of people using "gravity elevators"
if you ask me however using gravity-shifting tubeshafts is not much of an elevator system because you simply fall so fast it's hard to control your fall effectively, especially if your station/ship's design necessitates a complex internal turbolift structure.

That said, I also remember schema once said that implementing a form of rideable turbocar (with its own gravity) much like whatever plexlifters now are made out of (static shapes, I believe?) was possible and doable. That itself would pretty much be a perfect turbolift system.


Not sure if you would consider this "good", but on my own capital ship I am tight on interior space myself, so I designed and installed a series of "gravity tubes" where the gravity shifts so you walk on the wall rather than falling all over the place, that way you can traverse easily between decks while staying in control, with small alcoves at each stop where you realign with the ship's normal gravity and walk through a door and bam, you're in the normal corridor/rooms on that deck.

Granted, it's not extremely fast like a falling-gravity-tube, but at the same time going between decks really takes absolutely no time at all and it's actually really convenient that way.
The only significant drawback is that since you walk on one wall, one established gravity tube network only functions along a two-dimensional plane inside the ship. This means that one gravity tube network going from bow to stern can function well if transporting the person from the front to the back of the ship and vice-versa, but would have serious problems effectively moving them from the port-side to the starboard-side. This issue is somewhat-solve-able using wedges as "sideways stairs" inside the gravity tube, but I did not do that in my own ship as I felt it seemed too unconventional and inappropriate.

EDIT: Here is an example from my WIP battleship. You walk along the wall, as you see here:

 

[coldbeer72]

I you may be able to use gravity and area-triggers (logic) to change gravity automatically.

I recently worked on it by using doors to limit the fall height (falling up down) and area triggers to detect when it should close the door you would fall when being put in normal gravity again as a fixed 0.5 or 1 second delay was too few challenge for me.

I failed when trying to make it use-able by multiple persons simultaneously as long as they do not cross the same door.

Would that be something for you?

Had tried something along those lines. Was just a very basic set-up with 2 std activation blocks, 2 not gates, 1 or gate and 2 grav blocks. Was set so that when one activation block was on the other was off, and they were linked to the relevent grav block on each "level"(was only going 1 at this stage). I must have done something wrong as it did not work. Are grav blocks controllable by logic like lights are?

 

[Proxima_Centauri]

The way I do it is to have buttons for each deck that close doors at either the top or bottom of the destination floor (depending on if you're going down or up), then logic activated gravity blocks that quickly send you where you want to go. They can also be used to travel from the front to the back of the ship Star Trek turbolift style.

I do not think there is a way to do it while the ship is moving, however. That is why I have staircases (ramps) that can access every area that the turbolift can.

 

[ToyotaSupra]

I don't see why we can't have lifters on ships. If turrets/docked ships can be stable whilst moving, and so can players, then why can't the elevators be stable too?

But I'm not a programmer, so I can't really say anything as I don't know how complex it is.

 

[NeonSturm]

If you want a more complex lift system (with more stops) but take the distance in 1 step, you almost need a computer.

First get 3 bits (activator blocks) for 8 decks, 4 for 16, 5 for 32 decks...
Then one activator as submit-button.
If you want to enter digital letters, well that is even more complex

Ever thought about renaming the Thread into "CONTEST: Elevators"?

I don't see why we can't have lifters on ships. If turrets/docked ships can be stable whilst moving, and so can players, then why can't the elevators be stable too?

But I'm not a programmer, so I can't really say anything as I don't know how complex it is.

Did you ever use elevators on planet segments in the new version? they are bugged due to orientated segments.

 

[coldbeer72]

If you want a more complex lift system (with more stops) but take the distance in 1 step, you almost need a computer.

First get 3 bits (activator blocks) for 8 decks, 4 for 16, 5 for 32 decks...
Then one activator as submit-button.
If you want to enter digital letters, well that is even more complex

Ever thought about renaming the Thread into "CONTEST: Elevators"?



Did you ever use elevators on planet segments in the new version? they are bugged due to orientated segments.

Well got the basic setup working(yay for me). I am now trying to figure out how not to arrive at my destination upside down in relation to the deck..........!?!
God, its days like these I wish I had paid more attention in computer class in the early 80s!!

 

[Proxima_Centauri]

Well got the basic setup working(yay for me). I am now trying to figure out how not to arrive at my destination upside down in relation to the deck..........!?!

Just add a trigger area with a right-side up gravity module nearby.

God, its days like these I wish I had paid more attention in computer class in the early 80s!!

Check out Bench's logic tutorials thread
It helps a lot

 

[ToyotaSupra]

Did you ever use elevators on planet segments in the new version? they are bugged due to orientated segments.

Still knackered? I thought I reported it a long time ago. Do they still fly off planets violently?

Still if they can't fix it then they may get rid of them. I hope they don't, because if they fix the planet lifter bug, they may find a fix for putting them on ships...might need doing on a fundamental level/full reworking.

 

[Lecic]

Using Push, Pull, and Stop beams, you could theoretically make an elevator, complete with a moving platform made of blocks.

 

[coldbeer72]

Using Push, Pull, and Stop beams, you could theoretically make an elevator, complete with a moving platform made of blocks.

I can see the potential with this idea. Will have a play around today and see if I can get something that works.

 

[takethispie]

I've just finished my 3 floors elevator prototype, working but with one little issue: to go down you have to push the floor selection button twice, the reason is that we cant detect if a gravity block is activated (wich would be really usefull) and also because you have to connect an activation block directly to the gravity block,you cant use a memory cell for example .
BUT I think it will work with horizontal elevator as there is 3 different gravity direction

anyway my elevator can have more than 3 floors (4,12,20, etc as long as you have enough space for the circuits and if you add a decoder)

 

[NeonSturm]

decoder?

You can detect active gravity with either area triggers the third block above ground (if a player is floating he will likely hit these) or with step-on triggers.
Unluckily step-on can't trigger gravity.

 

[takethispie]

binary decoder ^^

no ,I'm talking about detecting gravity without area triggers or any activation block, not detecting if a player is under gravity :/

 

[Ithirahad]

binary decoder ^^

no ,I'm talking about detecting gravity without area triggers or any activation block, not detecting if a player is under gravity :/

But... Gravity doesn't have innate on/off states... Just players... :P

 

[takethispie]

yeah I know x)

 

[coldbeer72]

Well this seems to have stirred up bit of interest.
Kudos to takethispie , NeonSturm and others for their efforts in trying for a solution to this.
Appears that the problem of getting the gravity changing as required is the main obstacle to getting these creations to work as we want them to.(even this logic newbie could get the "right way up" upon exiting my basic unit, but not going back the other way.)
Could we get some comment from the "powers that be" as to what the plans are(if any) to address the great elevator question?

 

[Crusade]

I've managed to create a moving elevator car and shaft system. But it's only usable on stations.

The basic setup of it is here: http://starmadedock.net/content/logic-elevator.985/

Adding in floor selection will take a bit more effort. but I should update that post when I have something more.

 

[Lecic]

I've managed to create a moving elevator car and shaft system. But it's only usable on stations.

The basic setup of it is here: http://starmadedock.net/content/logic-elevator.985/

Adding in floor selection will take a bit more effort. but I should update that post when I have something more.

Holy crap, someone actually built an elevator like in my idea I am in absolute awe. 10/10, Crusade, 10/10 forever.