Star-Chart flying via sitting in your bridge chair

zylpha1

Do you think it will ever be possible to create a Star Map Gui on the bridge so that you can fly your starship from planet to planet while you are sitting in your bridge chair?

It would be fun to roam the ship and then get an intercom call from the bridge saying that you are at your destination planet.

Please consider doing this... It would be fun!

lindaleff

The devs have already stated numerous times that this will never happen.

e30ernest

lindaleff wrote: »

The devs have already stated numerous times that this will never happen.

Actually, the way mentioned above might be feasible. It'll be like transwarp on a timer. You won't actually be flying your ship or be changing locations in real time. You'll just loading another map after x number of minutes depending on the distance you're supposed to travel.

Of course it'll come with some drawbacks:

• You probably won't be able to leave your bridge until you get to your destination (that includes other map invites or STFs)
• You probably won't be able to change course until the timer for your original destination has expired (you aren't really traveling so computing the time for a course-change would be too troublesome to program)
• There won't be much to do for the duration except sit on your bridge.
• Since you aren't really changing locations, your DOff mission roster won't work.

While I'd like to sit on my bridge while my ship is in transit too, I don't think many will. For that reason, I do not think it'll be made real anytime soon.

mrspidey2

e30ernest wrote: »

[*] You probably won't be able to leave your bridge until you get to your destination (that includes other map invites or STFs)
[*] You probably won't be able to change course until the timer for your original destination has expired (you aren't really traveling so computing the time for a course-change would be too troublesome to program)

Those issues shouldn't be a problem. The first thing the game would need to do when you switch from Sector Space to you bridge is to save your quadrant and your exact coordinates in it. In fact, the game is already doing this. That's why you always end up back where you were once you leave your bridge.
Once you chose a speed and destination, the time can easily calculated based on the target's coordinates and your speed. With this, you can even keep your current coordinates updated while traveling. And since the game would always have your current position memorized, making a full stop or changing course should not be a problem at all. Even switching back to sector space would be possible.

Really, it's all about keeping track of where you would be on the sector map at any given point. The real issue here is how to make traveling on your bridge more immersive. That means, we need a dynamic main screen. I would be fine with stock images from each system map (which we already HAVE thanks to the little system info boxes in sector space), a simple generic star field for sector space (which we already have as well) and a warp animation for travel, like we have on the origin bridge.
For a bridge like the Bortasqu' you'd need a dynamic skybox. But those are already dynamic. They change dynamically everytime you fly into a nebula in sector space.

lindaleff

I need to clarify. The reason WHY the Devs said they will never do that is because simply pushing a button on the console, and being at a different location takes away from the experience of flying through space, and the feeling that your ship actually is flying through a space environment.

mrspidey2

--double post--

e30ernest

lindaleff wrote: »

I need to clarify. The reason WHY the Devs said they will never do that is because simply pushing a button on the console, and being at a different location takes away from the experience of flying through space, and the feeling that your ship actually is flying through a space environment.

It'll add some options though wouldn't it? And options are always nice to have.

From what I heard, the issue was how the game treats your character and your ship. On ground your character is your captain and on space, your character is your ship. Both cannot exist at the same time.

baudl

e30ernest wrote: »

It'll add some options though wouldn't it? And options are always nice to have.

From what I heard, the issue was how the game treats your character and your ship. On ground your character is your captain and on space, your character is your ship. Both cannot exist at the same time.

oh well, it is technically possible, since traveling between fleet holdings is exactly that...but the devs definately prefer sector space, and why shouldn't they. It is nice as a means to travel around, more so now with the revamp in place.

Unfortunately the ship interiour is a remnant of when the game launched and had many unfinished "paths" of possible gameplay developement open. Interiour never took off other than for RP purposes.

My idea for interiour gameplay would be ship repair mini games. If your ship has damage you need to supervise those repairs on location.

e30ernest

baudl wrote: »

My idea for interiour gameplay would be ship repair mini games. If your ship has damage you need to supervise those repairs on location.

I like that idea. I'm not an RP'er but I would definitely like to see ship interiors utilized more. Much of Star Trek happened inside the ships afterall.

Now the devs seem to be citing lack of interior sales as a reason why they aren't making lots of interiors. I think adding activities inside interiors will increase interior sales. They already have some DOff NPCs inside the ship, you can base various ship activities from them.