Pioneer dev forum

Hi developers,

Is it possible to add 2 more buttons to the control panel?

Proposed buttons: Master Arm switch (on/off) and Weapons Bay (open/closed)



Proposed functionality: No weapons can be fired unless Master Arm is on and No missiles can be fired unless Missile Bay is open.

Optional features: Station will decline docking clearance if Missile bays are open or Master ARM is ON, something like this "[SHIP ID] WARNING!!! Weapon bays open. Please secure your weapon stores! Docking/landing clearance declined". If you are withing certain distance from a station (for example 100km) with both Master ARM on and Bays open and loaded, the station could issue a warning, for example " [SHIP ID] you are approaching area controlled by [STATION NAME]. Power down your weapons immediately!"
At 50km the station could launch interceptors to shoot you down if you didn't comply with the request.

Optional model changes: Animated weapon bays. Something like this


screen grab

Safety switch for your weapons, I like it.
I'm not entirely sure about the missile bay one. I'm note sure it's a good idea to have missiles out to provide a nice little explosive part exposed for the enemy to hit. Missile tubes and pods might be a better approach. And we already need to arm the missiles before firing. Although the added vulnerability with exposed missiles could prove a nice choice you need to make between integrity and available firepower.

From modeling POV it shouldn't be that much work to update the models with an animation for this. But with the 17 ships we have right now, it won't happen overnight either, if something like this gets implemented.
For example I designed the Kanara (the one ship which is actually meant for combat right now if you ask me) with missile tubes in mind (although omitted from the current model), not opening hardpoints.

Forgot to mention one more proposed feature. If you are burning through atmosphere with missile bays open (landing gear out) your hull temperature could rise much faster to simulate that your hull is not 100% securely sealed against such a high temperature. Actually I was thinking along those lines initially.

The animation itself for missile bays could be anything (retractable hardpoints, launch tubes, animated hatches or just a hole in the hull through which missiles supposed to come out) or even none at all, it is not that important as long as there's code in the background that triggers the consequences for having the bays open or closed.

Arm switch would add more dynamics to the game, but I don't see any real purpose for Weapons bay doors, other than fancy graphics, that would add workload to devs at little yield.

Link: #2410

impaktor wrote:Arm switch would add more dynamics to the game, but I don't see any real purpose for Weapons bay doors, other than fancy graphics, that would add workload to devs at little yield.

Link: #2410

Obviously it all could be tied down to one Master Arm switch, meaning you turn the Master Arm on and your on board computer does the rest of the work (powers on weapons, activates here seeker heads, passes on the target info to the missile, opens launch bays/ports tubes etc. basically doing all that needs to be do to make them launch ready). It is all down to what level of simulation you want to take it.

The way I imagine Arm and Bay buttons represent 2 slightly different conditions:

Bays Open - as if you were saying "I have weapons" meaning Hazard
Master Arm ON - "I am ready to use my weapons" meaning Threat

Therefore, taking station approach example, if you are approaching a station with your weapon bays open the station warns that you have your bays open, and denies you docking clearance for safety reasons, I don't know, let's say there's a risk of your missiles detaching from your ship and damaging something if you hit the deck too hard, maybe issue a fine if you ignored the warning and landed manually anyway.

At the same time if you are spotted in the vicinity of a station with your weapons armed and you are not part of the station's defense forces, meaning you have no business "running around and waving your guns". So the station will treat you as threat and would order you to stand down and power off your weapons, should you chose to ignore it would launch interceptors to protect itself and eliminate the threat (you).

Two different conditions leading to two different chains of events creating more dynamic game world.


Anyway, those are just a few of possible scenarios and it is entirely up to the developers what to implement and what not.

Having a MArm switch would also allow implementation of a way to have "soft" law enforcement response to weapons without going stupid - instead of receiving a slap on the wrist for firing a starship grade weapons in vicinity of populated buildings, you could get a warning for arming your weapons and be dealt with lethaly if you fail to power them down or start shooting.

It might be neat to have shields connected to combat readiness as well.

I was gonna ask the same question and look at here I'm so damn lucky!!! Thanks

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switchblades