Space Ship Customization

please soon...

 

So what you're saying is, people won't be able to make things like this:


if the game comes standard with this:
http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?resources/fully-customizable-ship.39/
?

I feel like this should be a game-standard ability. + for customizable ships.

 

What I feel they should do is have something similar to the fully customizable ship mod, but not quite. Even if implementing it would require them to wipe ship data.


Basically, there would be shipyards you could go to. Perhaps at some of those safe "outpost" planets. When in the shipyard, you would be granted an editor that lets you build your ship however you want, but would be doing so without your character being present on the screen. Movement keys would now control the camera scrolling, and you can mouse anywhere and build anywhere that is a valid place for block placement. You would be able to access inventory normally to select blocks to use. Additionally, there could be a shop and factory button you can click to open up some special windows. Shop would let you trade pixels for blocks or parts, possibly with availability dependent on the outpost in question. Factory would let you use on-hand materials to produce special components, such as layer 1 objects (see below).

Ships could perhaps have a "core" in their file somewhere that has its own inventory. This inventory would hold particular objects. Mainly "layer 1" objects, and equipment the game makers don't want you to place somewhere other then a ship, like fuel tanks, captain's chairs, teleporters, etc.


There would be 3 "layers" you can mess with.

Layer 1: Background (images). This would be made up of images rather then blocks. Like the current default ship is, except instead of one image for the whole ship there would be a selection of these image files to select from (you could perhaps put together something like the current default ship if you put the parts together). You may need to find or manufacture some of these components. Certain ones could potentially affect your ship stats near the final version of the game. In the event the shipyard did not let you place blocks anywhere in empty space (though technically, you'd see a background image of the shipyard hangar walls), then it would allow you to place blocks in front of these image-pieces.

Layer 2: Background (blocks). You know the drill, these are the blocks you place that you can walk past. The only difference is you don't have to worry about your character in the shipyard, as I mentioned.

Layer 3: Forground (blocks). Again, the blocks you usually place to build stuff, except no character. Just point where you want them and click the appropriate mouse button.

When not in a shipyard, you would be unable to modify blocks. The exact mechanism for this can be flexible to fit the final game engine's characteristics. It could simply make the outermost layer of blocks undestroyable. Or, it could remember what blocks were placed in the shipyard, and only allow removal of blocks placed after that time. Lastly, they could simply disallow destruction of certain kinds of blocks, though this would potentially be problematic given there will be people who want to make ships out of just about anything (they could do this with the ship-only parts). Naturally, going back into a shipyard would let you change anything you wanted again.






The idea with this proposal is that you can do anything you want with your ship, with some limitations. Limitations that may make it safer to have other players onboard in multiplayer, and perhaps reduce the chance of you mucking up your ship by accident when out of the shipyard (and which also give the shipyard a real purpose, aside from easier construction and not having to use up tool durability to slowly take apart ship blocks 1-9 at a time).

And at the same time, the current effort being put into default ship graphics would not be wasted. You can make a pretty good looking ship with blocks alone, but if you have the option to have some special background images for certain parts, that would make it possible to increase asthetic quality of a ship immensely.





In the long run, this system can be enhanced and modified to suit various design styles. Do you only rely on "layer 1" objects for particular ship stats? Or will it be possible to build ship subsystems with normal blocks (or failing that, placed as normal blocks and items are)? Neither one needs to be present at first. It can be added in once ship combat or other ship uses that require these kinds of upgrades start getting considered for implementation.

 

Having ship yards is a great idea. This way there are locations where one can customize their ship. This adds more depth and strategy. As for all my ideas....well....they have been mostly covered in this thread. The only idea I would like to add is: When implementing this new ship combat and building section into Starbound please think about crews. There should be a crew that helps you fly the ship (think of the game 'Faster Than Light, FTL'). One person cannot maintain a ship. The more people you have in your crew, the bigger the ship you can build and maintain. It just makes logical sense. Example.....weapons crew, engineering, science, medical, exploration, navigation, oxygen, storage, onboard jail (lol).

you start with the regular small tiny itty bitty ship, then u expand by building more while meeting new friends and crew members. Online you could have a game mode where clans have starship battles and every member has a role. ok i am taking it too far but the whole crew idea should work well if this ship combat part of the game is released.

Also, meeting new crew by completing quest for NPCs would be ideal.

cheers

 

Oh, i can see a spaceship built out of living material! A giant, organic, living spaceship for the win!
Wait, does this mean different spaceship engines == different kinds of fuel (consumption)?
Perhaps living ships give birth to smaller ones in time? ....but idkn where i wanted to go with that....

 

I think if you can put a PNJ on the outpost who can upgrade you class ship :

Frégate :





Destroyeur :



Croiseur :


Capital ship :





This picture are from different mods I use the for show.

 

I think fuel usage increase for travel would be a great idea to keep balance to the game... I have not think of any specific formula for it... I know that physics says "size doesn't matter".... but I think it IS a way we can make sure players stick with what their ship "Needs to be" compared to what they "want" it to be... maybe we can increase the fuel drain based on the thrusters needed to move ship... and more cargo rooms requires more engines... or better... more cargo room needs more "breathable air generator" and IT uses more energy than the actual thruster, and hyper spacing requires lots of "air" to be out putted to the thruster, and some reason people breath MORE air in hyper space? some think in the line of that.... I couldn't think an exact formula yet...

 

A Recent Post stated that they may be adding Ship Tiers, in which you may expand your ship. I, myself, have almost run out of space to place crap around. I mostly just live in my ship, with almost all the items needed to craft things inside it. I realised I could make wooden Platforms, and I made some and placed a bed in an elevated spot. I'd really like to have ship size upgrades.

 

I just need more room for my...Souvenirs...

 

I would like this already to be implemented

 

I put all of my Decorative crap in my ship and I have ran out of space...

 

I know right. The space ships seriously need more room.

 

I think that when you upgrade your ship to a certain lvl, you can get a drop ship like the one they took out out of the game, that docks to your ship, and be able to get npcs that come down with you.

 

And be able to arm your crew and give them uniforms, and choose the ones that could come down on the dropship.

 

YESYESYESYESYESYES GOOBY PLEASE I BEG OF YOU!

 

Yea I was thinking about this too!
But I feel like race persona should be preserved... so you can make your ship any way you want (or buy a ship from a shop) but you'll be limited to only:
- Your race's parts. (Parts themed to your race)
- General all-race prebuilt ships.

 

I want these ideas are implemented