[MOD] Multiple Player-Flyable Ships - Prototype Stage

[Lander1979]

I would like to propose a collaboration of Modder's to work together to produce the first mod to allow the player to fly any ship in X Rebirth.

I think that (with some small modifications) we can consider the bridge for L and XL ships complete thanks to the "Capital Ship Bridge" Mod. Credit to Litauen for his work on this most excellent mod. http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=371286

Credit to balogt for his successful experimentation with controlling ships other than the Skunk, for if it were not for this I wouldn't have thought this mod possible. http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=376994

Anyone who is interested in contributing please chime in.

Thanks.

[Lander1979]

Planning Stage

Required Components/Mod Dependencies

Capital Ship Bridge - Permission pending
Carrier - Permission Pending

Blender Models

We're going to need a generic cockpit for Fighters, and also a Generic cockpit for the Gigurum Trade vessels and Small Mining Ships.

We're also going to need to work out if we need models of the small and medium ships with their landing gear extended for when their docked in stations.

Code work/Programming

Were going to need to design code to swap ships. Also we will need to discuss how/where we we will be able to swap ships.

My first idea for this would be to make it possible to dock at least 2 to 4 S/M ships minimum at a Rahanas, Sul, or Arawn in order to allow the player to board another class of S/M ship. Swapping to an L or XL ship should be as simple as docking at that ship and sitting in the command chair on the bridge.

Were also going to need to work out how to change the ship model on the docking pad when docked in a station.

Also how we will dock an L or XL ship at external docking points. Possibly make dock points selectable and have the dock command initiate an Autopilot Docking manoeuvre.

I'm sure there's more to plan and do but that's what I've thought of so far.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Nice idea

If getting the visuals for station docking with S/M ships and their docking with L/XL ships was a lower priority (a guess), perhaps an alternative (or temp option) could be:

1. Treat First Person view as a spacesuit that launches and, and can dock when close.
2. Finding a way to stick First Person view (or just Zone map) on a crew capsule.
3. Treat First Person view or Skunk cockpit as a pod carryable by cargolifters.

[wysiwyg]

I'd love to help on this but I'm crazy busy at work at the moment with not even enough time to work on my own latest Station Logistics mod

However, as a (very) small contribution/idea - has anyone though about adapting the drone VR interface reconfigured to simulate flying other ships?

Happy to proof read code and help with ideas where I can.

Cheers
Wysi

[UniTrader]

i dont want to be a party-breaker here but is the most fundametal Issue with this solved? (changing the player.primaryship )
last time i checked for this it was not, but maybe i missed something.

and yes, i am awarre you can change CPs, but thats doing exactly what it says on the tin, it does not change the actual Playership Type (the diffrent Types are only there for diffrent initial CPs, but the Playership Type Macro itself stays)

Of course its possible to work around that by making the Playership Model exchangeable and attaching diffrent Ship Models to an basically empty base Macro, but thats a bit trickier to do than a <change_player_primaryship /> or something like this.. also it would necissate to destroy the Ship the Player changed into (or make it disappear) and clone the ex-playership, and this may break other things, especially if the player wants to fly a carrier-type ship

[YorrickVander]

Observe did some great stuff along this line (sadly I can't find the thread to link) but there's a lot of complication to adding this to a game which is fundamentally designed to be a single ship experience. Not least was the docking display etc...

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Maybe with the dock visuals a hack would be to remove Skunk model if possible, as with mod that removed it from platforms?

[Lander1979]

As a first step I think we should look at making the Skunk interchangeable with a few other small and medium fighter class ships.

Mainly the visual structure and the stats for speed and agility, and possibly the weapons systems.

This seems doable and would serve as a temporary interim solution for what we want to achieve in the long run, as well as provide a player-testable proof-of-concept.

The first version of this would not have the ability to change ships in-game. It would just change the appearance and handling of the playership through patching the relevant sections of the unit_player_ship_macro.xml file, and would have to be enabled and disabled through the main menu's extensions screen.

What might be interesting here is adding some form of custom designed tandem single-seater cockpit for the small ships, so that Yisha has a place to sit, and possibly a re-designed Corvette interior for the Katana hull class.

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

It would be fine if Skunk with Yisha aboard was always in "Defend and follow player" mode, and was invincible if you were sitting in another ship.

[UniTrader]

The first version of this would not have the ability to change ships in-game. It would just change the appearance and handling of the playership through patching the relevant sections of the unit_player_ship_macro.xml file, and would have to be enabled and disabled through the main menu's extensions screen.

i would do it another way: add a new Player Ship Type by copying an existing Ship into a new Macro and create a Gamestart where you start in this new Ship Type - avoids possible compatiblity problems with existing saves (you need a Savegame Edit anyway if you want to change the Playership that much)

[euclid]

Although I do like the idea (which has been up ever since release) there are many things to consider.

For example there is a vast amount of code that involves Yisha (re)acting according to the player's actions. So if you exclude Yisha then this could be tricky.

I think steering small (non capital) ships is tricky. Capital ships allow a different approach since the Skunk can dock there.

As Unitrader has mentioned there is a way to just change the appearance of the Skunk by keeping all the core macros and just substitute the hull related parts. Again this is not that easy when the corresponding ship is a capital class because of the many additional features like storage, docking ports, turrets, different weapons/missiles. Not to mention the changes in the ship's abilities. For example if you fly a cap ship you should neither be able to dock at another cap ship nor at a bar etc. . Also features like long ranged scan, drone handling etc. would need to be checked.

All that would require a re-design of the player's UI and here we still lack the necessary tools.

Cheers Euclid

[Observe]

Observe did some great stuff along this line (sadly I can't find the thread to link)

Thread Link here

Image of new playership in game:

Click to enlarge:
[ external image ]

I've been a bit distracted of late, but this remains on my mind and I'll likely pick it up again before long.

[Lander1979]

All that would require a re-design of the player's UI and here we still lack the necessary tools.

Aaaaaaand... with the release of 3.50b we just got full developer-level UI modding support

Edit: Thanks YorrikVander and Observe for linking that post. Looks like we are ready to move on where that post left off.
We now have a Capital Ship bridge Mod (as discussed in that thread) and also brand new externalized UI modding support. Things are looking good, although there is still a long road ahead.

[Graaf]

i dont want to be a party-breaker here but is the most fundametal Issue with this solved? (changing the player.primaryship )

Just a question from a total noob in modding: What happens when you remove the primary part?

[UniTrader]

i dont want to be a party-breaker here but is the most fundametal Issue with this solved? (changing the player.primaryship )

Just a question from a total noob in modding: What happens when you remove the primary part?

player.primaryship is a "variable"/expression which refers to the Ship the Player is steering, so usually always the skunk. player.ship refers to the current Ship Context of the Player (when in the Skunk its the Skunk iirc, when docked at a Capship its the Capship, when in a Station its null/not existent i think. and no, its not possible to set these Values, you can just read them.

[Lander1979]

First concept design is posted. A single Mod to change the Skunk into a Katana (hence the name "Katana Mod"). What I have done so far here is swap out the Player ship Geometry files for that of the Katana, and then alter the original player ship macro to suit the new geometry files and engine, fx, weapons, etc.

Unitrader has mentioned to me that this might not be the easiest way to do this. Apparently it is easier to start with the Katana macro and allter it to make it player-ship-centric rather than to start with the player ship macro and make it Katana-Centric.

I chose to do it the latter way as I am unsure which variables in the player ship-macro are "essential" for it to work, and changing it this way allows a degree of reverse-engineering in the construction of the macro (If I change a variable in the player-ship macro that breaks it's functionality, it is easier to identify and correct).

Although changing the outside geometry of the ship has been successful there are definitely mismatch issues between the internal structure and external structure of the ship. When exiting the cockpit of the altered Skunk; the external surface of the Katana's Nose-cone can briefly be seen inside the Skunk's cockpit at about head-height.

Also, when in space and visiting the Skunks crew quarters, the player is unable to move around the cabin. I am unsure of whether this is caused by the player clipping the geometry of the Katana, or possibly being caused by a missing or broken layer in the player-ship Geometry files or perhaps an incorrect link in the player-ship-macro file.

For weapons I have decided to try to fit dual MG and Quad Plasma to the ship. Placing multiple weapon slots on the Katana has been successful, however making two weapon points fire at the same time remains problematic.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Lander1979]

The Katana Mod has had an overhaul and now features a turret as well as several weapons.

Katana Mod Post;http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=377888

If anyone can work out how to make all the plasma cannons or all the MG's fire at the same time I think it would make this mod awesome.

Here is my latest failed attempt at getting the weapons to fire together in a group, if anyone want's to take a look or try to make it work.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/7wz6j ... eriment.7z