Magnetic Docking System

[1adog1]

Hey guys, I'm sure every single one of you HATES the current docking system we have, so here's an idea for a new one. I propose making docking blocks act like magnets, sticking to other docking blocks that would be put on the ship. Each magnet would have a certain amount of pulling force, and the larger the mass of your ship, the more docking blocks you would need.

Any other suggestions?

-Cheers! :D

 

[ltmauve]

I would like this, but I would prefer a) small ships wouldn\'t need any more than a block to dock (no more than 1:100 ratio) and b) I could dock large ships to docks even if they wouldn\'t be secure (enough thrust or impact knocks them loose)

Also consider the fact that this is probably going to need to scale more than linearly. Also, are both sides\' docking gear going to affect it (so one block on one ship and a huge amount on the dock)

 

[1adog1]

Just like with magnets, the docking blocks should attract eachother. There should have to be one block on the ship per block on the station/other ship and they should line up. The way I think of it, you should need one docking block for every 25-50 mass your ship has. (Each hull has about 0.1 mass) One docking block can currently hold a 343 block ship (in a perfect 7 x 7 x 7 cube). With the magnet idea, each block could hold a 400-500 block ship and it would not be confined to a cube.

 

[ltmauve]

Is it still going to be beam-based?

 

[NeonSturm]

I think each block should hold 250 mass average on a 1:1 thrust ratio of the mother-ship, 125 with a 2:1 thrust ratio and 333 with a 3:4 thrust ratio, etc. Big ships should not have fighter-maneuverability AND huge turrets - this could be the solution



There could be a bonus for x/z size of docking area (leverage), the possibility of a distance-docking with -y size (from docking area into the ground/mother-ship) or a penalty for ships where one side is 5x bigger than the two others.

However you do it, I don\'t like to force cubes, but also don\'t like that 1-block thick/heigh kilometer long ships have the exact same behavior than a cube-ship.

 

[therimmer96]

There should be damage for not lining up properly and allowing the mag clamps to do all the work for you, like causing explosions on either side of the clamps. They should also be coverable, so that you cant see them when not being used

 

[1adog1]

No, activating the docker would activate the magnets on your ship. I can think of a few ways to line your ship up, chiefly putting a cockpit on the bottom of your ship and creating a reference point on the station for the cockpit to line up with.

 

[1adog1]

I like the idea of coverability, and I see what your getting at with the damage for not lining the magnets up correctly, but how would we calculate when to give damage and how much damage to give?

 

[therimmer96]

If a ship hits the clamps with enough speed, an explosion should occur, the strength of the explosion would be calculated with maths based on speed,

 

[ltmauve]

So hw do we activate plexdoors now?

 

[NeonSturm]

Boxes are the simpliest thing to implement.

Provide solutions how to solve it in Java or with Math - trying to write this will make you see possible sources of LAG and how to suggest things which don\'t LAG.

It will also make you learn how things work, if you have success.

It may decrease the time after which it gets accessible to us, too.

 

[1adog1]

It\'ll work similary to how planets work now, a gravity source originating in the magnets, and a block lock to a certain tolerance when the magnets are in contact.

 

[1adog1]

Ah!

Now I see!

 

[NeonSturm]

It would be nice to have something which docks with certain strength on contact (or proximity) to dock landing shuttles on planets while active and not already docked.

Dependent on own mass and the docking-slots accelleration, the connection could just break (and you lose your turret).

Only issue with this woulbe be that a ship with 100 lost turrets would cause LAG



If you can set a distance at which to dock (offset) it would even allow to dock big ships on planets, because they don\'t collide with the planet - if the offset would not add to the collision volume size as long as nothing is docked.





With magnetic, unrestricted docking modules (maybe only weight), I could make turrets where only the nose looks out of the hull.

 

[1adog1]

I definately like your idea of docking offset, but the the whole accelleration thing doesn\'t really apply because space doesn\'t have air for air resistance .

 

[therimmer96]

I believe he means the gforces involved in accelerating, accelerate fast enough, and the arms would snap under stress

 

[1adog1]

Without air resistance though that stress is minimal, and gforce is the force of gravity, which means it would require a large source of gravity to begin with.

 

[lazarus78]

i would prefer a \"if it fits, it sits\" method instead. If i can fit my ship in the spot i want it to dock, then i can dock it. The box area docking just annoys me cus i cant make extending platform from plex doors to meet up with the door on my ship.

 

[1adog1]

That\'s essentially what this is. All you need to do in line up the magnets, and the you\'re good.

 

[StellarAmbition]

This reminds me a lot of how ships docked in the game Mass Effect. here is a photo it might be big but you can see the ship as it comes through the gate and the magnets latch onto the wings.