[WIP] Mass Relay - Warping all over the place

[Molybdene]

Look at my first post.

First version is "just" a one-part relay, just to be sure we have the technology to do that.

After first release, Frizz & I will work on a multi-part Mass Relay Ring. It will be hard to put together, and it will be at any size, that will depend on your ability to fly through it, and my ability to check if a ship has a ring-shapped relay, and that you are going through it. easy enough.

[The Destroyer]

How's it going?

[frizzank]

How's it going?

Doing well, how about yourself?

[The Destroyer]

Ah, you have such a good way of replying.

I was just wondering, with no activity reports in 4 days.

[Molybdene]

I currently have a working plugin with all features that I wanted to include for the first release.

No I have to choose an energy consumption, bugproof the plugin, clean the code a little, doing some more optimisation, and then making sure that the parts are done & ready to go with Frizz.

[Tom from the Mun]

Hello, Molybdene and Frizzank

Thank you, I can't wait for this mod to be completed!

^{It is the first time, I found myself actually waiting for the 1st release, thats a bit strange. Stargate sure is the obvious idea, when you talk about space travel game. But the only "warp" mod I found is the KSP Interstellar}

So here are my ideas:

• I'd like to see the warp relay as the "gate", which you have to enter to be teleported, more stylish this way. I have nothing against the mass relay from Mass Effect also, but that one was more "railgun" looking.
  
• The gate have to be constructable, to make it more time and effort consuming, the space exploration must not be too easy. What I found:
  

This is the Jumpgate by nhnifong and dt890 (pic by kent700i).

• As for the mechanics - I agree the space travel must be energy consuming thing, but not the amount should be considerable, but the time it takes for the relay to be charged before the jump is made. The countdown timer would make the whole proccess more (how should I put it?) intriguing.
  
• The game itself has the nice docking "magnet" helper, maybe you would like to use something like that to adjust the teleported ship position near the relay, to make sure whe ship won't ruin it during the jump.
  

[Umlüx]

true. it should be very demanding. but it should evolve. maybe like the interstellar mod (or with it, if you use megajoules). so the more you progress within the game, the more common and easier the warping process should get.

[Molybdene]

I'm wondering if anyone is reading the first topic because I kept repeating and repeating that.

The first release will have only a single part mass relay.

Later, I will develop a mutli part relay that needs to be put together in space.

I said that already like.... 6 times? so, tom, point one and two: already planned ^^

As for the mecanics...

- The delay will be around 2-3 seconds (the time of the gate animation), I didn't planned on having to wait more next to the gate. If the energy consumption is big, the time you will have to wait for it to be charged will be great too.

- The game does have a magnet like effect for the docking parts... I'll try to see if I can find it, but I will certainly not code it myself. Docking is super easy once you have done it several times.

Edited November 26, 2013 by Molybdene

[Umlüx]

but please, as a designer of gigantomatic ships... dont make me fly through such a puny ring

your mass relay-ish one part thingie is cool enough

[Molybdene]

No size restriction as I see it.

The way I want it, is that it will not be a ring that needs 4-6 parts and everyone has the same, like the one tom linked (4 parts. yay). You will have to put any amount of "things" in a circular pattern. You will have to design and build it, the size will be yours to choose, the vessel will be yours to assemble.

I myself will have to do the math to check is the vessel is an appropriate ring & if you are going through it, hehe.

[Tom from the Mun]

I am aware, that you are focused on the code now. Just to make sure you are moving in the right direction

About the charging - I see no point in large amounts of energy, if the relay is fully charged at the time you reach it. Click - you are there, how much energy it was - I dont care.

Next - you jumped, leaving the consumed relay behind. As far as I know, the game does not bother itself running the processes (such as atomic reactors operation) on other inactive vessels. In this case, I guess, you have to switch back to the relay, speed up the time to charge it, then switch to your current business.

As you can guess, the only way I see the energy concept usefull - it is the way I described it in the first place. I don't insist on it, but switching ships and/or time forwarding... you want it to be the inseparable parts of the mod? Please, share your vision

[frizzank]

There was a part gravity plugin a while back that was applied to asteroids. I remember them saying the code was really simple. I don't know where it is now.

Also on a side note. It is extremely frustrating to start a mod and see people almost demand features for the mod often without reading the previous posts.

It's made me resort to ignoring everyone's comments, both good and bad, and just do what I think is fun.

I know it's hard to read things and just look at the pretty pictures. So before you start pouring out all of the ideas in your head please, for the sake of all of us, and the hard work of the mod creators.

At minimum, Read the FIRST Post before spilling your guts on the forums....

Edited November 26, 2013 by frizzank

[Molybdene]

Is everything fine, Frizz? Keep cool, man, I do not mind, having some feedback is always a good thing, I like feedback.

Nevertheless, I'll keep it the way I planned doing it.

The idea of having a large amount of power consumned is not having to wait for the mass relay to charge, but to ask the player to build a station with a good amount of batteries, so some good weight to put on orbit.

that's all

[Bof'Ral]

I've read every post in this thread! =P

and I still can't wait for the release, it will be like an extra Christmas gift!

and I keep the latest post in my bookmarks so I can read the new things from there on.

No idea how to reach the User Control Panel... so here are my ribbons thus far.

[Molybdene]

You will be able to add a signature & an avatar once you have enough posts.

[canisd]

I too would love to see this prototype.

[Rockyfelle185]

So you will remake this project later on right? A fresh start?

[Molybdene]

more like an evolution of the concept

plugin will be available on sunday. (\o/)

[Xentoe]

wow cool..

Than I cna begin to place my gatewaynetwork same time with the exploration of the planets too *jumpies*

[Umlüx]

is it sunday yet???

cant wait to feed 1,21 gigawatts in this baby and hit 88mph to see some serious *****

[RayneCloud]

Glad to see something like this, I can't wait.

-DR

[The Destroyer]

Glad to see something like this, I can't wait.

-DR

Wait what,

Damion Rayne?

He's still browsing?

[Molybdene]

hmm...

I gave my plugin to someone that tested it for me, and we encounter some troubles that are not really nice.

I'm taking a look at it and try to fix it, but I don't want to rush it and hand over a broken plugin.

[XanderTek]

That's unfortunate, hope it's not too much trouble to fix. If you decide you need more testers, I'm sure there are plenty to be found here

[Molybdene]

It's a strange behavior in fact.

The Mass Relay of origin (the one that is sending the vessel) is doing great and is consuming power (a lot of) for the warp...

The Vessel is warped and with the correct orbit.

But the destination mass relay, that I did not touch... see its orbit changing, I'm not sure what, aaand...

It's still the same as before if you quit the game and restart it.

I'm just getting the orbit values of the destination, clone it and put the values on the Target Vessel to be warped (with a small time/epoch delay to avoid collision between the two vessels). Not touching the values at all, just getting it and cloning it.

I consider this a "plugin not working" because I don't want people to close & start the game each time they warp.