Panets and Docking Rings.

[DiscoveryAccount]

Traveling high distances in space instantly is something studied by scientist seriously (Worm holes)

And we only want to change them because they only seem so much less likely to be possible than anything else in the game.

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[cal823]

There are mods in which docking rings have been completely removed and you just dock with the planet, so it is possible.
However, I would imagine a docking ring could have some kind of energy or field related thing that enables your ship to survive atmospheric entry, either that or it is simply for traffic and guidance reasons. Also, docking rings mount defenses on them, and make sure people can only enter at one point, as opposed to the obvious security and traffic issues of ships being able to land anywhere (e.g. a xeno could easily land on manhattan if it wasnt done by ring, as only a section of the planets "front" has any security or traffic control)

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We reserve the right to keep and arm bears

I reserve the right to keep and arm Jarek.

[swift]

I'd go ahead and jump on the "Docking rings are ew." bandwagon.
I don't see them making any sort of sense, really.
While the other things like sound in space, incredibly fast engines, etc. can be waived off with 1. It'd be utterly stupid without it, and 2. Well who knows how advanced they could be, I can't explain this one with anything.

I'd really be for removing docking rings and making the thing with docking buoys. It wouldn't really be too much work, and would be much more immersive and realistic.

For example, take the cardamine convoys to Manhattan.
Instead of landing right on top of the main city, going through the LPI operated starport (Facepalm!), they could dock on a small hidden settlement on the planet surface where they'd sell the drugs to a fence.

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[DiscoveryAccount]

Well "really fast engines".. The engines don't need to be fast actually! they only need power for take off and a good fuel (yeah I mean amazing not good) because strong engines needs a lot of fuel. you'd only need engines that can actually produce a pushing force against your ship so that it gains speed. But in space that is hard because it's not possible to use combustion since there's no oxygen. (no oxygen no combustion...)

Because, since there is no friction in space (not really any molecules or any matter in space .. well very very few) there is very near to nothing that produces deceleration. Anyway, it's fooked up in space.

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[Markam]

Well, I dont really care either way honestly, though I'd love to see more than one docking ring on each planet, maybe not capital planets, but backwater planets would make it a bit more interesting, probably not docking rings though, just some subtle thing, maybe a buoy like someone said earlier, for unlawfuls.

Xeno's on denver,
LWB on stuttgart,
bounty hunters or junkers on hudson,
hackers/rogues on Los angeles,
unioners on hamburg,
bundies on holstien,
GMG/BD on honshu,
FA on kyushu (stop using the bloody lawful point!),
gaians on cambridge,
nomads on malta?!
I'd like to see a plethora of docking points on places like Gran Canaria (if they dont have peoples eyes out at the very suggestion),
and of course, hessians and bounty hunters on crete.

(I just made most of these up on the spot, so dont take them seriously).

[Robert.Fitzgerald]

I like the idea of having more than one docking ring on some planets. The planet controlled by Council/Brigands seemed like such a good idea (in terms of development) to allow multiple aspects of a planet to be represented ingame.

I think docking rings should stay - this is not a realistic physics simulation, and they are a part of the original freelancer universe. Discovery aims to extend the vanilla Freelancer gameplay and universe, so we can't just remove things because "they don't make sense from a real-life perspective". This isn't real life.

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[Unseelie]

Traveling high distances in space instantly is something studied by scientist seriously (Worm holes)

And we only want to change them because they only seem so much less likely to be possible than anything else in the game.

I was never trying to focus on the physics of docking rings, athough it is silly, but rather on how they maul our perception of a world. Together with the idea of extra docking rings, I was suggesting some reasonably neutral bases, rather than the highly polarized forms that worlds have. Other than adding secondary docking rings, wich I feel poarizes it just the same, I'd suggest we make the worlds themselves dockable, as I earlier suggested, with a less lawful, fringes (but not outright criminal) of the underworld feel. Maybe stick a Xeno in the commodity dealer, a rogue in the bar, a rhienland agent in the arms dealer.

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[AdamantineFist]

Well "really fast engines".. The engines don't need to be fast actually! they only need power for take off and a good fuel (yeah I mean amazing not good) because strong engines needs a lot of fuel. you'd only need engines that can actually produce a pushing force against your ship so that it gains speed. But in space that is hard because it's not possible to use combustion since there's no oxygen. (no oxygen no combustion...)

Because, since there is no friction in space (not really any molecules or any matter in space .. well very very few) there is very near to nothing that produces deceleration. Anyway, it's fooked up in space.

You have a good point about the power of engines, but also realize that they can accelerate us to speeds that allow travel across an entire solar system in a rather short period of time. Oh, and we don't use combustion at all anymore. It's fusion now, which produces lots and lots of energy. After all, superheated plasma can make a dang good propellant.

I was never trying to focus on the physics of docking rings, athough it is silly, but rather on how they maul our perception of a world. Together with the idea of extra docking rings, I was suggesting some reasonably neutral bases, rather than the highly polarized forms that worlds have. Other than adding secondary docking rings, wich I feel poarizes it just the same, I'd suggest we make the worlds themselves dockable, as I earlier suggested, with a less lawful, fringes (but not outright criminal) of the underworld feel. Maybe stick a Xeno in the commodity dealer, a rogue in the bar, a rhienland agent in the arms dealer.

This sounds absolutely awesome. 'twould give things a far more realistic feel quite easily indeed.

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[Andrew_Bonesovich]

I didnt read whole topic, but first thing that came to my mind when I saw a few comments was

Planetary shield (or how you call it, meh)

I thought all planets have some sort of shield to prevent terrorist attacks like MOX bombing from space or not? That way, docking rings create "tunnel" trough the shield or something, so ships can dock without ramming the shield (and becoming huge fireball afterwards). Just a theory.

Only flaw I see in this can be the fact that rings were here before the shields.

Anyway, multiple docking rings could be very interesting, I would like to be able to dock from other side of the planet, etc.

Another idea - let the current rings stay, but give every planet an "invisible ring" which would be neutral to everyone, and serve as docking point for smugglers/pirates and other vermin. Commodities and equipment would be different in each docking point. For example, "smuggler's ring" (invisible one) would sell mostly contraband or buy the contraband, ordinary ring would sell/buy legal goods.

[/brainfart]

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A criminal always returns to the crime scene.