SCCV Intrepid remap feedback thread

[hazelmouse]

This is the feedback thread for an Intrepid remap I've been working on for the last few hours. The PR will be WIP until I'm happy with the amount of feedback I've gotten, see here. 

Why do we need to remap the Intrepid?

The Intrepid we have right now has two problems: it isn't well-suited to the Odyssey gamemode, and it can't really be properly edited to fit the gamemode due to the custom sprites of its hull. For those not aware, those fancy sprites essentially compose a completely immovable skeleton - we can't edit what it looks like outside of the internals.

What problems does the Intrepid have with Odyssey, exactly?

Capacity, and layout. The Intrepid was designed with traditional overmap expeditions in mind - these usually didn't eclipse half a dozen people - so it isn't designed for the 15+ people we want to be ferrying for Odyssey whatsoever. It doesn't make good use of its space - it's difficult to hold cargo without it becoming disruptive to navigate the ship, and seating is limited enough you'll occasionally see paramedics strapping themselves to a roller bed instead.

Even when there aren't objects blocking your path, there's a lot of 1 or 2 tile chokepoints that lead to a hell of a lot of awkward shuffling when there's a lot of crew aboard.

Handrails theoretically increase the number of viable seats, but this means climbing on top of racks and blocking entry to the cockpit. This produces a pretty frustrating experience for all involved, and discourages the large-scale expeditions we want to encourage in Odyssey. To be clear, the ideal for Odyssey is to involve as much of the crew as possible.

How does this improve anything?

The redesign is intended to allow as much of the crew to use the shuttle as possible without stepping on each others' toes. Seats and handrails are segregated into departmentally colour coded segments with separate viewports, so you should be able to stick with your department without everything getting mixed up.

There shouldn't be any instance where a buckled character, either to a seat or a handrail, would block the path of another character.

I've tried to avoid there being any awkward choke points - this is meant to be able to get dozens of people off the Horizon and onto an offsite without any hiccups, which the current design can't really do. Hopefully there would be less shuffling.

The two airlocks to either side are incapable of docking, and are primarily there to be forced open when the shuttle docks with an exoplanet.

The main airlock is now 9 turfs in total - it still has decent vent coverage, though I'll have to test if this slows it down much.

The cargo bay is left mostly empty with the intention that it can be repurposed by the crew - for instance, if service asks engineering to set a kitchen up there.

The intention is for this to still be a viable shuttle for use by BCs and Xenoarchaeologists outside of Odyssey. It should be able to function for huge Odysey expeditions, but it should also be easy and intuitive to use for smaller overmap ones. I don't intend to remove xenoarch access from the cockpit.

What about the custom sprites?

Personally, I concur that custom sprites of the kind the Intrepid uses were a mistake. They trap us into a pre-mapped layout that we can't really change much. I'll be very excited if any spriters come up to design new custom sprites for our shuttles, but I'd want them to either work off wall smoothing or to be modular enough that we can change the layout without totally scrapping the sprites, like I had to do here.

What's this thread for?

Anything you want! If you have a concern, if you think this is the wrong direction, or if you see something I've missed from the design that you'd like to see implemented, throw it in here.

Current mapping:

Edited Monday at 04:46 by hazelmouse

[Jasorn]

I agree about the custom set sprites being harmful in terms of being able to adjust any of the shuttles, AFAIK the Spark, Intrepid, and Canary are the only three shuttles in the entire code that use sprites like this, while everything else is like the rest of the game of just normal walls/windows. This isn't to say I don't like the sprites I think they are awesome and I'd love to have them, but going forward maintaining them isn't really feasible. Also, from my experience the custom sprites cause weird behavior such as the cockpit not being able to be breached via the glass windows? I think it just gets blocked by all the randomly sizes bits and pieces of the custom tiles, just anecdotal though.

Doesn't help that the spriter that made them to begin with left that position a long time ago as well

Edited December 11 by Jasorn
threw in the issue of breaking in through cockpit windows

[MattAtlas]

custom sprites are basically unmaintainable so they need to go - better to use decals and paint on walls

[Fyni]

It'd be a shame to see the custom sprite go but I see why it's tricky to keep. If this remap goes through I'd like to see the Canary and Spark sprite go so we can have consistancy.

As for the remap itself: I'd like for the cargo area to have a seperate shutter (only openable from the inside) to open up the side of the Interpid maybe - allow the field kitchen you propose to serve without people tramping through the whole shuttle, and allow quicker unloads too. It'd be somewhat like the "open" back of the Spark, but with closing shutters.

I also like on the current Intrepid you can shutter off the rear and front half - this is helpful for dealing with a variety of (IC) issues and would like to see this remain in the new one.

[hazelmouse]

1 hour ago, Fyni said:

It'd be a shame to see the custom sprite go but I see why it's tricky to keep. If this remap goes through I'd like to see the Canary and Spark sprite go so we can have consistancy.

As for the remap itself: I'd like for the cargo area to have a seperate shutter (only openable from the inside) to open up the side of the Interpid maybe - allow the field kitchen you propose to serve without people tramping through the whole shuttle, and allow quicker unloads too. It'd be somewhat like the "open" back of the Spark, but with closing shutters.

I also like on the current Intrepid you can shutter off the rear and front half - this is helpful for dealing with a variety of (IC) issues and would like to see this remain in the new one.

I do think the shutter idea for the cargo bay is interesting, and I'd probably give a shot at implementing it if I thought it'd be accepted, but I believe that atmosphere to external accesses are going to be held to being airlocks right now and I don't think I can cram an airlock in that space. A field kitchen is going to either be a stall outside with deliveries in and out of the Intrepid, or you can set up a small counter by the two emergency shutters, I think we'll just have to see if players actually engage with it in that capacity.

The shutters are in, however! I'll probably implement it so they also cover the two airlocks to either side as well as the one at the aft.

[Fyni]

19 hours ago, hazelmouse said:

I do think the shutter idea for the cargo bay is interesting, and I'd probably give a shot at implementing it if I thought it'd be accepted, but I believe that atmosphere to external accesses are going to be held to being airlocks right now

It's more it's unusual a cargo room is so deep into the Intrepid, and I foresee stuff been dumped in the central "hallway" given the chance, potentially creating those one square chokepoints that this remap is designed to beat. The exterior shutter would make it faster to load / unload cargo while also meaning it can be used as a room to aid the mission AND provide faster access to medical. I know the concerns with venting the Intrepid, but the inside door to the cargo area will limit the breach most of the time.

[hazelmouse]

12 hours ago, Fyni said:

It's more it's unusual a cargo room is so deep into the Intrepid, and I foresee stuff been dumped in the central "hallway" given the chance, potentially creating those one square chokepoints that this remap is designed to beat. The exterior shutter would make it faster to load / unload cargo while also meaning it can be used as a room to aid the mission AND provide faster access to medical. I know the concerns with venting the Intrepid, but the inside door to the cargo area will limit the breach most of the time.

My hope is for there to be enough convenient storage to either side that people are discouraged from leaving stuff in the central hall, or to move stuff over to the sides of someone does discard an object there. Otherwise, I don't really have the will to push for atmos-to-vacuum shutters here - the walk to the nearest airlock from the cargo bay isn't too egregiously far, imo.

[greenjoe]

Perhaps the storage area could be at the back of the shuttle rather then all the way at the front?

[hazelmouse]

Putting this up for review.