Tankers

[Disembodied]

If there was a fuel processing station out near the sun - some whacking big array of collectors, slowly and continuously gathering quirium - might it use something like the [wiki]HammerHead[/wiki]? The sleds could emerge from the fuel station close to the sun, join up with the HammerHead, which would fly in to the aegis. Then the sleds disengage and dock with the main station.

That might be a high-tech approach. More basic systems might have to rely on dedicated sunskimming Anacondas, as per Switeck's suggestion.

[Thargoid]

Conceptually yes, although in-game having things join up with mother entities would be somewhat tricky to code (although not impossible). The current Hammerhead can split up, but in-game it can't recombine again.

[Diziet Sma]

Presumably, destroying a fully-laden tanker would result in the biggest damn Q-bomb blast ever seen..

[Diziet Sma]

Conceptually yes, although in-game having things join up with mother entities would be somewhat tricky to code (although not impossible). The current Hammerhead can split up, but in-game it can't recombine again.

Have a word with Smivs.. he's done a lot of work on this very subject recently.

[Shipbuilder]

Presumably, destroying a fully-laden tanker would result in the biggest damn Q-bomb blast ever seen..

Thats the type of thing I have in mind for my Tanker - Something on the lines of what happens when you destroy one of Smivs' Star Jellys

I'm also considering making a Cylon Tanker to extend the range of Battlestar Galactica ships I have developed. Perhaps I may even look at this as a mini mission oxp i.e. destroy the escorted Cylon Tanker type scenario.

[Thargoid]

Conceptually yes, although in-game having things join up with mother entities would be somewhat tricky to code (although not impossible). The current Hammerhead can split up, but in-game it can't recombine again.

Have a word with Smivs.. he's done a lot of work on this very subject recently.

I know how to do it, it's just a complete pain in the script to get it all worked out and looking right.

[Smivs]

Have a word with Smivs.. he's done a lot of work on this very subject recently.

Ha, that doesn't mean I've actually done anything useful! I suspect Thargoid knows a bit more than me about this. Doing this for NPCs is hard, that's why I'm 'cheating' and working on a player ship

[Diziet Sma]

Ahh.. fairy 'nuff.. I shall leave the script-fu to the experts..

[cim]

I know how to do it, it's just a complete pain in the script to get it all worked out and looking right.

You can push some of the load onto the Oolite core in 1.77 by making the tanker a multi-dock carrier in its own right (scripting can prevent anything but a tanker pod trying to dock). Then Oolite can handle all the manoeuvring into position for you, and you just need to add/remove the "docked pod" subentities as needed.

[Thargoid]

That was one of the ways to do it, along with being a true sub-entity which is maneuvered via a frame callback (basically doing what the HammerHead does but in reverse). But that is much more tricky to do as you need to get all the orientations etc right and move things in the right sequence...

[Eric Walch]

Thinking about splitting up in dockable entities: Very unrealistic to allow anything big filled up fully with quirium to enter the dock. Much to dangerous. In the real world, you would manouvre alongside the station and transphere the quirium through a pipeline.

[Thargoid]

I've got the solar station to main station launches now in place, and just fine-tuning the other way (as the AI co-ordinate usage doesn't take into account the sun's radius, I'm now trying it a different way with sps co-ords).

I think it should work, but will carry on tomorrow. It should be in the 1.77 version of WildShips when the trunk version is released.

Editted to add - all now fully working and ready for 1.77.

[Storm]

Thinking about splitting up in dockable entities: Very unrealistic to allow anything big filled up fully with quirium to enter the dock. Much to dangerous. In the real world, you would manouvre alongside the station and transphere the quirium through a pipeline.

Quirium is supposedly processed from hydrogen by the ReQax convertors in fuel scoops when sun skimming, so logically it would be safer to transport hydrogen and then process that as and when required into Quirium. A station likely has a large storage of compressed hydrogen which it feeds through ReQax convertors and pipes to fuel ships.

This could also mean it would be safer to harvest hydrogen from some gas giants than it would be stars, though the sifting of hydrogen from amongst other various gaseous molecules might be a lengthier process and not be suitable for speed skimming fuel scoops. Low-orbit hydrogen harvester plants in orbit about gas giants?

[Shipbuilder]

I've just been playing around in Wings 3D and have produced a prototype tanker model. I've not really thought about scale, spec etc yet but thought it worthwhile posting for any comments/suggestions.

[Diziet Sma]

Now that looks very interesting indeed.. I like the way it looks as if the stern section has four giant clamps that grab the tanker section. If you were to remove the nose part (is it the crew section/bridge?) and put a bridge somewhere at the stern, sort of like a modern tanker-ship, it would look even more like a modular design. (and you'd have yet another use for Smiv's work on separating ships)

Just some thoughts that popped into my fevered head.. feel free to ignore 'em..