Mothership Style Docking

[eode]

I have a couple of ideas -- any responses would be appreciated!

Currently, docking multiple ships together (last I checked) is pretty awkward.  I also understand that coding these things can be hard.  As such, I tried to avoid anything technically outrageous, and to create the idea to provide as much value as possible with as little modification as possible.  Nevertheless, this is somewhat complex.  Please be patient in reading it.

For those less patient, the TL;DR of it is:

• Pad-to-Pad docking that aligns the pads rotationally
• Allows for captains/AI to dock a ship and have it point in the right direction
• Docked ships can be semi-permanently bonded to a ship they are docked to, and receive commands like fighters
• Bonded ships consider their working range to be within one warp jump (by default) of the mothership for most tasks
• Bonded ships can be configured to react to mothership actions (like warping away)
• Bonded ships gain a few extra mothership-related commands to choose from (return, dock/launch, unbond, work)
• Alignment visuals for player docking

Personally, I would be more than happy to buy this as a DLC.

Core Ideas

This is what I'd really like to see done, however it's done.   I'd be happy with these being implemented in any way.

• Captained ships can be commanded to dock with another ship
• Finer-grained control over docking/undocking
• Docked ships can be "bonded", which provides additional mothership-related captain commands, as well as fighter-like controls over the bonded ship while it isn't docked
• Bonded ships can be controlled like fighters, and stay relatively close to the mothership, or roam within a specified work area

 

Details

This is my conception of what implementation would look like.

• New Captain Abilities
  • Any place a captain can be given commands, it can be commanded to dock with any other fleet ship.
    • If it is not in the correct location, it will seek out that ship to dock with it.
  • Captains of bonded ships gain additional mothership-related commands (detailed below in 'Bonding'
• Docked and Bonded Ships List
  • Docked and bonded ships show up as icons on the top left above fighters, with a similar interface
    • Docked ship options:  Undock, Bond
      • Undocked ships are immediately selected so they can be switched to easily
    • Bonded Ship default options: Dock/Launch, Attack, Mine, Salvage, Support, Escort Me, Escort Target
      • Has a 'roam' checkbox - if checked, ship is allowed to roam within its working range.  Otherwise, it stays in the sector.
• Docking
  • There is a "docking" and a "receiving" ship.  The receiving ship should be immobile.  The docking ship performs the docking action.
    • Both ships must have a pad, and the configuration must be compatible.  Specifically:
      • The plane of the receiving ship's docking pad must encompass the plane of the docking ship's pad when aligned.
        • see technical notes on pad matching
      • Docking is done with a consistent process, and results in a consistent orientation
        • see technical notes on automatic docking procedure
  • Docked ships show up in the Docked and Bonded Ships List for easy bonding or undocking
• Motherships
  • A mothership is just a receiving ship that has bonded a docked ship.
• Bonding
  • Bonding a ship associates a ship with a mothership until unbonded.
  • The docked ship becomes bonded to the pad it is docked on, and the pad cannot be used by other ships (even if the bonded ship isn't docked)
  • The number of bonded ships is limited -- either they take up a fighter squadron slot, or they have their own max
  • Bonded ships gain additional command actions relevant to their mothership, available in the relevant interface areas.
    • Examples
      • Return - return to mothership
      • Return to range - return to working range
      • Dock - return and dock with mothership
      • Work - Default activity - Do the configured default activity
  • Configuration
    • Each bonded ship can be configured, in a screen similar to the fighter squadron configuration tab
    • Configuration options
      • Working Range - Number of warps this ship is allowed to go from mothership - default is its max warp range
        • This may be circumvented by some commands
      • Menu Actions - These are the icons available via the ship's icon in the Docked and Bonded Ships List (icons on top left above fighters)
        • Any general action that can be assigned to a captain can be set to appear in the ship's list of actions
        • Some actions (escort target) may explicitly require moving out of the working range).  These could have a checkbox to allow that.
      • Default Activity - Activity this ship will do if the ship is launched, but no command given (or if mothership / player launches all)
      • Mothership Warp Reaction
        • What to do when the mothership warps away
        • Applies whether or not this ship is in the same sector as the mothership (or checkmark for 'same sector only')
        • Normal captain action options, plus options such as
          • Warp to new/expected working range (default)
          • Stay within old working range
          • Return (Warp to Mothership's sector)
          • Dock
      • Mothership Warp Select Reaction
        • What to do if the mothership just *selects* a sector to warp to
        • same extra choices as Mothership Warp Reaction
      • Unbond (or [x]) - Cease to be bonded to the mothership -- return to being a regular docked ship
• Control
  • Control goes to the mother ship.  If the player is controlling a docking ship, they lose control, possibly with an option to switch to the receiving ship, or perhaps switching automatically.
• Nesting (or lack thereof)
  • A ship which has ships docked to it cannot dock to another (except normal docking to stations for goods and services)
  • Ships may still dock to the remaining open pads on the receiving ship (but not to pads on the docking ship

 

Technical Details

These are details that I considered too fiddly to put above, but still wanted to include.  They may or may not be relevant, and aren't really the core idea.  Some parts of it, like the chatter in the docking process, I really like the thought of, though.

• Orientation
  • Docking pads are changed so that they now have a relevant rotational orientation - a 'forward'.   This can be modified in the editor with the 'r' setting
  • When docking, ships attempt to align so that 'forward' is the same direction for both pads.
• Pad Alignment
  • pad-to-pad docking requires that the pads *should* be aligned for player docking, and *must* be aligned for AI docking.
  • this results in consistent orientation except when people are intentionally doing something else
• Pad Matching
  • The largest pad on the docking ship must be used
  • Any *matching* pad on the receiving ship may be used
  • To be considered 'matching', the receiving pad must fully encompass the docking ship's pad when properly aligned
• Pad Selection
  • AI (and guides for players) could use the following criteria to choose a pad:
    • Pads with an identical docking surface are selected first
    • The smallest matching pad is selected if an identical pad isn't available.
• Docking process, AI or Player
  • Get to the same sector as receiver
  • Get within range of the receiver
  • Request docking (hotkey applies to targeted ship, or request via ship menu) -- largely the same for player or AI.
    • "This is the USC Dragonmount requesting docking clearance from the HMS Snoot Booper"
      • Positive responses
        • "Clearance granted, USC Dragonmount"
        • "Clearance granted on Pad 3, USC Dragonmount"
        • "Welcome home, USC Dragonmount - proceed to dock" (for bonded ships)
      • Negative Responses
        • "Negative, USC Dragonmount.  We don't have a pad large enough for you."
        • "Negative, USC Dragonmount.  We have no available pads for you."
        • "Negative, USC Dragonmount.  We have sustained damage and cannot accommodate you."
  • Follow visual alignment guides (or AI, follow alignment process
• Example Docking Procedure for AI or Visual Alignment Guides
  • First, the docking ship flies out to docking distance from the pad, approx 1.2 ship lengths (of the longest dimension) away
  • Then, the docking ship rotates so that the 'forward' direction of its pad is aligned with the 'forward' direction of the receiving ship's pad.
  • Then, the docking ship rotates so that the pads are on parallel planes (facing each other, but possibly not aligned)
  • Then, the docking ship 'strafes' along the same plane(s) as the docking pads until the pads are aligned with each other
  • Then, the docking ship closes distance until pad tractors take over.
  • If the docking process is interrupted, it starts again (until cancelled? for a few tries?)

 

If you have made it this far, I commend you.
 

edits: small / organizational changes, shifting tl;dr to top

Edited May 26, 2021 by eode

[MoreChainguns!]

2 hours ago, eode said:

• Pad-to-Pad docking that aligns the pads rotationally
• Allows for captains/AI to dock a ship and have it point in the right direction
• Docked ships can be semi-permanently bonded to a ship they are docked to, and receive commands like fighters
• Bonded ships consider their working range to be within one warp jump of the mothership for some tasks
• Bonded ships can be configured to react to mothership actions (like warping away)
• Alignment visuals for player docking

How about editing your post to have this at the top, and then the technical bits below that? It would make it easier for people to seek out the parts of it that they want to reference; I got all I needed to know from the six points above, anyways. It's nicer to be confronted with a few simple bullet points than a post the approximate size of a sector, don't you think?

 

But the above stuff seems like a very good UI / QOL improvement - and a welcome expansion on the docking concept.

I've been planning to make a 'mothership'-style ship sometime soon, anyways.

[eode]

@MoreChainguns!

Thanks, I'll do that!