Suggestions for a lot of stuff: Trains, maps, auto-pilot and more.

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    First of all. I appologize if someone has already come with some of the ideas. I have not found any topics that suggest the same things after a quick search.

    These are ideas from my own imagination that have emerged after I've found a problem or lack of something while playing.



    -TRAINS-

    (Or trams if you prefer)

    Ships have a size related barrier problem, the internal-travel-time/ETA problem. No one wants to spend 3 minutes walking from one end of the ship to the other to reach a dockingbay, a weapons computer or the controll room, especially if they are under attack. This is where my idea of a train comes into play.

    You build it like any other ship and uses a point A-B-C waypoint/track system made with special blocks (waypoint blocks) to navigate through your ship. The track system would work by connecting the waypoint blocks with a "possible direction" line within a certain distance and allowing only 45 and 90 degree turns to make it easier to build a train track in a block/grid environment. To make the ship a train, you would have to dock it with a waypoint block, this would open up a "Track list" option where you can add waypoint blocks as navigation targets and arrange them in the order you want the train to travel to them. The "Track list" would also allow you to designate specific waypoints as stations. The train shares the gravity field of its mothership.

    The train would also have different modes for behavior and track, and yes, it would be able to run up walls and on the ceiling like a superconductor-magnet caught in a magnetic field ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJV5PSpYPL0 Quantum trapping).

    -

    Track modes:

    Loop - The train would go from the first point on the list to the last and then start over from the first point if possible. Example: Point A-B-C-D-A-B-etc...

    There-and-back-again - Like the loop mode only that once it reaches the last station it goes through the list in reverse. Example where A and D being the stations: A-b-c-D reverse D-c-b-A and reversing again.

    Manual direction*: ties into a behavior mode, explanation in behavior modes section.

    -

    Behavior modes:

    Automatic schedule - The train would automatically go from its current station to the next station on the list with a time interval untill it is switched off.

    Manual schedule - Like automatic scedule only with a "go" button on the train and at each station making the train go to the next station on the list.

    Manual direction*: this is a mode in both track and behavior and also the most advanced mode. Requiring two buttons on the train for direction and a "call" button at each station it will be the most advanced but also the most useful one by far. No matter where you are on the track list you can choose to go to the next station or the previous station on the list, the "call" button at the stations would also work like they would for elevators IRL making the train go to the station where the "call" button was used.





    -SEATS-

    A major problem so far has been passengers. I don't want to keep using docked cores or weapons computers as seats. I want a block that allows use of the cockpit cameras without any access to weapons or other ship systems.

    Simply, a seat for passengers...





    -STASIS-PODS-

    Don't get me wrong because I place it here on the list. I want this about as much as trains, maybe even more.

    Stasis-pods would work just like you think, almost like a seat only it saves your coordinates to the ship itself while using it, logging out in a stasis-pod would allow you to log back in and still be on the ship even if it moved 10 sectors or more.

    This idea came to me after a friend took my ship for a joyride and parked it in deep space before loosing its coordinates while I was offline. Basically a undeathinator block for living players when they log off.



    -ADDITIONAL BLOCKS, PROPERTIES AND FEATURES-

    I now address some minor things that are not in the game but should be.

    (property) Cockpits: The direction the cockpit faces should also change the direction of your FOV. I want to be able to look behind me.

    (feature) Weapon computers: I want to be able to link a weapon block to multiple weapon computers. With the option of linking a group of AMC's to multiple weapon computers you can have several weapons computers in controll of different groups of AMC's allowing friends to help you take down other ships and one "main" computer in controll of all the AMC blocks on the entire ship so you can use the full DPS potential of the ship even when alone.

    (feature) The weapon computers also need the option of linking to a cockpit for that specific weapons computer only. The ones meant to be piloted by people are way too exposed sitting in the outher layer of hull on ships just to be able to see out.

    (block) Trigger computer: I want a computer that can link to lights, plexdoors and other blocks that are mostly aestetic, this would allow for opening multiple plexdoors at once or even switch on/off lights for things like a "Red alert" mode or just shutting everything off when you log off a server to simulate low-power usage programs.

    (feature) More then one layer of hotbar for flightmode so that we can customise to our hearths content.



    EDIT: After a brainstorming session with "Bobojojo" in the public chat we came up with an auto-pilot system, the "Robby AI".

    Robby AI would be a block like the Bobby AI but would need input from a player through another block each time you wanted to use it. That other block would be the map block. (I know the P key brings up a map but...)

    The map block would project a 3D starchart like the one on the bridge of the Hyperion from Starcraft 2

    //i.imgur.com/nSaIzQw.jpg[/IMG]

    It would work just like the current map brought up with the P key when selected, but in addition working like a holographic map should you can zoom in on your sector to see ships in that specific sector as colored dots as well as which direction your ship is facing by making your ship show as an arrow. Working not only as a very fancy map the map block could also be used to select specific sectors and set a destination for manual piloting (simply a moving arrow in the HUD) or to set a destination for the Robby AI (auto-pilot).

    The Robby AI would also be specialised in a stupid way to compensate for the power it grants. Made only as an auto-pilot it should be able to maneuver around asteroids and other ships but unable to fire any weapons and actually ignoring any weapons fire and damage to the shields as well as proximity to stars meaning you have to somewhat know the territory, be brave or be incredibly stupid when you set the course at random or with little thought. However, you could set waypoints so that the Robby AI goes around sun, enemy and other dangerous sectors by going through the waypoints instead of going straight from point A to D.



    EDIT (again): After a bit of building I found out that I want a plexdoor wedge -Why? Diagonal dockingbay doors that's why.



    EDIT (again. Believe it!): An "Exit point" block would be nice to designate your desired exit point when you exit a ship core. Place it, select with c and link it to the ship core. Never again a random spawn when you exit a core.



    EDIT (number 4. DON'T STOP... BELIEVING!) "checkerboard" option in the advanced build mode. I keep having to building long lines of 1x1xX whatevers, I want an option that when activated spread the blocks out with X amount of space between each line of blocks so we can place a checkerboard pattern instead of a solid cube of something.





    Hopefully some of this will get added, if so, Thank you Schema.
     
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    I agree with everything on your list, even if most of it has probably been suggested before.

    I don\'t miss trains too much, but everything else is something I too would like to see. Especially the directional cockpits, along with the free-view camera aligned to the active cockpit, not the universe; it\'s annoying and somewhat confusing that free view doesn\'t rotate with the ship\'s axes but stays fixed to the universal coordinate system (\"c\" key align to grid). If at least this were toggleable somewhere...
     
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    for the cockpits.

    schema really needs to add them. will make a broadside cruiser when he does XD
     

    mou

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    it would be awesome to have statis pod in ship which when you go in your pod and disconnect and reconnect you still in , for faction flagship it would be great!
     
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    i want all of these things !!

    especialy controling doors and lights with a computer.
     
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    Especially Trams. Huger ships and stations are a pain to move around in.
     
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    These are all very good suggestions. A tram would be splendid for my planetary city. and a chair for passengers would be amazing for me transport fleet. I really hope schema or beetlebear come across your post and respond with their edits.
     
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    Like the ideas but I think you could replace trams with teleporters and that would be faster but also could allow travel between ships of the same faction.
     
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    Seats are an excellent idea.

    Personally, my idea of a nice intra-ship transport system would be a block with an animated texture that resembles a moving walkway or conveyor, which enhances your movement speed when you step on it with gravity active, but has to be rotated in the right direction to apply a bonus to movement speed in that direction. Running the wrong way down one would slow your movement speed greatly. Combined with trains, you could use this to make efficient planetary subway stations and spaceports, too.
     
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    As \"GoldenNo\" said, teleporters would be faster then trains, but I don\'t want teleporters for travel inside ships. and here is why:

    Imagine this: You are riding a train in a tube located in the outher hull layer, and suddenly you reach a window area... You see the stars, the planets, all that is space in all its glory, and then the window ends... Moments after you reach the station and walk off the train.

    You could have stepped on a teleporter and gotten there in an instant yes, but you went by train and caught a glimpse of something beautiful.

    Trains have style...
     
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    What do you think about a power block that has tiers because the power blocks we now have are good but you need a lot of them to cloack and jam at the same time they use a lot of power so I was thinking of power blocks with 5 Tiers each tier is stronger than the Tier before it.
     
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    \"EDIT (I\'m suggesting and you know it...): A lot of us sometimes remove the weapons computers by accident. When we place it again no one wants to select all the weapon blocks by hand again. Please make an option that when active when you select a weapons computer and connect it to a weapon block the blocks right next to the selected block gets probed to see if that too is a weapon block and if it is gets connected too, this continues untill there are no more unconnected weaponblocks directly adjacent to the newly connected weapon blocks. Basically a \"viral connect\" option.\"

    SHIFT+V when you\'re connecting blocks. It\'ll connect the entire cluster.
     
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    Okay. Thank you for telling me.

    They have to put stuff like this on a \"Stuff you actually CAN do\" page here.

    Going to remove that part then.
     
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    a user named \"vilge\" posted what seems pretty viable \"train system\", I\'m going to copy and paste here:

    slider block which will slide what you attach to it across single axis relative to how you orient the block



    hopefully we\'ll get \"some\" trains in the future
     
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    Imagine combat inside a ship, where people are fighting from train to platform, and even within the trains. It would be epic to say the least, teloprters would be insta-runaway xD