Large Ship Constructed with many smaller ships

[StormWing0]

Basically one big ship made of many smaller ones that breaks into the smaller versions after a bit after spawning. Anyone done this yet? Would be kinda funny to see how much lag a server could take from one of these composite ships.

 

[CyberTao]

Relevant

 

[PizzaPress]

Or, if we could have docked entities set to add their stats to the whole as if they were one; have standalone ships join together and create COMBINING MECHA.

 

[StormWing0]

Would be funny constructing a titan out of many docked ships.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

i haven't seen anyone do this yet but i have plans to make a pirate ship that does just that.

Thing is I know exactly how to do it but I'm just waiting to see if we will get an improvement to the AI soon that will allow them to trigger logic when they go after a target (I know some one already made a contraption to do that but I'm waiting for an official Bobby AI based feature). If i had that then I could have them spawn in their collected form but only separate when they attack a target

 

[StormWing0]

Well in the case of the Bobby AI they could make the block send out several different signals that could be picked up by logic blocks like, Is Engaging, Is Being Engaged, Than the Not versions of those, Distance to Target: would need a new logic block to even figure out how to use this one.

In any event in the meantime I'd just make them break up on spawn or when taking damage

 

[AtraUnam]

Its funny because this exact idea used to be used for entirely different reasons, back when we had a lower credit limit and BP were purchased directly with credits there was a resulting maximum size of ship you could build before it couldn't be spawned because it cost more than the credit limit. So the solution was to build the ship in three parts, 1 gigantic thrust and power block big enough to fill the cap, then the rest of the ship as separate docked entities each piece costing 2.4 billion credits in its own right.

 

[KiloZulu]

I once made a ship that was covered in smaller ships that were little more than shields and the power to charge them. This was before the rails update when the mother ship's shields were extended to all docked entities. The docked ships were built as plates, aside from one turret that provided offense, and weren't meant to detach. The idea was that as the enemy circled the ship (helped by my own piloting) they would continually hit different plates, allowing time for other plates to recharge their shields.

It worked really well unless missiles were involved - this was in the time when missiles pretty much ignored any defenses and penetrate to the ship core. The ship was small enough that the blast radius of a missile would take out 2/3 of the plates and cripple the ship. I may look into the idea again given all the changes that have been implemented since then.

 

[Ithirahad]

The main problem with this is that thrust doesn't carry over between docked entities (which is silly).

 

[StormWing0]

lol a few other things like linking computers to modules also can't be done cross entity either and is just as annoying. >_>

 

[EricBlank]

Well, if each segment of a ship produces 1mil e/sec, and turrets drew from the youngest child entities (with the most parents leading back to the mothership), then those turrets furthest out have the most power to draw on. If they require 2mil e/sec, they can have it. Similar to Kilozulu's idea, they'd also benefit not just from the original parent's shields, but every parent above them. Assuming each of them is on a separate base, then each turret would at the lowest levels have strong shields that need to be taken out one at a time. In this way, a weapons platform could be made that takes some serious abuse to disable, and can still dish it out. Slow as molasses, sure, but in this example speed isn't the asset you're looking for.