[Feature Request] Sitting on chairs

[vvvvvvvv]

There's a ton of comfy and not so comfy chairs in the game. There are chairs in Astrid, benches on stations, there are chairs on observation deck, and I think there was a stool in the bar.

You can't sit on any of them. Would be nice if this changed and you could sit down. Even better if you could also sit or lie down on the bed in astrid.

Right now game only processes interactive animated pilot chair which is reused at some more important desks. However "sitting down" animation would work fine for most of the furnuture even if it camera briefly passes through chair geometry.

[humility925]

I know you can sit chair in your personal office in headquarter and it's bring up map to oversee of your empire.

[Alan Phipps]

I'm pretty sure it might be easy enough to have generic chair-sitting/bed-lying code that could work OK in some circumstances of race and chair/bed combination but could look downright awful in others (such as sitting/lying point of view being inside or very close to another object, or a remote view of the player clipping or looking silly).

To have every race/chair/bed combination encounter recognised and catered for just to get an always-appropriate sitting/lying/rising action and viewpoint, and that gives no other gameplay benefits, would be a waste of programming time and game processing resources. X games are not really intended as player character detailed action simulations. Just my personal opinion.

[vvvvvvvv]

To have every race/chair/bed combination encounter recognised and...

* The idea would be not to cover every theoretically item, but to do it in high impact areas first. That would be Astrid interior, observation desk, crew quarters, etc. I.e. a place with something cool. While in theory you could implement ability to sit on 1 meter tall cargo boxes in landing pads (and swing legs), that's not necessary.
* At the moment game does not allow to zoom in close on the player in 3rd person, so fitting body onto chair is not much of a concern. Pilot animation would do, and priority would be 1st person view, unless 3rd person on-foot is properly implemented.
* There aren't a lot of chairs and aren't a lot of races. There are only 5 races (it is possible that there are 6 body types, due to humans having noticeable dimorphism unlike everybody else), and typically a chair is the same reused asset, located at the same height. So it is more placing triggers over and over. Now, there's only one bed in the game, so making an animation just for it might be overkill (then again, it is probably 1-3 frames loop), but sitting on its edge would be enough.

Also, rather than "gameplay benefits" it gives game benefits/immersion benefits. That is an effect that creates positive response in player when discovered. A "wow" effect you could say. Something closer to easter egg, or cool detail, and so on.

Basically, an example would be... imagine a 1st person shooter, where you encounter a basketball and a basketball hoop. Now you discover you can pick up the ball. Then you obviously try to toss it into the hoop. Now let's say you succeed and the game acknowledge it and and either plays a sound of crowd cheering or advances counter on the wall. That is one of those "cool moments". They do not give mechanical benefit, but create an memorable impactful experience which creates positive opinion on the game while at the same time they're not expensive to implement.

Or in case of x4.... in Astrid there's bar. You have a crew member manning it, which is, I guess, something. Now imagine that you walk to the bar and discover a chair is interactive. You sit down, and barman places a drink on the table. You look at it, it is also interactive. So you press "interact", character drinks it, and then ship voice comments "don't drink and fly". That would be a similar cool moment. But this is more work than chairs.

The game could use more stuff like this. At the moment most of those cool moments are in PHQ, in the player's office. All those collectibles. They give no mechanical benefits, but create positive impact on the player.

[Nerwesta]

I'm pretty sure it might be easy enough to have generic chair-sitting/bed-lying code that could work OK in some circumstances of race and chair/bed combination but could look downright awful in others (such as sitting/lying point of view being inside or very close to another object, or a remote view of the player clipping or looking silly).

To have every race/chair/bed combination encounter recognised and catered for just to get an always-appropriate sitting/lying/rising action and viewpoint, and that gives no other gameplay benefits, would be a waste of programming time and game processing resources. X games are not really intended as player character detailed action simulations. Just my personal opinion.

Which race are you thinking about that couldn't normally sit on a bench ? I'm sorry, you sound like the races we've met on this game aren't able to sit on a single seat on a ship.
With that in mind, I can't fathom how it could be technically difficult to make them sit on a bench.
Am I missing something ?

[Alan Phipps]

@ Nerwesta: Yes, even if all humans/humanoids could typically sit on a wall-mounted bench, what about Paranid with increased head height and long legs, or Teladi with reduced head height, short legs and a tail (what do you do with a fixed tail on a wall-mounted bench)? Would a Boron in their capsule somehow mount the bench and just hover vertically above it?

As to the pilot etc seats they can use, you have noticed that the seat straightens or folds according to the race of the pilot? Now try that with a fixed bench or armchair (or bed).

[vvvvvvvv]

@ Nerwesta: Yes, even if all humans/humanoids could typically sit on a wall-mounted bench, what about Paranid with increased head height and long legs, or Teladi with reduced head height, short legs and a tail (what do you do with a fixed tail on a wall-mounted bench)? Would a Boron in their capsule somehow mount the bench and just hover vertically above it?

As to the pilot etc seats they can use, you have noticed that the seat straightens or folds according to the race of the pilot? Now try that with a fixed bench or armchair (or bed).

"Hey, you there. The liz... teladi guy. Come here"
"Have you come to discuss profitsss, human?"
"I can pay you for that, alright. Come here"
"Profitss are always good! But what does the human need this chair for?"
"For science! Try to sit here"
"Teladi objects. Teladi tail does not bend this way!"
"Science will find the way!"
*crunching noises and lizard screaming follows*

Honestly, though. I'd be pretty happy with race-restricted furniture. Meaning only humans can sit on human chairs. Or maybe also split as they seem to be very similar in proportions. That creates a mental image of sad paranid or sad teladi that stole astrid, but none of the furniture fits their alien posterior. That also explains all those standing stations on ships.

And thinking about it, I've never seen aliens sit down anywhere. Do they even HAVE furniture? As the only one being used is human-centric. They do lie down, though. In Timelines.

[Captain_Canard]

There's a ton of comfy and not so comfy chairs in the game. There are chairs in Astrid, benches on stations, there are chairs on observation deck, and I think there was a stool in the bar.

You can't sit on any of them. Would be nice if this changed and you could sit down. Even better if you could also sit or lie down on the bed in astrid.

I support this message. A slightly greedier request is that I'd like to be given access to manual control of the turrets (one at a time, cyclable) when I sit at the gunnery station on a capital ship. But in the meantime, sitting in comfy chairs will do!

[vvvvvvvv]

@ Nerwesta: Yes, even if all humans/humanoids could typically sit on a wall-mounted bench, what about Paranid with increased head height and long legs, or Teladi with reduced head height, short legs and a tail (what do you do with a fixed tail on a wall-mounted bench)? Would a Boron in their capsule somehow mount the bench and just hover vertically above it?

As to the pilot etc seats they can use, you have noticed that the seat straightens or folds according to the race of the pilot? Now try that with a fixed bench or armchair (or bed).

Out of interest, I decided to check how alien pilots sit in pilot chair.

Teladi:


Uses human posture, pretty much. The interesting thing is that while Teladi is sitting down you don't see his tail, as if it disappears.

Took me a few attempts to figure out where tail goes, basically, it clips through the pilot seat geometry and is hidden within.

---
Boron:


Can't sit down, and f lies standing. Control panels under finger may not materialize properly when he uses chair.
---
Paranid:


Flies standing up, like Boron. I even suspected that he might be using the same skeleton as Borons, but there are differences. Borons could definitely be using retargeted paranid animation, though.
---

Split:

Seems to have human-compatible skeleton. Not sure if animation is the same one as human animation. Sure looks similar, though.


---

With that in mind, going back to chairs, I think it would be a reasonable thing to add ability to sit on normal human furniture for some species. Humans, Split and maybe Teladi. I suspect most people would play human anyway.