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Thread: Thunderheart Please Read. Instanced Docking Bays.
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Balzan
Tue Jul 27, 2004 8:07 pm
#28
I really like your idea, though I think the starport needs a completely new design. The current one is out of place. I full heartedly agreee with instanced Docking Bays. I currently despise the idea of just going to the starport and using a terminal, I was hoping that maybe Guild Halls could have ships land on the wasted space ontop... though I don't see this happening. I would really like to see PLayer Docking Bays too...
Bloodfin 
Zutan
Wed Jul 28, 2004 2:59 pm
#32
I think this would be an excelent Idea..
As for others seeing your ships etc.. not necessarily.. remember the whole point of "instanced" is that you and your group are the only ones that enter any specific "instance." Someone else could use the same door and get their own instanced hangar.
(LDON in EQ does this and Player housing in EQ2 will have the same concept)
Whether they wall off that hall in starport (which likely would be a rather major art work item) or just put some terminals you access and it loads you to your instance it would be a great addition to the game. It also lets us see our ships parked on the ground rather than only ever seeing them in space.
Herbsman
Wed Jul 28, 2004 4:19 pm
#33
Zutan wrote:
I think this would be an excelent Idea..
As for others seeing your ships etc.. not necessarily.. remember the whole point of "instanced" is that you and your group are the only ones that enter any specific "instance." Someone else could use the same door and get their own instanced hangar.
(LDON in EQ does this and Player housing in EQ2 will have the same concept)
Whether they wall off that hall in starport (which likely would be a rather major art work item) or just put some terminals you access and it loads you to your instance it would be a great addition to the game. It also lets us see our ships parked on the ground rather than only ever seeing them in space.
As for others seeing your ship, I only meant that they would see it and be able to enter it and walk around in it if they entered your instanced hangar.
The ships that others would see taking off wouldn't actually be your ship, it would be a simplified version of your ship type. As in, if you fly your YT-2400 from Mos Eisley, they would see a toned down version of a YT-2400 taking off. A small 5 sec flight sequence following a predetermined flightpath that's allready stored on everyones computer. So you don't really have to get all the data from the server. The server would simply tell your computer to play a takeoff sequence for a YT-2400 from the position of docking bay 4 for example. The workload of the server to do this is very minimal and wouldn't cause any lag unless you're playing on a 56,6k modem or some such.
Ice-Cold
Wed Jul 28, 2004 4:28 pm
#34
Dynonychus wrote:
Well you know I'm all for it
I'm not sure about having to group, though, although I guess it does solve some logistical problems. I guess my problem with grouping is that my past experiences have largely consisted of waiting around for a long time whilst potential groupmates assemble, and then are added in once they arrive. With a door code, you could send that to your potential group, then be inside the hanger mucking about with your ship until they arrive.
With multiple ships on the tarmac, also, there's the potential for server lag. Not personal lag, as the hanger would still be fairly small and devoid of NPCs and the like, but having so many ships out at once means the server has to send out the codes for each ship and it's mods to be rendered by each individual in the hanger. With lots of people potentially creating lots of instanced hangers (especially on the first day!), they would still need to keep the load as light as possible.
Well, waiting for groupmates to finish buffing or there current mission is no big problem lol, you could always hang out in the mos eisley cantina..
I love these ideas, maybe the devs should add them asap lol.. but I'd also like to see the Mos Eisley docking bays...
Star Wars.com:
Known to many as a pirate city, Mos Eisley is one of the largest spaceports on Tatooine. Its architecture is typical of the Tatooine style -- blockhouses largely sunken into the sand, providing some respite from the relentless desert suns. The city is arranged in a wheel formation, with the central power and water distribution plants at its hub. Circular docking bays and landing pads dot the city, and the sky is busy with interstellar traffic.
Mos Eisley Spaceport began as an alternative to the then-bustling Anchorhead port, which many residents found too expensive. Rodian refugees helped in the construction of the city's many docking bays. Though their hard work did indeed build a city, their corrupt pasts also brought vice and crime to the port.
I see none of the things mensioned there in SWG... maybe it as the same style cantina, with the same dewback stood in the same spot as the film.. but thats pretty much all we see 
.. all the pictures of mos eisley from the site, and looking at the games pictures of mos eisley, theres nothing i can recognize
.. all the pictures of mos eisley from the site, and looking at the games pictures of mos eisley, theres nothing i can recognizeMessage Edited by Ice-Cold on 07-29-200412:39 AM
Message Edited by Ice-Cold on 07-29-2004 12:39 AM
Crazyguy111
Wed Jul 28, 2004 4:42 pm
#35
I had an idea similar to this a while back before the JTL forum. I'm not going to dig it up but if you're feeling bored there's a HUGE list of idea somewhere in the game guides forum, under the simple name of, space expansion. Somewhere between pages 4-10, lol
Herbsman
Wed Jul 28, 2004 4:46 pm
#36
Crazyguy111 wrote:
I had an idea similar to this a while back before the JTL forum. I'm not going to dig it up but if you're feeling bored there's a HUGE list of idea somewhere in the game guides forum, under the simple name of, space expansion. Somewhere between pages 4-10, lol
Nice, I'll take a look at it tonight. Not like I have anything better to do on the nightshift.
Crazyguy111
Wed Jul 28, 2004 4:59 pm
#37
this is the thread, all 23 pages of it
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=game_guides&message.id=115011
Herbsman
Wed Jul 28, 2004 5:18 pm
#38
Cool, I think I read some of it a while back. But It'll make for an interesting read tonight.
Herbsman
Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:21 am
#39
I've been reading the forums alot and looking for information on how you access your ship, and as far as I've been able to find out, it appears that you go to a starport, open your datapad and activate your ship. You're then immediately shown a loading screen and JTL loads up. The next thing you know, you're in space.
Alot of people dislike this idea, especially roleplayers and those who's main interests are in multi-passanger ships. Therefor I have come up with this proposal for instanced docking bays, which I believe might not be too difficult to implement and would add alot of immersion and improve upon gameplay when JTL comes out.
First things first. Here's a map I've made of the current starport (starting planets that is, excluding the Theed Starport). As you can see on the left we have the current layout of the starport and on the right you can see my proposal.
Now on the current map we have two corridors leading to the landing area. I hardly ever see anybody using the righ corridor and it seems to me that it's just a big waste of space. So why not simply delete those rooms and add instanced docking bays throughout the starport where there is space.
The way this would work is, you would add doors leading to these docking bays from the primary landing area which players will use to access their docking bays. The docking bays would not even have to be modeled onto the starport model, because they are instanced. All you would really have to do is wall off the entrance and exit to the right corridor.
Now, here's how the docking bays work. If you enter a docking bay, it spawns your personal hanger. Inside are all of the ships that you own in your datapad. If you want to use a starfighter, you simply get in and take off via a loading screen. If you want to use a multi-passanger ship, you enter your ship via the ramp or door and walk into the cockpit and sit down at the controls and activate the ship. Then you get the loading screen. This wouldn't create lag for anyone outside because they don't have to load any of the contents of your docking bay.
So what happens if you want to take a group with you onto the ship. Simple. You would have to group with them first. Let's say you have a group of 8 people. 5 of them want to go with you on your multi-passanger ship and the rest want to use their own fithers. Then the owner of the multi-passanger ship would enter docking bay 1 for example, thereby spawning his personal docking bay. Any group members entering the same docking bay as he did will be entering his instanced docking bay. The others would simply enter docking bays 2-4.
Now what happens if all members want to use fighters and there are only 4 docking bays. Well, they would simply wait for the 10 seconds or so that it takes for the group member that's allready using the docking bay to take off. This creates a minor feel of a take off cue. But it would never be a long wait because it only applies to group members. If the wait is bothering you, simply leave the group and enter the door.
The reason why I'm proposing this is mostly to create more immersion and also because having to go to space simply to pick up something you have in your cargo hold might be allright in the beginning, but when you're starting to have to do it frequently it will get pretty annoying and time consuming.
This way you can enter your docking bay and view all of your ships at the same time. You can enter your ship, drop a shipment of cargo in the cargo hold, pick up some stuff and exit without ever having to go to space.
For added realism, it might be an idea to allow those on the ground to see ships take off and land. It shouldn't be too taxing on the game because these models would all follow a pre-programmed flight path, the models are probably simpler or equally simple as a character model. If not, then it's pretty easy to create simplified versions of starships. Most 3D packages offer a modifier whereby this can be achieved by just a few clicks of a button. And it would be really cool to see different types of ships take off and land at starports.
What about the scaling of starships? Well, I know that some of the starships might not really fit in the docking bays that I've mapped out, but the docking bays are instanced so they can be as big as they need to be. It would be a bit of a case of an interior being bigger than the outside look of the place but still, I think it's worth it for adding something like this. And the models of the ships taking off and landing could be scaled down for this.
So, what do you guys think?
Message Edited by Herbsman on 07-27-2004 01:58 PM
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