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Rails system


Miamato

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The idea is to have rail system in the game. As wheels are hard to implement because of movement and collision physics, can we have ability to create straight rails. This will open a lot of great new options. 

1) If you can build rails inside your base or big ship - this makes possible to create moving platforms that would work like elevators. For example you have a large carrier ship filled with many smaller ships. You can make main hangar for landing and once you need one of your ships, it's delivered by such elevator to your landing zone by elevator. 

2) You can create hiding turrets, so building a large ship at first glance it would look like a transport one, but when you encounter some enemy - you can show your weapons. 

3) Train system inside a large city or ship, that may work like public transport when it's not enough space for everyone to fly on their ships. 

4) Underground mining platforms. Principle would be the same as for vehicles that build tunnels for underground (metro) in real world - you have some custom build vehicle that moves only on rails, each time you dig enough, you need to build more rails to proceed. This allows to create accurate tunnels or caves. 

I think people will create many other cases where such things can be used. 

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Rails could be really cool, though I imagine it work better like a set track. Using the term rails brings up an image of train wheels running along two parallel rails; in game, this could still cause complications, like how it would operate after getting derailed. In the end, it's not much different then wheels.

 

I imagine things could work by having a more or less vaguely defined "track", whereby you have a set of voxels travel along a set path, where the path is less about a physical connection between two objects, and more so set by a special tool specifically for laying out paths. I'm having trouble describing it; what I'm thinking of is analagous to the moving platforms in a game like Super Mario Bros.. Straight, defined, 90 degree angles and lines that cannot be physically interacted with. 

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13 minutes ago, ATMLVE said:

Rails could be really cool, though I imagine it work better like a set track. Using the term rails brings up an image of train wheels running along two parallel rails; in game, this could still cause complications, like how it would operate after getting derailed. In the end, it's not much different then wheels.

we are in future, trains won't need wheels anymore. It can be smth like magnetic rails, the general idea is not how it looks like, but how it works. Some sci-fi rail system would feet much better into DU setting. 

 

Imagine fully automated trains that can transfer people from one side of the planet to another, especially if they will work like hyperloop or have optional rocket engines installed :D 

But the main usecase for me is - creation of interactive moving parts of your ship/base. For example with proper design you can create base or carrier ship hangars that expand themself if someone needs to dock or become smaller when noone is inside. If even more active blocks would be added - like circle or 90* rotating planforms, etc.

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13 minutes ago, yamisniper said:

So make a long hovercraft and drive it on a path with barriers on either side to contain the direction it travels.

 

13 minutes ago, yamisniper said:

yea there wont be voxel on voxel damage so at least not for a while

It's possible but this is just another kind of design. First of all major problem will be:

- this kind of vehicles will be pretty hard to keep balanced and stable on the way.

- they will suit only for large type of moving platforms.

- being hover vehicle means this is totally separate vehicle and not part of your base/large ship, so I guess you won't be able to connect such mechanisms to central logic network. 

Finding workarounds if ok sometimes, but it's better to have dedicated feature.

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1 hour ago, Miamato said:

 

It's possible but this is just another kind of design. First of all major problem will be:

- this kind of vehicles will be pretty hard to keep balanced and stable on the way.

- they will suit only for large type of moving platforms.

- being hover vehicle means this is totally separate vehicle and not part of your base/large ship, so I guess you won't be able to connect such mechanisms to central logic network. 

Finding workarounds if ok sometimes, but it's better to have dedicated feature.

of course

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Guys (and maybe Gals)! You forget the best idea! Having a rail-based launch system for ships; Like on aircraft carriers, or from Battlestar Galactica.

 

I'd love a proper rail and launch system.

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2 hours ago, TheAtlasWarrior said:

I agree, rails would be cool, even if all we get are magnetic ones, because that way we can build & use hover trains for public transportation and for much more.

 

Kinda like in Starmade? I mean I agree with that, even if the "rail" is just a painted line on the floor or wall.

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Starmade rails are good, but Hopefully the DU devs can streamline em, all those logic blocks are just in the way, better to drop 1 logic block, open it, and program it for the system. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/176819848 got to the 14:03 mark, the number of logic and rail blocks required to do this were insane  and not because of how many rails it moves along, it's because of how many things have to be changed to make it work and each change needs a mirror so for each block change there are at minimum 2 states and that could be 2-8 logic blocks per state.

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On 9/28/2017 at 7:26 PM, Darkarma said:

Rails for turbolifts as well. You need something to get you to the top of the space elevator!

if it works the way i planed nooen even sure you can get a shafts touching the ground from space yet something i will be testing sooner or later

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1 hour ago, Wardonis said:

Starmade rails are good, but Hopefully the DU devs can streamline em, all those logic blocks are just in the way, better to drop 1 logic block, open it, and program it for the system. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/176819848 got to the 14:03 mark, the number of logic and rail blocks required to do this were insane  and not because of how many rails it moves along, it's because of how many things have to be changed to make it work and each change needs a mirror so for each block change there are at minimum 2 states and that could be 2-8 logic blocks per state.

Oh yeah I know; I assume with IE and LUA you could massively streamline it; But I do look forward to something that operates similarly, while being easier to set up.

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On 9/29/2017 at 12:53 AM, Kusanagi said:

Kinda like in Starmade? I mean I agree with that, even if the "rail" is just a painted line on the floor or wall.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't there some sort of mono-rail system of carts on the Hyperion Ark from Mass Effect: Andromeda? it's how your character gets from the cryosleep chambers to the bridge of the ship

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6 hours ago, TheAtlasWarrior said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't there some sort of mono-rail system of carts on the Hyperion Ark from Mass Effect: Andromeda? it's how your character gets from the cryosleep chambers to the bridge of the ship

I honestly never played Andromeda, so I wouldn't know; But I don't doubt it. Even WWII ships had rails, is just a common thing to on water boats, sky boats, and space boats.

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54 minutes ago, Vellnn said:

Technically you can already make rails. Just make them out of voxels. The hard part is making a vehicle that can use them properly.

Once again, it's not only about building trains, but also for smaller mechanisms that would be just a part of your ship or base, and will be able to move part of that ship or base without braking the integrity.

One of examples is kind of small carrier ship, that moves it back part on rails to clear place for smaller ship to be docked on it. 59d3f1744a193_expandingship.png.13c46be5db4aa05165818e0d6b20c673.png

So the idea is to have small scale mechanism that won't be counted as a separate vehicle, so in theory you will be able to change shapes of your creation according to your needs without rebuilding it. Example above is just the simplest version of what may be done.

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On 10/3/2017 at 2:19 PM, Kusanagi said:

I honestly never played Andromeda, so I wouldn't know; But I don't doubt it. Even WWII ships had rails, is just a common thing to on water boats, sky boats, and space boats.

I've never played it myself either, but I have seen videos of others playing, and its a gorgeous game, I love the survival & exploration aspect of it, plus there's also lore to it of course, so I recommend it, you can look it up yourself as well if you want to learn more about it.

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On 10/3/2017 at 4:27 PM, Miamato said:

Once again, it's not only about building trains, but also for smaller mechanisms that would be just a part of your ship or base, and will be able to move part of that ship or base without braking the integrity.

One of examples is kind of small carrier ship, that moves it back part on rails to clear place for smaller ship to be docked on it. 59d3f1744a193_expandingship.png.13c46be5db4aa05165818e0d6b20c673.png

So the idea is to have small scale mechanism that won't be counted as a separate vehicle, so in theory you will be able to change shapes of your creation according to your needs without rebuilding it. Example above is just the simplest version of what may be done.

This example looks good, it could even be used to make the moving of cargo containers semi-automatic, I can see this being used to move many cargo containers from a storage warehouse towards the hangar bay of cargo ships, so that way all that's left to do is load the cargo onto a ship, similar to how luggage is moved from the airport to the airplane. Of course my example is just one of many that would be possible with some sort of rail system in DU. I just hope if rails will be possible, that they won't be too hard to use/make.

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18 minutes ago, TheAtlasWarrior said:

I can see this being used to move many cargo containers from a storage warehouse towards the hangar bay of cargo ships

I was also thinking about it, so just like in real world you would be able to load a ship with cargo, just by moving boxes.

This removed one of elements in building sand-box games that I hate the most - using player inventory as buffer between two cargo boxes/crafting stations. 

20 minutes ago, TheAtlasWarrior said:

I just hope if rails will be possible, that they won't be too hard to use/make.

It's actually what this all topic is about - to have simple mechanism that allows to create both simple and complex things when combined with scripting. And of course - that is why using hover vehicles is not the case. 

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1 minute ago, Miamato said:

I was also thinking about it, so just like in real world you would be able to load a ship with cargo, just by moving boxes.

This removed one of elements in building sand-box games that I hate the most - using player inventory as buffer between two cargo boxes/crafting stations. 

It's actually what this all topic is about - to have simple mechanism that allows to create both simple and complex things when combined with scripting. And of course - that is why using hover vehicles is not the case. 

yeah, rails could be used as conveyor belts to move stuff, cause I'm sure that on stations or shipping facilities having hovercraft zipping around with cargo would be messy & annoying, rails on the other hand can keep all cargo containers orderly & in place, & something else that would be good to have is the ability to control the speeds at which a vehicle travels on rails, so if an org is pressed for time, they can make the cargo move quickly through a facility, but if they are ok on time, they can make things move at an average speed. 

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2 minutes ago, TheAtlasWarrior said:

yeah, rails could be used as conveyor belts to move stuff, cause I'm sure that on stations or shipping facilities having hovercraft zipping around with cargo would be messy & annoying, rails on the other hand can keep all cargo containers orderly & in place, & something else that would be good to have is the ability to control the speeds at which a vehicle travels on rails, so if an org is pressed for time, they can make the cargo move quickly through a facility, but if they are ok on time, they can make things move at an average speed. 

speaking about scale and speed: 

- scale should differ from single voxel or even texture-like rail, that are used in small mechanisms, to big rails with physical structure depending on how much mass would be transferred and what speed. 

- speed should be average if we talk about small rails, to high-rocket speed if you have advanced enough train with long rails.

- speed directly depends on rail size and length. 

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5 minutes ago, Miamato said:

speaking about scale and speed: 

- scale should differ from single voxel or even texture-like rail, that are used in small mechanisms, to big rails with physical structure depending on how much mass would be transferred and what speed. 

- speed should be average if we talk about small rails, to high-rocket speed if you have advanced enough train with long rails.

- speed directly depends on rail size and length. 

That sounds like a good idea, I think magnetic rails could also make vehicles hover, increasing the maximum speed that they can travel at, this could facilitate the transport of a lot of heavy cargo.

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