addition of travel features and/or removal of docking skips

[g04tn4d0]

i know... weird subject title. i'll start from the beginning and try to cut to the chase.

what can be edited? can features be added to the game or is it limited to just placing stations/adding ships/adding ai routines/commands?

basically, what i was curious about was if it was possible to alter the time compression effect and make it more of a jump drive. kinda like sub-hyperspace. it would have the same end affect as the time compression, but without making time pass quickly. is this possible?

the other question i had was is it possible to remove the ability to skip through docking sequences; forcing players to dock manually? the feature of flying into the station and having to find a parking space is a nice touch but is devalued by the inclusion of being able to skip through all of it with the ESC key. i would prefer to have automatic docking available only if there was a docking computer installed. is this something that i can do?

i saw someone that wrote a script that changed the physics for flight and weapon velocity at some point. it got me wondering how much wiggle room we actually get for scripting.

can anyone help? not asking for someone to write these features, but just trying to verify if it's flexible enough to accomplish.

[Burianek]

basically, what i was curious about was if it was possible to alter the time compression effect and make it more of a jump drive. kinda like sub-hyperspace. it would have the same end affect as the time compression, but without making time pass quickly. is this possible?

I don't understand, you just want to make the ship faster if you press a key? There's an engine tuning script out there that has an 'afterburner' effect.

the other question i had was is it possible to remove the ability to skip through docking sequences; forcing players to dock manually? the feature of flying into the station and having to find a parking space is a nice touch but is devalued by the inclusion of being able to skip through all of it with the ESC key. i would prefer to have automatic docking available only if there was a docking computer installed. is this something that i can do?

Again, I don't really get it. If you like docking manually, go for it. I do it myself from time to time, the insides of some stations are pretty cool. If you can't resist the temptation, put a piece of tape over the 'esc' key. Seriously though, you can't change keymappings with scripts, so you can't remove the functionality of the esc button.

[g04tn4d0]

I don't understand, you just want to make the ship faster if you press a key? There's an engine tuning script out there that has an 'afterburner' effect.

Yes... like Freespace and Elite.

Again, I don't really get it. If you like docking manually, go for it. I do it myself from time to time, the insides of some stations are pretty cool. If you can't resist the temptation, put a piece of tape over the 'esc' key. Seriously though, you can't change keymappings with scripts, so you can't remove the functionality of the esc button.

But my point is, trying to add realism by allowing players to dock manually is completely negated by also allowing them to just skip it. What is the point of a docking computer if you can just ESC out of the whole ordeal anyway? Kinda makes the whole manual docking feature a pointless addition. Kind of tacky. I would still want automatic docking in place, just the removal of the ability to skip it if you don't have one.

Some of you will recall that it was done this way in Elite. If you didn't have a docking computer, it sucked to be you because you had to fly it into the bay yourself. Sure, the bay was a rectangle that was supposed to represent the opening of a station, but it added a bit of realism to the game... at the expense of your patience. After a while, the idea of spending money on a docking computer seemed rather important.

[XeHonk]

the docking computer is for docking (skipping the long procedure of flying those last 5 km into the docking bay)

.. not for parking =)

[g04tn4d0]

the docking computer is for docking (skipping the long procedure of flying those last 5 km into the docking bay)

.. not for parking =)

[JustHere4Coffee]

ok, you wanna "add" realism by removing the ability to use your autopilot to skip long boring bits, while skipping long boring bits in space...

why not just keep docking and undocking from one station?

no, scripts can't change how the basic game engine actually works; although you could script in a "move me instantly to this point in space" command for your autopilot, you couldn't bind it to a single keypress

hey, they gave you the same key to press as Elite; and it only "skipped" in the early 8-bit versions anyway, later ones (and later Elites) did time-acceleration too

[g04tn4d0]

ok, you wanna "add" realism by removing the ability to use your autopilot to skip long boring bits, while skipping long boring bits in space...

why not just keep docking and undocking from one station?

again, no, i will re-explain:

Hand Puppet: "Oh, I see a station! I want to dock!"

If the hand puppet has a docking computer installed, the entire process is automated... including finding a parking spot.

If the hand puppet does not have a docking computer, the hand puppet must pilot the ship into the hangar and park it... with no way to skip the process using ESC.

no, scripts can't change how the basic game engine actually works; although you could script in a "move me instantly to this point in space" command for your autopilot, you couldn't bind it to a single keypress

hey, they gave you the same key to press as Elite; and it only "skipped" in the early 8-bit versions anyway, later ones (and later Elites) did time-acceleration too

i didn't get to play elite+ much. just the original. hehe

i still worship first encounters though w00t!

[sacq]

You don't have to hit the ESC key at all if you don't want to... right? You could use self-restraint to hit ESC only when you have a docking computer installed, if you liked that idea.

If your hand puppet keeps hitting the ESC key even when you don't want it to, then you might have a problem more severe than a lack of features in the script editor!

Cheers,

bn

[Firedancer]

ok, you wanna "add" realism by removing the ability to use your autopilot to skip long boring bits, while skipping long boring bits in space...

why not just keep docking and undocking from one station?

again, no, i will re-explain:

Hand Puppet: "Oh, I see a station! I want to dock!"

If the hand puppet has a docking computer installed, the entire process is automated... including finding a parking spot.

If the hand puppet does not have a docking computer, the hand puppet must pilot the ship into the hangar and park it... with no way to skip the process using ESC.

no, scripts can't change how the basic game engine actually works; although you could script in a "move me instantly to this point in space" command for your autopilot, you couldn't bind it to a single keypress

hey, they gave you the same key to press as Elite; and it only "skipped" in the early 8-bit versions anyway, later ones (and later Elites) did time-acceleration too

i didn't get to play elite+ much. just the original. hehe

i still worship first encounters though w00t!

well I sort of see what you're up for, but there's another difference: e.g. in frontier you had traffic even 'on the ground' meaning within the atmosphere, and on the spacedock. Crashing had fatal effects, both into other ships and into the ground... I remember some funny fights/chases in just a few meters above ground.... but in X2 there is NEVER any traffic inside, and even IF you crash, you just bump off... so there's really only time delays you're getting of doing it manually....