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Thread: Landing Ships on Planet Surface (without atmospheric flight)
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Rikilii
Tue Oct 26, 2004 9:02 am
#1
This is an idea that I originally posted here a few months ago, and that my friend refined and posted on the Beta "Wish List" forums in hopes that the devs would see it. The idea received a lot of positive feedback, so I figured I'd revive it here now that the Beta forums are locked.
Here's the link to the thread, for those that can see it:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=wish&message.id=2208
And here's the full text of the concept:
This idea should be very easy to implement, almost entirelyusing existing game mechanics:
Instead of just being able to "land" at starports the way we have it now,you would have the option toland on the surface of any planet at any waypoint where there is space to land.
You would "land" your ship through the ordinary structure placement interface,and the ship would appear and function as a structure on the ground (only it would look like a ship, rather than a house or harvester) when you are finished "landing".
The Details:
If you decide to land this way, an interface would pop up, where, instead of selecting a starport to port to, you would:
1. see a map of the planetand click on the map to enter the desired waypoint where you want to land (or you could just type in the waypoint if you desired)
2. instead of porting to a starport, you would port to the waypoint you chose, but your toon wouldn't immediately appear there. Instead, you would enter directly intothe same interfaceused for placing structures, centered around the waypoint you picked.
3. you would "place" your ship, just like you place a house or harvester....when you have found a suitable (buildable) spot, your ship would appear as a structure, only instead of looking like a house or harvester, it would look like your ship (much like those reward Tie fighters and Xwings), and you would then end up standing next to it.
4. optionally, instead of seeing the building animation used for structures (with the red "ribbon"), people on the ground in the area would see an animation of the ship landing, just like shuttles and the lambda.
5. another option: If your ship is a multiperson ship with an interior, it will act just like a house while on the ground, so you can walk in and out of it just like you can with a house. Instead of spawning next to your ship after it is placed, you and your passengers would spawn inside, wherever they were located in the ship when it was in space.
6. even another option: You need to have free lots, to do this, so all the people landing their ships would not increase the crowding on planets. The number of lots could depend on the size of the ship.
7. even another option: there could be a ground-based structure, like a hangar or landing pad, where you'd always have a guaranteed spot to land. This would not be required (ie. you'd always be able to land at any waypoint), but it would take some of the guesswork out of finding a suitable place to land your ship when you're just going home. If the devs were really ambitious, there could be hangars and landing pads of various sizes where multiple ships of various sizes could land, or some of the existing houses could be modified to include a landing pad on their roof.
SmugglingGuy
Tue Oct 26, 2004 9:47 am
#2
It's okay.. but it wouldn't be a nice sight seeing loads of ships around if they're up to scale. Also it makes vehicles and shuttles obsolete in the game.
Leon'el Katanos
Dagger71
Tue Oct 26, 2004 9:57 am
#3
I think it's a great idea but it cannot be implemented on an MMO game. Can you imagine the lag it would cause??
Already the giant pets and people hanging out at Correlia and a few other starports is causing a tremendous amout of lag. what do yo uthink it would be like having dozens of ships landing in the area?
Secondly if the land zone was based on the lot selection proces this would cause immense problems when more than a few people have to land in roughly the same are.You would have people being forced to land maybe 1-2 km away from the original destination since most lots around a city are already taken up by housing and/vendors. This would defeat the purpose of having a ship.
Good suggestion but would not be implemented because of the major issues it would cause.
Rikilii
Tue Oct 26, 2004 9:58 am
#4
SmugglingGuy wrote:
It's okay.. but it wouldn't be a nice sight seeing loads of ships around if they're up to scale. Also it makes vehicles and shuttles obsolete in the game.
I don't get it....it's a STARWARS game, and seeing ships around wouldn't be nice? Why did everbody play until their eyes were bleeding a few months ago just to be the first on their server to get the Ship statue reward?
Also, it wouldn't make vehicles and shuttles obsolete, because the process of launching into space and then landing again would take time.....it would be no substitute for those 1-2K vehicle trips or shuttle hops where the wait is less than 2 minutes.
Montya_Quatun
Tue Oct 26, 2004 10:01 am
#5
Not to mention it wouldnt be obsolete because not everyone is getting JTL. So there ya go
Rikilii
Tue Oct 26, 2004 10:07 am
#6
Dagger71 wrote:
I think it's a great idea but it cannot be implemented on an MMO game. Can you imagine the lag it would cause??
Already the giant pets and people hanging out at Correlia and a few other starports is causing a tremendous amout of lag. what do yo uthink it would be like having dozens of ships landing in the area?
Why would it cause lag? It would be no different than the current structure placement system, and would cause no more lag than all the houses, PA halls, player city structures, and harvesters strewn about the galaxy.
Secondly if the land zone was based on the lot selection proces this would cause immense problems when more than a few people have to land in roughly the same are.You would have people being forced to land maybe 1-2 km away from the original destination since most lots around a city are already taken up by housing and/vendors. This would defeat the purpose of having a ship.
Why is that a problem? It's only realistic that two ships could not land on top of each other, or that you could not land a huge freighter in the middle of a crowded city. Practically every player city I have seen has plenty of empty space around it. Plus, at any given time, a large percentage of players will be in space anyway, so their ship will not be on the ground. Many people will opt not to use this feature all the time because they want to save their lots for permanent structures or harvesters.
Good suggestion but would not be implemented because of the major issues it would cause.
Dagger71
Tue Oct 26, 2004 10:33 am
#7
Houses and structures areSTATIC placements which do not move nor need to give any movements updates. Once a PA hall is placed it is now part of the backgroundscenery.
What you want is to have big ships and sometimes several of them all landing (ie moving and updating) at the same time. Like I said earlier, go to Corellia and sit outside the startport for a few minutes. Then watch the lag slowly freeze up your system when more than one person takes out a giant pet.
The ship placement issue is again going to cause an issue. Right now almost all available "Buildable (ie landable) space has been taken outside just about every major city on Gorath. How are we to deal with several ships landing in the same area? you will have people fighting for spots and even those fortunate enough will have to land 1-2 km or more outside any city (which like I said defeats the purpose of ships).
Besides the "Ship landing in real time" was never ever discussed as a feasable feature. It won't be implemented because of the logistics.
Rikilii
Tue Oct 26, 2004 10:57 am
#8
Dagger71 wrote:
Houses and structures areSTATIC placements which do not move nor need to give any movements updates. Once a PA hall is placed it is now part of the backgroundscenery.
What you want is to have big ships and sometimes several of them all landing (ie moving and updating) at the same time. Like I said earlier, go to Corellia and sit outside the startport for a few minutes. Then watch the lag slowly freeze up your system when more than one person takes out a giant pet.
The ship placement issue is again going to cause an issue. Right now almost all available "Buildable (ie landable) space has been taken outside just about every major city on Gorath. How are we to deal with several ships landing in the same area? you will have people fighting for spots and even those fortunate enough will have to land 1-2 km or more outside any city (which like I said defeats the purpose of ships).
Besides the "Ship landing in real time" was never ever discussed as a feasable feature. It won't be implemented because of the logistics.
You have to actually READ the post, because what I proposed does NOT involve moving objects. It involves static objects that are NO different than the structures we have now, except they look like ships instead of houses. And personally, I never had a lag problem when people pull out pets in major cities. But that's beside the point, because you wouldn't be able to do this in major cities.
Also, who cares if the land outside the major cities is mostly occupied and you can't place your ship there? If you want to go to a major city, then use the starport. This idea is more geared toward servicing player cities, as well as landing at remote locations and on adventure planets.
Dagger71
Tue Oct 26, 2004 11:06 am
#9
I'm sure the landing at remote loactions will eventually be implemented. If the city is large enough hopefully they will eventually be allowed to place a starport. That would be a nice feature.
Orryhazard
Tue Oct 26, 2004 11:10 am
#10
I like this idea.
The "red ribbon" concept is fine with me. We dont need an animationfor the placement of the ship structure. The ship can just appear in the right spot like a house does.
I would use this alot.
Orryhazard
Tue Oct 26, 2004 11:12 am
#11
There is just one problem that I just thought of.
Lairs on the surface have to be cleared before you can put down a house or harvestor. How can we clear out the lairs to make room for the ship?
Uther27
Tue Oct 26, 2004 11:16 am
#12
An interesting twist to this idea, and maybe a whole lot more workable. Make a new house that is in fact a landing pad, that you can select when talking to the space station.
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