Mobile SpaceStations

[Cleardragonf]

So....Am I the only one that sits around wondering if it would be awesome to have a 'City Ship' that could fly? like hmmm we're under attack let's move our base now? sort of like in Stargate Atlantis? Just a thought process as a friend was quite disappointed we couldn't simply move the Station out of the current location and we had to take it down and rebuild it at another? Maybe...make it so that the Station could dock to a ship? so that the ship could Tow it? That might be a nice way?

 

[NeonSturm]

Yes, but what would stop you sitting with all your assets in a single sector and make lag?
Or fly with your invincible homebase into the enemy?
Or how would you feel loosing your not-so-invincible homebase ship?

We had all these topics already in these forums

 

[Dr. Whammy]

So....Am I the only one that sits around wondering if it would be awesome to have a 'City Ship' that could fly? like hmmm we're under attack let's move our base now? sort of like in Stargate Atlantis? Just a thought process as a friend was quite disappointed we couldn't simply move the Station out of the current location and we had to take it down and rebuild it at another? Maybe...make it so that the Station could dock to a ship? so that the ship could Tow it? That might be a nice way?

This ability already exists in game but with a twist. I use it all the time whenever I play.

Since I hate being tied to one location, my non-planetary bases (even before rails were introduced) were all mobile. I call the concept a "Mobile Command System" (M.C.S.) It's basically a large ship, posing as a city, posing as a space station.

Its physical appearance looks like a station but it's actually a ship; complete with its own core, thrusters and jump drives. When I want to colonize an area, I dock it to add-on structures (I use the term "anchor stations") to gain station-specific functions like factories, shipyards and plex-undeathinators. The function is similar to the main Terran structures on the original Starcraft. My earlier designs didn't require much more than a few blocks to get station-specific abilities. I would simply build the anchor station and dock my MCS around it, then shut the bay doors; protecting the station components from attack with the hull, shields and weapons of the M.C.S. This structure cannot maintain station functions or homebase invincibility while mobile; making exploits difficult, if not impossible; especially in power 2.0.

Here's an early example of the M.C.S. concept. The yellow frame inside the bay is the actual station. The rest is technically a ship and thus, mobile.



When power 2.0 came out, my anchor stations needed to be much larger in order to support the shields and weapons on the mobile unit. They take up more physical space and are usually no longer docked internally. They use their own reactors to power the weapons and shields of the M.C.S. as well as their own shields. Here's an example of a more recent M.C.S. with and without its power 2.0 anchor station.


As NeonSturm mentioned, lag is a concern. It's always a good idea to be mindful of how your structure affects lag in a multi-player environment. Build far away from planets and other stations. Minimize your entity count, cover up animated blocks and keep track of the collision check areas for turrets, docked ships and elevators. Above all else, use rails peed controllers with the speed set to zero. That way, you'll be known as they guy with the cool base. ...that was here just a second ago... ...rather than the galaxy's largest exporter of lag.

I hope this helps.

 

[Cleardragonf]

Yes, but what would stop you sitting with all your assets in a single sector and make lag?
Or fly with your invincible homebase into the enemy?
Or how would you feel loosing your not-so-invincible homebase ship?

We had all these topics already in these forums

NeonSturm
well...see there's that?! maybe make it so that if it's stationary...like a station it has a tether point? so that it turns from a station into a ship? when it's a ship factories wouldn't be functional, etc. But when it's tethered to a special block it's stationary and not able to move.

This would also then allow for invincible/non-invincible. That way players know they're safe if it's connected to a 'home-tether' and if it's a ship...it's non-invincible. But it also then can't do factories and such... then one wouldn't be able to complain if they loose their ship because bam! it's not a space station at that time...but undethinator could still work on it.

would these be ideas?

 

[Muffin_man17]

In the past I had the idea of a Nomad faction that would only live off ships in space like a spacefaring faction. I would create a giant city ship and would have it count as a station along with farm ships, sewer/water treatment ships and trade ships.

In terms of feasibility I think at that point you mind as well just work on one ship/station for an entire survival much like what Neon mentioned. It would somewhat defeat the purpose of having multiple stations or ships.

 

[NeonSturm]

I mostly think stations are good whenever you need an anchor-point.
Some trade-hub or mining drop point other players can visit and rely on it always be on the same place.
Or gates for a network.
Or for using "multiple ships in a formation to cover their weak spots and extend power limits".

Using ships as stations or stations as ships should definitively require some warmup or cooldown time and to have a relatively low thrust/mass ratio. It shouldn't accelerate too fast while station-blocks are active and peoples are not in their chairs, that makes it a station.

If it's optional, being stationary should have considerable buffs:
Just increasing the solar power ammount and factory cycle from 3-10x to 1x could have many effects, depending on game-developement:

________________Side_Notes_to_consider_________________
Perhaps we can have buffs which build up the longer it remains a station:

• Growing up in 5 minutes: Free solar energy scaling with the "cubic root of mass squared". Limited at 3-10x reactor output (def. setting).
  • Additional solar power (%-buff before 3-10x cap) based on turn rate nerfs at lower(highest-impacted, 2nd-highest-impacted) axis.
• Enabling after 30 seconds: Factory produces every tick rather than every 5th.
• Enabling or growing between 1 and 2 minutes: Local gravity field like planets if desired.
• Bigger solar power allows bigger weapons and shields.
• Some may suggest to enabe something like more range for energy hungry weapons because of solar power.
  • The damage scales with target distance between normal and buffed range and the range buff with the power supply by solar energy.
  • Targets could prefer by the amount of damage they receive (EM likes to fire at shields and these weapons prefer shorter range).
• I'd also like to use solar power to produce charged energy cells which produce power when depleted e-cells are produced by factories.
  • This could be enabled by requiring negative ammounts of energy for producing a product.
  • Factories may also produce side-products like "active cycle" or "producing cycle" which disappear instantly or stuff like "fresh smelling air" that improves the moral of a crew.
    
  • Ofc, you have more power if you store more heavy e-cells and with a faster-while-stationary factory system.
• etc.

________________More_________________
Ship combat and station assoult may be very different.

Especially large and easy-to-hit ships would "sit" in front of each other or side by side, firing bullets and laser-beams at each other from at average 110% distance, waiting for the other one to come closer to deal more damage while receiving the solar-power-buff.

These settings could also be used to emulate "knowing our environment" by making an anomaly which buffs stations after 10 minutes considerably.
Even the buff type could depend on the anomaly type.

One sector could increase the solar power (today, just a reactor-output%-buff) so that energy-hungry factories can only be used there.
>> Perhaps we can extend here and buff only certain things, to allow server-admins with the newly-given tools (@ update blog) to setup areas for this or that and give stations apart from the main fleet a new purpose.
>> Different factories have different products and you can ban stations with certain factory-block-types from a sector.

 

[PromisedPossum]

I like the idea of a mobile station.

• Has to be towed via tractor beam (of same faction ID)
  
• AND/OR moves at an incredibly slow rate of speed (3% of max server speed or less)
  
• Is NOT jump capable
• Is NOT invincible (like HB currently is -another topic entirely)

I feel like this could help nubes center their own stations (if still necessary in the Uni Update) or enable the building of outposts in protected sectors before deployment.

 

[jayman38]

People won't move a station if it can't be "jumped" to other sectors. It would be far faster to break a station down and build a new one if there is no jumping. Maybe a super-slow jump drive cool-down instead?

 

[EricBlank]

The above two posts kinda encompass what i was thinking when i read the title; allow stations to be moved by, say, a ship with the hyperdrive we've yet to get and a big enough reactor. First you have to relinquish its status as the center of faction control of the system its in and homebase status if it was your homebase. Then just grab it with a tractor beam, charge and jump. The station becomes immobile again for a few hours, where you cant move it again, but otherwise you dont have to deconstruct it. I guess it could still be exploitable, like moving it right next door to your enemy and setting it up as a homebase again.

Other than that, Dr. Whammy has the right idea about how to create a mobile command center or nomadic faction with a very big ship docked to a station.

 

[Sachys]

I guess it could still be exploitable, like moving it right next door to your enemy and setting it up as a homebase again.
.

Which is why the idea has been shot down every single time.

 

[EricBlank]

Thats right yeah. We are supposed to be getting ftl interdiction fields too at some point, like to prevent jumping into sectors, which will change that at least. What other exploits are possible with that model (the one i suggested)?

Have to do something about spawning from prefilled blueprints, too. You can fill a bunch of blueprints and then spam-spawn them pretty efficiently, it just has everything else beat.

 

[Sachys]

Have to do something about spawning from prefilled blueprints, too. You can fill a bunch of blueprints and then spam-spawn them pretty efficiently, it just has everything else beat.

I believe BP spawning is something Schema intends to get rid of at some point.

What other exploits are possible with that model (the one i suggested)?

You could search the dock to see.

 

[Capnode]

I normally keep an eye on the config files for information on possible updates, it is mostly open to interpretation because of no comments in them. But this one here has been in the config files for some time now. (<Block icon="62" name="Mobile Factory NOT AVAILABLE" textureId="95, 95, 95, 95, 95, 95" type="MOBILE_FACTORY">) located in the block config.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

I normally keep an eye on the config files for information on possible updates, it is mostly open to interpretation because of no comments in them. But this one here has been in the config files for some time now. (<Block icon="62" name="Mobile Factory NOT AVAILABLE" textureId="95, 95, 95, 95, 95, 95" type="MOBILE_FACTORY">) located in the block config.

most likely a hold over from when power 2.0 was in the dev builds. back then one of the logistics chambers was mobile factory. It never worked and was eventually removed before the patch was released.

 

[PromisedPossum]

I believe BP spawning is something Schema intends to get rid of at some point.


You could search the dock to see.

Though I think it will be a game changer, I'm looking forward to it's removal. It should increase the importance of shipyards as an asset/target.

 

[Sachys]

Though I think it will be a game changer, I'm looking forward to it's removal. It should increase the importance of shipyards as an asset/target.

I agree (at least once theyre more stable / prominent in gameplay).