- Joined
- Nov 11, 2013
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The Dock It All
Currently, in order to dock a turret you place a "Turret Docking Unit" (TDU) onto a surface and adjust the allowed docking area by attaching "Turret Docking Enhancer Unit" (TDEU) to the TDU; you than dock a ship core directly to the TDU and it, and anything attached to it, are now designated as a turret. This setup allows the docked turret to swivel about an axis perpendicular to the TDUs placement. Than the docked turret is provided limited movement outside of that axis, usually until the whole assembly bumps into another nearby block. A small turret will have 1 TDU and few to no TDEUs while a large turret will still have 1 TDU and possibly quite a few TDEUs. I feel that this makes for peculiar turret movement and limits the turrets effectiveness... plus it looks silly (in my opinion) to have a massive turret on your space dreadnaught being held to your ship via a 1m wide docking block...
What I would like to propose is the replacement of the TDU and TDEU with 1 block that acts as both, but does not specify "turret." This one docking block (henceforth referred to as a Dock It All or DIA) provides a rotational plane parallel to its placement surface (just like the existing TDU) but the provided docking area is increased by grouping DIAs together in even or odd ring or disc (perhaps any regular) shapes and they should automatically center the rotation axis at the center of the group of DIAs ( so 1 DIAs axis will be in center of the block, while a square of 4 DIAs axis would be at the center of the group touching a corner of each DIA). Height should be aesthetic and not affect the mechanics of the DIA, only the dimensions parallel to the DIAs attachment surface affect its allowed docking area (and possibly how much torque it has - rotational speed).
On the removal of the "turret" designation - I think that perhaps there should not be a separate area of a ship designated as "turret" but rather allow turrets to be an extension of the ship, that happen to rotate and shoot things. If a docked ship looks like a turret than the player can call it a turret, but ships in a bay or turrets on the hull should all share a common docking, its just what they do afterwards that determines what they are. In this way you still retain the separate entity of the "turret" (therefore affected separately than that of its host). Also, by removing specific designations for docking modules the DIA could be used to allow none shooty things to be attached to a ship and rotate OR, allow for a part of a turret (say the guns) to have a separate plane of rotation than (but in addition to) that of the base. With that you can have a turret, for example, rotate on the X plane while allowing the shooty bits (or whatever is attached to the other DIA) to also rotate on the Y plane.
Docking area and clipping - The allotted area provided with which something can dock to a DIA, or a group of DIAs, should be just that, the maximum size (length, width, height) that a single thing can be in order to dock. This area should not have to be clear of all other blocks, it should only apply to something that is attempting to dock or is docked; only if a separate block within the docking area, in the way of a ships docking path (between docking ship A's DIA and docking ship B's DIA), or if by docking, a ships structure will be moved to a location in space that is already occupied by blocks does it become an issue.
No more core docking - The ship core is the heart of a vessel, as such it should be deep within so as to provide it with the utmost protection... not exposed so that docking can be achieved. Instead, the DIA (or a group) can be provided with a short range (not 100m) docking laser that fires from the rotation axis (so only 1 beam no matter how many DIAs are grouped together) and docks to another DIA or group of DIAs. Having it this way ensures that differently sized docking surfaces always dock center to center This prevents having to expose your ship core and allows larger ships to dock via player made docking port holes.
Side note - a ring shaped DIA could provide for player passage between docked ships or for turrets with depth below plane of rotation but this bit means the allowed docking area would have to extend above and below plane. This could be done by defining the plane of rotation as the surface of the DIA perpendicular to its rotation? Once the a DIA has been placed this information should be defined for it (or its group), and subsequent DIAs stacked upon that one would move the plane of rotation so that it is always the surface of the outermost DIA. The docking area must be able to clip through existing ship structure as well.
Side side note - I guess this replaces all docking blocks and some core functionality...
I know there are several threads about docking ideas but I didn't see one quite put this way so here it is... and I'm not a programer so i have no idea whether any of this is possible or not. Feel free to comment, I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on it.
Currently, in order to dock a turret you place a "Turret Docking Unit" (TDU) onto a surface and adjust the allowed docking area by attaching "Turret Docking Enhancer Unit" (TDEU) to the TDU; you than dock a ship core directly to the TDU and it, and anything attached to it, are now designated as a turret. This setup allows the docked turret to swivel about an axis perpendicular to the TDUs placement. Than the docked turret is provided limited movement outside of that axis, usually until the whole assembly bumps into another nearby block. A small turret will have 1 TDU and few to no TDEUs while a large turret will still have 1 TDU and possibly quite a few TDEUs. I feel that this makes for peculiar turret movement and limits the turrets effectiveness... plus it looks silly (in my opinion) to have a massive turret on your space dreadnaught being held to your ship via a 1m wide docking block...
What I would like to propose is the replacement of the TDU and TDEU with 1 block that acts as both, but does not specify "turret." This one docking block (henceforth referred to as a Dock It All or DIA) provides a rotational plane parallel to its placement surface (just like the existing TDU) but the provided docking area is increased by grouping DIAs together in even or odd ring or disc (perhaps any regular) shapes and they should automatically center the rotation axis at the center of the group of DIAs ( so 1 DIAs axis will be in center of the block, while a square of 4 DIAs axis would be at the center of the group touching a corner of each DIA). Height should be aesthetic and not affect the mechanics of the DIA, only the dimensions parallel to the DIAs attachment surface affect its allowed docking area (and possibly how much torque it has - rotational speed).
On the removal of the "turret" designation - I think that perhaps there should not be a separate area of a ship designated as "turret" but rather allow turrets to be an extension of the ship, that happen to rotate and shoot things. If a docked ship looks like a turret than the player can call it a turret, but ships in a bay or turrets on the hull should all share a common docking, its just what they do afterwards that determines what they are. In this way you still retain the separate entity of the "turret" (therefore affected separately than that of its host). Also, by removing specific designations for docking modules the DIA could be used to allow none shooty things to be attached to a ship and rotate OR, allow for a part of a turret (say the guns) to have a separate plane of rotation than (but in addition to) that of the base. With that you can have a turret, for example, rotate on the X plane while allowing the shooty bits (or whatever is attached to the other DIA) to also rotate on the Y plane.
Docking area and clipping - The allotted area provided with which something can dock to a DIA, or a group of DIAs, should be just that, the maximum size (length, width, height) that a single thing can be in order to dock. This area should not have to be clear of all other blocks, it should only apply to something that is attempting to dock or is docked; only if a separate block within the docking area, in the way of a ships docking path (between docking ship A's DIA and docking ship B's DIA), or if by docking, a ships structure will be moved to a location in space that is already occupied by blocks does it become an issue.
No more core docking - The ship core is the heart of a vessel, as such it should be deep within so as to provide it with the utmost protection... not exposed so that docking can be achieved. Instead, the DIA (or a group) can be provided with a short range (not 100m) docking laser that fires from the rotation axis (so only 1 beam no matter how many DIAs are grouped together) and docks to another DIA or group of DIAs. Having it this way ensures that differently sized docking surfaces always dock center to center This prevents having to expose your ship core and allows larger ships to dock via player made docking port holes.
Side note - a ring shaped DIA could provide for player passage between docked ships or for turrets with depth below plane of rotation but this bit means the allowed docking area would have to extend above and below plane. This could be done by defining the plane of rotation as the surface of the DIA perpendicular to its rotation? Once the a DIA has been placed this information should be defined for it (or its group), and subsequent DIAs stacked upon that one would move the plane of rotation so that it is always the surface of the outermost DIA. The docking area must be able to clip through existing ship structure as well.
Side side note - I guess this replaces all docking blocks and some core functionality...
I know there are several threads about docking ideas but I didn't see one quite put this way so here it is... and I'm not a programer so i have no idea whether any of this is possible or not. Feel free to comment, I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on it.
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