Trade Station Final

Trade Union  R&D Memorandum

To: Regional Directors and Stellar managers
Subject:  new Ambassador Class Trading Hub

Our trademarked ringed cylinder stations are a venerable and recognizable symbol of the Trade Union throughout known space.   Functionally, however, they leave much to be desired.   The classic cylinder is an engineering marvel of stock retrieval and processing, but our customers view them as nothing more than automated points of exchange.   Even the recent addition of station personnel leaves much to be desired.  All alone, several junior trade representatives have, in their solitude, gone mad, joined the pirates, or even become tragically addicted to y-holes.   Our current stations are also poorly defended against attack, relying on their shields and TU patrols for defense.

Download sector export at: http://starmadedock.net/content/trade-guild-station.888

Blastivator! Functional, yet obnoxious.

Here's another attempt at logic based vertical transport.  It works brilliantly, and yet I don't think I'll be using it on any of my ships.

The red blocks and computer blocks in the picture below are individual push-pulse systems.
The activator and delay blocks activate the pulse systems in sequence.

Hit the button and you will be carried quickly and smoothly upward.
The down side is that each pulse sends out a visible pulse sphere 200M wide.   I don't want my ship to look like it's exploding just because I want to use the lift!   If you feel differently, enjoy.

Logical lifts...

A gift for my fellow builders.
Others may have done this before, but I just made what is for me a major advance in StarMade Plex-lifter technology. I have found a way to make plex-lifters work much more like the sorts of lifts we are used to in the real world.

Here's how to build plex-lifters that let you travel one floor at a time, as opposed to cruising all the way to the top, and letting you jump off as your floor goes by, or dumping you all the way to the bottom of the elevator shaft if you miss your jump or wait to long.

(WARNING!  This logic MAY be judged too complex for contest stations)

Trade Guild Station (contest submission)

This is my first submission to the station contest. This is a trade station, intended as a major manned trade hub, like the ones you find by default at 2 2 2. The design is inspired by the "trading post" design of StarMade's original trade stations. 

My original version of this base was about 50% larger and was based on a single large internal space. I found that at default distance render settings, far walls were disappearing, and rendering space through the holes. In this version I tried to make sure no internal space was large enough to allow part of the room you are currently in to de-spawn.

Teasing Intrepid

Listen up, you primitive screw heads!

So just for giggles, I did a series of bobby fights between my old clunky Constitution, and my newer more elegant Constitution with the focused high-tech weaponry.   The result was that the Older ship won 75% of the fights.... decisively despite the newer weapons design and 25(!!!) turrets on the newer ship.

I totally underestimated the effectiveness of raw, brute-force.  Ever seen the final fight in Rob-roy?  Rapier vs Claymore?  Yeah that.  That's what the fight was like.  So let's deconstruct both systems and see if we can't learn something.  I think what I need is a good bastard sword.

Star Trek: Federation Orbital Shipyard

This Shipyard is not specifically Canon, but Close.  It's a combination of designs.  The small starbase bolted to the side of the structure is lifted directly from the "Regula 1" station and the "Space Office Complex" from "The Motion Picture".   I figured if Starfleet was going to re-use the design once, they probably weren't going to stop there.

The base itself is protected by six turrets that should be sufficient to fend off any random pirates.  A small shuttle bay houses a repair shuttle and a work-bee.  The base sports a store-unit and plenty of un-used deck-space for housing or factories.

The cradle is scaled to handle a Constitution class ship with  significant room to spare.  Observation modules along the side provide additional floor space, or could easily be converted for additional shielding or turret mount points for use in hostile sectors

This sector export comes with the Constitution shown here.    You will probably want to move the docking buoy  for different ships.

Teasing the Current Build

Almost done with the mid-sized space-drydock.

Dodecaplanets and Logic Gates

I've been playing with the latest Dev release and here's what I've learned.
Don't expect this release next week, there is a LOT to fix.  This is anything but a complaint, just a recognition that there's some hard coding ahead before it's fully ready for prime-time.

Planets:

• If you load the dev version and see disk-shaped planets at a distance, don't be disheartened.  Dodecaplanets spawn in through the Ghosts of their disky ancestors.  You won't see them until you are up close.
• The planetary core looks cool and scary as all heck.
• Sometimes planetary cores just appear in empty sectors with no planetary matter attached.  They are insubstantial and gravity-less without planetary plates.
• In a real planet you can't currently mine down to the molten core,  It seems like the function of the core at the moment is to define a boundary of invulnerability.  The bottom row of blocks on a pentagonal planetary plate touches the core, and can't be mined.

Next Up....

Immediate Plans...

So I've just finished a major rebuild of the Constitution class... What next?  The next step is to knock out a couple variations on the same essential hull configuration.  Those include the
Andromeda, Apollo, Kirov, Slava, maybe one or two others.
Visual references here: Jaynz.trekships.com

Edit: So lets see...
1. Add the upper Nacelle to make an Andromeda
2. Lower the side Nacelles to make the Slava.
3. Remove the upper Nacelle to make a Kirov
4. Remove the secondary hull from the Slava to make a Carlson
5.  Something like that.  I may be tired of this series by then...

I also have some TMP era Miranda  variants that are about 90% complete.  None of these are new projects, but a squadron of new ships for the effort of a few nacelles is hard to pass up.

Constitution Class: Refit, Rebuilt, Retextured

This is my third rework of the Movie era Constitution class star ship from the Star Trek Universe.  I've been working on it for weeks, and it is a labor of love.

Design Features:

• Fully re-modeled with Starmade V0.1 blocks
• Similarly redesigned Shuttlecraft based on those from the movies
• Core-lance AMC Meta-arrays
• High mass-efficiency power arrays
• High mass-efficiency thrust using new .04 engine algorithms
• Modeled Bridge, Engine room, Medical bay, Shuttle Bay.
• Decks on all sections.
• More detailed paint work
• 25 Recessed turrets defend your aft while preserving the aesthetics
• All external doors are airlocked
• Airlocks contain Gravity controls
• Jump tubes to easily move between decks.
• Full 1:1 scale
• Hand-built from blueprints

How to Voxelate Vectors Like a Boss... Part 2

OK, I'm starting to set up for my build of Intrepid, and this seems like a great time to finish my Voxel Tutorial
See Part 1 (here)

Public Service Announcement: As a reminder,  Voxel imports can be abused.  If you see someone flying a glob of hull masquerading as a ship, be a good friend, and talk to them about voxel abuse.  The fleet you save from ridicule might be your own.

In Honor of the Equinox

Nova Class:  A mid-range explorer and planetary survey craft.  Not for deep-range exploration... Like to the delta quadrant.  No, really.  Don't do it.

Nova Refit: Interdictor.  A later refit model of the nova, replaces the fore-sensor array and auxiliary deflector dish with an energy drain beam.  This is a light pt-boat, not a major combat craft.  If you have a smuggler problem, great.  If you have a military incursion, flee.

Nova Carrier:  A variant of the Nova with down-swept nacelles, and a large outboard docking frame capable of supporting a single modular mission plate.

(VZZWARP!)

(VZZWARP!)  HA! Have at thee Romulan skum! (clicky clicky of empty guns) DAMMIT!

...That awkward moment, when your ship suddenly has so much thrust that it sucks your capacitors dry, and your guns won't fire.

OK.  Ship-releases are on hold until I figure out the new coil thruster equation.

Bug Report: Ghost Engines and Power

No engines, plenty of thrust.

Not a crash:
Observation: Under pre-0.133, removal of thrusters or power core blocks does remove the block, and reduces the mass, but the removal is not reflected in group calculations. 

I am remodeling one of my ships, and completely removed the engines. All engine blocks are gone, but the ship still reports 54232.6 in thrust.   Mass decrements as normal.

Here's where it gets weird  If I add a thruster where one has previously been,   There is no increase in thrust.  If I add a thruster where one had NOT previously been, thrust increases.

2001: A Quick Space Build

So thinking in purely practical terms I created a simple utilitarian EVA and cargo management pod for the Rickover class that I published earlier today.  As I finished, I realized that the thing looked familiar.  OF COURSE! I had recreated another simple utilitarian EVA and utility pod.  Only difference was that mine was yellow.   So a quick coat of white paint and Voila!  An EVA pod from 2001: A Space Oddyssey.  Now all our Daves can feel right at home.

Soyuz

Based on the Miranda, The Soyuz adds a large extension to the rear of the hull, and  four outboard non-engine nacelles.  Whether those are sensor pods or large fixed canon emplacements seems to vary with the source.

Rickover Class: Tactical Logistics Carrier

The Rickover tactical logistics carrier is an automated materiel delivery system.  These ships are meant to function with minimal or no crew, freeing ships of the line from the mundane work of logistical support. More than just a freighter, the Rickover is designed to be a military asset.  12 of her docking ports are powered and articulated to accept the same turrets installed on federation warships.  This allowed the Rickover to deliver even valuable supplies without a destroyer escort.

The class is named for Hyman G Rickover, a Terran wet-navy admiral of the 20th century.

“Bitter experience in war has taught the maxim that the art of war is the art of the logistically feasible.”  -- Admiral Hyman Rickover, USN

Turrets, Large and Larger

Two turret systems designed as upgrade/replacements for any of  my current compatible federation ships

Both incorporate "Core-lance" meta-arrays, designed to burn efficiently through to an enemy core, while doing minimal peripheral damage. This leaves you with a defeated enemy vessel that is more valuable to salvage, or more easily recovered and repaired.

U.S.S Peregrine (fully loaded)

The U.S.S Peregrine is wildly non-canon, but she has such a plausible backstory, and beautiful lines that she needed to be made.

The premise is that Starfleet engineers tried and failed to adapt Romulan cloaking technology to Federation ships.  They could get it working briefly.. as Montgomery Scott did with a stolen cloaking device in "The Enterprise Incident" (TOS), but federation power systems simply couldn't adapt to the demands of the device.    In one of the attempts, it was postulated that perhaps the shape of the Romulan ships made cloaking easier.  The U.S.S Peregrine was constructed in order to test that Hypothesis.   The shape didn't help with cloaking, although the ship itself was a complete success in all other respects.  The fact that only one of the type was ever constructed has nothing to do with any design flaw, but may have more to do with a reluctance on the part of Starfleet to pay the Romulans so obvious and sincere a compliment as to imitate their signature cruiser design.

Suggestion: Muster points

I've been thinking about Daves, Dave behavior and Dave on Dave combat.   I think many of the difficulties of free-roaming VIs could be solved with a new block that I have been thinking of as a "muster point"

Captains orders. My hopes and ideas for LUA

There's not much documentation yet about the lua interface for interacting with VIs... so this is just wild speculation while I wait for a meeting to start.  Regardless of the syntax of the language used, Schema will need to program a library of routines and condition flags for the gamers to use...  so let's think about this. Maybe we'll come up with a cool idea or three and maybe they will find their way onto the right screens.

In keeping with the spirit of the voxel sandbox, I'd like the programming to be a fairly low-level thing.  Simple like a cube or half-cube is simple.  I'd wager there are a lot of programmers playing star-made, and we can make and share subroutines to make the process simpler for the rest.  Let me ask enough questions about my environment and I can write a routine to approach and plot a nice circular orbit around a planet.  Then I could share my routine like I share my ships.  Now anyone can incorporate my routines to navigate and orbit by having their dave interface with the navigation station and invoking the following to travel to sector 5,7,9 and orbit the planet there at a distance of 600M.

ship.orbit(600,5,7,9)

Catastrophic Success

I've been experimenting with weapons tuning.

Taking a page from the guys at Mushroom Fleet, I had created my own ballistics gel  It was 100 blocks deep.  Plenty for the sorts of test I've been doing.  So I started playing with cluster formations.  I had been very pleased when I switched from monolithic uber-guns, to horizontal stacks of clusters (5x5x3).  The shots didn't line up exactly following each other like I'd hoped, but without any significant increase in power draw, I had seriously increased my cutting  power against hull.

Mirandoids

The basic Miranda hull is incredibly versatile.  If we ever build spacecraft that (for the comfort of planet-surface dweller psychology) employ artificial gravity perpendicular to the primary direction of travel, I hope we recall the design of the Miranda.

I have already published the base Miranda class and a TOS version..  My current project is bashing the core ship into several of the cool variants for which I was able to find material. The ones that are done are just waiting for SM Beta in order to catch any SMEnt format changes

My Beta Wish-list

It looks like Star-Made will soon be in beta!   That got me thinking about the features and goodies I'd like to see added to the game during the beta-phase of development.


Rubber:  Black, 50 HPs, Neither gives nor receives impact damage.

Docking gasket: Based on the model of the plex-door.  Intangible and invisible by default.  Activates when in contact with another entity, becoming visible.  Remains intangible except to player avatars.  Allows Players to pass smoothly between docked structures without falling through the gap.

Variable Block Mass: Heavier reinforced hull, and mass scaled to the space occupied by each block. A Tet of regular hull has no business being as massive as a full block of reinforced hull.

A Darker Shade of DVI

My old and venerable video card (GeForce-8800GT) has been installed in that great motherboard in the sky where IRQs never conflict and power always flows at a precisely regulated +5 and +12VDC.  It processed many pixels, and rendered uncounted polygons in its time... a life well lived.  On this video card I played the original Half-life.  And this was the first card on which I was able to crank every option in "Unreal Tournament" and still play at full smooth frame-rates.   But, alas, Eve Online was too much for its old processor.   8800GT was survived by dozens of sparkly little pixels all over my now-speckly displays, who suddenly had no idea what to do with themselves.

(a moment of silence)

8800GT was succeeded yesterday by it's grand-child 660GTX. Upon powering up for the first time... Um... Wow... Really?... Holy fishsticks that's pretty! (Sounds of distracted clicking)

Yes.. right.. um..  Based on my new frame-rates and video capabilities, large projects like the Galaxy that were lagging me to death have become more possible.  I'll see about getting back to them soon...ish.

I do still have that whole family and job addiction thing.

Miranda Class: Ticonderoga Variant

The Ticonderoga is a sub-class of the Miranda.    She boasts two additional outboard AMC arrays, but sacrifices  the "rollbar" and its torpedo (missile) arrays.

Miranda Class: Apache Variant

The Apache is a sub-class of the Miranda.   While the Standard Miranda might be slightly starved for energy, the Apache does not suffer from that malady.  She boasts 4 warp nacelles, increasing her speed and her energy output.  She also has two additional outboard AMC arrays

MMP: Outpost

This is not a ship, but a utility module or "Modular Mission Plate" for the Miranda, Ticonderoga, Soyuz, and other variants on the same basic hull.

The Outpost is a prefabricated building, suitable for dropping on planets for quick colonization

MMP: Blank Plate

This is not a ship, but a utility module or "Modular Mission Plate" for the Miranda, Ticonderoga, Soyuz, and other variants on the same basic hull.

This is just a blanking plate to protect the MMP Docking port when not in use.  It does provide additional shielding.

MMP: Utility Carrier

This is not a ship, but a utility module or "Modular Mission Plate" for the Miranda, Ticonderoga, Soyuz, and other variants on the same basic hull.

MMP: Dual Turret

Mounted on a Miranda

This is not a ship, but a utility module or "Modular Mission Plate" for the Miranda, Ticonderoga, Soyuz, and other variants on the same basic hull.

MMP: Longboat

The Longboat is a planetary exploration and supply vessel, designed to be carried between star systems by a larger vessel.  It is neatly scaled for hull transportation on ships designed for the purpose such as the Miranda, Soyuz, or Ticonderoga.

MMP: Combat Carrier

This is not a ship, but a utility module or "Modular Mission Plate" for the Miranda, Ticonderoga, Soyuz, and other variants on the same basic hull.

TMP Miranda, New Version

For those who have been following my efforts, I have never been more pleased or proud of one of my ships than I am of the new Miranda.  The new blocks smooth the hull beautifully.  The interior is much more developed.  I've learned new tricks and added new features.   This ship will set the standard for my future efforts.

Note!  This was created under StarMade pre-release 0.107.  I have no idea how it will behave under older versions.

How to Voxelate Vectors Like a Boss... Part 1

First, what the frimp is a voxel?  
voxel: n. (in computer-based modeling or graphic simulation) each of an array of elements of volume that constitute a notional three-dimensional space, esp. each of an array of discrete elements into which a representation of a three-dimensional object is divided.

In other words, a voxel is a volumetric pixel.  In the context of games like StarMade or MineCraft, voxels are the cubic blocks that we place that compose the structures we build in game

Some folks have figured out that it's possible to convert vector based 3d models into voxels that can then be imported into games like StarMade.

How does it work?
The voxelator program reads the 3d model and projects the model into a 3d grid.  Then it looks at each block in the volumetric grid.  If a certain threshhold of the volume of the block is filled, the block is turned "on", or "filled" with a voxel.  When the whole volume of the blocks is read and analyzed, the resulting voxel file is written to disk, and readied for import into the game of your choice.

So that's it?  Instant Ship?!?!
Not so much.  A voxel import is not a ship, just a shape.  It's imprecise.  it's asymmetrical.  It has a LOT of extra blocks (and mass).  Yes, you CAN slap some power, engines and weapons on it, but it's like dropping a volkswagon into a beat-up fiberglass outline of a Rolls Royce. 


Well, what IS it good for then?
Voxel imports are great for getting the general design and proportions of a ship with a really complex structure.  Struts and spars and 3d compound curves are really tricky to figure out.  A voxel import can provide a sort of stencil where you can more easily figure out where the key structures are located and roughly what the surface looks like.

Miranda Module: Super Turret

This is an accessory module for the TOS_Miranda.

Note!:  This was exported under Dev version 0.105  I have no idea how it will behave under earlier versions.


My first Miranda-compatible module is the sort of cannon that would normally be mounted on a star-base. The turret incorporates 10 AMC arrays, each with a standard damage load of 136.2.

Both turret and base are independently powered and shielded with minimal thrusters.  If they knock your turret off, it will keep shooting at them.

TOS Miranda Version 5

The existence of an "original series" version of the Miranda class is NOT cannon to the star-trek universe, and is a matter of some debate among the Trek geeks. It is not my intent to express an opinion, just to build a fun and pretty ship.  My previous build of this ship was based more closely on the Reliant from the Wrath of Khan.  This version is a lot closer to the TOS styling and vision of Matt Jeffries.

Whatever Happened to the Galaxy?

I'm not really doing anything right now with the Galaxy Class.  I'm deliberately taking a break from it while the dust settles with the new game dynamics, new blocks, new weapons systems, etc... It's way too big a project to rework every time the game changes.

So here it sits, waiting for me to get back to it.

Refacing Miranda

So here I go with my first major effort with StarMade version 0.1.

I'm starting out by reworking my TOS Miranda.  She has essentially the same primary hull as the rest of the fleet, so she'll let me know what I'm in for.

TOS Miranda: Partially Reworked

The new Pent and Tet blocks provide a noticeably smoother and more modeled structure.  At a distance, the improvement isn't overwhelming.  Up close it makes a world of difference.  Check out the images of the lower dome below.  The effect would be even smoother and prettier, but the beveled edge of the pent gets shadowed when there are blocks on either side, even if they don't obscure that face at all.  This makes for a rather jagged look with the row of shadowed triangles marring what should be a smooth face.

StarMade 0.1 : Pents and Tets and Mysterious Bars

The new version of StarMade is out, for testing at least.

Blocks:

I'm really digging the new blocks.  As I've been working a lot with the StarTrek franchise ships, I make a LOT of discus-shaped saucer sections.  The broad curved contours have forced me into some unfortunate concessions where my hulls take on sort of a terraced look wherever the contour isn't directly between two cardinal directions.   I'm really enjoying how I can now smooth those terraces.   The down-side, at the moment at least, is that the lighting is inconsistent across surfaces.  I can make a double row of pents and tets such that structurally, I have created a single smooth surface... But the pents will reflect full-light while the tets seem to be in shadow.   I'm certain this is a temporary problem, and the most insignificant of gripes next to the STUNNING change-log of this release.