AURAequine

I agree with celludriel, it sounds like it could work in theory, but is a sort of.. late development kind of idea. Personally I'd love to see something like this. Rather than the same old, equal dimension spiral galaxies. It'd be awesome to see some galaxies stretched thin or wide, or of different types like irregular galaxies. Even some that although still kinda smooth in shape, are not spherical at all, but more of a blob like a bean, or.. Idk.. try frying an egg and tell be what shape the outside makes xD

A simple feature like this would be nice. I was really confused just earlier today when I wasn't sure how to switch between alliance chat and server wide chat. I'm sure this will become a feature in due time. +1

Sorry for the late reply, been a slow week, didn't really notice the reply. The replication is actually fairly simple. Start with a cube, then make it a hollow space be placing smaller blocks around the outside on two axes, then delete the centre cube. Finally you can build on the inside at a smaller scale, scale upwards and you will be able to build through without any collision, even though when the scale is bigger it does. (My screenshot program bugged out on the last one, but you can still see most of what I mean with the collisions) This is the simplest way to do it, but I assure you it often does do the same thing with larger builds especially with smaller parts equal to or less than scale 1. It's a real pain when trying to build inside a hollowed out ship due to this, would be easier if there were some ghosting feature where you can make the blocks partially transparent so you can do this without your view being obstructed, Though that's not really the point here :/ The easiest way I can explain why this annoyance is a pain is imagine you're filling the inside of something and you can only see half of the block you're placing because your camera is in a fixed spot so you can see a bit, you scale up and you think that all the right amount of space is filled, but then you move the camera and realized you've not only filled the space, but peired through the outside and have a massive spire sticking out of your creation.. -_-

Perhaps, if I can find a good enough 3D model to convert, and if I feel like going through it all toe make it in Blender then remake it again in Avorion with blocks and such.. Definitely wouldn't mind though, foxes are of course my favorite animal :P

Love how the reactions so far have little to do with the ship itself xD You know, apart from the bracketed comment ;)

Just made a certain well known character now, complete with wings, horn and mane! ^-^

When making my latest creation that focused on mostly blocky placements on the beta branch I noticed that often when scaling up on one axis, upwards in particular (Z axis?) it very frequently was not stopped by showing the red outline despite there being a block above it. I had to remove blocks and shorted the misplaced blocks so many times. This was when I was placing blocks inside a hollowed out creation I made in order to make the husk of a ship complete and functional. So when trying to replicate this bug, try making something hollowed first, though it should occur regardless, usually. This also may only happen with a singular block above it rather than multiple layers, though I haven't tested that. Normal: Overlapping: This has also occurred with just two unit high blocks, as well as half way through the top block or just a full block in. Rather strange :/ Regardless I highly doubt this is intended or anything, so I am reporting it now as a bug, hope it gets fixed within the next few updates, as it is rather annoying, and I'm sure I'm not the only player affected by it.. ~AURAequine

So after much time and effort I was finally able to make a somewhat blocky version of a pony from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, just because I could xD Being made of titanium initially, though with one of the new features in the Beta branch, it can easily be upgraded in tier, or even adjusted in size, so your little pony ship can become any size! I've included two of them in this topic, one that's bigger and worth around $200k, where as the second is much smaller and is essentially well fit as a starter ship, at least for those of you who don't mind flying it :P (The gyros were just temporary in this screenshot, as there were pirates and I did the whole jump to empty sector thing) As a titanium ship, it's fully functional in fast rotation of most axes except roll and lesser for pitch, appart from the much smaller version which is maxed on every axis. A good portion of the left hemisphere of the head is still free for say, shielding later on, or perhaps you want hyperspace cores? Regardless, there's enough space there. If you want more but still want that cosmetic look, perhaps make some sort of saddle bags? Bigger Pone: (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B89huF2JFGhwMEZtQWJRTzVXd2s) Smaller Pone: (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B89huF2JFGhwSzdYYnRidXc4UHc) (Ignore the plus and minus stats, I think I had a block hovered over the ship at the time I took the screenshot) Another thing to note is that (Unsure if bug) i creative there were no structures spawning, so I couldn't get crew members to define it's true top speed and such. I may also make a version which smooths out it a lot more with slopes and such, I'll be sure to post the new iteration here if and when I complete it. Remember, this is just a main body template, so any particular colors or manes/tailes/marks to add is up to you. Anyways, hope you like my creation, it's been a while since I finished a ship I was proud of ^-^ Enjoy ;)

Wow, very nice! Really liking the freighter in particular. I might have to make something similar in design at some point.

I see, that actually makes a lot of sense.. So if you wanted to slow down, in order to tell the right direction to rotate to, you'd have to turn on the retrograde marker and then accelerate in that direction? Alrighty

I've noticed this as well. I can understand that the upgrade bypasses security controls, but I don't see that actually disabling the indication of the ship's velocity :/ So yeah, sounds more like a bug than an intended feature.

It's actually fairly easy to get reputation back from a faction that doesn't like you. My advice is to make a small craft that's nimble and quick, and warp into many sectors with mass (Yellow dots if you have the radar upgrade equipped) and find those really big non-material asteroids, claim them, then sell it to the faction that doesn't like you. Sure you might not get much money from it now, but that's not the point. Point is you get lots more rep and less money if your relations with them are bad, so just sell 'em some asteroids, they'll warm up to you pretty quickly ;)

Huh, I did not know about the 'G' targetting ships and stations part. Thanks ^-^ Unfortunately this does not work to target wreckages and the like, so my suggestion would still help with that, and also allow for you to limit it to a specific type of structure.

I've found out it is indeed intended, but why is there no option to add it back? Or why not have the groups in the unused lower left corner?

So today I loaded up Avorion again, and there seems to be a weird change that I dislike.. Rather than my standard credits and materials list, there is just instead the sector number: Yet when I open up any menu like player menu or ship menu, it DOES show.. But the reason I believe this was actually intended rather than a bug is due to the fact there were no errors in my logs, and when mining an asteroid, rather than the number mined like before, it instead displays the amount I have, with the amount I gained in brackets.. I've searched and there's not way I can find to change it back to the way it was.. It was so convenient to have it constantly displayed, and now to check, I have to stop when I'm doing, go into another menu then I can find out.. So to leave it off in short:

I strongly agree, having a variable throttle is very much necessary. It's so annoying having to press the space bar every second or two to keep at full speed. Having a throttle means you can find that "sweet spot" between your max speed and your energy consumption to that you can go relatively fast (Though not top speed) without losing all the generated energy ^-^ But yeah, this is just one of those key things that I feel would really help every one of us. as I'm sure almost all of us have felt that pain of constantly boosting and waiting, wishing for either the boost speed to remain consistant and not slow down, or there to be a way to limit the boost so that you're not using that much energy..

I agree, it can get rather bland looking, despite the diversity of space. The same few planets, but some with rings and some not. I did see some with rings that cut right through the sector and it was unexpected, and it was cool! But other than that, there wasn't much aesthetic stuff to note. On top of cool looking stationary objects, it would be cool to see some moving ones, such as comets moving slowly across the cosmos.

With the thousands of asteroids and other objects littering a sector, I feel it is very much necessary to add a filter for targeting objects.. A menu that lets you select what things are selectable for targeting, or perhaps just specifically cycling with TAB? Say you're flying around an enemy sector, there are many pirates strewn throughout the sector, it's one of the large foggy ones you take out a large group but oh no, there's more many kms out, and even more over that way too. Naturally in your capable ship you intercept and take them out, but where was that big first cruiser you took out? You can't see it, and using tab is down right impossible, as there are thousands of asteroids for it to cycle through before it brings it up.. How are you supposed to salvage that big ship with over 200k Trinium if you can't even find it? Having a filter for what you can select would be very useful for Isolating your targets to something you're looking for. Perhaps you're a real battle thirsty fighter, and want to target any ship as soon as you enter the sector. Maybe you're a trader and want to cycle through the stations until you see one you're looking for? Or a salvager just trying to find those long since lost ship bodies full of precious materials to recycle.. It should be noted that using this navigation filter should not be usable to find "secret stashes" and other hidden stuff like that, otherwise it wouldn't be.. well.. hidden.. But yeah, Navigation filters!

Void Charges: Certainly seems interesting, like a depth charge or a bomb, but in space. The only issue I see with this really is the way it could be abused to take down big AI that already move slowly now as it is. I like it, and I could see it in the game, but not any time soon until the AI is improved. The chain detonations thing makes sense and would be good too. Telefragging: Honestly, I don't really see this being a thing. Dealing damage to ship in the vicinity is pretty much useless considering the cooldown timers, especially for the much bigger ships that would actually deal damage this way. Orion Drives: Sooo.. Basically a cannon, with just the recoil, except multiplied? This would certain be interesting, though i can see how it'd be abused with the Void charges you suggested. Being able to drop a mine or two then bursting on out of there. I can see it working like a super charged, single fire force cannon, where it affects your ship and/or others with a burst of kinetic energy rather than a constant stream like the current ones have. I like it ^-^ The current force "cannons" in game aren't cannons really, more like force "lasers", these would be the REAL force cannons. Drop pods: If planets were implemented, I could see this as a possibility, though I imagine most players would rather land their ship there and deploy crew than just drop them in there in a little ball of titanium :/ Escape pods on the other hand would be good, being able to save yourself as the player as well as some crew (depending on the amount of pods on your ship), these could function as drop pods as well I suppose, it'd merely be a matter of sending the escape pods towards the planet rather than the nearest safe sector.. Sappers: Ehh... I'm not too keen on this one.. Them attaching to your hull means you probably can't shoot them, making any ship that doesn't have a hanger bay and fighters essentially helpless.. But.. then again.. That'd sort of give a reason to encourage players to build ships with them.. But, then it'd seem more like forcing rather than encouraging.. :/ I don't know.. I feel that for delaying and negatively affecting systems, I'd say distortion cannons/lasers would be best for that. Shield Crackers: Using your own shields as a weapon?! Hell yeah! This would be a good tanky weapon, while also leaving that bit of vulnerability considering it does decrease your shields per shot, which is even more notable when your shields are already taking damage from enemy fire. But I still find this idea pretty awesome, I'd love to see it in the game. Artillery: Bigger guns has been suggested sooooo much in these parts of the forums, as for the greater accuracy part, saying ALL the weapons having an extremely high accuracy wouldn't be a good idea, I'd say artillery variants of weapons would have a 50-75% increase in accuracy compared to their non-artillery counterparts. Target designator: Increasing a weapon's effective range because a target is "marked" makes very little sense, increasing accuracy however, does. It would be neat to do this "Turret linking" think you suggested though, where you can hit something with it, and the turrets around start auto firing at it. Would be pretty useful for things like mining too. Blackout sectors: Dark spooky sectors.. Yes! Xsotan Invasion: Something like this would be good, but a lot later on in development, the engine lags enough with just the small faction wars with 12 odd ships fighting another 12, having an invasion with the introduction of more and more ships I think would be too much for the engine to handle at this stage. Later on? Probably.. Also I don't see this limited to just the Xsotan, I'm sure there could be the possibility of other factions invading other enemy sectors as well in a full out war. ... But yeah, I like a lot of, and have concerns with a few of, your suggestions. Interesting concepts ^-^

Though we can already kinda do that, the current method of placing small blocks pixel style is rather limiting. Having blocks that put text directly would be great, would've made putting the "Police Box" wording on my Tardis creation much easier! In fact I possibly could've been able to get the finer wordings too.. xD I can imagine this in the game, Ships marked with their name somewhere on the hull, people making little signs with words defining a secret, or perhaps a co-ordinate to a secret base or something. Or a discreet way to share messages to other players without chat! ... Even though there already is a whisper command.. still it'd be pretty cool ^-^

After reading some threads on the color selectors (Such as theHex paint color menu: https://www.avorion.net/forum/index.php/topic,1404.0.html), I had an idea as to how something similar might be implemented without deminishing the whole looting colors aspect. I propose a color wheel that's in sections, or what I'd call a "Color web", though I'm sure it's proper definition would just be color wheel anyways, but yeah. The main purposes of this wheel/web is to: - Allow for easy and quick color selection. - Doesn't eliminate color looting. - Lets you know what colors you are missing. - Easy to define color harmonies (Complimentary, analogous, triadic, etc.). I've only completed most of the concept image, but enough to give the general idea of how it'd be. Each row goes from most value (brightest) at the center, to least value (darkest) at the edge, and the rows come in pairs of hues, one fully saturated (Which I defined with "S" on the image) and the other half saturated ("HS" on image), of course this part could easily be obsolete if there were multiple color wheels or webs you could cycle through, each with more saturation than the last. Around the wheel the hue is increased by a certain increment to get the range of colors needed. so it is a proper color wheel. Though I'm sure those of you who do art would probably already know much about this.. I understand that this "concept" color web would be far too small to color all of the colors, if this were implimented it'd have to be either divided into multiple circles, or made much bigger and segmented. Anyways, How would this selection tool still allow for the joy of looting new colors? Well that's where those colors with the marks through them comes in, those colors that are yet to be unlocked, the one with the white glow on the outside is the current color you have selected, with each color unlock you can then select the color and it won't have the marks anymore! :D

I would like a color wheel, but as others have stated, which I am in agreeance too, it would ruin the whole color looting aspect which I really do like. However, I do propose a color wheel concept that would still work for the looting system. Which I will make another thread inspired by this suggestion.

Large evadable missiles with a big payload but lesser maneuverability that deal a good chunk of damage if they hit you? Sounds cool ^-^ I think it'd work well, as kind of an alternative to the missiles as the cannons are compared to the bolters. Probably firing one 1 round before the long cooldown. I can also imagine this being like regular missiles, in the fact that they can be dumbfire, or seeking. The large payload and damage making up for it's lack in speed, maneuverability and fire rate.

Here's an idea regarding this which will also give the computing cores additional use, what if turrets with independent accuracy were kept as they were, but those without could have them turned on, but with poor accuracy and prediction. However, with more computer cores, the weapons have more processing power and thus their accuracy is increased to roughly less or the same of the accuracy of turrets with that targeting trait? Though that is of course, depend on the volume of the computer cores. These turrets paired with the computer cores will have more power than the independent turrets, but to make them the most useful you'd require computer cores in the first place, which is Trinium and upwards, making this synergy more of a mid to late game advantage. In addition, the computer cores do use more energy, so there's that factor as well.

I noticed this with both the sector notes and especially with the ip adresses for servers. Would be good, but not really too necessary. Just a convenience really.