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  Gamemode concept: Raid
Posted by: Cael_Aislinn - 02-24-2016, 01:49 PM - Forum: Server Suggestions - No Replies

Concept: The players are an unnamed/fictional company of Spartan-IIIs (Charlie company?) Their mission is to infiltrate and decommission a vital Covenant facility with extreme prejudice. Acceptable casualty level: 100%. A small number of players can optionally choose to play as Elites defending the facility.

Covenant defenders: The facility and objective is randomly generated from various preset possibilities, but it will always involve blowing up some vital piece/s of machinery. If there are any player Elites they can command a small squad of Covenant (perhaps with vehicle support) and optionally setup deployable defences. Over time, more NPC defenders will spawn making this a timed mission so the defenders should aim to delay the attackers from reaching the objective.

Extraction: Although none of the S3s are expected to survive, a small number of exfiltration craft (Calypso stealth shuttles) have been inserted into the area and will activate once enough of the objectives have been completed. Escaping is optional (and the Covenant can hunt down and destroy the exfiltration craft) but each S3 that escapes gives their side a score boost at the end.

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  Open Alpha: ETA Soon TM (the final crunch!)
Posted by: Cael_Aislinn - 02-24-2016, 01:35 PM - Forum: Development - Replies (11)

We had a lil strategy meeting tonight and we're down to the last few items before the official public launch: mapping in the hangars into the cruiser and Insurrection asteroid base and coding in system-wide sensors. There's also a bunch of other features which may make it in (like NPC ships and ship turrets) but at this stage are more likely to get delayed into the weeks or months post-launch.

I don't wanna put a date on it but we're looking at late next week for the earliest and probably a fortnight or so on the outside.

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  Gamemode concept: Archeohunt
Posted by: Cael_Aislinn - 02-21-2016, 11:16 AM - Forum: Server Suggestions - No Replies

Concept: This mode is a Covenant variant of the "Price of Power" mode. The players are divided up into teams of 1-6 players which each crew a basic small civilian ship, with the option of either being all-Jackal or all-Yonhet. The objective is to accumulate a certain amount of "favour" with the local Covenant ministry by the end of the round. Jackals have slight bonus to combat while Yonhet have slight bonus to reputation and artifact hunting (I'm trying to think of other races players can pick from but allowing Brutes or Elites doesn't seem quite lore correct OR balanced).

Earning money: While possible to trade, mine, pirate and smuggle to earn currency the currency is only a means to an end allowing players to purchase better ships and gear. It's expected a significant amount of time while be spent earning currency in order to make it easier to gain favour. "Illegal" actions can earn currency, gear and artifacts quite quickly, but being caught can result in a loss of favour as well as progress (if you escape with your life!).

Earning favour: Donating supplies to the ministry, turning in artifacts or hunting down humans/heretics. From time to time, the UNSC will send scouting missions (1-3 warships) which players can either run and hide (safe but time wasting) or assist to defeat in order to earn salvage and favour. The main way to earn favour however will be carrying out a treasure hunt through various Forerunner relic sites around the system.

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  Gamemode concept: Price of Power
Posted by: Cael_Aislinn - 02-21-2016, 10:39 AM - Forum: Server Suggestions - No Replies

Concept: The players are split up into small teams of 1-6 and each assigned as crew to a civilian trader, with one person appointed captain and another as the first mate to take over in case of the captain's untimely death. The objective is for each team of traders to accumulate a particular amount of credits (1 billion, 500 million or something) by the end of the round (2 hours). Each ship starts out as a basic small unarmed civilian vessel, but it can be traded in for successively larger and more specialised ships depending on what the crew wants to focus on. One crew spawns as an ONI crew on a prowler tasked with enforcing the law in the sector.

Ways to earn money: Trading in goods, mining, hunting Forerunner relics, smuggling, joining the Insurrection or doing mercenary work (bounty hunting, pirate hunting, fighting Insurrectionist, fighting invading Covenant). Players start out with just enough credits to buy starter gear for some of those specialised occupations above, but many occupations require specific permits (or are illegal) and the players must be prepared to fight or hide from NPC police (fairly weak and easy) or the ONI prowler (well equipped players who are enforcing the law).

PC Antagonists: One team are not civilians however, they spawn as ONI agents flying around a prowler and their mission is to simply hunt baddies and police the sector. Some civilians on other crews may even spawn as ONI infiltrators simply to keep an eye on things. They are NOT directly competing with the other players, but they will definitely cause them grief or outright shut them down if they are acting illegally/illicitly. ONI will be able to stop and search ships for contraband, inspect licences/permits and outright go into combat with some elements like pirates or the Insurrection.

Random events: Covenant may invade the system which will require all the players to run and hide (safe but you lose valuable money earning time) or join the fight (risky but potential rewards and gear via salvage). Pirates periodically prey on shipping and the Insurrection will be launching terrorist attacks against static installations and UNSC targets. Some NPCs will also offer randomly generated missions such as bounties, smuggling runs or even Insurrection/pirate recruiters. All anyone has to go to get involved with the darker side of the market should lurk in seedy bars and build up a reliable network of contacts.

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  Gamemode concept: Battlezone
Posted by: Cael_Aislinn - 02-18-2016, 12:45 PM - Forum: Server Suggestions - Replies (2)

Concept: The player's UNSC ship is sent to relieve the invasion of an outer rim colony world. No-one knows why the Covenant are invading this world instead of glassing it, so as well as assisting with the evacuation/defence one of your objectives is to find out why.

UNSC Warship: This ship is player controlled and crewed, and most of the players on the server get placed in this team. The players have the choice of flying around the system to pick up human reinforcements and supplies to drop off at the invaded colony as well as intercept Covenant ships as they jump into the system to try and destroy them before they can reinforce the Covenant ground forces on the planet. At critical junctures, the ship can also provide limited space to ground fire support (via it's MAC cannon) as well as drop in small teams of player Marines to join the fighting. Dead crew can respawn with the reinforcing marines as the player ship picks them up. UNSC forces on the ground will be gradually marshalling groups of civilians into the city's main space ports, so one of your objectives will be to evacuate them safely out of the system.

UNSC colonial defence forces: A small number of players (2-4) play as high ranking UNSC Marine officers and control groups of NPC marines who are tasked with defending the colony. Each player gets a small force (maybe 5-15 NPC marines) along with some vehicles and aircraft which they can use to defend human cities and army bases, or to attack Covenant bases and Forerunner installations unearthed by the invading Covenant. When a Covenant ship is in orbit they can also counterattack up the gravlift to board and try to destroy it, if they think it is worth the risk. Remember that your primary objective is to evacuate as many civilians as possible, but discovering what the Covenant are searching for before they do may be enough to change the whole course of the war...

Alternative to the above: Instead of playing UNSC officers, these players could be Spartans. They get significantly better gear and stats but aren't able to command any NPC troops. When the Spartans die, they respawn as a Marine Officer and can attempt to retrieve the "unconscious/MIA" Spartan o7

Covenant Relic Hunters: A similar number of players (3-6) control Sangheili who lead small but deadly spec-ops combat teams to search for Forerunner relics on the planet. The human pests are just a distraction for your mission so there will be plenty of NPC Covenant soldiers and vehicles attacking the UNSC to keep them distracted. To aid in your mission, you'll periodically be able to request they launch diversionary attacks against specific targets such as lightly defended civilian population centres... (or heavily fortified UNSC army bases, it's all the same to you).

At the start of the round, the Relic Hunters are given a clue about where to find the first installation. The rest of the round proceeds like a treasure hunt where each Forerunner installations they unearth gives them more clues toward the ultimate prize. What is it though, a map to one of the Halos? An opening to the interior of a shield world? An undamaged dreadnought? A functional Oracle? A living Forerunner? A Cryptum? A hideous and sentient bioweapon? Who knows! (randomly picked from one of those and other possibilities). Remember though, the humans are just a distraction and are ultimately meaningless to your final goal, but that prize might have horrific guardians of its own...

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  Gamemode concept: Battle Royale
Posted by: Cael_Aislinn - 02-17-2016, 02:48 PM - Forum: Server Suggestions - No Replies

Concept: Two player controlled ships and their crew are set to battle to the death in a remote star system. They're all alone and far from any aid but this much is clear... Two starships enter, one starship leaves!

Teams/factions: The players are split into 2 teams, one Covenant and one UNSC. At the start of the round all players vote to choose what type of ship the teams get with both sides getting the same ship type, but each faction's ship being asymetrically balanced. The three ships are corvette, frigate, cruiser. The corvette is small, weak, fast and maneuvrable but carries virtually no fighters while the cruiser is large, well armed and armoured and carries a very large complement of fighters. Covenant ships and vehicles tend to be faster and more maneuvrable, their weaponry uses energy and they have plenty of shields but virtually no armour. UNSC ships and vehicles use munitions and fuel (requiring regular resupply and rearming) and have tons of effective armour to compensate for lack of shields.

Objectives: Destroy the opposing ship by any means. Board it to kill the crew and sabotage it from the inside and employ squadrons of fighters to help screen your ship and get inside their guns.

Unique UNSC stuff: the shipboard MAC cannon is extremely fast, accurate and powerful, but takes a long time to charge and by itself won't take down the shields from full. Undetectable nuclear mines can be deployed for sneaky counterattack. Fast tracking Archer missiles can be effective for disabling a fast moving enemy ship while starburst flak cannons provide a wall of effective anti-fighter fire.

Unique Covenant stuff: plasma torpedoes are slow to charge and slow moving once fired, but provided with limited tracking and extremely deadly. Unleash them at closer range or if you know the enemy has limited maneuvrability. Your shields aren't as effective as the UNSC armour plating shot for shot, but can recharge if you are given any breathing room. If your shields are low and you're unable to shake the UNSC ship, activate an in-system jump to quickly get away but be warned it has a very long cooldown.

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  Gamemode: Insurrection
Posted by: Cael_Aislinn - 02-17-2016, 02:09 PM - Forum: Development - Replies (3)

I'm putting this here so people can see what we've done so far and what we've got planned to add.

Concept: SS13 nuke mode except that the protagonist player's ship can actually find the hidden Insurrection asteroid base and nuke it!
UNSC win conditions: Insert and detonate a nuke inside the Insurrection Base (minor victory), or kill/capture all Insurrectionists (major victory)
Insurrection win conditions: Destroy the UNSC ship using conventional means via ship to ship combat (minor victory), board/infiltrate and detonate one of the onboard nukes (minor victory) or capture the UNSC ship and fly it back to their base (major victory).

Insurrection tips/guide
Most shuttles, fighters and other starships capable of intra-system travel (via cruise engines) will also be equipped with sensors able to locate other non-stealthy ships around the star system (depending on a few factors such as ship size and range, larger ships are easier to detect). The UNSC warship will be 100% detectable all the time so the Insurrectionists will have an easy time locating, attacking and attempting to board it. We might give Innies a fast, weak corvette eventually but in the meantime they'll be equipped with a small number of interceptors and fighter-bombers to enable them to actually attack the UNSC ship, and they'll have numerous non-combat shuttles to enable them to sneak up and attempt to board or pretend to be civilians and infiltrate the ship that way. The nuclear weaponry will be stored in specific locations around the ship and will likely be heavily protected. As they are UNSC nukes they may require command level authorisation (aka auth disk) to activate. The UNSC will have a lot better firepower than you so make sure whatever strategy you choose, you put stealth and speed to good use. Remember to detonate the nukes inside the armour plated hull though, or the ship will likely survive.

UNSC tips/guide
After 30 minutes you'll receive an intel report from ONI giving you the coordinates of the Insurrection base, but if you search hard you might be able to find it sooner. As it's an asteroid your weapons are unlikely to damage it from the exterior (both nuclear and conventional) which leaves boarding as the only effective method of attack. You'll likely be much better armed and armoured than anything the Innies can throw at you so you'll be able to disable exterior weapons and hardpoints on the base with ease. Once inside the asteroid you'll be faced with plenty of booby traps and a confusing maze of passages. The only way to ensure effective destruction is to detonate it in the core though so you'll have to brave the interior defences.

Future additions
Scattered around the sector are several dozen supply crates containing various anything from food to weapons, ammo and armour. Retrieving these crates will give your team bonus points at the end (whether the contents are used or not). The supply crates will be obtainable in several different ways and some are easier for UNSC to obtain, while others are easier for the Insurrection. Some ideas I've had of where to find the crates:

- Derelict and abandoned ships and stations.
- Trading with NPC ships or stations
- Smugglers
- Legitimate civilian traders
- UNSC supply depots or resupply ships
- Colonial Insurrection sympathisers

I also want to have a planetary colony somewhere in the star system which is experiencing Insurrectionist unrest and is at risk of a revolt. With PC Insurrectionists fanning the flames, the colony might just be tipped into declaring independance for all kinds of !!fun!! such as NPC controlled planet-based surface-to-space missiles which will be fairly deadly to any UNSC warships, along with potentially a free warship and other goodies. Of course, the UNSC players could also step in to shut down the revolt before it even gets started. There will be various quest type activities for both teams to carry out which will either drive the colony closer to revolt or help defuse tensions.

Eventually I want to add tons of NPC ships flying around the system carrying out their own business. Most will be civilians (traders, cargo transport, cruise liners etc) but there will also be smugglers, pirates and UNSC warships which may all involve themselves in the players business of their own accord. Later on these activities will form the basis of an "extended" type gamemode where players can just explore the star system, roleplay, trade and interact with NPCs without any set objectives.

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  Cael's Sprite request thread (updated regularly)
Posted by: Cael_Aislinn - 02-11-2016, 11:35 AM - Forum: Development - Replies (18)

I'm starting to build up a small novel of sprite requests which I've made but were consequently forgotten about or lost in the depths of the Skype group chat so I thought I'd make an easy quick reference here for my current outstanding requests with the specifications and sorted by priority. Please post in the thread if you are going to start working on something so that we don't have overlaps in work getting done. Unless noted otherwise, none of these sprites need directional states.

16/6/16: I'm offering vidya bounty for the next few people completing requests listed here (Steam/GoG/GmG/Desura etc). Your choice up to $10-$20 etc for each req. completed according to specifications (if I put it ingame and am happy with it).
11/18: Bounty still on the table for new spriters joining the project
25/11/19: We now have a formal bounty program in place. See @ lead spriter or @ head developer on Discord for more information or go to https://github.com/HaloSpaceStation/Halo...els/bounty

Go to https://github.com/HaloSpaceStation/Halo...s/spriting for the Discord sprite issues (some more requests there). 

High Priority
- Fuel rod explosion animations 96x96 and 160x160 (not sure which one we will decide to go with... the 160x160 can just be an upscaled variant).
- Flood biomass (spawner) with 32x32, 64x64 and 128x128. Animated is preferable.
- Landmine sprites with icon states for inactive, arming and armed.
- Alien animal sprites to populate colony maps with.
- UNSC Fortification sprites: deployed sandbags (with directional states), packed/folded sandbags, titanium barricade (as seen in the games), barbed wire coil, deployed barbed wire, tank trap, metallic debris for destroyed barricades/tank traps/barbed wire
- Desert trees, weeds, bushes, scrub, boulders, old animal skeletons etc (desert terrain doodads)
- UNSC pilot jumpsuit and helmet (reference http://halo.bungie.org/misc/sloftus_poa_...-Pilot.jpg) Thanks Macto!
- Overmap explosion animation for destroyed fighters and shuttles (8x8 pixels and should be at least 4 frames long)
- Docking umbilical sprites. The umbilical is a long vacuum sealed walkway that extends out between capital ships and stations (like a jack in the box) to "dock" the two together. The walkway is 4 tiles wide, 2 are sealed window and 2 are walkable floor (there'll be a roof but I can just use ordinary plating for that). All I really want are 32x32 wall and floor sprites with an "extending" and "retracting" animation, retracting can just be extending in reverse. I'm thinking custom wall/machinery sprites as well for the hardpoints where the umbilical is extended from (that will need basic directional states) and I'm happy to use the pre-existing Halo airlock sprites. Thanks Krautzky

Medium priority

- UNSC 32x32 tileable camo netting overlay states
- Colonial militiaman (generic camo fatigues are fine, I'm thinking digital or urban digital for coolness factor)
- Human and Covenant variants for slipspace entry and exit animations. Just make it a bloom of blue energy which I will overlay and rotate in the code over the relevant ships. I'll need 32x32, 64x64 and 96x96 variants in both blue and grayscale palettes. They only need to be a few frames and I will rotate them in the code so make them just in whatever direction you like (EAST/WEST etc).
- 32x32 Shiva Nuclear Space Mines (same animation states as Moray mines)
- 32x32 forklift similar to the cargo tug
- 32x32 resprite of the Bay12 cargo train and cargo trailers so ours are unique
- Overmap sprite for civilian freighter (32x32 or 64x64). A generic cargo transport ship. Overlays for damage and thrusters as well please (I have some submissions but would like more).
- Overmap sprites for shuttles (8x8 pixels) need a couple more of these preferably not just recolours
- "Dust blow" turf effect animation for fighters and shuttles moving over floor plating (32x32 pixels and should be at least 4+ frames long). Basically this is a wind effect generated by hover engines like when you see helicopters flying close to the ground.
- 64x64 Sparrowhawk http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/AV-22_Sparrowhawk with jet thrusters similar to the Pelican instead of fans (to make it space capable)
- 96 x 128 Valkyrie http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/AC-220_Gunship again with jet thrusters similar to the Pelican (also so it's space capable) thanks Krautzky
- Radio backpack for marines like this: http://www.armaholic.com/datas/users/juivdcr_4.jpg
- Additional full size shuttle sprites with variants for the different shuttle types (sprite dimensions vary but are between 144x144 and 225x255 pixels). Different shuttle types include cargo, mining, salvage, boarding/troop transport, civilian personnel, UNSC personnel, medical. Overlays for thrusters and damage would be nice.
- Railings to go along the edge of catwalks, stairwells etc to prevent people falling off. Sprites should be directional and go along the sides of the turf, they should be able to tile (repeat), handle corners nicely and also terminate. Perspective might be a little tricky with this one so make sure you experiment with it a bit.
- Warning klaxon lights to indicate dangerous moving machinery (elevators, automated loaders, docking clamps, men at work etc). I'd like this to be a 96x96 animation loop that I can use as a bitmask and apply various colours to (red, yellow, orange), which we'll just use as a overlay and then apply actual coloured lighting separately.
- Various mineable resources (will require both rock wall overlays and the actual unprocessed ore item itself) from a list.
- Various planetary sprites. Mainly I want tileable turf sprites (32x32) with a handful of random variations. The biomes I want are forest, swamp/jungle, desert, plains, snow (we already have decent SS13 snow sprites), badlands. As well as turfs I'd like random doodads, vegetation and animal sprites too. Vegetation and misc debris can be anywhere up to probably 160x160 (5 tiles by 5 tiles) and animals can be 32x32 or 64x64. Feel free to do rectangular sprites as well (eg 32x64 etc).

Low priority

- 96x96 sprite for archer missile pods with firing animations (with directional states).
- 64x64 sprite for AAA Helix cannons with a separate base so the main body of the gun can rotate freely. I'll also need firing and reloading animations, but they can probably just be overlays (might have this stashed away somewhere... been searching for it).
- a 32x32 or 64x64 control station for turrets and ship mounted weaponry (with directional states).
- Ship control consoles. See existing SS13 computer screens for an idea of the basic requirements, but you can also do completely weird and wacky variants such as floor mounted holograms or VR style stations. For console types I was thinking stuff like sensors, tactical scanner, navigation, communications, weapons, fighter C&C etc. These will need directional states.
- 32x32 fuel tank on a trailer to be pulled by a cargo tug
- 32x32 ammo autoloader for fighters kinda like this: http://www.hoistscranes.com/uploadfile/2...338602.png except with a sort of rack/conveyor contraption on top to automatically reload fighter-mounted weaponry
- Area Network Controller. All the same icon states as an APC and it will function very similarly, but instead of power it will connect machines to the network.
- 32x32 Autopilot beacons. This needs cardinal directional states (for them to be attached to a wall in one direction), animation states for active/inactive. I also need sprite variants for: the approach beacon (first beacon in the autopilot route), airlock beacons (some kind of "wait" signal), berth beacons (the final beacon in the route for the craft to dock with).
- 32x32 sprites for various fighter components (nothing fancy): internal liquid fuel tank, pilot ejector seat, munitions storage, weapons fastloader module, vehicle radio antenna, internal vehicle radio, scanner, flare countermeasures package, chaff countermeasures package, space mine launcher, stealth baffle, armour plating
- 32x32 sprites for fighter mounted weapons: rotary cannon, auto cannon, mine deployer, missile launcher rack (these icons are for when the weapons have been removed or are waiting to be installed in a fighter)
- 32x32 sprites for fighter ammo: individual dumbfire missiles, individual seeker missiles, autocannon ammo clip, autocannon round, rotary ammo clip, rotary round
- 32x32 Moray Space Mines (animation states needed: inactive state, deploying state, active state, warning state, detonation imminent state)
- 32x32 sprites for future fighter components: external (drop) liquid fuel tank, upgraded radio antenna, gauss cannon, gauss cannon ammo clip, gauss cannon round, bomb rack, bombs (just simple HE inertia guided), torpedo launcher, anticapship torpedo, 3-6 computer sprites for different types of computers (navigation, weapons, power, electronic warfare, sensors, thrusters etc)
- Civilian human jumpsuits with 2+ variants and the following themes (including but not limited to): industrial worker (eg miner, sewage worker, construction worker etc), office worker, flight crew attendant, colonial policeman (can be themed after 21st century police)
- Civilian yacht (32x32). A pleasure ship for rich jetsetters. Overlays for damage and thrusters would be nice.
- Civilian personnel liner (64x64 or 96x96). An interstellar transport for large numbers of passengers. Overlays for damage and thrusters would be nice.
- Various space station sprites (32x32, 64x64 and 96x96 for small, medium and large station sizes). Damaged, derelict and "active" (running lights etc) overlays or variants would be nice. (I have some submissions but I'm happy with more)
- Damage overlays for the existing shuttle sprites.
- Custom paint skins for the existing fighters (sabre, longsword, pelican).
- Various planet sprites (128x128 please and animated if possible to be gently spinning, maybe with clouds or atmospheric effects). Some examples for ideas include Earth-like planets, forest/jungle planets, ocean planets, desert planets, barren/rocky planets. Don't worry about mapping in things like satellites or space stations, but feel free to do suborbital traffic and planet spanning cities if you so desire.
- Large fusion reactor (96x96, preferably animated with active, inactive and critical/overloading animations). This also needs overlays to show fuel and heat levels.
- 3 tile wide elevator blast door (96x32 and 32x96 pixels to represent horizontal and vertical orientation). This can basically be a stretched version of the pre-existing 2x1 airlock.
- 3 tile wide elevator floor (96x96 with hazard stripes around the edge, maybe also some kind of animation to show when it's moving and when it isn't).
- Covenant floor turfs (we already have wall turfs but we can probably use more).
- 96x96 scorpion tank with a separate barrel sprite so it can be rotated. Krautzky is working on it.

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  Guide to designing/mapping shuttles
Posted by: Cael_Aislinn - 02-10-2016, 11:48 AM - Forum: Development - No Replies

Greetings spacefarers! I am designing shuttles to be the goto choice for exploring and tooling around the system for space adventurers with the right balance of speed, range and transport capacity. With the latest update to the test server an early version of the shuttles is now available for testing. For said testing purposes, I've done up two basic premade shuttles based off the SS13 Arrivals Shuttle and Nuke Ops ship. As they are quite large, test pilots are recommended to spawn them on the NORTH or EAST edges of the ship hull as they spawn with the bottom left corner on the player.

I've designed the controls to be fairly intuitive but I'll have a quick word here. Use the second view mode to see the immediate surroundings of the shuttle and third view mode to see up to 7 (14?) sectors in the distance (the first viewmode returns you to normal). The arrow buttons control movement and turning. Movement forward and backwards is pixel based and fairly slow, while strafing is tilebased and has a 3 second cooldown. Turning is locked in 90 degree increments as the interior of the shuttle turns with the exterior. Use cruise mode to travel long distances in a hurry and maglock down (when you are touching enough metal walls and floors) for ease of loading/unloading.

Mapping Turfs
There are 3 turfs you want to use exclusively to map the interior of the shuttles. The differences are in opacity, density and sprite as well as what turf spawns when the shuttle is destroyed. You must use the 3 types so the shuttle can correctly track the status of it's interior. For "different" turf types just modify the sprite and stats. The types are:

/turf/simulated/shuttle/hull (dense and opaque, spawns steel walls on destruction)
/turf/simulated/shuttle/hull/window (dense but not opaque, spawns rwindow+grille combo on destruction)
/turf/simulated/shuttle/hull/floor (neither dense or opaque, spawns tiled floors on destruction)

Engines
Make sure that sufficient /obj/structure/shuttle/engine have been placed. Shuttles have a max speed of 50 pixels per second but more engines will increase the rate of acceleration. Direction and where they are placed is irrelevant, and they're purely props otherwise (for now).

Contents
Shuttles have full atmos, lighting and power simulation so make sure you place appropriate supporting objects (lights, wiring, an APC and/or SMES, spare atmos canisters, atmos alarm etc). Use ordinary station airlocks as well instead of dummy unpowered airlocks. It's a good idea to map out a "cabin" area as well, where you will place the shuttle helm /obj/machinery/computer/shuttle_helm which is necessary to pilot the shuttle. Make sure to leave a little space for some tables and maybe a copilot so that there's room for future control consoles to be developed. I also strongly suggest using the Halo themed airlocks at /obj/machinery/door/airlock/halo and /obj/machinery/door/airlock/multi_tile/halo

Entry/exit
In order to enter or a shuttle when it is not maglocked, you will need to place some instances of /obj/machinery/door/airlock/shuttle around the outside of the hull. They function as ordinary airlocks, but will allow entry at the corresponding point on the outside of the hull as well as exit from inside to that point outside (via the "Enter" and "Exit" verbs on the Vehicle tab). While the shuttle is maglocked players can enter and exit through the airlocks like normal, and eg cargo loading flaps and conveyors can function properly too. Remember to place windows so people inside can look out!

Size and dimensions
For technical and gameplay reasons, please restrict your shuttle interiors to maximum dimensions of 15x15 (and probably at least 4x4 or 5x5 in size). Also try to design your shuttle to be either rectangular or square to avoid invisible walls around the outside of the hull (the shuttle bounding box has to be either rectangular or square due to technical reasons, so design the interior accordingly).

Creating the shuttle sprite
Finally, as the shuttle will be the same size on the outside as the inside (no Tardis here) a sprite will be needed matching the full dimensions of the interior. Say your shuttle was 10x10, as each turf is 32 pixels by 32 pixels the sprite for that shuttle would need to be 320 pixels by 320 pixels. This is a decent job of work for any spriter (especially SS13 spriters who are used to working in miniature) so I have developed a shortcut to produce an iconic and reasonably decent looking sprite with those dimensions. Simply create an identical map to your interior but strip it of everything except for external airlocks, engines, walls and windows. Replace all floors with walls (to represent the "roof"). Disable the area overlay in the editor then take a screenshot of your finished top-down shuttle to represent the sprite! Remember to crop and/or scale and/or photoshop your screenshot appropriately so that the image matches the proper dimensions and looks cool.

Send everything you have created to me for final checks along with a description of the shuttle's purpose and I'll see about getting it onto the server. If you have any queries or requests for assistance you can come see me also.

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  Achilles's Staff Request
Posted by: HellishAchilles - 02-09-2016, 04:34 AM - Forum: Finished Applications - Replies (8)

What position are you applying for (Development or Staff)?
Administration

How old are you?
Eighteen 


Known IC Names Or Ckey:
AchillesHeel

What timezone are you in?
(Eastern Time Zone)UTC-05:00 or UTC-03:00(Brasilia Time Zone/sometimes visit family in Brasil often )

How long can you be active on the server everyday?
Weekday/Weekend: Six hours minimum(Variable due to work and in real life events) 

How long have you been playing Space Station 13?
Eight years

Have you ever been banned in the past?
I'm positive I have been banned at least once or twice in my earlier years on my playing upon SS13. 

Do you have any past experience as a moderator?
A short lived on Colonial Marines as a moderator for a day where I had to abruptly leave due to a in real life accident occurring as that is my only moderator experience on a SS13 game. I was Head Admin for a older byond Dragon ball z based game called Dragon Ball Curtain Call and maybe a few other older byond games as different staff before Fumimation's mass removal of most to all of the dbz based games.

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