Vega Strike Forums

This could go in modding, or feature request or both. So I figure I'll mention it here and let those in charge decide if and where it should be moved.

There has been some talk of engine upgrades, more systems to be damaged etc. Curiosity got the better of me and I started playing with the data. You can have a ship with zero thrust and add upgrades to give it thrust, turning, whatever. What I have not found out yet, is how to sell a ship with my thruster MkI upgrade in it and have the removal net a zero thrust for the ship. This would then mean that a "ship" could be nothing more than a spaceframe and contol hookups, but to even leave orbit it needs a thruster pack. It also would indicate that a SPEC drive could be an addon and not just the energy storage for it! Now what does the life support functionality and other LS data in the ship info do? "I'll sell him this ship, I'll just forget to mention the life support system has been pulled. Think he'll notice?"

hehe evil evil travis. Novel use of the data, and an interesting idea for a mod or for the mmo.

Using spacecraft as just the basic frame sounds like a great idea. The frame just gives a base mass, and cargo bay size, some basic hull strength(hull armour) and possibly max speed for the airframe. Then you need to buy your own reactor, capacitor, shield as normal, but you need to buy the engines and choose which ones (making sure you don't buy ones too large that put you above max speed)

i am happy to help do this if you want to make it part of the game

Great idea. Adds a new depth to the game.

Hm....that makes me wonder. Could it be possible to go down the way of Frontier/FFE and have ships with no separate upgrade and cargo space, but simply internal space that can be used for either....

Hicks wrote:Using spacecraft as just the basic frame sounds like a great idea. The frame just gives a base mass, and cargo bay size, some basic hull strength(hull armour) and possibly max speed for the airframe. Then you need to buy your own reactor, capacitor, shield as normal, but you need to buy the engines and choose which ones (making sure you don't buy ones too large that put you above max speed)

i am happy to help do this if you want to make it part of the game

Why stop there? No (or little) cargo space, just internal volume. How much of a cargo bay or flight deck is up to you! As for buying too large of engines, the max speed is just a governor setting (which can be over ridden) imagine the light capship weapons a mule can sport backed by a thruster and RCS package meant for an ox! Perhaps even additional fuel tanks for longer runs. With even critical systems as “upgrades” your repair droid would have much more to do.

Already was discussed lo-o-o-ong ago. Conclusion: a good idea, though requires a simple validator, most likely in the undocking function of the base interface (Python).

Also, ships differ, thus any such upgrades would need to differ, either by classes (e.g. MainThruster /Light, /Medium, /Heavy, /Capship-Light ...) or, better, equipment slots - upgrade masking is very close to them anyway and it would also address the armor problem.

Hicks wrote:Using spacecraft as just the basic frame sounds like a great idea. The frame just gives a base mass, and cargo bay size

IMO, should be raw "upgrade space". Normally coming with cargo bays installed. Again, with options depending on the ship. And the bigger and rounder such a bay is, the closer volume ratio will be to 1:1... maybe eventually with per-bay cargo placement (i.e. 1x50 + 2x25 ≠ 1x100).

travists wrote:Perhaps even additional fuel tanks for longer runs.

That seems to be possible right now, just by adding in units.csv some "add_" upgrades for fuel capacity...

P.S.: Either way, this obviously belongs to modding or feature requests. 2 admins: i propose to merge it into the first thread linked above.

Generally there would have to be either upgrade or cargo space. If not then that would mean you would have to supply everything, including the internal strucutres such as rooms, bulkheads. You also have to think that between civilian and military ships you have major differences betweens systems including but not limited to the fact that most of what you find on a civie ship can be found smaller and far more powerful on a military ship.

Even a simple skeleton for a ship is design with some purpose in mind. While it may be easy to convert from a freighter to a carrier (in some cases) it would be far more difficult to convert a freighter to a battleship. From a realistic standpoint, your newly minted battleship would die quickly from lack of a quality mil spec internal structure/hull.

From a game standpoint.. while fun, it doesn't balance well. Why build upon a capship hull when you can pick that super freighter with all that expansion room. This is bettersuited to making new ship variants from existing classes. Going from a llama light freighter to an interceptor/bomber or blockade runner. While we can to some extent do this already, having the option to add/remove hardpoints and systems would add new depth to the game (especially for online play. Commision a new ship variant or class).

Don't know how much the engine currently supports, but this "feature" may be worth looking into. Moving to features forum.

Thought I remembered seeing somthing along these lines, but what I recalled was noone knew how to do it without a major rework.