Ship Mounts

Request/Idea

from StarControl Forums

The mounts for ships is a bit wonky.  Ok, a lot wonky.

* Some ship pieces have engines included.  In fact, they emit signs of thrust when you move.  Why do we need engine mounts if pieces already have engines?  Can Stardock make an on/off button for whether a piece is an engine (and/or toggle it to be a thruster) rather than require a mount that messes up how my ship looks?

* Some pieces look like guns.  In fact, they are.  But purely cosmetic.  Can Stardock just let us toggle them on/off and what type of gun they are rather than making an assymetrical ship with one gun?  Also, some thrusters look like they could be guns (along the lines of a fusion cannon).  Again, a toggle.

*Alternatively, can you allow us to add many visible guns that all shoot, but reduce each shot's damage so they have to each hit to matter?  This would also be great for multiple angles (like the Pkunk had) or let the beam wave use two emitters to regulate the size.

In short, I think there are ways around the hardpoint system currently in use.  Just let us tell you how fast it accelerates and goes in a similar manner, but without adding a visual piece when we choose.    Also, it'd be nice to have a good way to judge the scale of your ship.  I thought I made a tiny ship, but it wound up being pretty mid-size.

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Reply #1 from Stardock.net Forums Top

This is definitely an area that is going to require a lot of work over the next several months to nail down.

The mounts matter because we have to be able to control where front and back of your ship is.

For instance, if you want a ship to have a butt missile or something, the mount needs to be in back.  But the whole thing is still a little,a syou say, hard to deal with.

If others would like to chime in here on what changes they'd like to see, please do so.  Just make sure you've given the current system a chance because there's really no intuitive way I can think of off hand for something this sophisticated.

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Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Great to hear a direct response!  Thanks for the insight on why.

What about having you just point the ship in the right direction?  Either drag a 3 point axis showing up/down, left/right, and front/back or start your design with the axes predefined.  A 'rotate model' might be helpful in case you started out wrong.  Alternatively, instead of hardpointing with a visible mount, give the option if you only want to see the hardpoint when you're in builder mode (checkbox for transparency) .  In-game, it's invisible.

For the guns, maybe allow the transparency to just be where the shots come from.  If you want the shot to come from the three guns model, add the gun hardpoint to the end of the barrel(s).

It might be nice to have an explanation for how the hardpoints work in-game.  If there was an explanation or guide on how it all works, then I missed it.  How does saying where thrusters are help?  Where should they point?  Also, it might be nice to be able to directly decide the ship's attributes (in whole or part).  My ship starts out with very high turning anyway, and adding a thruster makes an already ridiculous ship cheesy.

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