[PROJECT] Multiple Player ships

[Observe]

Replacing the Skunk is easy enough (relatively). Here I am flying around in my Evader Corvette (imported into Rebirth from my X3 Transcend mod):

Click to enlarge:
[ external image ]

In the process of doing this, I think (more tests needed) we can have multiple player ships. Just as we can now (since 2.0) have multiple cockpits, it looks to me we may be able to switch external models as well. If this idea pans out, we should be able to have Capital, Fighter, Freighter, and all manner of ships directly flyable by the player.

I will use this thread to post progress toward this end.

Thanks.

[Privata]

awsome , one idea that might make things easyer , what if you changed/removed the first room in a dock to not have the skunk there , would that not be easyer , then you would not need to have many different versions of each ship.

and do you know how you would handel walking around your ship with fighers?

[SupraRZ]

Drum Roll......lady's and gentlemen I give you the one and only!!!

EGOSOFT GIVE THIS MAN SOME COCKPITS !!!

[SupraRZ]

awsome , one idea that might make things easyer , what if you changed/removed the first room in a dock to not have the skunk there , would that not be easyer , then you would not need to have many different versions of each ship.

and do you know how you would handel walking around your ship with fighers?

Vr terminal in your capship have a fighters radial menu instead off drones

I would would like to see the x modders / model makers pull together on this project !

[linolafett]

Always think about what happends, when you land on a platform.
Changing the visual exterior only is not enough, all shield/weapon/hull values/connections have to be replaced. You can not be a transportship as the skunk does not have the functionality to carry collector/cargodrones. Maybe ypu could hack a bit around to solve these issues, lets see. Have fun experimenting

[Observe]

Always think about what happends, when you land on a platform.
Changing the visual exterior only is not enough, all shield/weapon/hull values/connections have to be replaced. You can not be a transportship as the skunk does not have the functionality to carry collector/cargodrones. Maybe ypu could hack a bit around to solve these issues, lets see. Have fun experimenting

@linolafett: Thank you for your feedback and suggestions. I am a huge fan of your modeling and artistic skills!

Regarding docked model, I would probably remove the Skunk and have bare docking bay. I prefer this anyway, as it allows for clearer view of space while on the platform. As you say, possibly we could hack player transport ship to overcome restrictions there. And yes, different player ship classes would need complete re-configuration, but from what I can see, that shouldn't be too hard to accomplish since it depends on macros etc associated with the individual ships.

Clearly, there are a host of issues/challenges to overcome for all this to work properly and I've only just begun with much work remaining. I still need to gain better understanding of how turrets work and a very long list of other factors.

Thanks

[Scoob]

No doubt this is a big job, but it's encouraging to see the progress made so far.

If the "docked" model can be swapped out and the pathing (where the player is allowed to walk) is changed accordingly, then I can see this working well. It depends in part on how easy the interior of the current cockpit is to dynamically change in-game. A full edit of the current scene would be "easy" but swapping in multiple new scenes would be more effort & require the engine to support it. The dream of course is to land in your fighter and have the canopy open and the player step out...well, that and being on the bridge of a Capital ship...oh, and actually seeing your fighters land on a player owned carrier while stood on the flight deck...and and and.....well, there's some epic potential here lol

What I'd like to see is ES coding additional support for this sort of thing, making the modders life easier. They may not have the resources to create all the needed "docked" models, interiors and cockpits, but code support for this and I can see modders doing the rest.

Btw Observe: could you see a way to get the turrets working on the Evader Corvette? Rather than current capital ship HIT/MA and Plasma/MA turrets I'd like to see a more old school gimballed turret mount. This might open the way for more "classic" X ships to be imported. Not delved too deeply into ship models myself - only the XML files to add hull shields to capitals before it got added officially.

I will be following your work Observe.

Scoob.

[Observe]

I would would like to see the x modders / model makers pull together on this project !

Interesting you mention, because I am in the process of putting together a proposal to Bernd that Egosoft sponsor something like Star Citizen has done with their The Next Great Starship competition. That sort of thing may help generate some additional excitement among the modding and fan communities.

[Privata]

I would would like to see the x modders / model makers pull together on this project !

Interesting you mention, because I am in the process of putting together a proposal to Bernd that Egosoft sponsor something like Star Citizen has done with their The Next Great Starship competition. That sort of thing may help generate some additional excitement among the modding and fan communities.

nice idea , and it might get some amazing artist out of the shadows and in the spotlight were they belong

[linolafett]

The problem sadly is: Replacing the skunk model is the easiest part. Taking care about all the stuff connected to the single playership system is the problem. If you change the skunk mesh, the interior mesh has also be replaced. The interior restitcts the size of the playership immensely, so for bigger ships we would need a different interior. ANd these are just the artist issues i have in mind, the coders would see other issues for sure too.
Calling for more meshes wouldnt solve the underlying issue
I hope we can get rid of the single ship in the future, if that happends in rebirth? I dont know.

[UniTrader]

as lino pointed out the the Skunk in the Interior Model is changed based on loaddout, but i think we actually can get the Playership inside the Station, too without much hassle by using this one - as long as the Player can not reach it simply use the Hangar used in some Platforms, remove one or two ships there and park the invisible inside variation of the Player ship there, and the Entry Point for the Station is the small Platform there -> problem solved: you see your parked ship, but cannt reack it for further inspection where it wwould look bad


and regarding the Steerable ship classes: i would only go up to M Ships directly controllable by the Player, for Capships i would invent another indirect Control Method when he on the Ship Bridge* (more direct than currently) because the Player is the Commander/Captain, not a Crewman..


* something like giving commands by looking in a direction or at an Object in Space and pressing a Hotkey, so the Ship flies in that direction or attacks/follows the slected Object etc.

[Privata]

I think that for rebirth maybe just having more M6 sieze ships , Katanas (albion skunk) Terran Class IV , maybe a X2 centaure. that sort of thing.
maybe a ship like a nova could work if yish sits behind the player as a co-pilote and maybe the interior sections of the ship are instead a small hanger bay

[Observe]

Btw Observe: could you see a way to get the turrets working on the Evader Corvette? Rather than current capital ship HIT/MA and Plasma/MA turrets I'd like to see a more old school gimballed turret mount.

Hi Scoob. Turrets are next on my list of things to investigate. Among others, I want to see if I can get my Hailstorm Destroyer "wheel turrets" working in Rebirth. Here is a video of how it looked in X3.

I also want to see if I can get my Xenon Uziel turrets working. Video here.

Thanks

[SupraRZ]

I would would like to see the x modders / model makers pull together on this project !

Interesting you mention, because I am in the process of putting together a proposal to Bernd that Egosoft sponsor something like Star Citizen has done with their The Next Great Starship competition. That sort of thing may help generate some additional excitement among the modding and fan communities.

Great idea ..someone mod a wookie for the millennium falcon lol ...

Seriously I'd like to see some old school split fighters ..
Bernd hope your reading ..

[NZ-Wanderer]

Regarding docked model, I would probably remove the Skunk and have bare docking bay. I prefer this anyway, as it allows for clearer view of space while on the platform.
Thanks

OR - If it was possible and easier, make the one thing that a LOT of players have been requesting...

A BRIDGE

Having this would do away with the need to have any kind of external model showing up cause we would be on the bridge of the ship we landed on

@linolafett - since you the main man around here, and without hi-jacking this thread too much, could you tell me where abouts the skunk interior graphics are kept please?? - I want to get rid of the scratches etc from the cockpit I am using, but have no idea of where to look for the graphic files.

[UniTrader]

@linolafett - since you the main man around here, and without hi-jacking this thread too much, could you tell me where abouts the skunk interior graphics are kept please?? - I want to get rid of the scratches etc from the cockpit I am using, but have no idea of where to look for the graphic files.

do you mean the textures or the models of the CP interior?

[NZ-Wanderer]

do you mean the textures or the models of the CP interior?

Just the textures, I want to edit the windscreen of skunky and get rid of the scratches

[UniTrader]

look into the libraries/material_library.xml <collection name="arcp1"> looks promising for that, and i think that is what you actually look for, but not really sure:

Code: Select all

    <material name="cp1_window" shader="shaderfx\high\XU_glass.fx" blendmode="alpha8" preview="none">
      <properties>
        <property type="BitMap" name="diffuse_map" preload="1" value="assets\textures\player\cockpit\cp1_window_diff"></property>
        <property type="BitMap" name="environment_map" preload="1" value="assets\textures\player\cockpit\cp1_reflect"></property>
        <property type="BitMap" name="specular_map" preload="1" value="assets\textures\player\cockpit\cp1_window_spec"></property>
        <property type="BitMap" name="normal_map" preload="1" value="assets\textures\player\cockpit\cp1_window_bump"></property>
        <property type="Float" name="mat_diff_light_str" value="1.0"></property>
…………
      </properties>
    </material>

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Fantastic effort, thanks so much

Something that might become a bit odd with larger ships, and could perhaps make it hard to model normal distributions of sub-system damage, is that hostiles only seem to aim at the Skunk's cockpit (at least as far as I can see from a drone). A bit like how in TC/AP turrets could aim at odd model parts (and maybe see all fire pass through an empty gap or aim at the very edge of a model).

Sorry if that's stating the obvious - it's just something I've not see talked about so i thought I'd mention it on the off chance it was useful. If it was something you found to occur and could work around, that would be nice

[UniTrader]

well, thats probably because the rotation axis of the Skunk is located there. should be easy to change, but may feel weird when controling the Ship.. lets test it ^^