Pod Arrivals Method Proposal

[Wire]

(Note: the following is copied verbatim from a google doc)

Because of the recent ARRIVAL DEBACLE (read: no actual debacle), I want to improve the way people arrive at the station without it relying on magic teleporters (which are bad for lore reasons and are also just kinda boring). Thus, my idea is pods that shoot at the station to predefined dock areas.

Docks
The docks will be placed relatively evenly around the edge of the station, most likely added to the existing pod hangar areas. I figure they will be relatively small (3x3-ish) however some stuff will probably have to be expanded/shifted to accommodate them.

Pods
To clarify, when I say shooting pods at the station I mean a special, probably newly sprited pod, not the existing flyable-pods. Need a better name I guess. I figure these new pods will essentially sleepers with thrusters attached (implying the player has been frozen for his trip). They will spawn in at z-level edge opposite the chosen dock area and shoot in. We will need a mechanism to avoid any obstacles in the way (pathfinding or just straight up mega-gib the offending object).

Choosing a dock
When a player joins the game, they will be given a popup listing the available dock areas and their respective atmospheric data (O2, heat, pressure etc). They will also be given the opportunity to view a dock area to check for any dumb shit (e.g. like camera viewers). This allows for the player to pick the least griefy arrival area and hopefully with like 6 or so docks, they will never be ALL shit choices.

Problems

• Obstacles in the way of the pod while it approaches the station.
  • Solution 1: Set density to 0 on the pod so it just kinda goes through everything. 
    • Maybe some animation if it bumps into something? Act like it’s going above / below whatever. 3D space yo.
      
    • What happens if A Jerk puts a thing in front of the dock? (Wire: density 0 means it goes through the blocking object, obviously)
      
  • Solution 2: Pathfind a route to the dock. (With some conditions on distance travelled and blocked-path handling)
    
  • Solution 3: Phasing through the obstacles like some weird future tech doodad that can jaunt through walls and obstacles. (Wire: Technically this is just the density 0 solution)
    
  • Solution 4: Calling qdel() on anything that’s in the way of the pod (Might cause some !FUN!)
    
  • Notes: Best solution is probably a mix between the first two. Also a note that portals/wormholes/telescience have to be tested so the pod can’t just get fucking ported away.
    

• Queues on arrival. (Multiple people joining and approaching the same dock at the same time)
  • Solution 1: Custom Move() code to prevent movement to a tile that also contains a pod, so the pods physically queue behind each other. Would need to make 100% sure pods won’t get stuck
    
  • Solution 2: Prevent choosing a dock if someone is already approaching it.
    
  • Notes: 1 strikes me as more difficult/prone to errors but better overall. 2 is easier but probably annoying for players/high population times. Could also be a problem with the flood of latejoins at roundstart.
    

• Explosions/dangers hitting the dock area on player arrival (e.g. during the pod travel time)
  • Docks and pods themselves probably immune to ex_act
    
  • Solution 1: One-use emergency button for the pilot to direct his pod to the next nearest dock (travel to it via a*).
    
  • Have a live ‘camera feed’ of the dock so the player can redirect the pod to another place a la solution 1?
    
  • Note: I’m not a fan of solution 1, need to think of something better.
    

Helpful Gannets' drawing of process


Even helpfuller Gannets' sprites of pod

[Huff H Law]

Certainly sounds like a good idea, do you suppose though that pods should only take you to the top part of the station, though? So the gauntlet of arrivals > wrecked station > escape is left intact? Or I guess just as far away from escape as possible.

[Noah Buttes]

As regards obstacles, I like a mix of solutions 1 and 2.

As regards queuing, why not just make it so that if two people deploy to the same spot in a short span of time, their pods combine to form a sort of pod convoy/train that travels in unison?

As regards hazards at the dock, have the pods stick around for a few seconds after docking so the passenger can redirect it elsewhere if he feels threatened.

[Huff H Law]

Technically you could also have people arrive at the diner with this, could be a cool idea.

[UrsulaMejor]

I think that the best solution to the queuing problem is to not allow people to go to a dock that's already chosen until it's clear. To prevent frustration, have a dock's selection button colored green if open and red if in transit (with an eta counter?)

However, I think there needs to be a fix for late join afkers who don't get traitor and will leave afk pods filling up the dock

With regard to obstacles, I think having it destroy objects in the way sounds hilarious and in keeping with cogmap's belt hell spirit.

Finally, I think the pods should be named "unescape pods"

[Noah Buttes]

Afk clogs could be fixed by having the pods work like a ski lift in that, after dropping off its payload, the pod turns around and flies back out.

[Wire]

Certainly sounds like a good idea, do you suppose though that pods should only take you to the top part of the station, though? So the gauntlet of arrivals > wrecked station > escape is left intact? Or I guess just as far away from escape as possible.

Generally my motivation for wanting to put the docks around the edges of the station is to lower the chance of multiple dock areas being destroyed by a single event. Overall I feel this out-weighs the potential benefits to clustering them away from escape.

As regards obstacles, I like a mix of solutions 1 and 2.

As regards queuing, why not just make it so that if two people deploy to the same spot in a short span of time, their pods combine to form a sort of pod convoy/train that travels in unison?

As regards hazards at the dock, have the pods stick around for a few seconds after docking so the passenger can redirect it elsewhere if he feels threatened.

Re: Queueing, generally the comment about custom Move() code that blocks progression if a pod is there would accomplish your suggestion (without an actual combination admittedly). This would result in multiple pods moving towards the dock behind each other.

Re: Sticking around at dock. I like the idea of simply going to the (presumably indestructible) dock before allowing a redirect, which will be simpler than a live camera feed or whatever else. I'm still not a huge fan of redirecting in general but that's a hard thing to solve.

Technically you could also have people arrive at the diner with this, could be a cool idea.

I like this idea!

[Wire]

I think that the best solution to the queuing problem is to not allow people to go to a dock that's already chosen until it's clear. To prevent frustration, have a dock's selection button colored green if open and red if in transit (with an eta counter?)

However, I think there needs to be a fix for late join afkers who don't get traitor and will leave afk pods filling up the dock

With regard to obstacles, I think having it destroy objects in the way sounds hilarious and in keeping with cogmap's belt hell spirit.

Finally, I think the pods should be named "unescape pods"

Afk clogs could be fixed by having the pods work like a ski lift in that, after dropping off its payload, the pod turns around and flies back out.

In general, the queueing problem is less of an issue than the "dock area gets wrecked during transit" issue, as mentioned by the solution points under the problem item (for example, a reason is given for not liking the "prevent selection of dock if already picked by another player" solution).

I forgot to put this in the original post but my idea for AFKers is simply to boot the dude out of the pod once it arrives at the dock, at which point the pod gets sorta consumed into the dock structure and incinerated/scrapped/whatever'd to free it up for a new arrival.

[Noah Buttes]

Maybe have the dock area inaccessible except via pod and equip it with a flusher to allow for one way transportation out?

[Wire]

Maybe have the dock area inaccessible except via pod and equip it with a flusher to allow for one way transportation out?

I quite like this idea, although it introduces some additional complexity (would need to make the disposals system "tamper-proof" somehow, as well as edge cases like hand-tele-ing into the dock area).

[misto]

they already shoot crates of lab monkeys at us that are received at qm, so the technology has been thoroughly pioneered

[Erik]

Maybe have the dock area inaccessible except via pod and equip it with a flusher to allow for one way transportation out?

I quite like this idea, although it introduces some additional complexity (would need to make the disposals system "tamper-proof" somehow, as well as edge cases like hand-tele-ing into the dock area).

Just surround the pad with cordon turfs and bulletproof windows.

[Gannets]

I'm helpful!

[Frank_Stein]

I kinda think it would be fun if instead of a pod it was a space taxi/bus, complete with a chatty driver.

They'd just drive you to the dock of choice, and wait a bit after you got out before driving away. You can keep picking new docks if you hadn't gotten out yet. Multiple people could ride in the vehicle.

Also, I do like having a safe area before you join the round proper like the current shuttle teleporter area.

[poland spring]

Have a random chance of the sprite being a monkey crate or coffin