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Archived Boards => The Archive => Terran-Vasudan War => Topic started by: kasperl on September 04, 2003, 02:09:32 pm

Title: Multiple Ship Docking
Post by: kasperl on September 04, 2003, 02:09:32 pm

what about making some parts of station, and reconnecting them in FRED by the SCP multiple docking code thingy?

Title: Multiple Ship Docking
Post by: Goober5000 on September 04, 2003, 02:13:37 pm

:wtf: The SCP doesn't have a multiple docking code thingy.

Title: Multiple Ship Docking
Post by: kasperl on September 04, 2003, 02:18:43 pm

then go ask them about it.


i mean, after numerous debates i clearly remember, i thought it was implemented,so that you could have more then 2 ships docked together.

perhaps it is an idea to implement anyway?

it would make modular stations really easy, and unique stations would be lot's easier too.

Title: Multiple Ship Docking
Post by: Goober5000 on September 04, 2003, 02:20:13 pm

It was never implemented.  It was discussed, and then shoved to the side.  Perhaps someone will pick it up eventually, but it'll be a tremendous amount of work.

Title: Multiple Ship Docking
Post by: kasperl on September 04, 2003, 02:21:24 pm

uhm, dangit.

did anyone try it?

Title: Multiple Ship Docking
Post by: Goober5000 on September 04, 2003, 03:20:45 pm

Yes.

Title: Multiple Ship Docking
Post by: Trivial Psychic on September 05, 2003, 12:46:00 am

This is something I'd realy like to see rectified.  I brought this issue up over on the SCP section about a month back but no one gave me a straight answer.  Is anyone working on the problem or has it been universally labeled unfixable and abandoned?

Later!

Title: Multiple Ship Docking
Post by: Goober5000 on September 05, 2003, 02:00:44 am

Straight answer:

• Many people have looked at the problem, including Bobboau and myself.
• Everyone who has looked at it has agreed that it would be insanely hard to implement, requiring massive and complex code revisions in nearly every section of code.
• Nobody (to my knowledge) is working on it.
• Nobody (to my knowledge) is planning to work on it.
• Nobody will want to work on it unless they are given an incredibly persuasive reason or get really charged up about it.

In summary: Although it's possible to code, it would require a ton of work and would probably generate a massive number of bugs for a while.  Don't count on seeing it any time soon.

Title: Multiple Ship Docking
Post by: Trivial Psychic on September 05, 2003, 01:31:28 pm

DRAT!

Oh well, thanks Goob.  But hey... maybe someday one of our code junkies will slip and hit their head and when they come to, have a vision of a simple way to get around all of this... or maybe I'll have to wait for FS3! :D

Thanks for being straight with me Goob.

Later!

Title: Multiple Ship Docking
Post by: Woolie Wool on September 05, 2003, 05:24:58 pm

I'm no programmer, but why woud you have to change so much code to implement this?

Title: Multiple Ship Docking
Post by: Goober5000 on September 05, 2003, 05:44:57 pm

There's a big difficulty in going from "one" to "many".  It's easy to go from "a few" to "several", or "several" to "several more".  That's why it's easy to bump limits.

But it's harder to go from "one" to "more than one", because you have to add arrays, bounds checking, decision making between several different dock possibilities, changes in the AI, changes in the ship structure, and on and on.  With one possible dock, it's either "docked" or "not docked".  With several, you can have lots of different combinations of the two.

Not to mention the fact that docking is so common, you'd have to make these changes in all kinds of different files.

Title: Multiple Ship Docking
Post by: kasperl on September 06, 2003, 04:23:33 am

ok, what would happen if you just removed the limit on docking one ship?

i mean, AFAIK, if you order a ship to dock you add a place where to dock, on both ships (dockport numbers or something). now, i don't FRED, or program aside from QB, but i think, that if you would just tell the AI to dock to one ship, but take 2 other ports, the only thing you would kill is the phyisics engine, and perhaps, undocking.

but if you kepa the entire thing docked all the time, you might have a chance.

also, what about trying this, make a station out of some completely differenct objects, with instead of real dockpoints, use endings like peaces of a puzzle. i mean the small part, and then the larger sphere. and on the other side, a hollow, inside a largeer spherical one, and a small tube. you set a station together in FRED, putting all the parts inside eachother, and you disable targeting on all but one, and think of someway to have the damage appear as one number on the escort list.


do i make sense here?

Title: Multiple Ship Docking
Post by: Goober5000 on September 06, 2003, 12:41:04 pm

READ MY LIPS: ENABLING MULTIPLE DOCKING IS NOT A PIECE OF CAKE.  IT REQUIRES LOTS OF CODE CHANGES AND A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF WORK.  IT ALSO HAS THE POTENTIAL TO GENERATE A HUGE NUMBER OF BUGS.

Thread closed because I'm tired of repeating myself.

Now, if you had some objects that never moved for the duration of the mission, kasperl, you could just put them next to each other and nobody would notice.  Like arranging the pieces of the Karnak before GE fused them into one model.