[Suggestion] Flight computer / Cockpit options
Greetings.
I have a little bit of a "problem", that also existed in SE1: In space, I can just point my ship in a direction, turn of dampeners, accelerate and then can take off my hands from the keyboard and thing just goes.
On a planet, this does not work as gravity keeps pulling me down without dampeners.
What I'd like is an option to turn on a "keep distance from ground" option for this. In the most basic form, this could be an option on any cockpit / flight control block, you can toggle and increase/decrease, from the ship tool bar once it becomes a thing in SE2.
But because engineering is more fun, it might also be a neat idea to introduce it as a flight computer module, either as it's own block, or as an addon block to cockpits or gyroscopes, similar to the power cells for the batteries.
Here, you could even introduce a tier system.
- Integrated flight aid: Allows you to toggle the new safe speed, super dampener and docking things some people don't seem to like for various, often understandable reasons. part of every cockpit / flight control
- Basic flight computer, available to build with early ressources, gives you artificial horizon and basic constant altitude settings. Calculates altitude by distance from the center of the gravitywell, so the center of the planet. This means, you can set it, but if you don't look and a mountain comes up, and it's higher than your chosen altitude, you crash into it.
- Advanced flight computer, available with mid game ressources, gives you the above but with terrain recognition, meaning it calculates altitude by distance from the ground and checks in front of the ship for obstancles, so in the above scenario, it would try to increase altitude to get over, if given enough thrust to work with at current speed.
- Semi-Autonomic flight computer, made from late game ressources, enables you to go full auto-pilot via POIs or GPS coordinates. Basically, it takes you from A to B as fast and direct as possible.
- Fully-Autonomic flight computer (AI Pilot), end game, takes full control, doesn't even need a cockpit, can navigate autonomously between points and even do things like dock, and load/unload cargo (territory of the programmable SE1 block, I know)
Well, that's my 2 cents about it, for your consideration.
Have a nice day.
I like this feedback
I agree. Meaningful infographics in the cabin and "pilot seat" are a necessity.
BTW, a simple "anti-collision system" does not have to be too sophisticated—it is enough to measure the slant distance, the distance of the terrain surface ~ 20°-30° below the horizon (at a distance of 1.75-2.75 times the flight altitude).
I agree. Meaningful infographics in the cabin and "pilot seat" are a necessity.
BTW, a simple "anti-collision system" does not have to be too sophisticated—it is enough to measure the slant distance, the distance of the terrain surface ~ 20°-30° below the horizon (at a distance of 1.75-2.75 times the flight altitude).
I would love an avionics rack system, where I could plug in rack modules and more functionality would appear in the cockpit with each added rack module.
I would love an avionics rack system, where I could plug in rack modules and more functionality would appear in the cockpit with each added rack module.
All you need then is to add in the appropriate sound clips for the cockpit; "Pull up! (woopwoop) Pull up!", "Terraign, Terraign", the fire alarm and other fun sounds when your craft is on fire, falling apart, and out of control.
All you need then is to add in the appropriate sound clips for the cockpit; "Pull up! (woopwoop) Pull up!", "Terraign, Terraign", the fire alarm and other fun sounds when your craft is on fire, falling apart, and out of control.
I thought about something like this before for SE1, an 'Avionics Block', that controls, and essentially gives you, dampeners. Dampeners wouldn't be some automatic thing that magically just 'happens'. You need this block on the grid. By default, dampeners would be set to damp in every direction, but you can customize for finer control in the control panel. Further, a Hotbar toggle would allow adjustments on the fly, like disabling back thrust dampening to enable hands-free forward flight (no need to have back thrusters in a group anymore). Or down thrust too when thrusting up in atmosphere. This would be a nice addition i think for SE2.
I thought about something like this before for SE1, an 'Avionics Block', that controls, and essentially gives you, dampeners. Dampeners wouldn't be some automatic thing that magically just 'happens'. You need this block on the grid. By default, dampeners would be set to damp in every direction, but you can customize for finer control in the control panel. Further, a Hotbar toggle would allow adjustments on the fly, like disabling back thrust dampening to enable hands-free forward flight (no need to have back thrusters in a group anymore). Or down thrust too when thrusting up in atmosphere. This would be a nice addition i think for SE2.
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