Shuttle (New) DBI Stronghold

[Bartholemew-Dingleberry]

About the PR

adds a new Science ship, the DBI Stronghold! meant to handle any artifact or anomoly with maximized safety! nothing could possibly break past it's reinforcments!

Why / Balance

i've spaced every single science ship because of an artifact exploding, and that always took a huge time commitment to fix it back up, i'd like there to be a ship that handles artifacts with far more resiliance than such

Technical details

all the nessecary files to add a ship with a guidebook entry and illustration and Company logo

How to test

spawn at FO
buy ship
spawn 2~3 artifacts and research them
if they explode watch how little damage the chamber sustains!
if they don't, spawn 100 of them in and then watch it handle the onslaught!

Media

Requirements

• I have read CONTRIBUTING.md and and am following the Pull Request and Changelog Guidelines.
• I have added media to this PR or it does not require an ingame showcase.
• I have reviewed the Ship Submission Guidelines if relevant.
• I confirm that the content in this PR is my own work, and/or is properly attributed to the original author(s).

Breaking changes

Changelog

🆑

• add: Added a new Research shuttle, the DBI Stronghold! it's research chamber is sure to hold out strong!

[github-actions]

RSI Diff Bot; head commit f2bdf8e merging into 84270c4
This PR makes changes to 1 or more RSIs. Here is a summary of all changes:

Resources/Textures/_NF/Guidebook/shuttle_maps/128x96.rsi

State	Old	New	Status
stronghold			Added

Resources/Textures/_NF/Structures/Wallmounts/posters.rsi

State	Old	New	Status
nf_poster31_contraband			Added

Edit: diff updated after f2bdf8e

[Bartholemew-Dingleberry]

it seems i need to make a new branch to remove old commits, or do some rebase magic, oh well i doubt it's too big a problem

[Bartholemew-Dingleberry]

i've done a check to see if i missed anything and think that it's now ready for review

[dustylens]

Allright. Bowl of yogurt in hand it’s time to review the Stronghold.

Profile is distinct and interesting. Makes an impression for sure. The name is a bit odd. Not sure that it really communicates a purpose and I feel that if you decide to name all of your ships the fort/fortress/buttress/redwall/keep/redoubt you’re going to run into some nomenclature issues. Just as a thought.

Walk in and the lamp over the ATM isn’t a great look. This space in general feels a little under baked. It’s not a great first impression to the shuttle to walk into a room that feels like it hasn’t been finished yet. Feel free to add some decor to the entrance of your shuttle to let people know that they're stepping into something! Even if it's just some basic decal work to inform that this is an airlock.

• First impressions:

The bottom of the two entrance airlocks isn’t powered. Which is never a good sign when I walk in to review a shuttle.

A good chunk of the conveyors aren’t powered either. I’m starting to get the sense that the shuttle hasn’t been entirely test flown.

It seems not as the thruster bank on this side is also not powered. Making flying the shuttle impossible.

• Cargo Bay:

My first takeaway is that this room seems to be outfit for 1 person. Which seems very odd for a shuttle of this size. I would expect at the tools and means for a pair of persons.

This APC facing the conveyor should likely be rotated to face the actual compartment. So as to not communicate that one needs to stand on the belt to access the belt proper.

Some decorative work along the belt can give it a much stronger feeling in the space. As it is it feels a bit like a very long naked stretch of shuttle. A real dead space. This might be a good area for a window or something else to break up the long stretch of wall.

The cargo setup itself doesn't feel very robust to me. The system for the reclaimer, with the disposal end pipe just ejecting across the airlock exit, the window and the separation of the material silo with a window all seem a bit rushed. At time of writing I have no idea why there's a gravity generator in here.

What are people meant to do with the empty cans? Do you think that THIS might be a better place to stage artifact containers for people to place artifacts that they bring aboard into?

• Science room

Double check that you have all machines present. At the moment you have an anom generator but you seem to be missing the other tools that you'll want to use for this.

Furthermore the flatpacker isn’t on the list of tools for a science shuttle.

• Artifact room

The alarm siren is going to get real old real fast for people opening that blast door. I would caution against this one.

You'll want to revisit the plating under the southern blast door.

I don't think that you need a second crate with monkey cubes. You've got one situated in the science room already and it blocks your blast door.

How do you access the space between the outer ring of solars and the interior lights?

• Engineering room

This room confuses me. There's gyros trapped behind gas cans, a lack of any appreciable decal work and the whole room is made up in a single tile type. I would suggest moving the walls up one and rebuilding this room. You will be walking through it a LOT between the bridge and science space and I think you can leverage your imagination to make a space with a configuration that places your generators side by side in addition to leaving room for your gyros to be clear and accessible. You have a lot of room to play with in here.

• The bridge.

I’d like you to consider this image.

Look at how much of that screen is black. Note the pumps on the floor of your space. Note the disposal with the bright yellow outline. The single wooden table with the single lonely chair, facing the wall. This is not a comfortable room with a commanding view of the cosmos. This is a very lonely room for someone who I do not believe imagines sharing the space with another person. I think we should give it some life and some views!

• Close out

I wanted to do a quick walk through after work to get a feel for the new direction. On the whole I think you're taking the shuttle in a really strong direction with an interesting and novel design. This is vastly superior to the original design and one that I think is interesting and compelling.

However I would urge you to spend a lot more time on your efforts to wrap up the interior spaces. The shuttle feels rushed, unfinished and untested. The handling is very challenging and generally unenjoyable. I also believe that you should consider that you're building this shuttle for people who may prefer to play in larger groups when they contemplate buying a larger and more expensive science shuttle and outfit the equipment provided accordingly. Right now this shuttle is equipped for two but feels like it's meant to be operated by a solo operator. It's a lonely feeling.

Consider the spaces you have, how they can be decorated and how you can make each of the rooms, especially high traffic zones, feel like more complete areas. This is an abstract concept but also a vital one for taking a shuttle from "rectangle with floor tile" to "engineering room designed to be traversed through".

This is also the stage of the shuttle building process which requires as much if not more investment of time and energy as putting the basic walls and shapes together. So I urge you to take your time and work with intentionality.

[Bartholemew-Dingleberry]

main reason i went with "Stronghold" is mostly because the research chamber is so fortified, it has a layer of blast doors, a layer of reinforced walls, and then 2 layers of lattice far away, the research chamber is the focus, it's the main reason why the shuttle exists, it's the reason for the name, however i'm not really good with names at all so if a better name comes along i'd happily switch it out

i seem to have accidentaly removed 2 LV cables that lead to door and engines and the most recent test run i did wasn't a big one because i thought i was above such a silly mistake, i wasn't! sorry

the salvage/cargo bay now can easily support 2 people and has a huge ammount of storrage area, the conveyor's convineint and the only possible issue is the relativly small walkspace but that shouldn't be too bad, you're not gonna carry many things from cargo to research except for aircans and artifact containers, both of which aren't that hard to move.
i've added a ready machine frame to allow people to make it either a ore processer or a scrap processer, having it be after the reclaimer is also meant for making sure reclaiming happens first and that all the resulting scrap/mats get magneted to the right place.

i usually like to have 2~3 air cans for canning any good gas artifacts make, what if an artifact made co2/plasma/trit and another needed it/ i wanted to sell it? i'd want to can it into a seperate can and having spares helps, but i'm fine with making it only 1 and having the rest be made on need

i keep forgeting the artifact vessel and ape, my bad,
i've expanded the bottom of the research room and added the atmospheric's locker to deal with atmospheric issues easier

the research chamber has also gotten expanded, now with 2 external doors leaving into the inner side of the lattice rings, if you fill in the space between the first ring and the doors you still get a good silhouette and some huge storage area in space on top, i often see many scientists store artifacts in space near the chamber so maybe this will be a very welcome space? will have to see it in action

also i'm not sure i see the seccond monkey cube? i checked but couldn't find it anywhere? i only placed the one on the table i think

i was trying to go with the SMESs in the middle as a row as that looked unique and because i was a bit confused on how to charge them with cable terminals without mixing the pre-charge HV and after-charge HV networks, but i've played around with solars more and got a more elegant solution; just add them to the right side! crazy how i didn't think of that before, i've also expanded the room up and i ended up putting the device pairs together and a window facing the solar rings, i think it looks good now

i wanted to have the scrubber pump to show the disposals network and allow building a filter to collect some waste gases that way, but that didn't fit so it was made a normal pipe, i've expanded the room out a little at the bottom, added a table that can fit 3, and those 3 with the pilot allow 4 people total, ive moved the bookshelves and added 4 sleeping spots, 1 rd bed, 2 scientist beds, and 1 forgotten delapedated bedroll with the cobwebs and broken wood floor, it's more so meant to be a practical joke that the 4th guy is comepletely forgotten about but i'm not sure if that sort of humor is allowed in a ship

i've also expanded the solar ring to be 2 thick, this was nessecary to make it produce enough power to turn off the gen when the thrusters are off, it looks really good so i'm glad i did it

the ship is kinda hard to rotate, but not so much that i feel it needs an extra gyroscope, i don't have a good grip on how weighty is too weighty but i think it's acceptable right now

i hope it's not too annoying having to review so many of my shuttle ideas, i find myself doing best when i have more feedback on the ships and appreciate you giving it Dusty!

[dustylens]

Wowzers look at that profile.

Now we’re cooking with gas. What a change from the first iteration. We’re ready to do some science now.

• Replace the airtight plastic flap with the normal flap and a directional fan. We’re not using that specific tool AND you can dislodge it with a simple wrench.

• I feel that the cargo bay is both cluttered and empty. Good thing I have some followup here to explain my reasoning!

The walls of machines and the walls of lockers make for a space that’s a bit odd, in addition to the long naked wall and the 3x6 catwalk sprawl. I would suggest considering rebuilding the space in a fashion similar to this:

Please feel free to make your own decision regarding decoration. But I think that you could find stronger placement for machines, lockers and decorations to break up and add some life to the area.

The machine frame is a bit on the nose. If you want a scrap processor/etc there I’d just add one. I don’t feel that it really fits super well thematically on this specific shuttle to have a mostly completed machine sitting on a belt.

It’s a smoodge odd to have the checkerboard pattern by the blast doors be a different color pattern than the super colorful stripe directly adjacent.

2. Science bay

The science bay is similarly cluttered. A suggestion might be to cut the number of EVA / science lockers down to 1. Or simply map a holofan and remove the atmos locker. Furthermore the two consoles right by the windows are blocking the firelocks and were not very nice to walk around.

The warp point (purple X) should be a warp point. Not a ghost warp point.
The airlocks leading in and out of the artifact, uh, bloop are maybe gonna make people a bit fussy. I wont ask you to change it but I do warn you the feedback is gonna be there.

3. Engineering

Please bring the second generator online. I would like the default power generation available to be 1:1 with the shuttles needs without the solar power included.

4. Bridge

I do not believe that linking the throttle control to the engine control on one button is something I would like to see on the shuttle. That could be confusing and frustrating for people. If people desire that they can set it up in moments.

You’ve added some social space but, man. Between the lean over the chair to reach the fridge, and the mattress on the floor? Under the cobweb? With the paper scrap? I’m not even sure what’s going on here. Amusingly enough trying to use the mattress results in some serious problems that I had to solve by pulling myself into an adjacent chair.

But I think that if you want to have a space here for people that it could use a little more love.

5. Wrapup.

I believe that you are using your shuttle by flying around in it. I do. But I think that a real core growth point that remains is actually -using- your shuttle. Are you walking through one locker to access another? Are you able to actually charge anything? Do think there’s another way you could set things up to not be so cluttered? Are there really big spaces that are undecorated?

This shuttle is coming a long ways. I honestly feel pretty good about the gist of it and feel that it has a space on Frontier. But we’re in a difficult phase of cleaning up and making things feel really good for other people to use.

[github-actions]

This pull request has conflicts, please resolve those before we can evaluate the pull request.

[Bartholemew-Dingleberry]

i've tried basically all the configurations for where to put the machines; trying to have it as close to the blast door as i can for salvaging ruined machines, but ultimatly i've compromised in having it where you put it, while having a conveyor leading inside by the salvage bay door.
looking at other salvage vessels it doesn't look to be too different distance wise from the salvage bay to the reclaimer but it still doesn't feel good..... when are we allowed to map dumspters/ore boxes/ constuction boxes/etc?

i'm not sure where else i should put the analyzer Console, you're almost always using the analyzer right after leaving the research chamber, so having it as close as possible makes the most sense, and due to the HUGE size of the chamber comparatively to the rest of the science shuttles, i can't think that making the walkback even longer would be worth it, is it really that big a deal?
i've tried moving the 2 consoles back to the table but i think it'll be a downgrade.
i'd like to keep the doors, no other way for me to make the inner lattice ring accessable, not to mention it allows for space storage areas if people want, it's something i see too often to remove.

i think i've gotten the bridge sufficiently overhauled! through the help of Dwane loki and Xanh, it should be good enough now

[Bartholemew-Dingleberry]

i've went ahead and removed the little 2x3 area before the chamber, and put the consoles and some tools in that space i really like how it looks now

[dustylens]

Hello! Evening tea in hand it’s time to see how things are moving along on the Stronghold!

This one is going to be a bit more nuts and bolts.

• First things first! A reminder to please swap out the plastic flap with a standard one and place a directional fan by the entrance cargo door!

• The blast doors get a light, which seems fair but I feel like they're fairly telegraphed. Of the two I feel like the "this door opens the room to space" is the one more deserving of an angry strobe. Perhaps one sodium and one red for each flavor of booton?

• The pump system that's putting air INTO the chamber could terminate with an injector. Which pushes air in but doesn't allow backflow. The passive vent is perfect for the "pulling air out of the room and back into the can".

• Beneath the walls here we have some vestigial lattice hiding away. Let's make sure we have plate under all of our walls and windows! This is a perpetual torment without end. Feel no frustration. I had one called out on a shuttle that's like a year old that had been hiding all of this time.

• Similarly it looks like we have a vestigial waste system here. Could likely be cleaned up.

• The crew space is looking far less depressing now. My credit to your interior decorators. I think there's some remnants that could be cleaned up. Like maybe the loneliest shelf behind the waste reclaim? Or that there to hold the remote?

• I bet you could sneak in a jukebox as well! This is a for fun jukebox and not a mandated one. Not everyone likes deck the halls.

• Your generators are still lagging somewhat. With the power draw being 30/20 at present the default generation is a smoodge behind the, uh, 51.something kW that the shuttle demands at rest without solar support.

"Dusty that's very fussy the ship is solar supported". Yes but we do try to make sure that the default setup can work for people who don't know their elbow from a solar collector. Or how to power systems down to recharge using the generators if they let it idle too long and lose all power.

Outside of those notes I think that the Stronghold is inching into the "Let's start field testing" phase. I'm going to poke Hivequeen for a second pair of eyes and once these pieces are all dialed in I think we can see about the next and final steps.

P.S. if you WANT to map an orebox/dumpster and so on I think that would be acceptable. But to warn they do have a pricetag associated with them that will carry over into the shuttle. So it's one of those "You are buying this for your player, do you want to do that or let them make the choice" pieces.

[Bartholemew-Dingleberry]

i did fix the flap, it's just that the salvage bay had a lot of reworks that by the end of it i forgot to fix it, woops

i didn't consider that the air might flow from the room to the pipe network, that's a real rookie mistake... i tend to get tunnel visioned with atmos a lot

otherwise i've fixed the other stuff! thank you for your time

[dustylens]

i did fix the flap, it's just that the salvage bay had a lot of reworks that by the end of it i forgot to fix it, woops

i didn't consider that the air might flow from the room to the pipe network, that's a real rookie mistake... i tend to get tunnel visioned with atmos a lot

otherwise i've fixed the other stuff! thank you for your time

No need for all that! That's why we look at one anothers work! We miss stuff and it seems like it's skylined because we point out the one thing that we note and not the 500 things that you did around it.

[Bartholemew-Dingleberry]

yeah i took the lack of comment on the salvage bay as the best case scenario lol

[dustylens]

yeah i took the lack of comment on the salvage bay as the best case scenario lol

I'm on page 28 of my dissertation on the salvage bay. It is scathing. <3