The Vacuum pipe - a solution for fast travel in astronaut mode!

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    The Vacuum pipe - a solution for fast travel in astronaut mode!


    What's is it?


    The vacuum transportation system is used in many buildings today to fast transfer documentation to other rooms within a building.


    It's also a viable solution for transporting people, but it's not implemented yet, as far as I know. (google it, or check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA_goQ_qEMA )


    How can this work in starmade?


    You'll need two new blocks. The Vacuum Tube Block (VTB) and the Vacuum Tube "station" (VTS), or something similar.

    With the VTB you can set a tube (line of blocks) connecting two or more parts of a station/ship. The tube direction is changeable like any other orientation block in starmade, but in a tube block there's a entry side and an exit side, in opposite sides of a block.

    The VTS is a stop for the tube, and it need to be placed on a existing tube. This VTS are the drop points of this transportation tube (I think this is obvious!).


    You can only interact with VTS, using "R" to enter the tube, and you'll drop off in the next VTB. A tube with only one VTB will not work, unless the tube loops on itself. You can have as many VTBs as you want or need.


    The velocity of this system is up to schema, but i'll suggest something above the drop velocity on a planet (the velocity of you falling).


    An option to have linkable tubes (two or more lines of blocks connected) is possible, and should behave like rails on Minecraft. When a tube connects to another tube, the direction of the second tube will define the direction the player will follow.




    How the system works?

    As soons as the player hit R in a station block, I'll teleported (like entering a ship) to the station block, and will start "sliding" in the set direction. The player will be lying, with is abdomen up, and the legs facing forward. Player position will look somewhat similar to bobsled, but without the cart.

    The travelling vellocity can be define serverside, but the default should be similar to the falling on planets.




    Want some pictures?




     
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    Especially for really large ships/stations, haveing something like this would be highly useful for traveling around to various locations.

    Sounds kinda like \"turbo lifts\" in Star Trek. But less options, since the start point and end point are predetermined (as opposed to being determined by the person traveling in the \"lift\")
     
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    Dude this is awesome. I would use this to move from my station to homebase on ze planet. Usually i would hop in a ship but mate, it takes for bloody ever. I fully support you mate ;)
     
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    You could do that, or you could make a ship with a small tube and initiate gravity to move fast down the tube, if you understand if you mean.
     
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    Yes, but If you notice on his diagram for it, so would his method. and my method already exists in the game.
     
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    His idea involves \"falling\" through a tube sideways, if anything. Currently, gravity blocks ONLY provide \"down\" - so you could not use an open space and a grav block to make a transfer tube (to go from one end of a ship to the other, for example)....
     
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    I think they\'re called pneumatic tubes, but otherwise, I like this suggestion a lot, and would love to see the Futurama-esque systems for astronauttransportation that would arise from it.
     
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    Both ideas work.

    Manipulation of gravity is not a big deal (in the future!). My system uses Vacuum to propel a \"capsule\" in whatever direction the \"air\" is flowing.. So you can go any of the 6 directions, make corners, move up or down, etc...

    The idea of using gravity works somewhat the same way. The gravity is manipulated to set a new direction in each corner.

    I do prefer mine, because, in my opinion is easy to implement, and to use. The images you saw at the OP are from the game. I\'ve just edited the \"Plexglass\" block, to have 6 sides, and set a new texture for it. Then I used \"Ctrl\" to change the direction/oritentation, and that was really easy to set up. Also, this method let you use your interior space with fast transportation in mind, so no more long corredors of emptiness!
     
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    The Vaccum idea is an old one, and I don\'t based it on Futurama, it was just for the giggles!

    Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McpWcn-1RZU



    Also, I\'ll add to the OP how is the player supposed to use this system:

    As soons as the player hit R in the station block, I\'ll teleported (like entering a ship) to the station block, and will start \"sliding\" in the set direction. The player will be lying, with is abdomen up, and the legs facing forward. Player position will look somewhat similar to bobsled, but without the cart.

    The travelling vellocity can be define serverside, but the default should be similar to the falling on planets.
     
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    Now I\'m imagining robots singing \"Hey everybody, I\'m gonna tell you something you won\'t believe, Station11002101010100000, we have a vacuum tube sled team!\"

    Although I like the vacuum tube system you\'ve described, I\'d also suggest there be a way for someone less caring of safety to be able to create a one-way launching system via it, with an entry station but no output station: it simply chucks you out wherever your tube ends. This allows for rapid deployment of people, which would be valuable in manned boarding parties, with firing soldiers out of the ship via tubes at your enemy to crush the xeno menace.
     
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    That\'s great thinking.

    If this system get\'s implemented somehow, the way we interact with it (entering and leaving) is still up for discussing.

    How would you suggest this to work? I think we still need some kind of entering block, so players have to use a determinated block to enter. For existing the system we can just use the last block of a pipeline as an output. We can also have booster block, and that will help designing escape pipelines, boosting the player out of a pipeline at a set acceleration.