Research/Pod Idea A2

[Rifraf]

I just had an idea about research stations and pods. Why not make each research pod in the shape of a ship so when you research something it would look like a ship is docked at the station? Could you use the existing SOD of any ship in game?

Does anyone know how you would determine what hardpoint on the pod/ship would attach to the specific research/pod hardpoint on the station?

 

[dvatreknerd314]

I just had an idea about research stations and pods. Why not make each research pod in the shape of a ship so when you research something it would look like a ship is docked at the station? Could you use the existing SOD of any ship in game?

Does anyone know how you would determine what hardpoint on the pod/ship would attach to the specific research/pod hardpoint on the station?

I think the pods each have a "pod" hardpoint, but it may be defined in the pod's ODF file. I think Future Wars did this for their ship upgrade facilities

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
Since the pods are 3d models themselves, I don't see any reason why your idea cannot be made, and I adit it would look amazing. Just be careful to not leave any ventings or hull-damage sprites in the ship model otherwise they'll be shown.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Just be careful to not leave any ventings or hull-damage sprites in the ship model otherwise they'll be shown.

I think there's something in an ODF file that turns that off, even if it's a ship model, but I may be mistaken or I may be thinking of something specific to Fleet Ops

 

[Rifraf]

Well, I had a look at some of the stock research pods and there wasn't anything special about them. They all did have 1 point that is used to attach to the research station (you can tell by the model orientation), but it was named differently on different SODs. At least 1 also had a plasma vent node on it which I thought strange.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Well, I had a look at some of the stock research pods and there wasn't anything special about them. They all did have 1 point that is used to attach to the research station (you can tell by the model orientation), but it was named differently on different SODs. At least 1 also had a plasma vent node on it which I thought strange.

You might also want to check to see if the orientation of those hardpoints affect the orientation of the model

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:

I think there's something in an ODF file that turns that off, even if it's a ship model, but I may be mistaken or I may be thinking of something specific to Fleet Ops

That is a FleetOps' feature, there is also another feature that allow you to make pods targtable or not. But is there a way to get all those new codes into mods like "Classic A2"?

Well, I had a look at some of the stock research pods and there wasn't anything special about them. They all did have 1 point that is used to attach to the research station (you can tell by the model orientation), but it was named differently on different SODs. At least 1 also had a plasma vent node on it which I thought strange.

Yes, that is true, the node used in the station to tell where is a pod matches the pod's main joint.

 

[Archonon]

I remember that R5D5 created a space station/shipyard called "Depot" which has multiple ships built into yards, as if they were docked. The ships he uses are some of the same that he has released as playable units independent of the depot.

Hypothetically speaking, I don't see why someone couldn't build a research lab/shipyard which used ship sods as pods. As stated before, they would simply need to be built into the pod's HPs. If they need to be named separately from their playable counterparts, say fcruise1pod.sod, then that might be the way to go.

I like the idea of an R&D shipyard that researches spaceframes, as opposed to some misc station that builds an invisible pod or some weird animated pod that has nothing to do with what it supposedly represents, in order to allow the construction of playable ships.

 

[Rifraf]

I'll see if I can experiment with it. Right now in the Upgrade Project instead of using a picture of what the research pod looks like for the build button I use a picture of the ship itself. That way you can quickly see what ship you are researching a pod for. The tooltips are still there to explain as well though.

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
I would like to know if we can get FleetOps goodies into Classic A2, I was told that yes, because I do have my own plans for pods and research and I am so eager to tell you all