Freight Drones and Spacedocks

[tonyhippy]

Freight drones would be robotic units that shift cargo about, and could come in several sizes. They would perhaps occupy cargo space like passenger berths do. They could transfer cargo pods ship to ship, or from ships (especially large ships which cannot dock or land) to stations or planets.
Spacedocks would be essentially an area (possibly with some frameworks or other marking structures) where large ships can park outside but near a station and be serviced by freight drones, repairbots etc, and remotely access the station services to arrange trades (and to save games, thus allowing players to buy and operate Big Ships....come on, we ALL want to fly our own Behemoths, don't we?)

[ADCK]

I was thinking of something along the lines of this, but lack the coding skills to implement it, I too would like to see BigShips launch shuttlecraft/drones/skiffs that opperate between bigships and stations/planets/other-bigships.

So if anyone knows how to code that, would greatly appreciate it.

As for the ability to own bigships, i think Lestradae's big OXP which i've forgotten the name of allowed you to do that.

[Thargoid]

OSE/OE.

As for the big ships launching stuff etc, grab my Aquatics, find and follow a Hammerhead to the station and watch what it does.

And for playing a behemoth etc, having done so via OSE, it's not much fun as for the ship to be realistic it's slow and unmaneuverable. The docking can be done reasonably easily in script, but again it's too much handwavium for proper gameplay, at least for me.

[Commander McLane]

come on, we ALL want to fly our own Behemoths, don't we?)

No, we don't. I personally think that having player ships too big to dock is an abomination, and I'd rather prefer that nobody would have had this idea in the first place. But of course, I have to live with it, because you can't put it in the box again.

As for the idea of unloading drones (for NPCs!): That's how my bigtrader.oxp worked, which I never released, because Thargoid and Eric got there first with bigships.oxp.

The basic idea is that once a ship too big to dock arrives in the station's Aegis, it stops right there and sends a command to the station, which subsequently launches a couple of cargo drones (or shuttles). These approach the big trader, "exchange" their cargo, and return to the station, while the trader leaves and jumps into the next system. That's actually quite easy to script, and it's ready.

The problem, however, is Oolite's collision handling, which—to put it in a simple word—sucks. In Oolite's reality most of the drones simply explode even before they get close enough to the big trader to create the illusion that an exchange of goods may take place. And that's basically the end of this idea. (Note: it would be much easier if the big traders had docks, and the drones would dock with them; in case of docking the collision detection is much more precise than in case of stopping-close-to-another-ship; but let's face it: none of the big traders currently in existence from various OXPs has a dock, so this is purely academic)

[ADCK]

none of the big traders currently in existence from various OXPs has a dock, so this is purely academic)

My Bulk Haulers from Bulk Haaulers OXP have docks (although the Long Range Cruiser and Lynx Bulk Carrier included in that OXP do not)

[Commander McLane]

none of the big traders currently in existence from various OXPs has a dock, so this is purely academic)

Bulk Haulers have Dock (although the Long Range Cruiser and Lynx Blk Carrier do not)

Where are they from (I am seriously losing track of all the new ship OXPs; I don't think I have them on my system)?

[ADCK]

I edited my post before your reply, but yeah, My Bulk Haulers OXP, theyre on my box in my sig.

[Commander McLane]

When my reply appeared on my screen, you had already edited your post, so the first thing I was thinking was: what kind of a moron am I, asking for something that was already answered in the post?

So it comes as a relief to know that it originally wasn't.

[Eric Walch]

Freight drones would be robotic units that shift cargo about, and could come in several sizes. They would perhaps occupy cargo space like passenger berths do. They could transfer cargo pods ship to ship, or from ships (especially large ships which cannot dock or land) to stations or planets.

Part of it already exist at various places:
- Hammerhead in Aquatics.oxp (see above)
- Transports.oxp contains some super sized fuel carriers that break into pieces near the station. The separate fuel tanks than dock and the remaining skeleton hypers out.
- Dredgers.oxp has big ships that fly to the planet and launch there a bunch of shuttles heading to the surface. At the same time a group of shuttles launches from the surface heading to the dredgers.
- RandomHits.oxp adds stations that do mining. A hopper flies around from auto miner to auto miner. Waits there while the auto miner launches cargo pods that head for the hopper. The hopper collects them than.

So there is already happening much of this when watching carefully.

When adding the bigShips.oxp, the likelihood of seeing these big ships increases, so probably you want it.

[pagroove]

OSE/OE.

As for the big ships launching stuff etc, grab my Aquatics, find and follow a Hammerhead to the station and watch what it does.

And for playing a behemoth etc, having done so via OSE, it's not much fun as for the ship to be realistic it's slow and unmaneuverable. The docking can be done reasonably easily in script, but again it's too much handwavium for proper gameplay, at least for me.

Yes but this could be much expanded. I also designed the SuperHub with the thought that one bigship could dock with it.. So far it's not scripted. But I like to see the Hammerhead container range and Hammerhead line expanded.

I also have a nearly finished Tigershark Carrier which BTW also has a docking.

I also like Bigships to be expanded in such a way that the bigships don't turn around for the player except when attacked.

[pagroove]

come on, we ALL want to fly our own Behemoths, don't we?)

No, we don't. I personally think that having player ships too big to dock is an abomination, and I'd rather prefer that nobody would have had this idea in the first place. But of course, I have to live with it, because you can't put it in the box again.

As for the idea of unloading drones (for NPCs!): That's how my bigtrader.oxp worked, which I never released, because Thargoid and Eric got there first with bigships.oxp.

The basic idea is that once a ship too big to dock arrives in the station's Aegis, it stops right there and sends a command to the station, which subsequently launches a couple of cargo drones (or shuttles). These approach the big trader, "exchange" their cargo, and return to the station, while the trader leaves and jumps into the next system. That's actually quite easy to script, and it's ready.

The problem, however, is Oolite's collision handling, which—to put it in a simple word—sucks. In Oolite's reality most of the drones simply explode even before they get close enough to the big trader to create the illusion that an exchange of goods may take place. And that's basically the end of this idea. (Note: it would be much easier if the big traders had docks, and the drones would dock with them; in case of docking the collision detection is much more precise than in case of stopping-close-to-another-ship; but let's face it: none of the big traders currently in existence from various OXPs has a dock, so this is purely academic)

Well IMO when ships are Elite-like/Oolite Like but are too big to dock I personally see no problems. I like big cruisers and such.

[Commander McLane]

Well IMO when ships are Elite-like/Oolite Like but are too big to dock I personally see no problems. I like big cruisers and such.

Just to re-iterate what I already wrote: I have nothing against big ships, as long as we are talking about NPCs. But I am all against big player ships.

And the reason is that player ships are supposed to dock at and to launch from main stations. Now, even if there is a workaround for docking, still the player will be visibly launching. And it makes no logical sense that he would launch from a docking bay which is physically smaller than his ship.

I simply want to keep the Ooniverse free of obvious and instantaneous contradictions.

[Lestradae]

... I have nothing against big ships, as long as we are talking about NPCs. But I am all against big player ships. ... I simply want to keep the Ooniverse free of obvious and instantaneous contradictions.

I am still working on the OE project that makes all these things available - but I think the idea to branch the game itself at this point is a good one.

Then the people who want Oolite as close to original Elite as possible can be happy and the people who want to see where all this expanding the options business takes them can be happy too, and pointless quarrels are avoided.

My contribution for this is actually waiting for 1.74 or perhaps the no-longer-mythical NSR. Before that it's pointless to attempt something like that due to the amounts of data that have to be reworked all the time.

Whoever wants carriers etc. in their game and could imagine taking part in a future game branch that will have them in, feel free to contact me and offer help - that will massively raise the chance of this ever leaving my personal game and entering other people's again.

Just my 0.2Cr, I think this is the better option than to debate about differing wishes / tastes about where to take Oolite - again



L

[tonyhippy]

Another way to work owning a big ship and interfacing with a station is this:
The ship comes in 2 parts, the main ship and a detatchable shuttle. When you arrive by the station you uncouple from the main ship and in the shuttle dock with the staion to do your business. When done, you launch, re-dock to the main ship (HUD changes to reflect main ship) and off you go.
Your shuttle acts as a de facto lifepod if your big ship gets destroyed.
Alternately your "shuttle" could actually be a common, normal ship (one of the smaller ones maybe. Docking with the big ship, possibly via a standard docking port, gives you control of the main ship.

[Killer Wolf]

my Nuit was designed as dock for huge vessels. i was thinking it could be used by NPCs is someone wrote a clever script to get something big to "dock" at the docking struts. lately i was trying to work out how to do it for a player, and thought i could model a dock box and place it at the end of the strut, but make it transparent, so you'd move into position and then go through the docking sequence. but, transparency's not gonna happen in Oolite, so that's the end of that idea!