Space Stations Preview - Part 7: New Docking, AI Module

[schema]

Hello and welcome to StarMade,
This preview shows the completely refined docking mechanism. Also, there is a new module: The AI module lets you configure and activate an AI on structures.

Orientated and restricted docking
This feature was very frustrating to implement. It took more then 3 days to find the right combination of thousands of values to get it right. The docking is now restricted to an angle and is directly relative to the orientation of the docking block. For example if you place a docking module with front orientation, any docked structure will only be able rotate a certain angle around the forward axis. The docking is also now one sided, meaning, that a docked ship won't be able to affect the structure it's docked to. This gives the player the possibility to place more realistic turret like structures on his ship. In the future there will also be variable docking modules, that would allow the player to construct a rotating ring around their ship (using the new AI module).
Here is a picture of my testing rig (the letters stand for: Top, Bottom, Left, Right, Front, Back)


New Module: The AI Module
This module allows any ship to be controlled by an artificial intelligence. More than that, it allows the player to configure the behavior of the AI in great detail. It will be possible to create attacking ships, fixed turrets (which are docked to the players own ship or a space station), or friendly wing men. The module will also get a remote control module in the future, allowing the AI to be given commands from far away. There will also be more detailed options of behavior (depending on the type of AI), that allows for example to prioritize attacking certain types of blocks on an enemy ship.
This screen shot shows the AI configuration dialog which will become available for the player, once he places the new AI module on his ship.


What comes next
As the restricted docking is still a bit rough, I'll focus on getting that working properly. Furthermore, lots of graphical features and textures are waiting to be implemented. Also, the AI block isn't fully integrated yet. I hope I will be able to release the Space Stations update at the end of this week.

Thanks for playing StarMade,
- schema

 

[Elladan]

Hi,
Nice preview
For Docking, you must find a way to make sure that the blocks from the 2 entities will not get inside one another.
I don't know for next update yet, but i've seen recently that when docking, the fact that the entities are in one another leads to heavy laggs and freezes. ( I had tried doing a ship with a hangar and a docking module. )
And also, i would be great if we do no need to make a DockingBlock-Core Docking but DockingBlock-Block instead cause the 1rst link force us to leave the core vulnerable.


Thanks for reading,
Elladan

 

[Elladan]

*Last sentence : DockingBlock-DockingBlock instead of DockingBlock-Block

 

[spoonikle]

I have been messing with docking for a while.

Sudgestion -

how about a docking clamp pair? Like how an old school docking bridge would extend out and connect 2 ships.

4 docking clamp blocks define the size and orientation of the docking bridge, and the station needs a bridge of the same size.

When docking is started, the server calculates how far the enititys have to be from each other to prevent colision - Then it aligns the ships and draws out the bridge.