Ship Core Movement: A Different Approach

[Viridis00]

Now, I know what you're all thinking reading the thread title "this has been suggested a million times" and core movement cannot be done because the core is the reference point for the ship in game. However, I think we can accomplish the same result in a different way.

Instead of moving the core on the ship, move the ship around the core! To a degree, we can already do this in game via a copy and paste of the entire ship. However, our current system is unwieldy in certain ways because you can only set down on currently existing blocks and cannot offset from there. For small ships, this is a hassle. For large ships, this is an impractical nightmare.

I'd like either an automated function to automatically move a ship around a core from a selected coordinate, or even better as an all around solution to better pasting and core movement, a way to offset paste entities from the first clicked location.

 

[Criss]

If it were that easy schema would have done it long ago. Because the entirety of a ship revolves around the core placement, both in code and in mechanics, it is hard to find a solution. This does sound like a better approach but I have no clue if it is possible.

 

[GaeasSon]

I't's possible, and with a bit of practice, not even terribly painful to do it manually now that we have copy/paste and resizable selection areas.

 

[jayman38]

I can imagine it working, but maybe only like this:

You make a request to move the core from position 1 to position 2. The game asks you if you are really, really sure.
There is then a count-down. (30 sec., server-configurable?) Get out of the ship in time. If the countdown reaches 0 while you are still in the core, you die instantly. (Server owner can set the count-down to 0 sec to kill the requesting player instantly if the admin wants that.)
The ship then disappears from the universe.
The server then rearranges all blocks around the existing core in the background, separate from the running universe.
When the ship is finished, it is respawned in the same spot it was removed from.
An e-mail message is sent to the owner, telling them that the ship is ready.

Risk: If some object/structure is found in the location where the ship is to be respawned, the ship is irretrievably destroyed.
This makes it a powerful series of downsides, in order to perform the function, but allowing it in-game.

I think this risk would be acceptable to players who need it. They could pilot the ship out to a remote sector of space to minimize the loss risk.

 

[Valiant70]

If it were that easy schema would have done it long ago.

This argument is completely invalid. There are a lot of easy things that haven't been done yet, silly. :P

I can imagine it working, but maybe only like this:

You make a request to move the core from position 1 to position 2. The game asks you if you are really, really sure.
There is then a count-down. (30 sec., server-configurable?) Get out of the ship in time. If the countdown reaches 0 while you are still in the core, you die instantly. (Server owner can set the count-down to 0 sec to kill the requesting player instantly if the admin wants that.)
The ship then disappears from the universe.
The server then rearranges all blocks around the existing core in the background, separate from the running universe.
When the ship is finished, it is respawned in the same spot it was removed from.
An e-mail message is sent to the owner, telling them that the ship is ready.

Risk: If some object/structure is found in the location where the ship is to be respawned, the ship is irretrievably destroyed.
This makes it a powerful series of downsides, in order to perform the function, but allowing it in-game.

I think this risk would be acceptable to players who need it. They could pilot the ship out to a remote sector of space to minimize the loss risk.

Uh... I see no reason at all for there to be a risk or a bunch of weirdness. The changes just need to be done gradually to prevent massive lag on the server. I suggested this elsewhere, but each player should have a cap on the number of calculations per second, and this should be configurable. When a large edit is attempted, the game should present the player with a progress bar and spread out the work over a period of time to prevent lagging the living snot out of the server. That way at any given time the number of calculations being done is perfectly reasonable, so the server does not lag even when multiple players are making large (100^3 plus) edits. The large edits would just take a while so the players might have to sit around and wait.

 

[jayman38]

The changes just need to be done gradually to prevent massive lag on the server. I suggested this elsewhere, but each player should have a cap on the number of calculations per second, and this should be configurable. When a large edit is attempted, the game should present the player with a progress bar and spread out the work over a period of time to prevent lagging the living snot out of the server. That way at any given time the number of calculations being done is perfectly reasonable, so the server does not lag even when multiple players are making large (100^3 plus) edits. The large edits would just take a while so the players might have to sit around and wait.

I can see that working fine.

 

[Criss]

This argument is completely invalid. There are a lot of easy things that haven't been done yet, silly. :p

It's perfectly valid. Reason being? Schema told me himself...

He stated that the best he could do without redoing that system and therefore a lot of other code was to create an out of game program that allowed core relocation. This was a while ago. Who knows if he has a different solution now. This was in response to my issues with the EVE ships that I worked on. Smedit imported the ships with cores out of the ship due to their strange shapes in some instances. When I asked that is what he stated.

 

[Viridis00]

He stated that the best he could do without redoing that system and therefore a lot of other code was to create an out of game program that allowed core relocation. This was a while ago.

I remember that. He specifically said that moving the core isn't possible because it is the reference point for the entire ship. That's why the suggestion is to move the entire ship around the core, which is something that can already be done. Just it's a pain in the ass for large ships with the current in game method.

 

[Criss]

I remember that. He specifically said that moving the core isn't possible because it is the reference point for the entire ship. That's why the suggestion is to move the entire ship around the core, which is something that can already be done. Just it's a pain in the ass for large ships with the current in game method.

Yes, but I bet its more possible than any other solution. Maybe if we could simply tell it how far to move the core in the 6 direction, then have the ship unload and reload as if it copied itself to a new location it could work. Might be heavy on resources like normal copy/paste is though. Not sure.