Rotating without adding ship cores

[Luke Darkstorm]

Hey people, i have a question. So, i was building a big ship and i had the idea to put the thrusters in a rotating part of the ship… but this wouldn't work, because i'd comand the ship from another core, not the one attached to a rotating rail… is there any way to rotatate a part of the dhip without having to create a new ship core and docking it? Or is there a way for me to control the thrusters from another ship core?

 

[kiddan]

There is a logic block similar to an activator, but you can name and add it to your hotbar once placed. The name escapes me, but I'm sure you can find it in a shop or the creative inventory quickly. You can combine this with some basic rail rotators (take a look at these tutorials, notably part 4):

Starmade Rails - YouTube

Godspeed with your ship design!

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

Hey people, i have a question. So, i was building a big ship and i had the idea to put the thrusters in a rotating part of the ship… but this wouldn't work, because i'd comand the ship from another core, not the one attached to a rotating rail… is there any way to rotatate a part of the dhip without having to create a new ship core and docking it? Or is there a way for me to control the thrusters from another ship core?

Luke Darkstorm - Nice idea! One part of your question isn't doable in the game, but the main idea is perfectly possible.

You can only have separately moving parts on a structure if they are separate entities (basically "docked ships") but you can indeed add thruster blocks into a docked part of your ship, and use the thrust they generate when piloting from within the main core.

You just need to dock the movable part that houses the thrusters, then enter the main core and turn on the thrust inheriting option. You can find this option in the Ship menu --> Thrust menu --> and there will be a button labeled "Inherit thrust form docked entities".

There is a logic block similar to an activator, but you can name and add it to your hotbar once placed. The name escapes me, but I'm sure you can find it in a shop or the creative inventory quickly.

That's called the "Inner-ship remote", very useful for toggling the rotatable parts of a ship On/Off, among other things, directly form the Flight Mode hotbar

 

[Edymnion]

Yup, just DSM has the right of it.

Dock your spinning part with your thrusters, go into your thruster config, and check the "inherit thrust" option, and you're good to go.

 

[Luke Darkstorm]

Thank you all very very much for the help!!! If i find other problem i'll come back herr.
Thanks again!

 

[Luke Darkstorm]

One more thing, considering that i wanted to activate a system on a rotative part while on the main core, is there a way to do it? Remote ship activators only work if you're in the same core as the remote activator block, right? And is there a way to activate/deactivate thrusters? And if i put power reactors and ftl chambers in a docked entity, can i get it's effects in the main core?

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

One more thing, considering that i wanted to activate a system on a rotative part while on the main core, is there a way to do it? Remote ship activators only work if you're in the same core as the remote activator block, right? And is there a way to activate/deactivate thrusters? And if i put power reactors and ftl chambers in a docked entity, can i get it's effects in the main core?

The main systems don't work when an entity is docked. Reactors, chambers and shields on a ship (or any kind of ship-core-based entity) are disabled when you dock that ship to another structure. And thrusters can't be turned on/off.

Other stuff like rail mass enhancers or WEAPONS do indeed work on docked entities (weapons on docked stuff can be controlled via Bobby AI blocks or logic signals).

You can also have Rail and Logic systems work on docked parts. You can use WIRELESS MODULES, instead of inner-ship remotes, to send signals from within the main core to a docked part.

Just place an inner-ship remote on your main structure and connect it to a wireless module. Place a wireless module on the docked part too. Then exit the core and select the first wireless module with the 'C' key in astronaut mode, and connect it to the second one on the docked part with the 'V' key (still in astronaut mode).

From there, you can control the second wireless module from the Flight Mode hotbar of your main structure, and use it as a signal source for any logic-controllable thing you want to have on the docked part.

 

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And if the red text comes out of the wireless modules, don't worry, it doesn't mean anything. Wireless clocks still work.

 

[Luke Darkstorm]

The main systems don't work when an entity is docked. Reactors, chambers and shields on a ship (or any kind of ship-core-based entity) are disabled when you dock that ship to another structure. And thrusters can't be turned on/off.

Other stuff like rail mass enhancers or WEAPONS do indeed work on docked entities (weapons on docked stuff can be controlled via Bobby AI blocks or logic signals).

You can also have Rail and Logic systems work on docked parts. You can use WIRELESS MODULES, instead of inner-ship remotes, to send signals from within the main core to a docked part.

Just place an inner-ship remote on your main structure and connect it to a wireless module. Place a wireless module on the docked part too. Then exit the core and select the first wireless module with the 'C' key in astronaut mode, and connect it to the second one on the docked part with the 'V' key (still in astronaut mode).

From there, you can control the second wireless module from the Flight Mode hotbar of your main structure, and use it as a signal source for any logic-controllable thing you want to have on the docked part.

Thanks again man! So if i want to power up thrusters in a docked entity, putting reactors in this docked part doesn't work? And if I dock the thrusters to other docked entity that has reactors? And if i want to shield this docked part, should the shield bubble cover the integrity of the docked part or just it's core?

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

Thanks again man! So if i want to power up thrusters in a docked entity, putting reactors in this docked part doesn't work? And if I dock the thrusters to other docked entity that has reactors? And if i want to shield this docked part, should the shield bubble cover the integrity of the docked part or just it's core?

If your docked thing with thrusters is a simple engine pod, you won't need to have a reactor in it, because that reactor would be forced into an inactive state, and the engine pod will instead use power from the structure it's docked on... at least when you throttle them up (same as if those thrusters would be built onto the main structure).

But in case you have something like a fighter with its own thrusters docked to a carrier ship, you can still use the "Inherit thrust" option... The fighter will have its reactor disabled while it's docked, and the carrier will inherit extra thrust and power load from it, and when you undock the fighter, its own internal power source will turn on automatically, so you'll have to have one in it.

The rule is that, no matter how many layers of stacked docked stuff you have in a so-called "docking chain", you can only pilot the base structure (called the "mother entity"). And only the mother entity can have an active reactor and active shield, so it's the source of all power and shielding for everything that's docked upon it. So only stuff that you intend to undock and use on their own need to have their own systems.

And yes, when things are docked, only those blocks on them are protected which are within the mother entity's shield bubble.


Whoops, this got a little long... sometimes I get carried away when wording stuff that I learned through experimentation

 

[Luke Darkstorm]

If your docked thing with thrusters is a simple engine pod, you won't need to have a reactor in it, because that reactor would be forced into an inactive state, and the engine pod will instead use power from the structure it's docked on... at least when you throttle them up (same as if those thrusters would be built onto the main structure).

But in case you have something like a fighter with its own thrusters docked to a carrier ship, you can still use the "Inherit thrust" option... The fighter will have its reactor disabled while it's docked, and the carrier will inherit extra thrust and power load from it, and when you undock the fighter, its own internal power source will turn on automatically, so you'll have to have one in it.

The rule is that, no matter how many layers of stacked docked stuff you have in a so-called "docking chain", you can only pilot the base structure (called the "mother entity"). And only the mother entity can have an active reactor and active shield, so it's the source of all power and shielding for everything that's docked upon it. So only stuff that you intend to undock and use on their own need to have their own systems.

And yes, when things are docked, only those blocks on them are protected which are within the mother entity's shield bubble.


Whoops, this got a little long... sometimes I get carried away when wording stuff that I learned through experimentation

Thanks again man!!! Helped me a lot!