Vision and motion controls

[arci]

Hi everyone,

I have started starmade recently and want to share my ideas about one of the mechanics in the game.

This suggestion is about qol and some bigger changes to aiming and motion controls. The idea is to increase the viability of weaponsystems that cover different parts of the ships and add tactical aspects like positioning orientation and cooldown management. It sounds very complex but it's actually not that big of a change.

The basic concept is inspired by bridge commander (with a few changes in order to fit the design of starmade) and works quite well for medium to large sized ships in my opinion.
If you don't know this game you should watch a video in order to get a better understanding about the concept of these changes.

The basic controls are devided in to 3 different parts 1st- (which is better for small ships) and 3rd- person combat (which is devided into two subclasses and preferable for larger ships).


Standart mode (1st person cam)

In order to achieve a better feeling of an actual control room I think the best solution would be the ability to link display modul to cameras. They could be place in a x² area in order to increase the monitor size. However, instead of switching your position you will remain at the ship core location and switching camera changes the display instead.

While holding shift your mouse changes from ship control to view control so the display modules doesn't nessessary need to be in front of the core ( it's recommended though).

In addidion I think it would be cool if the ship core is changed into a control chair. The "sit down"- replaces the "use"- command. ("use" could be used for different interactions with the core in that case).


"Free fire"- mode (3rd person free cam)

After hitting the "3rd person view" hotkey this will be the default camera position if no target is locked. It's basically the zoom version with a few adjustments:


general qol:
- toggle option
- remember last position
- focus on the central point of the ship (can be adjusted)

keyboard:
- ship motion control only (see lock on fire mode)

mouse:
- camera and weapon control (see lock on fire mode)


"Lock on fire"- mode (3rd person locked cam)

Important: the lock cam option needs to be seperated from the lock target function (another key or double tap) Lock on only works for the camera so aiming is still free (inside the borders of the window)

Camera:
- camera automatically moves in a circle around your ship depending on the current location of the locked target.


Keyboard:
- ship motion control only

1. increase/decrease speed (preset speed with "w/s" the ship atomatically trys to reach this speed
   
   
2. roll speed: the sensibility feels quite a bit to fast. I don't know if it depends on the mass but it doesn't feel like that)
   
   
3. alignment: orientation of the ship (wasd-default)
   
   
4. strafe: seperate xyz-axis movement (up/down/left/rigth)

Mouse:
- weapon control only

There are some changes needed about the way aiming works.

1. Weapons need an indicator whether they can the target or not(crosshair color)
   
   
2. Indication: which weapon is currently selected (maybe highlighting blocks on a mini model in the gui or 3d area in the radar).
   
   
3. selected weapons always try to fire in aiming direction as far as possible (like in first person front mode)

Other changes:

A new category (options-> controls -> camera) including mouse and keyboard settings in order to do stuff like hold lmb instead of shift for camera rotation

Sytem visibility overhaul:

Stuff like docked ships turrets shipcore etc shouldn't be visible by default. It would be a better solution if there is a seperate window for systems which can be revealed by scanning. This would depend on shieldpower, jammer, scanner strength and can reveal things like weapon thruster etc. Also it would clean up the navigation window a bit.


Ok, that's it let me know what you think .

 

[Monchoman45]

Cameras linked to display modules is frequently suggested; last I heard, it's probably impossible with the current rendering system and isn't really considered important or a big priority, so that'll probably never happen.

Chairs are already planned and will probably show up when crew is implemented. Changing all cores into chairs is probably a bad idea, since most people don't put their core in a place where it would make sense to have a chair.

Camera control could certainly be better and roll sensitivity has been chronically broken basically forever, so those would be nice, but I don't think schema is really doing quality of life fixes right now.

 

[Lukwan]

It would be simple to allow displays and cameras to be linked. Forget the idea of having a display showing a thumbnail camera-view in astronaut-mode. That idea has been shot down due to render/lag issues.

I am talking about 'entering' a display like you 'enter' a core or computer or build-block. Then you swap your astronaut view for the camera-view. This would allow some functionality for a security/control room or a hangar-bay monitor. A Human crew member could quickly cycle through the cctv cameras of their ship to check for damage or look for intruders. Rear-view mirror to look for pursuers. If a turret is included in the group of linked cameras it could also facilitate a tail-gunner role. This would give another much-needed use for human crew-members in a large ship, leaving the captain to focus on the helm.

Best of all, much of the programming has already been done to implement this small, but useful feature.

 

[arci]

Cameras linked to display modules is frequently suggested; last I heard, it's probably impossible with the current rendering system and isn't really considered important or a big priority, so that'll probably never happen.

Chairs are already planned and will probably show up when crew is implemented. Changing all cores into chairs is probably a bad idea, since most people don't put their core in a place where it would make sense to have a chair.

Camera control could certainly be better and roll sensitivity has been chronically broken basically forever, so those would be nice, but I don't think schema is really doing quality of life fixes right now.

Maybe an option for changing the look and interaction posibilities of blocks would work too. If you could switch the visual appearence of a block with other existing textures, like the decorative console (with integrated sit interaction) for the shipcore, people could simulate this effect without screw over player who want the core as he is now.
This would be great for individual designs and offers something a texture replacer can not do.

Also the cam control is the "easy" part. I'm not sure how the code works but I guess it's far more problematic to change the interaction between view and weapon aiming. I know that a big part of this game is about construction and manufactoring but I think testing your ships in a figth is equally important. The thing is even if you are build a fleet with an ai system, it has to use the current weapon mechanics. Therefore it would be reasonable to have a second look at the basics before it starts to be very complex.