Port Vandermier - progressive shipyard build

[Drybreeze]

A thought.

Bare with me here.

I'm considering making this an open project.... in other words publishing it as a WIP which I update periodically as I make milestone steps.

I feel this would be nice in that it would allow anyone interested to be able to plop it in their world and experiment with it, however the flip side of this is that it is not as satisfying to some as getting a finished product ready to go, and risks losing interest by the time it is actually done.

So what are your thoughts?
Should I hold off and publish it as a completely completed complete product, or should I publish it in stages as a WIP?

No promises either way, I am just curious what you think about this as an idea.

One advantage that I see to this is that other folks could add to the project by building on it and proposing ideas, rooms, content, additions, etc.... and could be incorporated into the final design.

 

[JinM]

The biggest benefit for you would be live feedback.

The biggest downside is, that people that download stuff only once to look over it, wont see the finished product (est. 50% of the players).

As this is a very popular project, you might get some early station reviews. For me early feedback motivates me more to finish stuff faster. But in the end this is your decission and this isn't about whats best for the others, but what is best for you, and how you finish it with the most fun for yourself (or most efficiency, least time wasted on uploading stuff and getting distracted from too many opinions...).

The "anyone interested" thing...I can't tell for me, because your station seems too big for my pc to easily admin load it. Would need the exact diameter and blockcount...Even though my motivation for Starmade is actually declining, as I have noone to play with. =( Seriously the servers either lag, or have no players that want to build together, or fight in some small ships instead of the 40k mass scrap and bigger. And I am really scared for playing on Brierie as admins are really needed in case of a chunkerror scenario...Sorry for ranting. :D

 

[Drybreeze]

The biggest benefit for you would be live feedback.

The biggest downside is, that people that download stuff only once to look over it, wont see the finished product (est. 50% of the players).

As this is a very popular project, you might get some early station reviews. For me early feedback motivates me more to finish stuff faster. But in the end this is your decission and this isn't about whats best for the others, but what is best for you, and how you finish it with the most fun for yourself (or most efficiency, least time wasted on uploading stuff and getting distracted from too many opinions...).

The "anyone interested" thing...I can't tell for me, because your station seems too big for my pc to easily admin load it. Would need the exact diameter and blockcount...Even though my motivation for Starmade is actually declining, as I have noone to play with. =( Seriously the servers either lag, or have no players that want to build together, or fight in some small ships instead of the 40k mass scrap and bigger. And I am really scared for playing on Brierie as admins are really needed in case of a chunkerror scenario...Sorry for ranting. :D

You're right.
Feedback is good but can be achieved via screenshots, discussion threads, and Youtubes.
Early browsing of an incomplete station that results in anyone not seeing the final result is self-defeating. Good feedback, thanks.

I will (on completion of this station) be looking for a server to play on myself. You are very welcome to join me.

~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a minor "near miss" event when an unmanned drone (one of the Work Utilities prior to the installation of the Adjuitor drones) drifted off course due to human error, which resulted in the destruction of a branch girder and some collateral damage to a neighboring module under construction.

The Certificate IIX Astromech Technician responsible for the error has been suspended, the damage has amounted to a 0.003% reduction in OPAC ["overall project anticipated completion"], and a negligible impact on share-holder's returns as a result of effective media control.

A secondary reportable event is a further and somewhat larger raid by an as-yet unidentified party in three corvettes and a frigate. These vessels landed several hits on the station before they moved out of inhibitor range and warped out of the sector. The Sagittas reported a confirmed 7 hits which would have resulted in considerable damage to the raiding fleet (although nothing crippling, clearly). There is no way to positively identify the vessels... silhouette and EMS identification algorithms have failed to conclusively identify a match, however it is calculated that there is a 35.1% likelihood that the vessels were dispatched from Omicrest quadrant based on their inbound and outbound vectors. This has resulted in a 14.9% likelihood that the vessels were part of the Mid'Rakt Confederacy, which is currently being investigated with earnest by cPho Corporation's intelligence network.

The starboard-side hangar is now completed (but not yet commissioned), and the lower spotlight arm for the module is being maneuvered into position, while starboard module #7 is at 42% completion and also being maneuvered into final position ready to lock into the upper spotlight arm.

Port Vandermier is estimated to be completed at 98% schedule, which represents a significant returns bonus for shareholders. As a result cPho shares are currently notably buoyant.

Green survey markers surround Starboard Module #8, the now completed hangar module which is due to be commissioned in the middle of next week. This will effectively double the output of the construction drones and factories on Port Vandermier, further boosting the progress of the build.

The tower of Module #3's fluid processing tower is now fully enclosed and 100% operational, servicing Modules #1 - #5 at full capacity.

Module #8's hangar is undergoing the final QA inspections prior to commissioning it, and is slightly ahead of schedule. Shields, armour, and all processing systems in both #3 and #8 are fully operational. All systems in #3 are accessible from the hangar, although currently jetpack access is required as cat walks are yet to be installed by the "After Party", as the build technicians affectionately refer to the post-production deck crews.

 

[Drybreeze]

Erk!
A bug!

Quick! Squash it!

So I have somehow managed to generate a miniature bermuda triangle on my station.
There's a glitch in the matrix...

Within the secondary hangar on Module #8 (which is a mirrored copy and paste of the hangar on Module #3), the glass and mesh have decided to not appear. They're there... but not visible. As the cursor in creative mode will attest.

Cursor sits on an invisible window.

This is what it should look like... this is the same section in the original hangar in Module #3.

I can plop lights on top of the glass but they, too, are invisible. You can see visible ones also plopped on the wall lower left. It's as though just this little section of the station is broken visually.

Hopping into chat, where we have an awesome community, I wailed about my issue.
Several of the lovely folks over there came to my help, one of which was:

nightrune: Two things then, Make sure you are not on a sector boundary, and if that's not true try turning down the number of segments to see if that helps ​

I lower the chunk value from 2000 to 1200 and sure enough my lights that I'd just plopped appeared... but still no glass or mesh. And to make it weirder, now I could delete those same lights and while they didn't visually delete, the cursor went through the deleted ones as though they WERE deleted and no longer there. Irritating.

One of the other folks suggested the following:

1. 
   
   
   • djthekiller: you need to exit to menu
     
   • 7 minutes ago
     djthekiller: and then reload all chunks
   • 7 minutes ago
     djthekiller: its in the tools
   • 7 minutes ago
     djthekiller: no clear client cache is whats it called
   • 
     7 minutes ago
     
     djthekiller: then it should be fixed

So I quit out to the second menu and gave it a crack.

Ohhh... dear.

That's when DukeOfRealms appeared and joined in the guys helping me resolve this issue.
I checked that my files were validated - they were.
I checked that the error duplicated when starting other worlds - it did.
I checked that the error duplicated when creating a new world - it did.
I backed up the entire folder as a zip and saved it somewhere else.
I did a backup and download game repair from the second menu, and it said that no files needed to be downloaded and that the version was current.

I have now submitted a support ticket.

 

[Drybreeze]

Support has responded, Andy Puttmann recommends that I delete and then re-download using the repair feature the folder "starmade>data>config" and all contents.

Except that to re-download it I need to remove it. And I'm using a work computer which for some stupid reason has me locked out of deleting files and folders in this folder (probably anything under program files) even though I can copy over them.

So until/unless I can get work to lift that permission, I can't achieve this.

I could achieve it if I had another copy of the folder and contents to copy over the top of it.

Don't spose one of you fine folks could zip and send it to me? It's pretty small.
I'd be really grateful. Meanwile Ill wait for permissions response from work.

 

[Drybreeze]

Tonight Kulbolen helped me to fix this issue, as did Snowtiger and Crusade.
In particular Kulbolen provided me with a clean copy of the folder I needed, which resolved the broken game issue.

However the invisible blocks issue shown in the above post persisted.
I sent a copy of the blueprint to Kulbolen, and the issue was duplicated on two separate computers of Kulbolen's, which prompted us to believe it was a broken blueprint.

HOWEVER.

When we upped the amount of RAM used by the game from the default 8192 to the maximum 16Gb, and refreshed the station in-game a few times (f1 + f6) Kulbolen got limited success in making the model and the glass bay windows appear in the mystery zone in Hangar #8.

After some experimentation I could not duplicate this success locally, however it does demonstrate that the model and blueprint is ok, and that it is a memory issue with the game, most likely.

The general consensus is that there is too many faces (not enough occlusion) caused by all the tunnels and silos and grates and whatever else, combined with too many logics (as currently I've got each and every individual spotlight wired up to its own activation block, rather than each BAY of 24ish spotlights all wired up to the one activation block. As you can imagine, this is a LOT... I could count them but I won't.

So the general assessment is that for a range of reasons this station is a RAM eater, and needs to be culled.

So I won't be continuing this build.

Bye.




















Joking! I'm joking... that was a... ok nevermind.

I will be pruning the logic with earnest over the coming week or two, and I'll probably limit the exposed silos inside the station (only beneficial to RP users, and probably overkill for that purpose also), and probably also that heat grill in the back of the hangar tower (as it currently consists of something like 60 rows of 35x70 slabs layered one against each other... many big surface area to render).

I will also make each spotlight's light blocks within each spotlight bay all link back to the same single activation block, which will prune out something like 350 logic lines overall... I haven't counted but that's a quick estimate.

So basically I'm going to reduce how heavy the station is on processor use and RAM. This can only be a good thing. Everything I've listed above will have very minimal or no effect on the end result (except that it's less computer intensive).

So all around great news, and not possible without the time and help generously provided by Kulbolen.

Thank you.

I expect to be able to resume updating and posting of the station as soon as I've done the above work - probably some time towards this coming weekend or shortly afterwards... I'm not sure until I start tackling it.

 

[captainairspeed]

Wonder if i could Get the Riryu Class inside of this thing it Might Make for some Cool Screenshots

Which reminds me What Exactly will Port Vandermier Be Building

 

[Drybreeze]

The shipyard is a commercial station that will be both a port with civilian mooring scaffold as well as a shipyard that produces commercial contracts that range from Keel Boats and Skiffs right up to and including Destroyers and industrial giants. No specific plans at this point, it is infrastructure only.

 

[captainairspeed]

with a shipyard that size it might be fun to have some sort of unique docking system for larger ships that may be returning to the shipyard for repair maybe some sort of arm that locks onto the ship or a platform of some sort that carries them to storage

Civilian stuff huh might be and an idea to have a little commercial district inside one of the arms or attached to the superstructure

 

[yoyo2901]

the bugs are the worst! glad you got it back tho! still looks amazing

 

[captainairspeed]

How are you going to launch and recall your drones when you cant set station as a mother ship so you cant use fleet commands are you going to use docked hangers or some other system or are the drones going to be one se and have t be manually redocked???

 

[wizerdwolf]

I know I've probably raved to you about how this is going earlier in this thread, but I must do it again. I absolutely love how this station is coming out and how it looks! It's really making me want to try building my own first shipyard, though it'll likely be far less ambitious and awesome XD

 

[JinM]

Hey man if you ever plan on coming back, just upload the station to the cc. =) Doesn't matter if it's finished or not. I think many people would have a good time with it, not matter if outdated systems or broken remote links. Have a good time and best luck.