2024-04-18 Recover Vehicle, Runways, Orbit Altitude, Drop Pods

[Haxus]

Runways
Space Vehicle Recovery System. Hmm. That's a mouthful.

Changed this to Runway everywhere.

Recover Vehicles
Drop pods are fun but they can be impossible to get back aboard without a runway.

Any vehicle can now request recovery by a spacecraft if they are close enough. A Recover button appears among the on-screen buttons while you are in a vehicle.

"Close enough" is inside the shield bubble ellipse, regardless if the ship has shields.

Vehicle must also keep pace with the ship.

The ship must have a parking spot for the vehicle. As with runway landings, the vehicle will be placed in 1) an empty spot, 2) replace a new vehicle of the same kind, 3) replace a used empty vehicle of the same kind, 4) replace a used vehicle of the same kind containing items, in that order of preference.

There is some communication from the ship to help you succeed. This has some intentional delays so it's not faster than using a runway, if the ship is so equipped.

Orbit Altitude
It would be nice to specify the altitude when issuing an orbit order. This became more important with the drop pod launch direction, as discussed below.

Orbit orders now offer a Low or High altitude orbit option. Low altitude is the altitude that space stations orbit and new spacecraft are launched. High altitude is the altitude that NPCs orbit a world when flying around it. In the past, all orbit orders resulted in a low orbit.

Preview Bug
When previewing a spacecraft in the designer, the 'Empty Space' option is weird. It's like I am floating inside the ship model but I'm not "in" the ship.

Fixed.

Drop Pod Launch Direction
Launch direction of drop pod could be smarter.

Done. 

In low orbit, drop pod launches in orbit, perpendicular to the path to the world.

In high orbit, drop pod launches toward the world.

If the ship is moving fast enough, drop pod launch direction is adjusted to be perpendicular to the path of the ship.

Eden Story Bug
Eden story started while I was in orbit.

Fixed. You must be on the ground in the atmosphere for the Eden story to start.

Lost Atlantis Lights
In the Lost Atlantis scenario, all the interior lights on the ship are dim instead of the brightness in the blueprint.

Fixed. This was also true in the ship in the Stowaway scenario.

Drop Pod Death
Launched a drop pod from Atlantis at 58k m/s and the drop pod was instantly destroyed.

Fixed.

Drop Pod Life Boats
Drop pods should act like life boats when the ship is destroyed.

Done. Each person and NPC aboard locates the nearest drop pod to them, by straight line distance. A dice roll is made to see if they made it to the pod, modified by distance. If they make it they are placed into the pod and launched.

It is possible for drop pods to go unused if people aren't lucky or they are too far away.

Human players are checked before NPCs.

[Haxus]

I also included updated Atlantis and Gulliver blueprints.

Atlantis' engineering section got a couple of drop pods so those crew members have a chance if the ship is destroyed. The fantail lounge now has a galley with food all over the place.

Gulliver got a few drop pods in the vehicle bay, for excursions mainly; there's not enough to save everybody if the ship is destroyed.

[Deantwo]

I don't make a habit of blowing up my ships, but now I want to try just to test this.

Now we just need some form of cargo container object too, maybe along the lines of a TEU. Then we can have ships drop cargo too. No big rush on such a feature, since we don't have too much in the form of interesting loot to be found yet. But it has just always been on my wishlist.

[Snoman]

How does one get one of these new drop pods outside of the aircraft factory? I built one and eventually found it in the back room of the hangar building. I can't figure out how to get it outside though.

[Deantwo]

How does one get one of these new drop pods outside of the aircraft factory? I built one and eventually found it in the back room of the hangar building. I can't figure out how to get it outside though.

If you manufacture a spacecraft that uses drop pods, the spacecraft will automatically fetch them.

[Haxus]

Should the Launch button be usable in a building? Then you could launch a new pod out the roof.

[Deantwo]

Should the Launch button be usable in a building? Then you could launch a new pod out the roof.

That could be cool. But might be slightly weird if you can just catapult them from any building you happen to land next to. Should maybe be limited to buildings with Drop Pod parking spots inside?

You could also allow adding a space vehicle launch tube to buildings. Would probably make sense to limit them to Aircraft Factories, Airport Terminals and Military Airports though. Unless people really want to add it to other building types too.

[Snoman]

If you manufacture a spacecraft that uses drop pods, the spacecraft will automatically fetch them.

Ah I see. Thankyou.

[kajanov]

for the recovery preferences, what happens to vehicles that have troops or an (offline) avatar? are those considered to have "cargo" or to be empty?
I know, edge cases.. but I can see this one causing issues for recovery operations where you're current ship already fetched empty pods from factories if they're considered empty

[Haxus]

The pilot of the pods must request recovery. Npcs do not request recovery yet. I am working on it.