Some Questions About Docking

[DoomCarrot]

Hey, I am making a ship in which I would like turrets to be built on a docked part of my main ship. Is this possible? For instance, if I have a wing docked to my ship, can I dock turrets to the wing?

Also, does a parent ship share power completely with all docked entities? For instance, if I put power reactors on a docked wing, would they help to power my actual ship if it for some reason were to run out of power?

Lastly, I know docked entities are given the parent's shield coverage until they drop below 25%. However, If I have shields on a docked entity, are they used at all before the parent shields go down? For instance, say the parent has 10k shields with 2k regen, and a wing entity has 2k shields on it with 1k regen, does the ship have 12k shields with 3k regen total? Or does the ship have 10k with 2k regen total, until the shields drop to -25%, then the wing has 2k with only 1 regen?

Thanks for any clarification you guys can give me, this game is so amazing, but so confusing at the same time.

 

[Brokengauge]

Yes, you can dock a turret to a docked wing.

You can dock a turret to another turret, just be ready for the top turret to assume control over all rotational axis lol.

The docked entity's shields take the hit first. Any remaining damage left over after the shields are drained gets passed up to the parent entity. For example, one of your turrets on your docked wing take a a hit, so it's shields go down, soaking up 500 dmg (as an example) then the remaining damage gets passed to the wing the turret is docked to, itself taking another 500 dmg, with the rest of the remaining damage getting covered by your ship.

Power works similarly. A turret that tries to shoot sees if it's own power is sufficient. If not, it checks the next entity up, and if it's still not, it goes up the chain till it either finds a single entity with enough power, or can't. It won't pool the power reserves together, nor search sideways through the chain, and afaik won't look down the chain, so putting reactors in your docked wing won't help power your ship, but WILL help power any turrets placed on said wing.

There used to be a thing about using docked reactors, which were huge LAG nightmares when they would get damaged and detach, so the devs turned that mechanic off, and replaced it with AUX power. I'm not too familiar with it's practicality, as I'm not a PvP kind of guy, but it seems like a good risk/reward system.

Are you familiar with how the power efficiency mechanic works?

 

[jayman38]

I may be behind the times, but here is what I think I know.
1. Yes, you should be able to mount turrets to docked "children" entities. Caveat: I don't think you can mount turrets on turrets. (Why would you want to? For one, to place anti-missile turrets onto a primary weapon turret. However, turrets-on-turrets doesn't work, so don't.)
2. Power only flows from the core ship out to docked children. Docked children cannot push power to the core system without a power-supply beam. (Secondary information: Since power flows down to docked children entities, you could put enough power in your docked wing to power all the wing turrets.)
3. As far as I know, the docked children entity shields are used up first, before hitting the main entity's shields. So if you have 10k shields on your main ship, and 2k on your wing, and someone starts shooting your wing, the wing's 2k shields will get hit first, then the 10k shields on the main entity. Once the main entity is down to 2.5k shields from 10k, your wing will start to take physical damage.

 

[DoomCarrot]

Thank you guys so much for the clear replies! Now I shall continue building my ship with this knowledge in mind.

 

[Jojomo]

Hey, I am making a ship in which I would like turrets to be built on a docked part of my main ship. Is this possible? For instance, if I have a wing docked to my ship, can I dock turrets to the wing?

Yes, you can have docking chains up to 25 deep.

Also, does a parent ship share power completely with all docked entities? For instance, if I put power reactors on a docked wing, would they help to power my actual ship if it for some reason were to run out of power?

No, but your ship will help power the wing and its children.

There are some exceptions: thrusters, anywhere, can only be powered by the root entity (the ship in your case). Nothing else can help power thrusters.
This stops multiple reactors docked together allowing (efficient) gigantic ships.

Power capacitors cannot be filled by any power reactors except the ones on their own entity.

Lastly, I know docked entities are given the parent's shield coverage until they drop below 25%. However, If I have shields on a docked entity, are they used at all before the parent shields go down? For instance, say the parent has 10k shields with 2k regen, and a wing entity has 2k shields on it with 1k regen, does the ship have 12k shields with 3k regen total? Or does the ship have 10k with 2k regen total, until the shields drop to -25%, then the wing has 2k with only 1 regen?

Shield capacity and regen aren't pooled.

Hits on the wing will use wing shields first, and ship shields when the wing shields drop to 25%.

 

[Scypio]

Yes, you can have docking chains up to 25 deep.

Actually it's not currently working and you can go further than that.

 

[KiloZulu]

You can mount turrets on other docked entities. Remember that each docked entity only receives 50% of the shielding of the entity it is docked to. It isn't a bad idea to put individual shielding on the wings and turret of your ship, as the further out you go with your chain of docked entities, the more weak links there are that can be broken.
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You can mount turrets on turrets. Why would you? I mount missile defense turrets on my really large turrets. Then again, I've also mounted missile defense turrets on my missile defense turrets. I've also mounted missile turrets on my really large cannon turrets...because at that point, why not? As long as the second turret can rotate fast enough to adjust for the motion of the first turret, it can be effective. You also have to make sure that the motions of either turret aren't going to cause any collision with the other (so that their guns don't get locked together.)

 

[Jojomo]

Remember that each docked entity only receives 50% of the shielding of the entity it is docked to.

75% now.

 

[Brokengauge]

I also thought that mounting a turret onto another turret caused all directional control to go to the top most turret. Is this not how that works?

 

[Scypio]

I also thought that mounting a turret onto another turret caused all directional control to go to the top most turret. Is this not how that works?

Not really that but the turrets will start to derp if you do it with no normal dock between the different turrets the AI will starts to conflict. So to do it you need a normal dock between them, adding one more entity for each second turrets put on another one.

 

[Brokengauge]

Not really that but the turrets will start to derp if you do it with no normal dock between the different turrets the AI will starts to conflict. So to do it you need a normal dock between them, adding one more entity for each second turrets put on another one.

EVERYTHING I KNOW HAS CHANGED!

Thanks! Lol