Hangar rework

[oreganor]

This suggestion arrives late, most likely, seeing the planned release window... But I will go with it as this game, imho, is really calling for something like this.

 

 

MISSING COMPONENT

 

For the suggestion to work, first we need to solve the main difference between a figther and a regular ship ATM... The "Turret Plan". We need a way to store not only the block plan of a ship but also the distribution of turrets... This is not trivial to do and, compared to the rest of the suggestion, could be by far, the most "code intensive" feature of this suggestion because it's not just a matter of saving the data but to add specific features to build mode.

 

What we will earn? The possibility to equip turrets DIRECTLY on the Ship UI ("P" key) as the slots can be ordered (And even previeved on the 3d model... Similarly as what happens now with damaged block) and turret surface coordinates are already known by the system.

 

The idea is reusing the current way to "attach" turrets to a given design... But DO NOT use current turret inventory, but size-based templates. This way the player is just designing spots on his 3d model were turrets MAY BE (Optionally, if size-templates are used, he will also be marking the max size a turret on that spot can have). The rest of the process (And all max turret control checks) are done in the Ship UI... Were a player puts THE REAL turrets into the current "holes"  and the system checks if the ammount do not exceed the current limits (either of control or by size of each slot, if they are implemented). This allows to save potential turret possitions into the XML of a ship and a nice previsualization were the user just drags'n drop real turrets and see them appearing in the surface of his ship. It will also open the road for "turret loadout" templates or specialized turret controllers based on "slot size" in the future, but that's beyond the scope of this suggestion.

 

But as I said... This is just a requirement for the real suggestion, which follows.

 

 

HANGAR REWORK

 

First some safety/antiexploit meassures:

 

- The minimum material used in the Hangar Blocks of a Mothership controls the MAXIMUM material ANY shuttle or fighter can have to be able to dock at the mothership. Example: If a mothership has 2 Hangars made of Trinium and Avorion respectively, fighters/shuttles with any ognium/avorion block WILL NOT be able to dock at this mothership.

 

- For a design to be considered a valid fighter design has to be made of a SINGLE material. Also a max volume limit should exist, either as relative volume to mothership or as an absolute limit (ideally should be a server configuration option).

 

- The max number of active turrets on a fighter design should be as if the slots equivalent to that volume were ocupied by a common quality dedicated controller.

 

 

Now how to "aquire" a regular design as a figther (I will leave "shuttles" for later):

 

- "Trusted Designs" as a list of serverside templates the players can buy at stores. Basically what we have now, with the remarkable difference that, thanks to Turret Plans, a player could have the option to choose the same template with DIFFERENT weapon loadouts. Fighter cost, tech level and turret performance could inherit average performance as if the turrets were made in a turret factory at the same distance from the core. For balance reassons players should be charged BOTH money and resources for each fighter they buy this way.

 

- Shipyards. Players could create batches of their "fighter rdy" templates stored locally. Turret loadout should be restricted to the materials the SY have available, and should be selectable. A server configuration option should exist TO DISABLE this way to acquire fighters.

 

- In BOTH cases, the pilot requirement to control each figther should be equal to 1/4 the total crew required to operate the same template as a regular ship (or shuttle, see below), minimum of 1.

 

- Any performance symplification process happens now... As the complex template is just reduced to a visible model, a fixed set of flight model variables, a simple collision sphere/rectangle, weapon effect sources and a single pool of HP/SHP, and all turret hardpoints should be converted to fixed forward looking (Discarding the ones that ocluded by the model geometry... This is a step that can also be manually enforced by requesting ONLY fixed mount blocks... But as fighters just use common quality controllers... There shouldn't be a problem by allowing all available turrets to be abstracted as forward shooting).

 

 

Now to shuttles... Shuttles are simply ships ordered to dock at another with enough hangar space to hold TWICE the total volume of the docking ship. While the "shuttle" remains docked:

 

- The total Hangar Capacity of the Mothership is reduced by DOUBLE the docked shuttles volume.

 

- Crew & Cargo & Turrets & Systems stay on the docked shuttle.

 

- A barebones UI should allow to launch shuttles back to space. A more advanced one should allow for crew/cargo/turret/system transfers while docked.

 

- A "shuttle" can't dock if it has hangar blocks itself. Optionally, some extra "realisms" checks could be incorporated about max dimensions of the ship-to-dock compared to the entrance allowance of the biggest Hangar Block currently available on the mothership.