Magnetic Rail Enhancers

[Crimson-Artist]

i absolutely love the fact that we can now dock via direct contact. This opens up so much potential for gameplay however after playing around with the mechanic it seems really cumbersome to actually try and dock through physical contact. To the point where its almost impossible to do it accurately with large ships. Unless what I'm about to propose is already in the work in some form or another i say that rails be given a special enhancer that increases its magnetic pull on rail dockers.

These Magnetic Enhancers will function much like normal computer/modules and must be connected to a Magnetic Rail Computer. Then the computer is connected to any rail you want to have a magnetic attraction. When a rail has a magnetic pull it will have a range of 2-3 blocks(debatable) so as not to cause trouble or abuse. The enhancers will increase the affected rails ability to draw in more massive entities. light entities such as a ship core with a rail docker will move into position extremely quickly while a massive battleship may take a little longer. The more mass a ship has that harder it will be for it to move into position. If a ship is too massive then it won't be attracted at all and will only be able to dock through direct contact.

Also when a ship undocks then the magnetic attraction is disabled for 5 seconds to prevent a ship from being pulled back in.

 

[kiddan]

I totally agree with this, it would be super useful for some stuff I'm working on atm too.

Also, we need a "Support" rating... : 3

 

[kiraen]

Sort of like a pull effect aimed at the ships docking module. I like the idea, but I think it would be better with a few tweaks.

The pull effect should come from the docker, not the rail. All the code could be placed in the docker, eliminating the need for a new block. Docking control then happens from ship-side rather then station-side.
Either way, just pull up close, trigger the docking, and get sucked right in to a hard dock.

 

[Aynslei]

I like the idea of have the magnetic docking be based on a computer, that would let logic control it without messing up current rail/logic interactions.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

Sort of like a pull effect aimed at the ships docking module. I like the idea, but I think it would be better with a few tweaks.

The pull effect should come from the docker, not the rail. All the code could be placed in the docker, eliminating the need for a new block. Docking control then happens from ship-side rather then station-side.
Either way, just pull up close, trigger the docking, and get sucked right in to a hard dock.

that was originally my idea but then i thought that would put all the responsibility on the ship side for something thats more or less a luxury rather than a necessity. Why would I invest block space on a something that a dock should be doing, hence why its centered on rails rather then the docker. also it would be better for grabbing arms. I don't want to have to check if a pirate ship i just destroyed has a magnetic rail docker before trying to grab it and bring back for salvaging.

I like the idea of have the magnetic docking be based on a computer, that would let logic control it without messing up current rail/logic interactions.

Wow I didn't even think of logic integration. Great Idea!

 

[Thalanor]

I fully support this. The rail config below might be a workaround in the meantime (broaden the contact area with several parallel rail tracks, then join them into one)

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[therimmer96]

I will only agree with this if there is 0 magnetic behavior in a default rail, have you tried magnetic docking in SE? makes it even harder to dock with magnets swinging the ship around, and impossible to get away from it.

 

[jayman38]

The devs are going to eventually replace time-based docking cool-down with distance "cool-down" (have to be a certain small distance away before trying to mag-dock again). This would be an easy extension of that logic.

I'm hoping this will work right with extendable docking arms, so you push out an arm to dock with something, then draw the whole thing back in when docking is done.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

I will only agree with this if there is 0 magnetic behavior in a default rail, have you tried magnetic docking in SE? makes it even harder to dock with magnets swinging the ship around, and impossible to get away from it.

i have, its pretty ridiculous. thats why its a optional modifier for rails. Having every single rail be magnetic would make the problem even worse. :p