Looking ahead

[Disembodied]

There doesn't have to be a direct link between frangibility and damageable, of course. We can already lose our ECMs, or our Extra Energy Units, etc. in the middle of a combat, which can certainly add a bit of spice to anyone's day. I like the idea of being able to shoot off someone's ECM, for example, but that would require all ship models that can carry an ECM to have a something that can be physically shot off. Maybe a simpler solution would just be to extend the range of things that can be damaged/destroyed on board the player's ship? I'd draw the line at leaving the player dead in space, though. "Effectively dead" is the same as "dead", and it's just irksome, in game, to be presented with the difference. So I'd always leave the player capable of moving. But there's no reason why the witchspace generators couldn't be zapped, preventing you from making a hyperspace jump on your own, or have one or more lasers or shield generators or energy banks destroyed.

It would be interesting to assign different tech levels to these bits of built-in kit, too: players might have to hitch a ride on someone else's wormhole, possibly even at random, to get to somewhere capable of repairing their broken witchdrive.

[maik]

Now back to suggestions for Oolite 2, here's one I don't think I've seen. Universal frangibility. Make everything vulnerable to being shot off, if your shields go down. Your laser or shield generator get shot off? Better run. If your engines get taken out, better eject. Have it that way for players and NPCs alike.

This would certainly be cool (and most likely very expensive for the player). It would need yet another feature, though: It would need physical (subentity-like) representations not only for each equipment, but even for some of the non-equipment normal specifications of each player ship: things like shield generators, engines, thrusters don't exist in physical shape in Oolite 1. And what doesn't exist can't be made frangible.

So in effect the suggestion is a completely new, completely modular approach of how ships look like in Oolite, whereby each property of a ship has to be connected to a unique part of its model.

Good idea. Griff's Krait already implements this so there is hope it will become more ubiquitous in Oolite 2.

[Lone_Wolf]

Most OXP player ships still have the limited shields that the standard ships have, at least if no extra OXPs are used. This means they're risking all kinds of equipment and cargo damage once they get in the middle of a decent furball. A higher energy recovery rate and more energy banks just prolongs that agony rather than preventing/reducing damaged equipment. OXPs like IronHide 2.00.oxp, Naval Grid 1.00.oxp, ShieldCycler 0.20.1.oxp, and ShieldEqualizer+Capacitors(v1.2).oxp change that by keeping the shields up for longer. You can use a ship's firepower for longer without as much risk, thus effective turning even the better (for combat) standard ships into super-ships.

IF npc ships used the same shields as player ships, those oxps can very likely be rewritten to function also for npcs.

ShieldEqualizer+Capacitors f.e. is fully automated, and i don't think it would be hard to add a custom AI for my own ShieldCycler to mimic human behaviour.

That requires 2 changes i think :

1. Shields must work the same for NPC & Player

2. NPC ships must be able to get additional equipment without having it in their shipdata.plist
I think currently npcs can only have equipment that's listed in eqiupment.plist as optional equipment.
maybe npcs should be able to have any equipment the game knows of unless explicitly forbidden ?

[Commander Wilmot]

One way to keep the laser count down on mulit-lasers would be to have it affect the overheating rates of lasers. Having the each laser contribute the normal amount to the same heat as they would singly to the overheat gauge would not be good because then there would be no reason to mount multiple laser. However having a decrease in the firing time would be good, because then it would be strategic consideration; does the ship designer think the ability to fire two front lasers (for 80% or even 60% of the time a single laser could fire) with the advantage of being on the hostile ship's tail is worth more than the ability to fire four lasers for the full time with the disadvantage being that the player will have fly away from or along side of the enemy ship.

I also agree with the suggestion that npcs have shields, and with Disembodied's suggestion.

[ADCK]

I was dead while the whole Oolite 2 thing came about, but scientists cloned me and I'm back.

I have a few suggestions I'd like to make, I have only read the first and last page, so they may have already been suggested. They're mostly OXP related.

1: Transparency, I'd like to be able to make textures transparent, and be able to set the level of transparency. As mentioned in the OP the graphic engine may be getting a do-over, this is one thing I always wished for in Oolite. It can be faked some ways in the current Oolite, but it just looks cheap.

2: Animated/moving models, I'd like to have moving parts on models, again can be done partially in the current game, but the way it's done is not the industry standard way and is time consuming and requires a lot of work/testing.

3: Particle Effects, dunno much about the technical side of this. I would like to make gaudy lasers that make your eyes melt! OH! and fire, I would like to be able to put fire in space even though there's no oxygen! Lens flares even though there's no lens! (This one's a bit silly yes)
Basically all I'm after is the ability to add custom special effects.

4: Multiple Lasers Effects. (Note, these would not effect the damage modifier) I would greatly appreciate it that if I have a ship with a laser on each wing the laser doesn't appear to be firing from my nose.

5: Visible shields, not visible at all times, just when hit. Perhaps toggle-able for the canon fans. Although Frontier/FFE had visible shields. Oh and the ability to add custom shield effects... would only work if Suggestion 1 is implemented.

6: Scale Standard. Don't screw up the scale this time hehe, have it set in stone, meters or feet, choose one and make sure everything follows this standard. So much debate on Scale in Oolite that some things just get silly.

7: Visibly different suns, they all look the same with only slight differences. Doesn't have to be part of the core game, would just like to be able to OXP different types of suns in. would like some diversity is all.

8: Dental Plan. Lisa needs braces.

I think I'll come up with some more later.

[Commander McLane]

Also all ship sizes would be in miles, which would once again add to the silliness.

BTW: the game cheats with planet sizes in order to make them look more realistic. When in reality a planet has a radius of 60000 m, the F7 screen claims it to be 6000 km. In other words: the F7-screen magnifies planets by a factor of 100.

[Switeck]

Big Ships OXP adds oversized ship traffic to systems but doesn't have docking procedures of them with Superhubs.
It wouldn't be a huge redesign of that to get them to dock at Superhubs.

[ADCK]

Big Ships OXP adds oversized ship traffic to systems but doesn't have docking procedures of them with Superhubs.
It wouldn't be a huge redesign of that to get them to dock at Superhubs.

BigShips was made before superhub, so yeah it doesn't have docking procedures for 'em.

It would be better to redesign SuperHub instead of BigShips though. Since its a change to the SuperHub you're after

[Switeck]

Big Ships OXP is just the best existing example I had of how to work massive haulers into the Oolite universe.

[JensAyton]

2: Animated/moving models, I'd like to have moving parts on models, again can be done partially in the current game, but the way it's done is not the industry standard way and is time consuming and requires a lot of work/testing.

What industry standard is this, then?

[ADCK]

What industry standard is this, then?

I worded that poorly, what I meant was using whatever 3d modelling software's built in animation system, usually involves rigging a model to a skeleton, and then animating it. (Well that's the short version anyway) Instead of doing it the Oolite way which is from what I can tell is done through scripting and a lot of trial and error, and no visible way off seeing the animation unless you look at it in game.

But I'd settle for being able to do more things with subentities other than rotate... like move up and down, or move side to side, or back and forth, etc.

[CommonSenseOTB]

ADCK, I think you are onto something. Subentities with some real freedom of movement could be interesting to say the least.

[Thargoid]

But I'd settle for being able to do more things with subentities other than rotate... like move up and down, or move side to side, or back and forth, etc.

Umm you can already do that - have a look at my animation demo OXP for an example, or very soon the Emerald liner in Liners OXP.

[ADCK]

But I'd settle for being able to do more things with subentities other than rotate... like move up and down, or move side to side, or back and forth, etc.

Umm you can already do that - have a look at my animation demo OXP for an example, or very soon the Emerald liner in Liners OXP.

Yes, but is it done through scripting or simply adding another key to a ship plist?

[Thargoid]

Scripting - it would be too much to do via a shipdata key given the information that is needed.