Ship outfitting - conceptual changes

[xazzaxas]

Hey, let me throw this idea out there:

Why not make outfitting of ships more similar to old mechwarrior games?

Give the pilots the ability to modify their ships more. Have an eagle and want to fit in a large laser? well no problem, if you can handle power and thermals management, then why not? Have two big hardpoints in vulture, then you can fit 3x small laser each, if that's your fancy...

Want to tear out cargo hatch entirely? or don't need boost capacity? want to throw in more heat sinks, to offset natural tendency of your build to boil? : ] Or maybe you can handle your ship boiling from time to time and save some weight and power by removing heat sinks?

Add additional armor or more power to the engine? As long as overall tonnage does not exceed the capacity, why not?

Make the ships more interesting! Allow players to bond with them more by modifying the core design into something they feel is more appropriate.

 

[Chrystoph]

What you are suggesting is that ships be constructed using volume instead of canned values for specific slots.

The basic formulation is 1 ton of base hull equals 135 liters of volume.

You then emplace components into the ship until it meets your desires. Anything left over becomes cargo space.

 

[xazzaxas]

Not necessarily - we could have two parameters for each object in game, size and weight. Small, high tonnage fighters could still be used to haul high density cargo, while not being able to fit big objects. Dedicated haulers could even be moved to transport other ships as cargo, taking into account they have big, dedicated cargo spaces just waiting to be filled.

As for weapon size vs weapon mount size, just allow players to overclock their guns. If you are able to fit a bigger gun, then great, it's better and more efficient than an overclocked smaller version. But if not, then an OC version should be able, at thermal/energy draw penalty, allow to reach the output of a bigger version, without any penalties to firepower effectiveness(overridden by OC).

There are also many things on many ships that are wasteful and/or excessive. Like the vulture: do I really need to lug around another seat in the ship if it's constantly empty, computer panels not used by anyone ever, because everything is managed via holographic dashboards? Do I really need such a big pilot's cabin? Full stairs, where there could have been a lightweight ladder?

Let us streamline until we have lean killing, hauling or exploring machines, because being wasteful in space is a recipe for disaster.

 

[Lestat]

Hum. Let see 1 Ton of feathers equals to 1 ton of lead. They are both are one ton. I think the only compression is trying to get feather to equal 1 ton.

 

[xazzaxas]

Hum. Let see 1 Ton of feathers equals to 1 ton of lead. They are both are one ton. I think the only compression is trying to get feather to equal 1 ton.

which is exactly why I have suggested weight AND size. That would make it make sense. Additionally, if you were running a convoy of t9s, outfitting one of it with a full load of turrets and power generators would have been a particularly NASTY surprise

 

[Chrystoph]

It would seem that I oversimplified.

In reality, a hull is a frame work into which you place components. Volume is an absolute. That is to say that you cannot exceed the volume of a given hull without making the hull larger. Using your T9 as an example, the hull weighs 1,000T. Multiplying that by 135 liters gives you 135,000 liters of volume into which you can place components. If you want more than that, you need a bigger hull.

Weight does not figure into this aspect of things. It does figure into things like velocity, which is the amount of thrust available. If your thrust does not exceed your mass, the ship will not move.

Everything else should just be mathematics. You take the volume of the ship multiplied by the range you want the FSD to have, and that tell you how much FSD needs to be installed.

Follow variations of that recipe until you have your ship, then figure out how much power you need. Now add a power plant that meets that requirement.

Thrust is figured by determining the total mass of the ship, building thrusters to exceed that value and subtracting the mass.


Personally, I don't care what "science" is used for the technology, I just want it to be understandable in terms of building the ship. That means consistency as applied to the rules.

 

[DragoonKnight]

Sounds like a complete redesign of the ship outfitting system. This would also require FD to completely rebalance the game from scratch.
After all, there wouldnt be much difference between the ships other than their hull mass.
Personally, I do not like this suggestion as it would turn all the ships into one blob of components with no personality.

 

[Chrystoph]

Sounds like a complete redesign of the ship outfitting system. This would also require FD to completely rebalance the game from scratch.
After all, there wouldnt be much difference between the ships other than their hull mass.
Personally, I do not like this suggestion as it would turn all the ships into one blob of components with no personality.

Utterly incorrect, it would give you the option to make exactly what you want on the presumption, not inconsequential, that you could afford it.

Right now, ships are not founded on anything realistic, but rather the size of the game model. This is why ships of similar mass fall into different size categories and performance metrics. It is handwavium instead of physics.

 

[xazzaxas]

Personally, I do not like this suggestion as it would turn all the ships into one blob of components with no personality.

By all means YES! It would allow you to make a blob of components with no personality. It would also allow you to build the greatest smuggling ship ever, by building high heat efficiency tub that would allow for long distance silent runs. Or a stripped down fighter that doesn't have life support at all except for 30 minutes of oxygen because the pilot knows his ammo wont last him longer than 20 minutes of intense fighting, leaving him with 10 minutes to get back and to the station ; ] Youre saying it lacks personality, but I think that would require you to specify what do you mean by this. Do you mean that personality is getting a stock car in a variant allowed by manufacturer? Because I would say getting a stock car, then making a hot rod out of it is loads more personal.