Trebor Daehdoow
Gallente
Sane Industries Inc.
Initiative Mercenaries
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Posted - 2009.12.24 13:19:00 -
[1]
I proposed my own spin on the POS redesign in one of the other threads a couple of months ago...
 Quote:
I personally would implement the redesign by making the tower a central module with struts that extend in all 6 directions to the radius of the pos shield.
Modules inside the shield just slot onto the struts (with the ranges rejiggered so if you're close to the tower core, you can open any module and move stuff around, no more playing pinball with a freighter because the modules are scattered around).
At the shield's edge, the strut expands to a circular or polygonal scaffold where the guns and so on can go. Special modules like jump bridges might extend out from the center of the scaffold.
The size of these features can be set so that there's always enough slots to fit any possible configuration.
When they're implemented, existing POS structures can be converted by a simple algorithm that slots them in at the closest possible new location.
while (modules_to_move) {
for each module that needs moving, compute distance to closest valid slot
move the module that is closest to its closest valid slot
}
The nice thing about the kind of revamps suggested in this thread (from a dev's POV) is that they are mostly cosmetic changes.
* Change the tower graphic to implement the struts (be they 2, 4 or 6 of them), and the module graphics so they attach to/wrap around the struts.
* Change the anchoring code so that modules can only go in strut positions. And permit people with the right roles to freely move modules without offlining them, for aesthetic reasons -- which also deals with the issue of the automated conversion giving suboptimal results.
* Change the access mechanics for most of the modules so that if you are within, say, 1km or 2.5km of a strut and inside the shield, you can interact with the modules (obvious exceptions might be ship hangers). So you could be 20km away from a corp hanger and still move stuff around -- this would get done by the Flying POS Monkeys moving stuff through the struts.
* Extra bonus idea: add a new "personal hanger" module that has a small ship bay (say, 2-3m) and cargo bay (100k?), so that individual players can have a place in the pos to stash their stuff. No more cans floating around inside the shield, no more dozens of ships in the ship hanger. For extra LOLs, have a "premium personal hanger" that is the only type that can be attached to the upscale "south side" of the POS.
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