Modular Ship Construction

Discussion in 'Vehicles and Mounts' started by Azraile, May 28, 2015.

  1. Azraile

    Azraile Ketchup Robot

    This idea is rather simple but allows room for lots of complexity that can improve the game. The devs do not like the idea of a build your own ship system because doing it with blocks makes the ships look ugly in comparison to the drawn ones. So my idea is simply to cut the ship up into several drawn segments that you can arrange at a ship yard.

    Now on who this could be a little more complicated.... You can add to the game then modules that actually affect the ship or are needed to unlock stuff. These modules can be crafted or bought (though it should be far cheaper to provide the materials yourself, but take quite an amount of metals). Here is some stuff for the idea.

    Shipyard
    These show up in various star systems and you can take your ship to one to upgrade it, your starting star system will have one or your ship will know the location of one, and there will be an upgrade that can find them. Here you can provide the supplies to make modules and the like for your ship, or just buy them, and customize it. As well as buy fuel, it would also make sense that you have to go here to fix your FTL if they are in the starting star system.

    Each race could have there own shipyard and building the parts of that race there takes less resources and costs less, you can also take quest to unlock there stuff.

    Modules
    These would be what make up the ship, individual rooms that connect to each-other buy airlocks you can place where ever you would like them to be. Each type and size also comes in a style particular to each race, and the florin get a random set of modules where the human ones they get are replaced with the vine overgrown versions. Other race styles can be unlocked through ship yard quests.

    Generic modules
    The bread and butter of the whole idea, these would come in a verity of sizes and shapes and come only with the races standard background walls and lighting.

    Decretive Modules
    These would be all the fancy things you see on the outsides of ships that don't really do anything.

    Engine and engine room modules
    These control how much fuel it takes to go from one system to another. In general, the bigger the ship the more you need, however there will be a point of diminishing returns. At some point just slapping engines onto the back won't do and you will need engines with there own engine room modules built onto them for extra power. It would be nice at some point in a REALLY big ship if you could make a warp drive that could be placed anywhere and supplied all the power you needed.

    Fuel tank
    Added fuel storage, rather simple that, sits on the outside of the ship some where.

    Bridge
    A little bridge is fine for a little ship but now that your ship is getting bigger that little corner with the captains chair is looking kinda silly, time for an upgrade!!!

    Teleporter bay
    Every ship has one, but wouldn't you like a better looking one?

    LOAD-OUTS
    These are sets of items you can have built into (and thus not removable) a generic module, that change it's properties and/or add form or function to the ship. Some will have different lay outs for several modules, while others will only go in a few different sized modules (like hydroponics will need a big module).

    Load outs need not be set in stone though instead they could just be a box of items background blocks and the like that you unpack and arrange how ever you like. But if done this way items that MUST be present for the room to work should be designated some how like colored names or a special border.

    Cargo bay
    Adds a few ship lockers and plenty of room for crates and the like.

    Research lab
    Allows development of tech, and blueprints of stuff like my idea for nano suits, general beyond techs would be a place for mods to unlock there first crafting stations likely.

    Stellar cartography
    Needed to get any information on the planets you are over with out landing on them or guessing from how they look. The Stellar Cartography alone only tells you the kind of planet, it's size, gravity and a 'guess' of hazards/risks of the planet..... going down to the planet with a data collection device will fill out the data as you come across it.

    Scanning array
    Different types unlock new information about plants, some more costly and larger than others. (can be an exstiror module or a small load out) This could alternatively be used to fire probes to take orbit and scan the planet, while the arrays collect the data.

    The kind of information they could collect:
    Detecting Dungeons / Villages
    Detecting reliably what hazards the planet holds.
    Detecting what danger level the animals on the planet pose.
    Detecting the planets weather patterns.

    Of course they would not be the same size, picking up weather is a lot easier to do than to scan individual animals, or find inhabited structures, and thus will take up less room than those.



    Med bay
    Provides a holographic doctor and crafting / 3d printing of med kits and stims.

    Hydroponics
    Specially tailored for all your plant growing needs, comes in different sizes and styles (closed off with uv lamps or greenhouse style)

    Mess hall
    Your own little kitchen and dinning room.

    Personal quarters / bunk room
    Peps got to sleep man.

    Pet play pin
    Why not give you let its own little room to run wild in?

    Bits and Pieces
    The ship yards would also sell / build stuff like ship lockers, fuel access points, and the like for you as well as a fair bit of ship appropriate furniture. (big neon signs for the side of the building would be a big no.) The blue prints for them would be available for purchase with out a quest but probably best at a higher price than if you got them from merchants planet-side.

    Modding Friendly
    These are just the ideas I can think of off the top of my head, but the best thing about it is though molders can add there own load-outs, or even there own modules for specialty designed ships. This make up for the ship though is a lot more mod friendly. They can even have there own ship designs but count them as one BIG module so if people want they can add more parts onto it.
     
    Last edited: May 29, 2015
  2. Azraile

    Azraile Ketchup Robot

    updated with better idea
     
  3. Akogishi

    Akogishi Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Glad someone else thinks it is a good idea.
     
  4. Nekobi

    Nekobi Void-Bound Voyager

    I had the same idea too, and I really think it's a good thing to implement ^^
     
  5. Inf_Wolf14

    Inf_Wolf14 Parsec Taste Tester

    It would be pleasant to see this done, I'm a person for full customization, and I would love to see better options along these lines.

    I only hope these parts, would become inter-changeable, like through a S.A.I.L. interface or something, cause I'm also keen to redesign my ship every two days. :p
     
  6. Azraile

    Azraile Ketchup Robot

    well the idea was you would have to go to a ship yard, kinda seams silly if your ship could rearange itself on it's own unless it's like alive or something.
     
  7. Inf_Wolf14

    Inf_Wolf14 Parsec Taste Tester

    Well S.A.I.L. already repairs our ship so I don't see why it cannot make small modifications. :p

    But changing through S.A.I.L., I mean only the smaller, maybe even, cosmetic parts, not the large, bulky ones. For those, the shipyard sounds like a good plan.
     
  8. Azraile

    Azraile Ketchup Robot

    Yah I know, I think we would all rather see the fully customizable ships but the devil lets don't think they look as good.... I say your looking at the wrong ships then lol
     
  9. fiscure1

    fiscure1 Void-Bound Voyager

    I totally agree. I like the idea of having a ship made of all different ship parts and just changing the ship entirely. To make this work though the devs would need to draw and design every possible combination of parts to get it looking good and may take a while.
     
  10. Arcstar99

    Arcstar99 Orbital Explorer

    Sounds like a big task, but I would very much enjoy expanding on the ship customization aspect.
     
  11. MrToni300

    MrToni300 Ketchup Robot

    This would be great idea Azraile.
     
  12. mrorzonki PL

    mrorzonki PL Void-Bound Voyager

    Such thing could fix my problem with liking Novakid race but not the room layout of their ship (I have a feeling of losing to much space on floors and stairs), I would like to somehow split these rooms in order to gain free floor.
     
  13. Daikon Ocelot

    Daikon Ocelot Spaceman Spiff

    This is a great idea, Azraile! I am already bored of the default spaceship style. More customization is needed.
     
  14. KingDragonMage

    KingDragonMage Void-Bound Voyager

    Hello! this is a great idea!
    • Beginning Ship what about for (some of)the load-outs, each player gets 1 to begin with, according to it's race, like the cargo bay for humans (for the extra inventory space), florians get the hydroponics, (cause their a plant) the Apex's get the research lab, since they are scientifically advanced, avians get the stellar choreographer because of the Stargazers(?) nova kids get the pet play pin for they're cowboy/girl s, (also the pet play pin could be a designated area for players to put their livestock, and it would be covered in grass, maybe.) and hylots and glitches i am unsure of. OR the ships would be customization at the beginning, before even starting the game, (right after the player customization) the player would be able to select a generic fuel tank type (that would have different appearances and abilities) a generic engine(s), bridge and 1 load-out (not related to the suggestion above, the player could pick anyone they wanted), and then their ship could progressively get more advance as they find more shipyards. OR the play would get a randomly generated ship, with randomly generated engine(s), bridges, fuel tanks and one load-out.
    • Shipyards as you said, shipyards could be scattered throughout the galaxy, but what if they also sold you stuff, not just for your ship, like a cargo shipment in the terramart, but instead of plants and crops, when you gather resources in the general spaceship/station tag, such as fuel, parts (that could also used to craft ship rooms. ALSO, shipyards across the galaxy could vary; like some of them could be owned by the rich Leithia Corp.,(the shipyards look fancy and high-end) which offers all possible ship parts, including fuel, as well as mech parts, though they are pricey. However, a more common is a 'pit stop' which is a thief-owned shipyard that deals cheap, but they don't always have the best stuff.
     
    Last edited: Jul 27, 2018
  15. Daikon Ocelot

    Daikon Ocelot Spaceman Spiff

    That is a nice idea. But like a what? You stop there, without a full stop.
     
    KingDragonMage likes this.
  16. KingDragonMage

    KingDragonMage Void-Bound Voyager

    I did have more, but it didn't save when i posted it.(oops):nurunaughty:
     
    Last edited: Jul 26, 2018

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