Shuttle (New) ONYX Spinel (and thrusters)

[Goofyclark]

After lots of worrying and procrastination, I'm finally attempting a PR! This is my first time, so please let me know if I need to do something different.

About the PR

This PR adds two main things:

The ONYX Spinel

My design goal for the Spinel was to make a luxury racing shuttle that doesn't really have much actual use other than going fast. It's small, expensive, gaudy, and features a cool cockpit Whipple shield. Included with this shuttle (and also available to purchase through cargo) are...

Onyx thrusters

I added these in order to make a fast shuttle that's actually fast compared to the other ships in the lineup. Stats-wise, they have 1.5x the max speed of regular thrusters (45), in exchange for 4x the power draw and an exorbitant price (5000 Spesos). They also don't benefit from part upgrades.

I originally planned to have these two be separate PRs, but I didn't want to risk messing something up by trying to split it, and the shuttle would've required the thrusters anyway.

Why / Balance

For the shuttle, I was a bit concerned at how high the Usefulness:Price ratio was for most of the roster, so I aimed to make a ship that was practically useless in any of the profitable gameplay loops. This thing is mainly for richer players to show off their wealth by flying in circles around everyone else. It appraised at 52,080 (mostly from the thrusters), and I decided to give it a 15% markup for a nice 60K price tag. Although it barely even qualifies for T1, I wanted it to cost a lot because it's "luxury."

The thrusters are balanced as best I could, but I'm open to any feedback from more experienced contributors/maintainers. My idea was that, with such an extreme power draw, they couldn't be reasonably used on any shuttle that had useful machines or features (the Spinel itself has to run on Bananium, despite its small size). This, along with their high price, prevents them from being just an upgrade to base thrusters (at least in theory). Additionally, by the time late-shift rolls around and people get RTGs or other ways of practically powering them, those people would probably have access to at least T3 thrusters anyway, so there'd be no need for Onyx ones.

Technical details

Mostly YAML.
Spinel has a guidebook entry with a map.
Onyx Thrusters flatpacks can be purchased through cargo.

How to test

• Buy the ONYX Spinel at a console
• See its guidebook entry and map
• Fly it around at high speeds
• Dock at TM and buy more Onyx Thrusters
• Attach them to the Spinel and fly it some more, give thanks that G-forces aren't modeled and you remain non-pancaked
• Crash into an asteroid at top speed, watch as the cockpit remains pressurized

Media

(Onyx thrusters visible)

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

None, hopefully!

Changelog
🆑

• add: Added high-speed Onyx thrusters, purchasable through cargo.
  MAPS:
• Added the ONYX Spinel, a high-speed racing shuttle

[github-actions]

RSI Diff Bot; head commit c779c79 merging into b83db2e
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
spinel			Added

Resources/Textures/_NF/Structures/Shuttles/thruster.rsi

State	Old	New	Status
base_onyx			Added

[dustylens]

The thrusters may be submitted as a separate PR if you wish for a maintainer review to determine if they are an addition that would be desired for Frontier.

If you feel that the shuttle cannot be submitted without these thrusters I will make the determination for their inclusion as part of the full shuttle package.

The shuttle as observed contains a number of design issues that may become evident upon reviewing our ship submission guidelines which are differentiated from that of Coyote. Please give them your full consideration and careful review.

Please feel free to put forward any questions you may have.

[Goofyclark]

Thank you for your quick reply! I had a feeling I was missing something important.
I feel like speed is in the core identity of the shuttle. I'm not really sure it has anything going for it without the thrusters, so I'd say they're critical. If it would be better for me to completely separate them, wait for a decision to be made on the thrusters, and only then attempt to PR the shuttle, I would be willing.

As for the design part, were the only problems the thruster corners and missing fire alarm? If so, that's a pretty easy fix:

At this point, I feel like I've read through the ship guidelines a half-dozen times, but please let me know if I missed anything else!

[dustylens]

Sounds good. We can bring the thrusters up as their own item in a maintainer talk to spare you the work of putting them in their own PR until that is finalized. If it's decided that it's not something that we would like to incorporate at this time I'd like to spare you the extra work.

[Goofyclark]

In that case, I will wait to hear about a decision. Thanks!

[dustylens]

The maintenance team reviewed the PR and determined that the Onyx thrusters are not desired.

As a general rule shuttles on Frontier are purchased at a baseline. Our goal is to have players evaluate the use, flow and design of the shuttles with a focus on the archetype equipment presented to find the best fit for their shift.

Having shuttles that come pre-upgraded in some capacity, in this case as a shuttle that could simply move faster than any other for a substantial portion of the shift, is not desired regardless of the associated cost.

As the thrusters were identified as a core component of this shuttle PR I will be closing it. I appreciate your interest in contributing to Frontier.

[Goofyclark]

That makes sense, I'll keep it in mind for any future contributions attempts. I learned a lot through the process, so I definitely don't feel like my work was for naught.

Thank you again for your time and explanations!

[dustylens]

Absolutely. I appreciate your patience and your understanding.