Modifying Ships

[Capn Mirmulnir]

So, I was thinking. No doubt people will buy a merchantmen or something and modify it with cannons, armor, etc. Although, would we be able to go into a drydock or something and then buy certain modifications to put on? Or would we just do it ourselves, in our own base or something?

If we do it ourselves, I'm thinking about enabling World Edit for public use. Although, so it's not abused (not sure if this would be easy, but I know it's possible), make it so that if you are gonna use WE you have to have the blocks in your inventory (and maybe even pay money?).

Now, if we are doing the drydock thing where we buy modifications, here's what I'm thinking. You go to a drydock, where you can buy, sell, repair, and modify ships. If you choose to modify the ship, then you go into a sort of 'customization mode' . You have fly mode and World Edit enabled, and you can freely edit your ship as you wish. Also, maybe have an NPC there with you. What the NPC does, is you can buy schematics of different turrets etc. from him. So basically, here's a (detailed) scenario:
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Bob flies his merchantmen into a drydock. He wants to modify his airship, so he talks to the NPC and goes into Customization Mode. He and his ship are in a box, with no one except the NPC. First, he wants to add armor to his ship. So what he does, is he starts going about using enabled fly mode and World Edit (only for the Customization Mode) and goes about using WE to plate the outsides of the airship in stone slab. Although he can get clay armor for cheaper (because clay is easier to get than stone slabs), he wants the extra protection (but it costs more) and chooses stone slabs.

Now Bob wants to put on some turrets. So he goes to the NPC, selects a turret schematic, and pastes them in (Let's just say they cost $100 for each turret pasted). Now, he has an armored merchantmen with turrets on it.

Bob's feeling pretty good, so he heads to Inspection Mode, where he has spectator mode enabled and he reviews his ship. He finds a little mistake in the wiring, so he goes back into Customization Mode, fixes it, then looks it over again in Inspection Mode.

He's happy with what he sees, so now he takes his new merchantmen into Testing Mode. There, he has a limited area to fly his ship (not a tiny area, there's still plenty of room to fly around, even for something huge like the Goliath), test his cannons, and see if there's any problems. Everything is working as it should, so Bob talks to the NPC, who gives the total cost of everything. It's a tad too expensive, so Bob denies, goes into Customization Mode, removes a turret, then goes back to the NPC. Now the price is a lot cheaper, and he can afford the modifications. The NPC asks Bob, "Are you sure you want to make these modifications?" Bob selects "Yes" and pays the total of the costs, and takes out his brand new merchantmen for a spin. Everything he blew up in Testing Mode is fixed, and it all goes back to the way it was outside of Customization (think of it like this, when customizing your ship, your in an area that's frozen in time. When you come out, time resumes).

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So, this is pretty much what I'm thinking. It's similar to those car-racing games where you go into your garage, pimp out your car, pay the total, and go race. I think this would be a good feature to add, because people will inevitably customize their ships, and I think the Customization Mode would be better than just enabling WE or something. Although leave your opinions, I'm open to constructive criticism.

[Long YM]

It's a good suggestion, but there are several problems to the approach you chose, some of which are hard to resolve as it is, even disregarding the feature freeze until Survival is in a playable state. I'll attempt to go through some of the larger ones, but take what I give with a pinch of salt.

Firstly, what you are suggesting would take a lot of work on a programmer's behalf, which sadly none of us here are capable of doing in any decent amount of time. It is certainly possible, yes, but only if one were to spend weeks slaving through existing code, which is a daunting enough task considering you're doing it for free.

I believe that modifications, if they should be made, are easier done the way they are in vanilla than say through WorldEdit, which even in an altered state already presents a challenge to some players as to how it should be used. Using WorldEdit would only add to the management problems that come from piloting airships, as well as the questions that will inevitably be asked by new players to the staff.

And as is the nature of WorldEdit, players will always find ways to crash the server or exploit the system, be it by accident or on purpose. Modifying it in a way that would negate that would then be another programming issue.

Also, though I have yet to confirm it with another source, I believe that while Bacca intends players to customize ships in their own small way, be it adding fireguns, armour or turrets, it should still be accessible enough to new players without experience to anything but Movecraft. Adding a large system such as the one you suggested would probably end up with newer players just being confused, and older, more experienced players just skipping the whole pre-existing progression system of purchasing better airships and just turn their merchantman into a full out flying capital ship on the spot.

The existing Movecraft repair system in part already allows for more experienced players to "share", in a way, their own tried and tested designs with others, which is in my opinion less troublesome than giving a new player the schematics of over a dozen turrets which they do not know the workings of, then expecting them to create a design from scratch without knowing the function of each component.

The current issue with ships, in regards to maintenance and construction that I see right now is not one of how you can customize it, but rather how do you make losing a ship, especially a modified one, painful but not instantly game-ending, without needing too much in the way of additional infrastructure to support such a system. Perhaps you could give comments on that?

[TylerS1066]

I agree that the customization mode, flying and WE are not a good idea, I do think that customization should be allowed and encouraged.

I don't know what to do to customized ships that got sunk.

[Capn Mirmulnir]

Alright, well, thanks for the feedback. I hadn't thought much about the confusion it might cause and how much time it would take to program (btw, when I mean time is frozen or whatever I just mean being teleported somewhere else that looks similar). I mean, it sounds cool in concept, but then again there are too many problems with it.

Although, I think this was in another discussion, but having insurance would be a good way to make losing a ship not so devastating. It could be NPC run insurance company, or player run (with the NPC probably being a bit cheaper, and a tad worse than the player one). But I'm pretty sure there's a discussion somewhere about airship insurance. That would help the loss of an airship. Basically, if you lose an airship and you have insurance, they replace it with a similar one (like if you had a slightly modified merchantmen, they'd replace it with a normal one), or maybe try to compensate (if it was heavily modified) with a better/equal ship. Don't quote me on it though.

[BaccaYarro]

Short version: Would be cool, I want to do something like this, but the details are elusive for now. Might be something for a "version 2" of the server.

[Keough99]

Maybe for a dry dock I like for a WE/creative thing we can use command block magic for a thing but there are down sides so we basically make a custom creative mode with command block magic and a whole bunch of other things I will explain this ingame

[TylerS1066]

I think a good way to mod ships will be our focus after public launch (that is if anybody wants to work).

[Keough99]

I'm fine with working on it

[Capn Mirmulnir]

Alright, awesome. I didn't expect it to require 0 changes, it was just a concept really. Although I'm glad to see you've taken it up Keough. Basically the basic concept is just a limited area where you have creative and can use WE to modify your ship instead of doing it by hand.

[Keough99]

I'm going to be making a custom creative mode

[Capn Mirmulnir]

Sounds cool. What do you mean by "custom creative mode"? Like creative, just with boundaries and restrictions?

[Keough99]

Yes

[Bradey Elliott Stone/ ~MoonWalker]

I'd suggest being able to purchase certain 'parts' or features to a ship. if you've ever played Elite Dangerous, you can purchase a better engine for your ship or new weaponry etc..

I'd go for that!

Also, I think we should be able to 'unlock' them instead of purchasing them every time your ship sinks.

well! that's what I think.

(this post is edited because I made a typo)

~MoonWalker

[StarStruck99_MC]

try using the ship in a box program, maybe you load a modification somewhere in the docks,maybe use a crane or something to move it, then place it somewhere on your ship?