Dockable Starliner - scripters wanted

[Simon B]

I have a preliminary model, so far, unskinned. Currently clocks up 2800 polys.
Tentative name: Oolific Princess (though "Titanic" spings to mind.)
I'll develop it to a full OXP if someone will help. Here she is:


Supposed to be a self-contained flying hotel. Envisiaged as the opposite of a seedy space bar. May be a source of missions along the lines of "ferry named nob to destination x" or something. Could also be a destination for missions like "deliver goods or person to liner xyz on route thingy in galaxy #".

I'd like unique named versions to show up on the prettier routes in each galaxy. Maybe 2-3 per galaxy.
Players can hitch a ride on them - for a fee (preferably), and I'll want some sort of warped economics too for luxuries and drugs say, small-goods, but not so much the industrial things. Discuss. Predetermined route I'd hope and perhaps initial comms will ID the ship, next destination, and departure time.
I'd also like to see traffic between this ship and the nearest station... and casino if there is one.
I'm thinking it has it's own livery support craft ... so there will be fighter escort, and small transports.

May be cute to have one or two as hospital ships ... maybe travelling with the bigger fleets.
Flying Dutchman version? A big mission may be to track one down that has been turned into a pirate base?

Note: that dock is wide enough to take the classic Cobra ... just.
Will want permission to dock, and some of the bigger ships get warning over comms - is this doable?
If requested, I can upload the raw wings file for someone else to skin/modify?

Anybody?

[Commander McLane]

Tentative name: Oolific Princess (though "Titanic" spings to mind.)

To be honest, the word springing to my mind was "Hairdryer".

[Thargoid]

I had radar speed gun in mind when I first saw the model. Especially this "toy" one:

To the original question, most of that should be do-able with script although it will need some care to ensure consistency and maybe making it so that the liner moves in its own pace rather than when the player jumps.

Have a look at the ships in Liners.oxp and see if their actions and operations fits the bill generally (if so adaptation can be done).

[Simon B]

I actually did this when I was experimenting with another idea - the design cam a little too easily to just ignore.


... may be a bit better with some skin on

Someone else has pointed out other similarities.
Also looks a bit like the phasor pistol from the classic star trek. It's the fin - which I quite like with the whole up-and-down-ness that it brings, but it also works without the fin, which makes it look a bit like a sea slug.

liners.oxp seems to be what I was thinking.
The model will take care of itself - the end result need not look like this - it's the scripting that will make this work properly.
Basic behavior needs to be set first, and liner behavior seems like a good start.
But it is being the opposite of a seedy space bar that will give it the flavor I'm after ... open to ideas, anything that produces a working script will make it into the project. Contributors get author credit.

One of the musings I was having was that while the bars have immediate and heavy defense, the liner could be lightly defended but the consequences for attacking one could be much heavier and longer lasting (annoying all those rich people on their vacation tsk tsk) so you find a big bounty put out on you ferinstance and maybe it takes longer to ditch the criminal status? I guess it would work like the revenge scenarios in random hits.

While the bars have volunteer defenders, I've already pegged the liners to have designated defense craft - probably just liveried mambas, though I could add it to the Rangiwaka ships and use the new Namu? (Have a Taniwha ride cap?)

[pagroove]

I like it. It looks a bit like the Neublon B frigates in Star Wars but without the engine part. I like it.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/EF76_Neb ... rt_frigate

[Greyth]

Nice.., I couldn't really visualise it without the skin. Just a thought but famous liners have been pressed into service as troop carriers and hospital ships. If a planet were scourged by an evil disease or experiencing severe civil disorder then that might draw a naval or humanitarian response that would include such a ship?

[Simon B]

One of the things I've mused about before is planets without stations (as well as stations without planets).
Yeah - one of these could be found by a planet instead of a station, maybe the wreck of a station nearby.

Could also be a source of an escorts.oxp mission.
Still looking for a collaborator to do the scripting.

[Thargoid]

Supposed to be a self-contained flying hotel. Envisiaged as the opposite of a seedy space bar. May be a source of missions along the lines of "ferry named nob to destination x" or something. Could also be a destination for missions like "deliver goods or person to liner xyz on route thingy in galaxy #".

Can be done, although I'd get the thing up and running first before adding missions to it. As the "travel" of the ship would need to be virtual unless it's actually in the same system as the player, a bit of trickery could be used.

I'd like unique named versions to show up on the prettier routes in each galaxy. Maybe 2-3 per galaxy.

Both simple to do, script already exists for that.

Players can hitch a ride on them - for a fee (preferably), and I'll want some sort of warped economics too for luxuries and drugs say, small-goods, but not so much the industrial things. Discuss. Predetermined route I'd hope and perhaps initial comms will ID the ship, next destination, and departure time.

Docking with them is fine, but travelling with them (being inside one when it jumps and going with it) isn't do-able. Setting up the marketplace is do-able, but a pain in the <beep> (at least I always find doing so painful).

I'd also like to see traffic between this ship and the nearest station... and casino if there is one.
I'm thinking it has it's own livery support craft ... so there will be fighter escort, and small transports.

Again scripting for that already exists, and the support craft are simple shipdata.plist set-ups.

May be cute to have one or two as hospital ships ... maybe travelling with the bigger fleets.
Flying Dutchman version? A big mission may be to track one down that has been turned into a pirate base?

Again I'd set this up as a second step once the things are actually flying. But nothing sounds impossible.

Note: that dock is wide enough to take the classic Cobra ... just.
Will want permission to dock, and some of the bigger ships get warning over comms - is this doable?
If requested, I can upload the raw wings file for someone else to skin/modify?

Anybody?

Docking permission is easy (shipdata.plist setting). Warning for big ships isn't possible at the moment (at least for manual docking) as ship sizes aren't exposed to script.

I'm working on my Wild Ships project at the moment (starting with the previewed Kiota stations), but once that is complete I'll help out on some of the scripting if needed still.

[Simon B]

OK - so lets see a basic script just to set up the in-system route, traffic part, the virtual interstellar route, and I'll finalize the OXP.
This will provide a starting-point for oxp interaction (have them tour other planets where extra planets, have a greater likelyhood of showing up by special features like the graveyard and the pulsar) and missions. It'll let people add to it.

I'll be working on whomping up the shaders since it will need variable livery and so on. Nameplate?

[Commander McLane]

Nameplate?

Either as a decal. Or the "classic" way, a variable part of the texture. See Behemoths or Generation Ships for that.

[Switeck]

One of the things I've mused about before is planets without stations (as well as stations without planets).
Yeah - one of these could be found by a planet instead of a station, maybe the wreck of a station nearby.

I'd expect planets with very low tech level and/or planets with recently destroyed stations might have a non-spinning Rock Hermit asteroid dragged into place to use in the interim...till a decent replacement station could be gotten.

[Thargoid]

OK - so lets see a basic script just to set up the in-system route, traffic part, the virtual interstellar route, and I'll finalize the OXP.
This will provide a starting-point for oxp interaction (have them tour other planets where extra planets, have a greater likelyhood of showing up by special features like the graveyard and the pulsar) and missions. It'll let people add to it.

I'll be working on whomping up the shaders since it will need variable livery and so on. Nameplate?

A lot of that is the AI actually. It would probably be simplest to have the ship modelled and
a basic OXP structure in place, then add the rest in after that. It'll be a very similar AI to the one in Liners that the Emerald runs under.

[Simon B]

OK - it's a plan. I should have a basic OXP up in under a week - run one ship under the Emerald AI.

Some of it also goes in plists too I think.

[Simon B]

see oolific.oxp.zip in the re2dux folder (link below - note: strictly pre-alpha)

In the game:

[maik]

I like the details on this last pic!

Added it to the WIP section of the [wiki]OXP List[/wiki] and the OXP List.