A similar concept was recently added to the game From The Depths, and no so recently to Space Engineers and very not recently into Minecraft. The idea is of an in game block/component/etc that you can type code into to manipulate certain things in the game world.
For example in From The Deths I used its Lua Box to create a missile design that seeks out the most dangerous target (as marked by the games AI) and steer the missiles towards the ships ammo stores (an explosive seeking missile instead of a infrared one is more dangerous and cannot be diverted though normal means).
I think somewhere down the line (after robots and other more important stuff) a similar room could be cool to add in Airships, as I think it would add the most flexibility to designing ships in game, I doubt you can make custom missiles given the Lores' time setting, but using this to make custom ship AI sounds really fun to me!
Maybe we could even dedicate a new section of the forum to this blocks code!
I think this would be cool, to for example, tell crew where to go, but I really don't think it would fit. as said before, a computer that runs ballistics calculations is already a 3 by 3 room, so a computer that could do logistics control AND tactical control of a vessel would have to at LEAST be 7 by 7 (huge)
But it doesn't do anything, unless you tell it specifically in Lua. The whole point of the room is versatility, therefore it must be small.
At the absolute largest it should be bridge-sized and the size could scale; For example if you want more lines of code you need more of these rooms similar to how supply works in the game (every one lua module could support 100 lines of lua before you need to add another).
This way a simple code to turn a symmetrical ship once it's right facing guns fire to let the left facing guns fire on the same target and back would only require one Lua room.
A whole ship AI might need 2-3, which is equal to a 3x3 square, which would make it the largest object in the game (bigger than grand cannons by one block).
I just gave two very useful concepts that could be added to the game as features by themselves just now but that one LUA block could do this an more AND still allow Zarkonnen to work on whatever he likes while we mess around with Lua and possibly open a new forum section devoted to Lua code sharing for vehicles in Airships!
Why don't we already have this? This concept pretty much sells itself.
So you want a module that you can program with Lua?
But, why?
Command blocks in Minecraft make sense from a map-creator sense and vanilla modding. Redstone was well established long before they ever added the command blocks. Even Space engineers programmable block makes sense if you assume it's for custom scenarios and creative-built ships. But I honestly don't seem much that this would actually be able to do that the AI isn't already doing, or that the player can't already do.
You essentially have a module who's only purpose is to automate actions that the player can already do, in a game where controlling the ships are the ONLY things you do.
The command time is currently the only thing that really limits you from constantly flipping the ship back n forth to cycle between different gun arcs. You can get it down to like 1 second if you put enough command in a single ship, but a module that allows you to essentially break that limitation puts a pretty un-fair advantage on the players who actually know how to use Lua or can copy scripts off the internet.
Even Minecraft's relatively simple redstone system confuses the ever-loving shit out of most casual players, doing anything more complex than making a door open and close practically kills them.
No offense, but I think a feature like this is way too limited in scope for the sheer amount of effort needed to make it even work.
For my own background I played a lot of Gmod. E2 and wiremod were the greatest things to ever happen to Gmod. Those were both super popular mods, but by no-means necessary or even used by 98% of the servers.
Personally I love tinkering with stupidly complicated creations, but this game already has a robust editor and a simple strategy game laid on-top. I personally don't think this game needs an excessively complicated tinkering programming system.
Though, i disagree on the lua room certain aspects could use some depth.
At the moment there is a titanic amount of content in this game, but there does not seem to be enough detail piled onto some of the aspects of the game.
For example, when a rifle from a marine is fired all you see is a crewman drop dead.
Here you could add "explosive" (Basically a few pixels made to look cool) gun smoke, and a more dramatic death on the receiving end of the firearm.
Huge dust clouds caused by landships would also be cool.
Even better, you can add more depth to making a vehicle functional.
Look at one of the minecraft Technic pack mods where you might have to build a coal powered steam engine, followed by (In this case) a gear complex , and, or a power line.(While, i suppose in order to convert the power to electricity you would first have to have some sort of generator?)
After that you would feed it into some sort of transformer which is connected to the prop, and, or suspendium chamber.(Just an idea)
I'm not trying to be pushy, but it would be nice if you put in some very small yet attractive details.
You know what your right, mrCarlton i won't even try to defend this one.
This idea is pretty dumb given the context, Airships has too shallow a learning curve for anything this complicated (which is one of the reasons it makes for a great selling game, you don't need to invest any time to be good at it), something like From The Depths or Garry's mod it does work in, though.
Yeah it kind of is, it was originally supposed to be guidance for the Thumper missiles because you have to replace infrared seeker components on the tip with those. But he decided "WTH not" so they also go for ammo barrels, a lone thumper missile with a full power variable thruster is enough to insta-isable Onyx Watch castle ships like the Warden!
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
A similar concept was recently added to the game From The Depths, and no so recently to Space Engineers and very not recently into Minecraft. The idea is of an in game block/component/etc that you can type code into to manipulate certain things in the game world.
For example in From The Deths I used its Lua Box to create a missile design that seeks out the most dangerous target (as marked by the games AI) and steer the missiles towards the ships ammo stores (an explosive seeking missile instead of a infrared one is more dangerous and cannot be diverted though normal means).
I think somewhere down the line (after robots and other more important stuff) a similar room could be cool to add in Airships, as I think it would add the most flexibility to designing ships in game, I doubt you can make custom missiles given the Lores' time setting, but using this to make custom ship AI sounds really fun to me!
Maybe we could even dedicate a new section of the forum to this blocks code!
Commander
I think this would be cool, to for example, tell crew where to go, but I really don't think it would fit. as said before, a computer that runs ballistics calculations is already a 3 by 3 room, so a computer that could do logistics control AND tactical control of a vessel would have to at LEAST be 7 by 7 (huge)
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
But it doesn't do anything, unless you tell it specifically in Lua. The whole point of the room is versatility, therefore it must be small.
At the absolute largest it should be bridge-sized and the size could scale; For example if you want more lines of code you need more of these rooms similar to how supply works in the game (every one lua module could support 100 lines of lua before you need to add another).
This way a simple code to turn a symmetrical ship once it's right facing guns fire to let the left facing guns fire on the same target and back would only require one Lua room.
A whole ship AI might need 2-3, which is equal to a 3x3 square, which would make it the largest object in the game (bigger than grand cannons by one block).
I just gave two very useful concepts that could be added to the game as features by themselves just now but that one LUA block could do this an more AND still allow Zarkonnen to work on whatever he likes while we mess around with Lua and possibly open a new forum section devoted to Lua code sharing for vehicles in Airships!
Why don't we already have this? This concept pretty much sells itself.
Commander, Engineering Corps
So you want a module that you can program with Lua?
But, why?
Command blocks in Minecraft make sense from a map-creator sense and vanilla modding. Redstone was well established long before they ever added the command blocks. Even Space engineers programmable block makes sense if you assume it's for custom scenarios and creative-built ships. But I honestly don't seem much that this would actually be able to do that the AI isn't already doing, or that the player can't already do.
You essentially have a module who's only purpose is to automate actions that the player can already do, in a game where controlling the ships are the ONLY things you do.
The command time is currently the only thing that really limits you from constantly flipping the ship back n forth to cycle between different gun arcs. You can get it down to like 1 second if you put enough command in a single ship, but a module that allows you to essentially break that limitation puts a pretty un-fair advantage on the players who actually know how to use Lua or can copy scripts off the internet.
Even Minecraft's relatively simple redstone system confuses the ever-loving shit out of most casual players, doing anything more complex than making a door open and close practically kills them.
No offense, but I think a feature like this is way too limited in scope for the sheer amount of effort needed to make it even work.
Commander, Engineering Corps
For my own background I played a lot of Gmod. E2 and wiremod were the greatest things to ever happen to Gmod. Those were both super popular mods, but by no-means necessary or even used by 98% of the servers.
Personally I love tinkering with stupidly complicated creations, but this game already has a robust editor and a simple strategy game laid on-top. I personally don't think this game needs an excessively complicated tinkering programming system.
Air Admiral
Though, i disagree on the lua room certain aspects could use some depth. At the moment there is a titanic amount of content in this game, but there does not seem to be enough detail piled onto some of the aspects of the game. For example, when a rifle from a marine is fired all you see is a crewman drop dead. Here you could add "explosive" (Basically a few pixels made to look cool) gun smoke, and a more dramatic death on the receiving end of the firearm.
Huge dust clouds caused by landships would also be cool. Even better, you can add more depth to making a vehicle functional. Look at one of the minecraft Technic pack mods where you might have to build a coal powered steam engine, followed by (In this case) a gear complex , and, or a power line.(While, i suppose in order to convert the power to electricity you would first have to have some sort of generator?) After that you would feed it into some sort of transformer which is connected to the prop, and, or suspendium chamber.(Just an idea)
I'm not trying to be pushy, but it would be nice if you put in some very small yet attractive details.
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
You know what your right, mrCarlton i won't even try to defend this one.
This idea is pretty dumb given the context, Airships has too shallow a learning curve for anything this complicated (which is one of the reasons it makes for a great selling game, you don't need to invest any time to be good at it), something like From The Depths or Garry's mod it does work in, though.
Air Admiral
I love from the depths, the most satisfying thing is seeing a massive gunship work.
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
I liked making asymmetrical hovercraft, i have a weird building style...
Have you seen some of the Lua block code on the FTD forums?
Recently some guy made one for ammunition-barrel-seeking-missiles instead of normal infrared ones!
Air Admiral
I know, that sounded pretty awesome, yet a little over powered.
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
Yeah it kind of is, it was originally supposed to be guidance for the Thumper missiles because you have to replace infrared seeker components on the tip with those. But he decided "WTH not" so they also go for ammo barrels, a lone thumper missile with a full power variable thruster is enough to insta-isable Onyx Watch castle ships like the Warden!
Air Admiral
Yeah, tell me, what is the best way to make a slow firing heavy hitting cannon?
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
Let's move this topic over onto the [off topic] part of the forum (a link will be here)
Air Lord, Engineering Corps
https://airships.zarkonnen.com/forum/3/topic/463