CRAZY idea (likely very difficult, but would be awesome)

ok, I don't even know if this would be possible, and if it would be it would likely result in large file saves, but would it be possible to create your own ship models in game, resulting in a ship that is entirely your own, and suits your needs, for example, one that had survey equipment, but was slow, so you added multiple engines, resulting in higher fuel consumption, etc. But I don't want to just choose what I want, I want to put it where I want, organizing everything for maximum efficiency, or just to look cool, etc.
Thoughts?

Looking forward to the game! I've been looking forward to this sort of thing since I got into gaming! YEA for co-op!

An Avid Airsofter

I'd imagine if they were to ever implement this, it's be basic hulls, and equipment, but, if they were to implement this with 'blueprint' modelling (Drag whatever you want around to where you want) On mirrored or not, then it'd become insanely interchangable. But for simplicity sake it'd robably just be some form of hallway and rooms editor with a rough hull for you to work with. Tha'd go well.

They might not even implement this though.

Also, for people who can't visualise what I mean:

Quick and dirty image:

Hi Guys,

It's a tricky thing to allow for a custom ship design mechanic. The hull pieces would have to be specifically designed to allow for interchangeability, which would be quite complicated. That's just one issue, there's a much more technical side to all of it too.

1. The ships need to be carefully optimized within the 3D software modelling package to reduce computing stress.

2. Allot of the lighting on board the ship is pre-calculated (baked), which cannot be done at runtime.

I can see other potential technical issues arising from this too, but I won't go into depth. It's certainly not an impossibility, but this is something that would have to make us drastically rethink how our ships are designed, the way they function, and the way we want to set up the coding for everything on board. Perhaps it's something we could look into after the final release as an add-on or something.

I would need to create an entire system/editor interface within the game to accomplish something like this, and meshes would have to be especially made for this, we simply wouldn't have the time to fit this kind of thing into our production schedule.

So, to conclude, I'd say it's not a safe bet at all for a release feature.

Alrighty, I was expecting this to happen anyway.

It's certainly an interesting topic, and one that I'll keep in mind.

What about not so much user created modelling, but a modular system? Like you can build off of what's already there (adding more thrusters to the already existent clusters) or remove/swap out (add more garages or take out the basic one and put in a bigger one to hold more vehicles). If that explanation makes sense.

This was another potential problem I could see.

Every game needs to be balanced. By adding a 'larger garage' and allowing for more vehicles or piling on thrusters could seriously imbalance the gameplay.

There will be options in game anyway to upgrade/swap out your engines/thrusters/reactors/vehicles etc. So it's down to speculation on release whether these are really viable features. It's too early to say right now.

What about the ship exterior? To house a large garage, the shell of the ship itself needs to change to accommodate this new space. The hull is a separate, independent object of the interior rooms and items. This means we would have to specifically craft/model an exterior for every possible eventuality of interior layouts.

It's a feature that would need a lot of time to develop, and not something that would even be easy to develop. As I said, this would have to be something that would be looked into for an update after the release.

There will be a range of ships to choose from too, in all shapes and sizes. Obviously the larger the ship, the more there is to look after, some people may not want the hassle/responsibility of a large ship, or maybe some people will only play single player or just two player. They will want these smaller vessels they are comfortable with.

There are lots of features to do with ships we haven't even revealed yet. =P

Cool, well like I said, just a "Crazy" idea. Something I thought i would throw out there and see where it went.

Now to go find my TARDIS and go to the release date.... Why did I fix that chameleon circuit again?

If exterior customization is'nt possible, then maybe you could make interior customization like funiture and lighting etc.

As fantastic as it would be to blend this project with Kerbal Space Program, so the player could design whatever ship they wanted... I can see how that kind of thing is waaay outside the intended scope of WTOR.

There are aesthetic customization you can make to the exterior of the ship and as we further look into customization options we will keep you posted. White Owl makes a good point, we need to be careful about what features we try and implement to keep the end goal realistic for our team.

Sounds cool but lets just concentrate on the game first its has to be playable and once you captured the interest you can sell these sort of things as plugins or new versions...Im just reallly pleased that someone out there has read my mind and many others as to what we really want from space adventure games...Yes I have a few ideas for the game but not yet finished thinking them out as playable yet ...the new ship demo is amazing WOW! im there already !! Tell you what would be really cool is if you can get out of your ship and into someone elses and fly above your own ship ..also maybe even take someones elses ship if they carelessly leave the door open and u jump inside and fly off...lol PS Dont try this at home I dont condone F.W.O.C ING...(Thats flying without consent) lol

Vinny

Haha, There will be other ships at bases on asteroids/planets that you can steal if you think they're better the one you have, but it'll be a rare find. Just don't expect the locals to let you freely stroll on board.

If your not a thief, you can always locate blueprints and commission the construction back at last watch for a fee and wait patiently while your new baby is being built.

If ship customability can't happen then other things need to be very customizable such as personal gear or housing. (And by housing I mean housing or other things to set up a home base)

When people say sandbox you think personal creations. In another thread people talked about boarding enemy ships. That's nice and all but I wouldn't really put combat games in the sandbox genre. That's not to say that you can't have it in a sandbox game, but when you say that you can't customize ships but you can board ships and kill enemies, it doesn't scream sandbox.

The term "Sandbox" has changed completely since minecraft hit the market. before that, a "Sandbox" game was pretty much any game in which you make your own fun. for example, Skyrim could be considered a sandbox game, being as it allows you to do whatever you wish, whenever you wish.

Since minecraft, people assume sandbox means almost a literal sandbox.

Well, when we use the term sandbox, we mean the good old fashioned 'go where you want when you want in your own time.' =]

You will able to customize your ship aesthetically, however, this was never a game that intended to be 'Make your own ship from scratch' game-play.

The idea's cool, but it's insanely challenging, mine craft is completely different because it's essentially just blocks. And they're pretty static for the most part.

Our ships are dynamic, the have internal code workings which keep you on the floor, your player is constantly having to be adjusted to stay upright whilst receiving additional inputs from controls.

Allot of performance work and analysis has also been experimented with and the ships still need further optimization. As it stands at the moment, I really wouldn't get your hopes up too much for this kinda thing. I would literally require me to go back to square one and rethink the entire way I've programmed the game thus far.

Sequel? hint hint. lol just kidding around.