In the stream they said that it wouldn't be possible to get a Bastion Interior because of the physics limitations. Creating a moving object that characters can stand on is a monumental task for any game engine and as they said for PS2 they would have to basically undo a lot of the engine and rebuild it just for the BFC. But we could also use tricks to get an interior. For example this is Angels Fall First: This game lets you transition smoothly from a moving capital ship to flying a Capitol ship, then walking through the ship's interior to take a Fighter and use that to board an enemy ship or station. Yet the game does not have any physics that allow you to stand on moving vehicles and obstacles. What they do in that game is that the interiors are static environments somewhere on the edge of the map. Every time you board or exit a Capitol ship you are basically entering a teleporter. Every window and open area on the ship where you can look outside is actually an unclippable surface that projects the outside of the ship, making it seem like the interior and the ship are one and the same. So what you could do is make 3 ship interiors, one for each faction. These interiors are placed underneath an empty area of the map and surrounded by a box so that no cheeky aircraft can fly under the map and shoot into the interior. This makes loading the interior easier and prevents loading issues. Each time you enter/exit the BFC you are teleported in/out of it. This does mean you are likely more than 300m away and hit a loading screen each time you do, but that is the price you'll have to pay for it. You could allow any player to approach a loading bay or various other entrances on the ship as an aircraft passenger/pilot, and then press a button (X?) when a prompt comes up to teleport inside. You could perhaps also add a Gravbeam when the BFC is stationary. This can be used by the owners to spawn vehicles there or get infantry up and down the BFC, but can be used by attackers to infiltrate as well. It would be nice if some vehicles could spawn inside/on the side of the interior and act as spawnpoints until destroyed, allowing players to keep up an attack and not have to deal with 48+ A2A ESF each time they try to board. It will not be a seamless experience because each time you enter/exit the interior, say when you take control of the BFC as pilot or enter a turret/ESF, you'll hit a loading screen. But it would allow us to walk around and fight in the interior of the BFC to either capture or destroy it. Just imagine a full-blown corridor fight towards the captain's chair, and then having to hold that chair for 1 minute to capture the BFC while the owners will be spawning inside to stop you and allied non-outfitmembers to the BFC will be spawning behind you to resecure the BFC.
This absolutely merits some Dev attention. Technically they have all of the pieces they need already, the only question is whether it works the way we think it will. Specifically teleportation mechanics and how they interact when one of your points is mobile. If it does, this is not only feasible, but could potentially be pulled off in a relatively short time. I can't think of any issues that don't at least appear to be solvable.
Then what do you do when the Bastion is destroyed? Play explosion effects and auto-kill everyone inside?
This seems to be a viable solution to the problem and would add a fascinating sabotage aspect to the BFCs.
You would do the same as with players that would be in the BFC seats right now: Kill them. Perhaps you could make the destruction of the BFC take time, allowing for a mad scramble outside before it blows. You could also add a reward. Upon destruction panels on the ship are opened and resources can be collected there. Get the resources and escape the ship before it blows while your enemies are trying to kill you and take those same resources.
I honestly don't believe for one second that its an engine limitation. Like I said in the other thread about the Bastion Fleet Carrier, the original dev team had planned to make interiors and even a flight-deck for landing aircraft and spawning in. So we know it was in the works and possible as far back as launch in 2012. Personally I just think the current dev team doesn't want to put that much effort into it and their knowledge of the engine is very limited. Since they are mostly new to PS2 and the suits at DBG fired the only guy who was familiar with the engine.
The physics of a moving object and transferring that to another object standing loose on top of it is one of the more difficult things to program in any game engine. The game Firefall did program it into itself at one point but it also required the devs to rebuild a large part of the game engine from scratch. Many games today also have wonky physics when you stand on top of a vehicle, even an immersive game like GTA has problems with this and doesnt have a full system for moving on top of an already moving object. The goals of the original dev team were ludicrously complicated. They figured they could connect all continents and create naval battles and add bastion carriers as support and many more things. What we got in their time period was them mopping up behind their failed ambitions to fix the gaping problems with connectivity issues, horrific balance, the mind-numbing problems offered by the hex system, rendering issues where infantry might only show up within 30m distance etc. So when the devs say they cant do this I believe them. Its no secret that this is the case just stand on top of a vehicle right now and have it move.
Not a bad solution. As far as the loading screen, just make it an experience of being teleported, not just a picture with a loading bar. However if you can make it so players can stand on top what is to prevent one from standing just below that? I would assume a Bastion Model that is "hollow". Would they not have to just make a new model? Probably not easy, i guess, i have never made a model, just maps.
Actually GTA has one of the best physics engines in the industry. Its pretty realistic in terms of standing on top of a moving vehicle. Its not easy to maintain your balance at all. Some of the issues the original dev team had are still present in the game 7+ years later. That's not a good thing for anybody. It's either incompetence or an engine limitation to fix these lingering issues. Possibly both. It is a fact though that this current and new dev team don't have much knowledge on the engine. So it's more than likely they don't have the skills/knowledge to fix the physics in the game. The only programmer that had knowledge on the engine was fired last year. So......any attempt to fix "complicated" engine issues will probably never be fixed and instead they will workaround it by cutting corners to make it easier and more cost effective.
But especially because of this limitation it can be very fun to get a small sniper team on top of a Galaxy and fly them to their target to shoot down. It's like the spanish inquisition, nobody expects that. (Hint: Can be done by flying reeeaaally slow and the snipers running along on top.)
