I know it still super early in the mod development but I think that this stuff needs to get hammered out anyway.
And I hope I’m not the guy who posts a bunch of stupid ideas and everybody groans about it but hey whatever.
Just wanted to ramble about some ideas I had, gonna try and not go into specifics (oops never mind)
Random Thoughts:
I’m trying to not make this too overly complicated. I also don’t think there should be too many special blocks, capital ships should have manual build subsystems cuz their so large.
I guess this could go two ways, the capital ships mostly being automatic (i.e. hook engine up to reactor, designate type (pitch/yaw/roll/thrust), control block gives automatic controls. Or Manual, where you hook up the reactor to a control block, connect the control block to the engines. Connect control block to a central “computer” and you can assign actions to keys (more on this later).
Propulsion:
Ships have calculated weight and center of mass, pitch, yaw, roll calculations based off this (I don’t really know if this is feasible. I don’t think it shouldn’t be too exotic math though)
All engines (with exception of liquid) can be designated (by right click menu?) a thrust, right/left yaw, right/left roll, front/back pitch.
Helpful for those who don’t know what that means (I didn’t):
Each engine has a low energy input to output range, a high one, and a fun overload range depending on how much juice you give it. Distinction so that you can use the same engine for long distance cheaply but still use considerable power during a ship-ship engagement.
If you go with a more manual mode then banks of engines can be wired to a single engine controller that can control the output based off of the amount connected. Will tell you average temp and have options for high/low efficiency mode.
Each engine has a temperature tolerance, although there are cooling options.
Liquid Rockets:
Basic stuff, (relatively) easily attainable on normal Minecraft planet. Quick and powerful, uses a lot of fuel though/engines overheat. Used to get the capital ship into orbit (end of Halo: Reach style).
Block Engines:
Craft able block, mostly cheap materials. Has relatively weak power-to-output ratio. Mainly used for pitch/yaw/roll in larger more advanced ships in banks, but still effective for smaller cruisers.
Engine blocks would be wired to a controller block (controlled by main control block, more on this later) which would be connected to a voltage controller then a power source. The object of this being that the navigator can control the movement of the ship in third person but an officer can control how much energy control banks get so they can move power around when it is not needed/not slag the engines by having them always on overload.
Custom Engines:
Real bread-and-butter for large capitals. Build using an “Engine Inverter” and some hard non-flammable blocks. The better blocks you use the more heat it can accumulate before it fails. See picture, I don’t know how to describe it.
Power depends on energy input and maximum (safe) input depends on area. Staying in the “safe” zone (i.e. can run indefinitely) at lower speeds has less than desirable power, thus overload range becomes important during ship-ship battle. If the engine overheats (depends on block type, cooling apparatus and power in) the control rods burn out. Control rods are moderately expensive.
Only work in space/vacuum, so you don’t have ships in atmosphere going light speed, which would be bad.
If you enter the high efficiency setting you have to build energy in capacitors for a while (depends on amount of engines on a circuit) and when they engage you’re gone man. Can’t feasibly be used during power as charging would require shields/weapons off.
These puppies mainly used for massive ships during battles and slow, efficient long distance travel.
Other Engines:
Faster less efficient engines) like wormhole slip/hyperspace etc only used for long distance.
Ship Controlling (manual approach):
Components in ships can be wired to “control blocks” or will have built in ports which can be wired to multiple central “bridge computers.” Computers can then monitor several components at once, see below.
Wires are run from the component to the extensions on monitors (see pic). Control wires will only attach to the wire they are clicked on and will not combine with adjacent control wires (for ease of compact wiring).
Clicking on a panel/tile will give you more options, like controlling voltage, flow rate, fuel input, fuel consumption rate, etc. Bridge computers can only control one type of item, like voltage controllers Redstone monitor/out, engine, reactor, vacuum detectors. You can assign a name to each panel (like aft, stern, etc). Depending on the type of component you attach is how many components you can have attached, i.e. reactors would have like 2 per console but Redstone monitors say 16.
But you still would be able to wire banks of pitch/yaw/roll/thrust engines to a central “navigation” console for a 3rd person pilot, just the voltage controlled by an officer.
This is all I’ll do for now. I'm tired.
Sorry if my ideas are stupid or infeasible. I have no programming experience. This probably makes no sense to everyone but me.
.
I guess all of this can be summed up to trying achieve Star Trek
:
- Quote :
- Kirk: We need more power to the engines Scotty!
Scotty: I’m Givin’ her all she’s got!
Kirk: Well that isn’t good enough! Divert power from shields and phasers!
Scotty: Aye Aye sir! But the engines can’t take this for long!
Fri Nov 11, 2011 9:37 pm
