Flight assist off mission concept - Starport repair.

[C.Scott]

[video=youtube;PLOSGLLEPJ8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLOSGLLEPJ8[/video]

Here's my concept for what a flight assist off Orbis starport repair mission might look like.

Missions like these would be a great way to show off the lovely detail around all the starports.
In addition to more simple (outposts don't move) and more advanced starport repair missions (coriolis spins faster and has a lot more nooks and crannies to manoeuvre into), the repair aspect can be extended to beacons and satellites.

What do you think?

At the suggestion of DocLooshkin, here's a summary:

This video shows a full mission, with occasional freeze frames of extra hud elements and explanations. I have dubbed on sounds for the repair tool.
The start of the video shows me selecting this mission from the menu.

At set points around the station, there are damaged modules.
Using a special tool on a utility mount (which I have dubbed on sounds to represent), repairs are carried out by the player on these modules. The player must stay within a specified very small range of the damaged module to repair it.
The need to synchronise with the spin of stations necessitates the use of flight assist off mode, as rotational correction only works inside the station.
I think this is a great way to put more of a focus on piloting skills, and to help players earn credits developing their skills without threat of annihilation.

 

[DocLooshkin]

Hello, Mister Scott.

Good post. It could do with a simple text summary - and possibly not being eighteen minutes long, although double-speed playback helps. It's worth watching, just for that magnificent landing at the end. Ha ha ha! Good lord, man, you're almost as bad at that as I am!

For those determined not to watch, the video shows Mr Scott launching a Sidey, flying around the outside of a station and hovering at set points close to the surface. We're invited to imagine deployment and usage of a repair mechanism mounted on our ship.

The video demonstrates clearly that it can definitely be a workable - and potentially quite interesting - gameplay mechanic, although I personally would need to think very carefully before risking anything larger than a Sidewinder.

As I recall, there was talk of repair drones flying around stations, at one point, but this was allegedly abandoned due to the certainty of players trying to squish the things. Not sure if that's correct or not, but I still think it's a good idea, even if too many players do smash themselves up.

I like this idea. I'd like to see the above-mentioned drones carrying out minor repairs, with - essentially - deployable 3D printers, Warzone 2100-style. For players, I'd like to see a dedicated small ship intended purely for repairs (a modified Sidey, perhaps), with an external mounting designed to carry, cut and swap out larger damaged sections in their entirety, plus the same 3D printer thing used as a glorified welding torch.

It seems like an idea best suited for if and when we get proper battles in and around space stations (or at least their aftermath), but I'm definitely inclined to try this. It doesn't look like it should be especially lucrative, but it does look like good, tricky fun.

- - - - -

With apologies to Mr Scott, here's a completely off-topic thing...

FD, I can't help but notice that Mr Scott's in-game avatar looks disturbingly similar to mine. This does not please me. Even the avatar's pose in that in-station picture is identical. I love the Holo-Me thing, but it definitely could benefit from some more work. Far too many of the resulting avatars come out looking very similar.

(NPC station reps are the worst for this: they may all have different names and live hundreds of light-years apart, but judging by his descendants, Commander Jameson was clearly a rampant slapper, shamelessly dunking his yum-yum in every starport in the known galaxy. The only question is whether he died from exhaustion or was simply reduced to a skeleton by too many horrifying mutant STDs.)

It could do with more clearly separated sections controlling the bone structures and the flesh on top (particularly around the eyebrows, forehead and neck) and definitely more mid-range skin-tones (it's basically so many distinctly white faces, followed by an orange, followed by so many distinctly black faces, at the moment).

Ideally - if there's time, I know - there should be sections covering facial expressions (if only because all my avatars seem to end up looking so incredibly bloody morose I'd swear they're ready to kill themselves) and improved hair, separately covering waviness/curliness, length and style. At the moment, there's only the one haircut in there that resembles the hair I actually want - and even that's fairly wide of the mark.

Above all, there needs to be decent dreadlocks. Elite: Dangerous is presently a rasta-free zone, which is just wrong. I want to see natty dreads in space!