set a cockpit as primary

Hypertion

ok this is going to require some backstory to understand the mechanics this will achieve.

so look at this topic: https://forum.cosmoteer.net/d/2262-the-first-true-carrier-capable-of-rebuilding-6-fighters

the general idea is that by using selective part destruction, it is possible to have a build able to spawn off fighters allowing for the creation of carriers. while returning the fighters to the carrier is impossible, it is possible to restore the carriers by simply repairing the build.

the issue is how the game determines master and child when a build is destroyed..

so the rules as i understand by testing and observation..

when you build a craft, it seems to be that the first cockpit or part you place is considered the "core peice" any peice that seperates off of this core part becomes its own craft that can only be repaired up to the parts involved when the split occurs.

in general as long as there is a cockpit in the resulting child, the entire vehicle can be rebuild and the child can be at this point considered a entirely seperate entity.

the parent cockpit which for now is still the first cockpit placed, can still repair the entire structure, including the children however the children cockpits will only be able to repair the resulting child craft.

when saving a build designed to seperate in this way, the order of building is forgotten. its no longer the first cockpit that has control. when you spawn it in as a new entity from your library or buy it in bounty hunter mode, the game redoes the calculation for which cockpit is the "Core" or "main" this calculation is currently simply a scan from top to bottom, left to right, and the top left most cockpit will always be the "core".

for example

enter image description here

will always have the top left ship become the "mother" as seen in this screenshot.

Edit

New info further defies the core, when a ship is spawned in, the game scans top to bottom in rows left to right, so a build like this

ends up having the top left of the 4 child fighters instead of the "escape pod" at the top become the mother as seen here

this can make the creation of a "Mothership" and "child" a bit problematic in the long term as you have to place a cockpit as high in the top left corner as you can.

so here is my suggestion.

add a Toggle switch to cockpits part menus

[Set as Primary]

when this toggle is selected, any other cockpits have the toggle turned off and that specific cockpit is always determined as the core part of the build.

IN this condition, if one were to say, set the cockpit of the bottom right ship in the previously shown screenshots it would always become the "core" which can repair the entire ship, not just the individual child.

this seems like it would be possible to implement, as when first building a craft, the first cockpit placed is considered the core, adding a ingame control that simply sets the same data initially done in a similar fashion could be used to control this feature will allow for a MASSIVE array in building options expanding the potential of building in this game without adding a specific feature to support the effect.

It would allow for easy building of "Carriers" without adding specific structures for them through clever use of game mechanics.

it could even allow for the creation of "escape pods" which players can have on a build that is set as the "core" so that it can be broken off if the ship is in danger of total annihilation for a chance to escape, and restore the build.

of course this factor could and would be highly exploitable in a multiplayer if repair of ships is allowed with the current "go into debt" system, so if you do decide to support this please keep this in mind.

thank you for your time

Ship Pictured created by Teg

Walt

Hypertion it seems to be that the first cockpit or part you place is considered the "core peice" any peice that seperates off of this core part becomes its own craft that can only be repaired up to the parts involved when the split occurs.

This is correct. And if there is no cockpit, it's basically random.

I think this is really just a symptom of a bigger problem with the design of the repair system. At the very least, it should choose the biggest piece with a cockpit as the "original" ship. But I've been thinking the whole repair system in general needs to get redesigned.

Teg

Hypertion Good science! Always left it is then.

Walt This is correct. And if there is no cockpit, it's basically random.

I think this is really just a symptom of a bigger problem with the design of the repair system. At the very least, it should choose the biggest piece with a cockpit as the "original" ship

Hmm, how random is it? I just tried a test with the ship below, and it seemed to me after the prime CR/core/original ship has split the game choose the next prime CR by weight or size. I guess I just got lucky?
image https://i.imgur.com/3K3g1R0.png

Hypertion

i wanted to have this entry to prevent the suggestion from getting cluttered with example.

To further example how the game currently determines the master Cockpit as i have managed to work out..

it scans in top to bottom rows, in sequence from left to right.

if two cockpits are in the same vertical row, the higher one gets
priority.

so this,
will become this

even if they are slighly overlapping, the more left one still wins

this could be used to ensure the escape pod
is always at the bottom, no need to build upside down. just make sure
the cockpit of the pod is farther to the left than the rest of them.

if two cockpits are in the same vertical row, the higher one gets
priority

so with

you get

edit sorry if this got rambly. i have been up a almost 20 hours now and i always tend to ramble when i get into something like this ><

Walt

Teg It's not random in the sense that you'll get a different result every time for the same ship. But it's chosen more-or-less arbitrarily -- basically whatevery's most convenient for the code.

Hypertion

well then being able to set a cockpit as your "core" might have benefit in terms of knowing if you can fully repair normal builds as well..

simply ensure as much protection on your core and as long as it survives the fight, you can fully repair rather than be left with random floating chunks that you can only really sell off for scrap because your core was destroyed early on. adds a addtional element of planning when building a ship determining what your cure is.

tbh i kind of like the random useless chunks bit, a ship that has been torn in half is logically going to have salvageable junk =P.

i did a bit more testing...

when a split occurs, the game checks the resulting new ship and runs the Cockpit scan on it and reassigns a new "Parent".

This test swarm followed the rule pretty well..
image https://i.imgur.com/Szum1pq.png

if i broke off the top left most ship alone, it becomes a mother that can restore the entire build, the ships to the side become one entire new ship with the one on the left becoming that groups mother, and the ship right below the inital mother becomes the mother for the rest of the non split ships.

if you did this right, you could end up with a group of ships that can exponentially multiply.

next i wanted to see how a slit would occur once a cockpit is lost in a fragment.

so i took this build,

image https://i.imgur.com/DyK8iGj.png

and literally chopped it in half.

i decided to see if the scan would assign another block type to the "core"

it does, in fact it will assign the very first of any kind, and assigned the top left most corridoor square as the "mothership"

as you can see, that single square can restore the ENTIRE upper half of the split..

so the core is determined at the instant a split occurs.

it scans from top to bottom one row then checks the next vertial Column. if no cabin is detected, the calculation runs again, and assigns "mastery" to the first part detected..

if that master part is destroyed, it seems to move to the next in line as the scan occurs.

Not half as random as it seems! in fact its quite exact... i was able to consistantly duplicate these results..

in this image i did the test above, where following the new master order, i destroyed the new master, then singled out the master that succeeded it as a single object.

as you can see, once again i have a block that can repair a massive amount of structure!

Edit btw, the Seperated crew quarters in the bottom was a test to see if the game was part selective beyond the Control room. i singled it out and seperated it, but it is a single square that can only itself be repaired. so is why i am sure that if there is no control room, the game defaults to any part that first is detected in the scan.