[NG] New vanilla part? A 1x1 rail tile

clojelo

In short, a corridor variant for ship part(s) to pass through.

Let's imagine a multi-purpose corridor-like tile that

Is stackable four-ways like corridor tile
Can be placed internally/externally like corridor
Allow connected ship part pass through (overlapping) without being locked in place
Allow connected ship part move by own thrusters
Allow connected ship part to turn at its corners, up to certain angle
(Optional) Allow connected ship part move by ship momentum (eg passengers-in-a-train)
(Optional) Have a "door" mechanism that lets connected ship part exit, OR for unconnected ship to lock-in.
(Optional) Modding: Supports PartSpeedFactor = n, where n is a floating-point value, to emulate surface resistance or acceleration/deceleration.

Use cases

Weapon/Defense rail: Form a rail along external ship hull for movable weapons or defense
Flight deck: Form a runway for drones and fighters to take off and land
Joints: Allow ship designers to emulate joints for thruster-powered parts

Possible challenges:

New AI for loosely connected thruster-powered parts to fly in unison, instead of as separated ships.
Ship rendering to support overlapping of foreign parts, friendly or not.

jbox1

sooo, it's like a docking bay?

BEST IDEA EVA! docking ports would be a bad idea either, like you could transfer crew to help on other ships?

clojelo

jbox1
Thanks for your interest.
Yes, docking mechanism is listed at Cosmoteer Roadmap

Docking in list Major Features
Ships can dock together via docking tubes and/or clamps. Crew can be transferred between docked ships. Ships belonging to the same player that are docked together (possibly only via super-strong clamps) may be treated as a single ship. (Think Enterprise-D.)

Idea purposed at this thread is more of a "undocked" concept where ship parts are connected via a new kind of tile but not locked in place. Desired effect is similar to vanilla corridor through which crews can move about.. Instead of crews, this is for ship parts.

If you had watched Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2, the concept tiles could form something similar to drill-bit tracks, on the laser drill ship appeared in the final act, where laser drill bits ("weapons") moved about freely & shot in every direction, OR gathered together to project a larger focused beam.

enter image description here

jbox1

clojelo that makes sense, ive read another post for a suggestion to have a construction yard inside of ships, this kind of idea would fit perfectly in it!

jbox1

Another benifit of this would be that not every ship would need a FTL module. All your little ships could easily be loaded onto a mothership with decent FTL coverage.

clojelo

jbox1 Another benifit of this would be that not every ship would need a FTL module.

Off-topic: Yes, it'd be swell to see FTL drive being an optional part for dockable fighters/bombers. Even better if FTL drive area of effects could go beyond ship boundaries and taking nearby friendly vessels for a FTL jump.

Legionic

Can you show me of an examplemod for AI?

clojelo

Legionic

Ship designers and modders have had little success here and there trying to connect two or more ships but everyone's looking forward to a official implementation, in the forms of docking bay, hingest or even boarding parties. This thread is about suggesting an alternative non-weapon vanilla ship part to the dev.

Off-topic: AI parameters, invalid ships, etc

If you were interested in modding ship AI, limited parameters are exposed at
C:\Program files\Cosmoteer\Data\Ships\ai.txt

Here're a number of fun exploits when players forced ships sticking together.
You can use them to observe AI behaviors of ships locked together.
- (Modded) @Bubbet implemented a Dock Block that simulate magnetic docking
- @Inkless made a spinning station with loosely connected parts.
- Robots with movable limbs

Legionic

clojelo trying to connect two or more ships

I meant an example of how to make a custom AI, we already have bounty AI's but no customs.

clojelo

Legionic how to make a custom AI

New reader please refer to original post to further discussions.

Way...off-topic: How to add a custom AI

If you were interested in making a mod with custom AI, here's a snippet.
In mod.txt

StringsFolder = "Strings"
Actions
[
	Action = Add
	AddTo = "<Ships/ai.txt>"
	Name = "PatrickStarBrain"
	ToAdd
	{
		Type = Basic
		NameKey = "AI/PatrickStar"
		UpdateInterval = 0 // seconds, normally > 0	
		....
	}
	...
]

In Strings\en.txt

AI
{
	PatrickStar = "Enigma" // For AI/PatrickStar, vice versa
}

Craft

If you add a way to dock on other ships. Could you some how dock on enemy ships and invade their ship? Maybe add like a armory block into the game so you could invade enemy ships and take them over.

clojelo

Craft If you add a way to dock on other ships. Could you some how dock on enemy ships and invade their ship? Maybe add like a armory block into the game so you could invade enemy ships and take them over.

Hi, Craft, welcome to the Cosmoteer forum.

Thus far, docking friendly ships and boarding enemy ships have been discussed as separate ideas. In a way, your take about universal docking/boarding mechanism is fresh & unique.

You can find some of these ideas at Cosmoteer Roadmap; in particular

Docking in list Major Features
Ships can dock together via docking tubes and/or clamps. Crew can be transferred between docked ships. Ships belonging to the same player that are docked together (possibly only via super-strong clamps) may be treated as a single ship. (Think Enterprise-D.)

Boarding parties in list Major Features
The player can board enemy ships with their own crew/soldiers, either via forced docking, boarding craft, or teleporters. Weapons lockers can be used to store crew weapons for both boarding and defense against boarding.

Craft

Ok thanks! 😃