Forums » Suggestions

Capship "remote" docking on small stations using Tractor Beam

May 01, 2011 PaladinOfLancelot link
As i understand, for now the only way to dock a capship is to use big capship station, so there is no way to dock capships on small stations.

The way to fix it could be allowing stations to dock capships using tractor beams so that when a capship is within 25-75m distance from the station, a docking monit appears to pilot and when the pilot presses <ACTIVATE>, the station activates tractor beam which freezes the capship in place.



The tractor beam could also have other functions:
- It transfers energy to the capship automatically recharging it, so the capship becomes practically invulnerable to any weapon as its shields can absorb any damage. This is an equivalent of normal ships disappearing inside of the docks so they are also invulnerable
- It transfers items from capship to station & back, so it allows loading & unloading cargo from/to station



Possible advantages:
- Allows docking a capship on any station
- Makes capship almost as useful as any other ship
- Many caphips docked around a station on a blue rays of light might look awesome
- Possibly easier to implement than making 3D models of docking bays for every station ?

Possible disadvantages:
- Cluttering of the space around stations. (Could be fixed with a maximum limit of docked capships per station)
- Other ?
May 01, 2011 meridian link
I think the plan is to outfit some of the existing stations with capship docking bays, so this wouldn't be necessary.
May 01, 2011 PaladinOfLancelot link
@meridian

[[[I think the plan is to outfit some of the existing stations with capship docking bays, so this wouldn't be necessary.]]]

Ah, i didn't know about that.
Forget about it then.
May 01, 2011 slime73 link
I'm fairly sure you could fit many of the current stations into capship docking bays, so I don't know how feasable it would be to "attach" them to stations... :p
May 01, 2011 PaladinOfLancelot link
But giving it some thought, tractor beam docking interface could possibly be easier to do than creating new 3D models of docking bays for each station.

This is just a slight visual modification of mining ray + a little of game mechanics. I might be wrong, but programmatically this looks extremely simple.

Also, this would just look SOOOOOOOOOOOOO COOOOOL (Yes, I am a Star Trek fan).
May 01, 2011 ryan reign link
-1
May 03, 2011 pirren link
-1 to this EvE like suggestion
May 03, 2011 Dr. Lecter link
I actually sort of like this as an elegant solution to the current station/cappie scale problems, and it would make for interesting visuals to see large ships docked outside the station rather than vanishing inside it.

Should probably limit the beam's function to "ship protection" and cargo transfer/ammo replentishment though, to force repair functions to be either conducted [EMS] style or at a massive shipyard station with drydock functions. There should also be a pretty low number of these per station, maybe 1 or 2 for small stations, 2-3 on most stations, and 4-5 on capitols.
May 06, 2011 PaladinOfLancelot link
@pirren

[[[-1 to this EvE like suggestion]]]

Eve-like ?
I wouldn't know, never played it.

The idea is of my own and comes straight from my StarTrek experience, i don't care if some other game has it or not.
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@Lecter

[[[I actually sort of like this as an elegant solution to the current station/cappie scale problems, and it would make for interesting visuals to see large ships docked outside the station rather than vanishing inside it.]]]

Thx Lecter, i would never expect this from you.
May 06, 2011 PaKettle link
If Lecter likes it, it must be bad for VO ......
May 07, 2011 Keller link
Well...and advantage to this would be to lend a little life to the station sectors. They feel pretty dead in a lot of places. Especially at the capitol stations, stations should be lively. You wouldn't even have to have a tractor beam. Just say that any capship within X distance of a station could be considered "parked" for the purposes of docking.
May 07, 2011 PaladinOfLancelot link
@Keller

[[[Well...and advantage to this would be to lend a little life to the station sectors. They feel pretty dead in a lot of places. Especially at the capitol stations, stations should be lively]]]

This is what I am talking about all along.

The major thing this game lacks is "life", movement, randomness, unpredictability. VO is completely & utterly predictable & almost empty (like most space games). Stuff is simply not happening frequently enough and stations always look the same way every time you dock (so do sectors which you pass through) - this is dull.

This is only one of many fixes that i proposed that together could fix that.