Space Stations

Orbital space stations should definitely be a major part of this mod, fulfilling any role from construction to trade, even major military installations for coordinated attacks. But how would we build these? I propose that we follow NASA's method, building it on the ground and then sending it into orbit, atleast at first. A modular system would be very beneficial for this method, as you would only need launch a few core modules to set a station up.

A modular system could, in theory, allow any number of combinations within a set limit. Say you have limits on the number of individual modules that fullfill a role, like lifesupport, habitation, control centers, laboratory's, weapons, etc. You could have several modules in one category, say more efficient versions, or modules that work completely differently to achieve the same result. You would be able to combine these in whatever way you want, but you could not exceed the total limit.

This post was probably more rambling than anything, just had to get these ideas off my mind.

Well, a "space station" could be one or more specially designed capital ships linked together in a stable orbit, that would provide more flexibility in design rather than having pre-built modules. Just would be a capital ship with no/tiny engines and more shields/guns

well my modular design idea actually comes from a game called Star Ruler. The ship design in this game is nearly infinite because everything is built modular.

Basically you have a hull, you then add armor, weapons, power supply, shields etc and work it into the size restraint and cost restraints of the hull and of your economy.

Now with our design, I'm thinking engines, weapons, shields, controls systems and life support should be modules, like a controller block of some sort, then build your ship and link your modules together with some sort of redstone hybrid.

With that system, we could make specific controller blocks, like a space station block with wont allow any engines to be hooked up, but would allow for more power supplies/guns/shields etc to be hooked up.

I like the idea of space stations, would add additional bases to the game and make it even more dynamic.

ectrimble20 wrote:

well my modular design idea actually comes from a game called Star Ruler. The ship design in this game is nearly infinite because everything is built modular.

Basically you have a hull, you then add armor, weapons, power supply, shields etc and work it into the size restraint and cost restraints of the hull and of your economy.

Now with our design, I'm thinking engines, weapons, shields, controls systems and life support should be modules, like a controller block of some sort, then build your ship and link your modules together with some sort of redstone hybrid.

With that system, we could make specific controller blocks, like a space station block with wont allow any engines to be hooked up, but would allow for more power supplies/guns/shields etc to be hooked up.

I like the idea of space stations, would add additional bases to the game and make it even more dynamic.

Personally, I don't think there should be ANY sort of ship/station hulls or classification. The only limits should be physics, want a station? Find a way to move parts up there for assembling, or just have a small ship carry up materials and construct it in orbit. Or you could fly a big ship up there and remove the engines, or turn em off and leave them there, or even fly a buncha small ships up there and try to awkardly weld them together. What you do should be dependent only on physics and imagination.

Buggy1997123 wrote:

Personally, I don't think there should be ANY sort of ship/station hulls or classification. The only limits should be physics, want a station? Find a way to move parts up there for assembling, or just have a small ship carry up materials and construct it in orbit. Or you could fly a big ship up there and remove the engines, or turn em off and leave them there, or even fly a buncha small ships up there and try to awkardly weld them together. What you do should be dependent only on physics and imagination.

Well that was kinda the idea, but you have to remember, I think in programmatic terms of what will be feasible and what will be impractical. It might come down to a matter of parking a space ship somewhere and building the station off of it as its in space, so where exactly does one place the first block since in minecrafts main engine is build off a block grid and space might not have a grid, but then Frost would be the one to ask that question to as he's the one building the space engine.

So, in conclusion, I suppose we'll have to wait and see how the engine works then make decisions based off that.

ectrimble20 wrote:

Buggy1997123 wrote:

Personally, I don't think there should be ANY sort of ship/station hulls or classification. The only limits should be physics, want a station? Find a way to move parts up there for assembling, or just have a small ship carry up materials and construct it in orbit. Or you could fly a big ship up there and remove the engines, or turn em off and leave them there, or even fly a buncha small ships up there and try to awkardly weld them together. What you do should be dependent only on physics and imagination.

Well that was kinda the idea, but you have to remember, I think in programmatic terms of what will be feasible and what will be impractical. It might come down to a matter of parking a space ship somewhere and building the station off of it as its in space, so where exactly does one place the first block since in minecrafts main engine is build off a block grid and space might not have a grid, but then Frost would be the one to ask that question to as he's the one building the space engine.

So, in conclusion, I suppose we'll have to wait and see how the engine works then make decisions based off that.

I agree, we will have to wait and see what Frostbyte does as he ultimately has the finaly say, but you could always use the idea I had for that same problem with the item I came up with(The Fulcrum ARea Teleport(originally the TSPSS)): holding right click while looking at a empty space places a block there after a few seconds.

Well, space may very well be a grid, and I'd assume it would, at least for objects outside the space ship and people realm. I'd assume it would be a grid in the same way that air in the game is technically a grid, just empty.

So if space is a grid, we could build in say an anchor block, call it the FART (lol), and have that as a means by which to place an object in orbit around a planet.

Now my problem with that is how do you control it? You don't want 5000000 objects around randomly. You also don't want people building shields around their planets out of dirt.

My solution to my own problem is 1) Limit how close two of these objects can be together and 2) limit the types of building materials for space to metals/composites. I'm not opposed to armor plates, but it should have some sort of effect on the planet, like limit sunlight or some crazy BS like that.

Anyway, just some thoughts on it.

Quote :

Personally, I don't think there should be ANY sort of ship/station hulls or classification. The only limits should be physics, want a station? Find a way to move parts up there for assembling, or just have a small ship carry up materials and construct it in orbit. Or you could fly a big ship up there and remove the engines, or turn em off and leave them there, or even fly a buncha small ships up there and try to awkardly weld them together. What you do should be dependent only on physics and imagination.

Exactly.

Quote :

You also don't want people building shields around their planets out of dirt.

Good point. If a "space station" is just a ship minus big engines maybe there should be some sort of energy expenditure required to keep it in space based off the weight of the ship.

Sounds more and more like someone's gonna have to make a table of block weights.

Quote :

2) limit the types of building materials for space to metals/composites

Really, you aren't gonna have a space ship with wood or cobble in it. Same with torches, you aren't gonna have a burning stick in your high-tech space ship with a very limited supply of oxygen. Should be some type of EU powered light.

But there shouldn't be some sort of grid. In order to get something up there you have to launch it an build off it.

And how would you know what block you wanted if you just held right click? The game has no clue where you would want it, do you want it right next to you or a gazillion blocks away?

Im kinda thinking about space stations in the middle of nowhere that can become a thriving economy through black market tech smugglers and theives, selling their loot at a space station where they "borrowed" the stuff from cant find them.

Well, to be honest, what if we want our reinforced glass and metal block space stations to have trees and such inside? Make it like the orbital ring from Gundam Seed 00?

Unless you are planning on making the INSIDE of the ship count as a normal area and the outside as "space", if you get me.
I would want to hook my space station up with trees, gardens, and farms. Producing oxygen, as well as reducing the efforts required by the life support systems.

Did you know that a man can stay alive in space with a sealed room filled with wheat grass? And other fruit for vitamins and such. But still, has anyone here thought about this yet?

@ectrimble
For space to work, it is going to be completely empty. All objects in space will be Copernicus entities, each of which is a world in its own right with its own grid. To place something new in space you will need some sort of seed off of which to build. The obvious thing would be a small asteroid or your own ship, which you could disconnect afterward. There will have to be some sort of safeguard against people spamming entities up in space, so maybe there has to be a stationary object core to keep the entity from decaying.

fr0stbyte124 wrote:

@ectrimble
For space to work, it is going to be completely empty. All objects in space will be Copernicus entities, each of which is a world in its own right with its own grid. To place something new in space you will need some sort of seed off of which to build. The obvious thing would be a small asteroid or your own ship, which you could disconnect afterward. There will have to be some sort of safeguard against people spamming entities up in space, so maybe there has to be a stationary object core to keep the entity from decaying.

Agreed, this convo is over 2 months old, I think we've had discussions on how space will work in more detail since then, but yes, I do believe that we must have some sort of control over what goes into space, otherwise every douche in a 10 million square mile area will start building space taco stands or various other useless entities and bog down the server.

Lol, I really need to pay more attention when people necro-post.
I didn't remember you saying that so I assumed it was new.

Also what the hell is that above my head? Did I just level up?

fr0stbyte124 wrote:

Lol, I really need to pay more attention when people necro-post.
I didn't remember you saying that so I assumed it was new.

Also what the hell is that above my head? Did I just level up?

Yes, I was wondering about that. I was thinking: "what, that is incredibly unfair, how come Fr0stbyte gets the epic badge of supreme developraptorness?" I hadn’t realised that you didn’t have anything to do
with it.
I have no idea how it happened, it can’t be about posts because Ectrimble is a
DEV and has more posts than you. We will have to consult the Oracle (Shiva).

Yes, I had the same problem when I re-read this page (from you posting). I
thought that I'd somehow missed this topic, as I didn't remember the posts...

"Super Developrator" sounds like a down-grade from a Developer to me.

And you just made me more jealous of developer benefits. But anyway, on topic, it would be enjoyable to make a large space station like the ISS just hanging around my world. Ya know, just chilling.

I would not consider the ISS to be a large station by any stretch of the imagination. I'm guessing most ships are going to be larger.

There will be large stations in the game, though. Kilometers long and identical to planets except for the fact you can see the rest of the station in the sky.

daman200 wrote:

And you just made me more jealous of developer benefits. But anyway, on topic, it would be enjoyable to make a large space station like the ISS just hanging around my world. Ya know, just chilling.

I did have one. The only difficulty is, something glitched
and an ocean decided to generate right over the top of it. Or maybe it didn't
but either way, the station was sitting in the middle of a 9km wide plain,
meaning that I might have just lost it.

Dr. Mackeroth wrote:

daman200 wrote:

And you just made me more jealous of developer benefits. But anyway, on topic, it would be enjoyable to make a large space station like the ISS just hanging around my world. Ya know, just chilling.

I did have one. The only difficulty is, something glitched
and an ocean decided to generate right over the top of it. Or maybe it didn't
but either way, the station was sitting in the middle of a 9km wide plain,
meaning that I might have just lost it.

...

...

...You lost a space station?