Idea Space Derelic (not space debris)

Tribersman_FR

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In the far future a very large object enter our solar system ...
Or maybe it's a old space station you need to investigate or put back into service.

Anyway, whatever it is you'll have to go in there.
But wait !
Maybe you'll only be able to enter with a EVA ?
Or you'll need to dock a powerblock and need a Dragonfly ?
...Hope you don't need to dock to several very spaced access to do all that.
And what if you need to get away with an UGCO compatible artifact ?


And that's my ideas, I've already seen scenario where you have to save X spaceship or Y astronaut.
I've also seen a lot of giant spaceship model like the BSG, the Basestar, Longshot, Death Star and what else ? a O'neil colony.

But what about giant derelic ? Those we see in SF movie and that are obviously infested with alien.
I find a disturbing lack of them even though people are making spacebattle add-on.

So where can I navigate in a dark and scary corridor where nobody will hear me scream ? (except the poor guy linked to my headset)
Of course I know that there won't be any collision, but as long you can see the limit you can feel the challenge. (and see ghost actually)

Let your imagination go rogue ! Have the space station trapped !
I heard that UGCO have "action zone now" maybe that can be used for interactive adventure, no ?
You flips a switch and suddenly the way you've come in is closed and you have to get back to your ship the long way without using all your fuel/oxygen.
Or suddenly a very weak thruster activate and make the derelict move, obliging you to get your ship out of the way and make a rush to the OFF button.

That's all.

(You are now imagining a IA's driven "security probes" chasing you, just when you need to choose between two as deadly looking direction)
 

N_Molson

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Sure, UGCO & UMmu allow a lot of cool things...

...but they require an extensive knowledge of C++ when it comes to coding... The "get your add-on UMmu & UGCO in 15 minutes" is, well, maybe a little exagerated (or maybe I'm stupid).

Anyway I had this idea to. A derelict DeltaGlider (dusty hull, all doors open) could be an interesting "space debris", to begin with simple things.

It would be fun to conduct a repair/towing mission but... again that's a lot of complex coding ;)

And while there are top-notch coders on this forum, they are not hundreds and are often working on their own ultra-cool projects :)

Bienvenue sur le forum en tout cas ! :welcome:
 
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Andy44

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One of the Steward Cowley books was called "Space Wrecks" and it's all about derelict vessels, aloft and on the ground, familiar and alien. Some of the stories and artwork are quite creepy.

I think one of Cowley's larger derelicts would be interesting just to fly formation with; no interior needed. Besides, it's radioactive in there!

---------- Post added at 08:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:51 PM ----------

http://www.digitalwaterfalls.co.uk/spacewreck.html
 

Bendarr

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It would also take like 40 years to make... :shifty:

I can see it now. You fly up in a DGIV for an initial scouting mission. You dock. UMMU out and enter. Go down a very long dark spiraling staircase looking for a light switch or something. Then in the dark...... you get run over by a bot. Sigh. Restart scenario.
 

Izack

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I can see it now. You fly up in a DGIV for an initial scouting mission. You dock. UMMU out and enter. Go down a very long dark spiraling staircase looking for a light switch or something. Then in the dark...... you get run over by a bot. Sigh. Restart scenario.
You have entered an airlock. It is very dark inside.
>Descend staircase
You have been eaten by a biomechanical grue.
Retry? [Y/N]
 

Jamesep3

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Why not make a new ummu class...ALIENS:hide: all you need is 2 new meshes(alien with suit and without) and after a little bit of writing there you have it a scary alien that wants to feast on human flesh.:shifty:
 

mc_

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It would be nice to have something like this.

But, i suggest, the main goal is not just to add human-eating aliens and unknown giant ships to Orbiter. It is to create some "adventures", like we have in quest games, basing on UMMU and UCGO action areas.
If so, the main goal is to connect Orbiter scenery data and UMMU action areas to some kind os script language (lua?). It should add possibility to perform actions in "answer" to player - create/delete objects, command some vesels/characters (i.e. aliens) to perform some actions, etc, etc.

So, it will be hard...
 

Urwumpe

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Sounds like a "brainstorming" idea I had a while a ago, using the new UMMU 2.0 features for making a "Interplanetary ammunitions disposal team" add-on: Rendezvous with huge nuclear drones in strange orbits, disarm them and tug them to Earth for recycling. Would have been like entering a smaller Saturn V IU and search for the right panels. Or swarming the outside of it, looking for the right access panel.
 

Xyon

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Sure, UGCO & UMmu allow a lot of cool things...

...but they require an extensive knowledge of C++ when it comes to coding... The "get your add-on UMmu & UGCO in 15 minutes" is, well, maybe a little exagerated (or maybe I'm stupid).

It's actually closer to requiring an extensive knowledge of copy and paste. The understanding of the C++ language comes in when you want to implement UMMU and UCGO well. It's not about being clever or stupid, it's just about what you know about coding itself. Lack of specialist knowledge doesn't make someone "stupid". ;)

Having played around with some development projects with both UMMU and UCGO recently, I'm of the opinion that neither really lends itself perfectly to this kind of usage. There are some critical limitations which must either be worked around or accepted, which can be anything from a minor headache to a major pain in a large muscle mass generally used for sitting.

Not impossible, generally, but certainly not easy.
 

Urwumpe

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It's actually closer to requiring an extensive knowledge of copy and paste. The understanding of the C++ language comes in when you want to implement UMMU and UCGO well. It's not about being clever or stupid, it's just about what you know about coding itself. Lack of specialist knowledge doesn't make someone "stupid". ;)

Having played around with some development projects with both UMMU and UCGO recently, I'm of the opinion that neither really lends itself perfectly to this kind of usage. There are some critical limitations which must either be worked around or accepted, which can be anything from a minor headache to a major pain in a large muscle mass generally used for sitting.

Not impossible, generally, but certainly not easy.

Actually, you can produce a whole lot of cooking books for standard spacecraft types in form of C++ frameworks to make the task easier, right down to having a visual editor for producing standard spacecraft code. Somebody just has to do it. The aircraft DLLs of Kev33 had also been just copy and paste jobs, and while prone to bugs, done in a way that has results. With a proper C++ framework, such aircraft could be made much faster...just like capsules, spaceplanes or lifting bodies could be made as frameworks. A generic "one size fits all" framework would possibly be not too useful.
 
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Jamesep3

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Well if I have enough time I could make some aliens. I proberly won't have enough time so no one get your hopes up and I've never succesfully made a "good" mesh before. So no one expect anything yet.:rolleyes:
I do not have enogh time so I most likely won't make anything:(
 
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Tribersman_FR

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I'm surprised everybody is already considering the hardest way rather than the "scenic route".

I was just thinking that at first those who make GIANT spaceship could include small corridor in the model so that those "Derelict compatible" ship can be visited.
That seem like the double of the work to make something inside, but we want to get in derelic because the outside could be not saying much.

For people who can make interactive cockpit there is also some way to "cheat" by asking the player to activate "X" switch if they see "Y" inscription inside the corridor.

If you count UGCO spaceship with crew-less/fuel (and yet a interesting payload that only wait to be picked-up) they are already sort of "Derelict Capable", and the scenario section of OrbitHangar is full of interesting things.
But only a few of them give you a lot to do with EVA.

Sounds like a "brainstorming" idea I had a while a ago, using the new UMMU 2.0 features for making a "Interplanetary ammunitions disposal team" add-on: Rendezvous with huge nuclear drones in strange orbits, disarm them and tug them to Earth for recycling. Would have been like entering a smaller Saturn V IU and search for the right panels. Or swarming the outside of it, looking for the right access panel.
I encourage you to brainstorm this idea into reality.
Anyway I'm sure UMMU will eventually get more complex with the time but if I could inspire some people to prepare the road before somebody build the car.
 

Jamesep3

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This is great now lets get the ball rolling. Will this craft be able to move by it's self e.g. You go in thinking it dosn't work then...:shifty:. Or will it be unable to move under it's own power but still have lots of features. Could flipping a swich make the space ship release an odd cargo. What other ideas are there?:hmm:
 

N_Molson

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The multilight feature could add a lot to this idea I think, provided we manage to add headlights to the UMmu.
 

Tribersman_FR

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Necropost resurrection ! Stand up and walk !

With a new question of interest :
- What is the limitation of the new localized light ?
Support for localised light sources provides added visual effects: spotlights for helping to find your docking target in the night, rocket exhaust lighting up the launchpad.
It will depend of when Dansteph will find the time to offer us flashlight on UMMU but I think that with the ambient light it won't be too dark to play in the shadow or "inside a ship".

DO NOT FORGET : There's alway way to play pretend without UCGO.
To replace "Action area" for example, I think that since the "derelic" will probably be a spaceship, you only have to link "k, g, j ...etc" button to any action you want.
The player would be asked to press them through text written on the mesh.

- Question about the use of UGCO-Cargo
How hard would it be to make a ship hold some cargo ? ( Maybe with the "Universal Cargo Deck" ?)


Note :
The idea can apply for Ground station too, it won't be possible to go up or down but I think it must be possible to play pretend with the UMMU Turbopack
 

T.Neo

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A derelict spacecraft would be pretty interesting... I must say, that I find the idea captivating. Probably stemming from my interest in decades old airplane wrecks, or long abandoned and dilapidated structures (i.e. Life After People). I guess you could call them "landwrecks", really, not like shipwrecks, all rusty and covered in coral, down in the dingy abyss.

Of course in space you have no corrosion, no rain, no coral, and no plants. Which present a chance for brilliant preservation.

On the Moon, for example, the only forces for degredation are temperature variations, cosmic radiation, and meteorite impacts and erosion. The former could be quite damaging on the short term, the latter damaging on the very long term, and cosmic radiation only really affecting physical material properties if anything.

On Mars, however, we have wind, dust and sand erosion, and also clogging/covering of components and structures in regolith, not to mention oxidising chemicals in the soil. On Venus, high temperatures coupled with supercritical carbon dioxide, would mean that the Venera probes have likely been reduced to corroded shells.

And in empty space? If you left the ISS in long-term stable orbit, and just let it sit there, what would happen? When would the interior become uninhabitable? Would it freeze, or cook? When would it loose internal pressure? If you returned to it 10, 20 years later, habitable or not, would any of it be operable, or salvageable?
 
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Urwumpe

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If you look at, what a few months of being derelict did to Salyut 7, I would assume, no spacecraft would be looking very good and be also a pretty icy place after a short time.
 
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