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Ship-to-ship docking


Spacefaring_Guy
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Why only stations?  If two ships with properly-placed docking ports want to meet up in space and trade, they ought to be able to.

 

If this were to happen, I'd think that cargo haulers would refuse, "Sorry, my cargo is being delivered under contract", but two players could use the station mechanic to trade items instead of using mail (which is a convenient but silly mechanic).  You'd need a way to mark cargo, turrets, and upgrades for sale so that stuff you want to keep isn't made available for purchase, but the price could be calculated by the game as it would for any station.

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Sorry, not in front of the game right now (I'm being bad and posting from work)... do you mean player-to-player trading already exists, or are you just talking about mobile merchants?

 

I just sort of assumed player-to-player trading wasn't implemented since you can't trade with cargo haulers and the station mechanic wasn't already used for mobile merchants... and the players on the server I'm on are more about salvage than trade so it's never come up.

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Player to player is not yet implemented although I think someone may have made a mod that sort of allows it... not sure.

 

Personally I like the idea of ships docking I also like the idea that docking actually locks the ships in place bc as it is right now docking is just permission to trade...

 

There is no actual docking....

 

I would certainly avoid a lot more station crashes and ship to ship damage if there was an actual docking "CLAMP" and it made the ship/station lock in.

 

Im also really hoping we will be able to at some point use our jump drives with more than one ship at a time when smaller ships are docked with large ones.

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I'm not sure about Elite:Dangerous, but IIRC the original game back in the olden days had an optional docking autopilot.  Instead of having to get into the (rotating!) station hanger, you just had to get close enough and engage the autopilot.

 

Something similar could work in Avorion - an Automatic Docking upgrade, so if you get within 1000m of a station or ship you could select it, press 'F', and the 'Autodock' option would be available, at which point the game would guide you in to the nearest dock.

 

As for physically connecting you - I like the idea, but implementation might be tricky.  There'd have to be a break point where you lose your dock block and the ship tears free, as well as a manual release option. 

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Any docking feature would need an ON/OFF switch as half the players would not want to have to mess with it. I don't like the current system at all, it's way too easy. But that's just me...

 

In thinking of the time to implement vs reward there are many other things that could be put in the game that would generate far more reward vs the immersion factor of playing pilot.

 

Doesn't mean I don't want to see some form of realistic docking, I do. Clamped docking with proper alignment to the dock would be nice to have. I just think there's better stuff than this game play wise that could be done, and if it means I don't see it I'd be OK with that.

 

Cheers..!

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In a thematic sense I don't think physically docking making any sense. These ships are kilometers long, you'd most likely handle things with cargo transporters, because

>2km ship

 

That's pretty much how I envision everything happening when I dock now. That's fine with me TBH for larger ships. If we're going that route it would be cool to have a shuttle you send out and have to wait for to get back before you could "undock" to get crew or rewards or cargo or what have you.

 

If none of this happens and we have what we have, as I said I'm fine with that. I am hoping Boarding gets handled differently. Just a push button dispatch and a simplified RNG or straight up Number vs Number would be no fun at all, though it's likely to be just that.

 

Wonder if Boarding could be made into a little mini game where you sit in the command chair with scanners and cameras and direct the assault ala Aliens 2. Readouts don't have to be terribly complex, just dots would work for me. Position your troops, run the corridors, storm the bridge, get wiped by chain gun traps in the wrong turns or dispatch explosives to blow interior walls and out flank the defenders... As long as the strategy layer is good, the graphics could rival Pong for all I care.

 

But I digest...

 

Cheers..!

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Boarding would be cool if it was like that. Giving some sort of interactivity, either through a sort of ship map you can command units with, or if you're too caught up in battle, a basic interface with numbers/strength and probability readouts, and some basic commands like attack X room, do Y command within X room.

 

Eject the warp core, overload the warp core. Eject and overload the warp core, or even just set engines to max/off for shits and giggles.

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In a thematic sense I don't think physically docking making any sense. These ships are kilometers long, you'd most likely handle things with cargo transporters, because

>2km ship

 

I like that.  So, what's needed (most likely for OTHER players who aren't looking at menus) is an animation of shuttles moving back and forth from station to ship and ship to station!

 

Still, that means that the docking block - whether it's actually a docking port or a hanger - should be a mandatory block for any ship that wants to be able to physically transfer anything to another vessel.

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