Showing posts with label library. Show all posts
Showing posts with label library. Show all posts

Friday, February 13, 2015

Milk Run

Journal Entry 811;
recording entity - Seargent Frit Fatham

Date: 021412

As a maintence engineer in DEEME, I'm given special priveledges.
For one, I have my own quarters on Dry Station... the only one in fact.  All other personnel live aboard their own particular vessels.


It's good to wake up to a view.  Looks like SVG Excavator is back from the outer sectors.


The shipyard at Dry Station has been occupied building a new design of frigate... a support vessel with a new experimental jump drive that should really speed up my job, among others... and ultimately allow Dry Empire to expand into more sectors by drastically reducing travel costs and times.


I have a call out to one of the mining posts today - apparently it was damaged recently by a rogue roid impacting it.  Pirate troubles are few and far between these last few months, but that hasn't reduced my own workload, it seems.  As more things are built, more things get damaged and need maintenance.  It's only a matter of time until I'm running a crew.


One of the very best perks of my position is my private run-about... an Ajax Keelboat affectionately named "Green Meanie".


 She has tan synthetic leather seats. Yeah baby.


As I pull away from Dry Station I always inspect my own quarters. The last thing I want is for some structural stress crack to open up the structure like a grenade and blow me out into space while I sleep.  It's right next to Green Meanie's dock, so it's just instinct really, to check it out on the way in and out.


Not much for privacy, but I wouldn't trade my creature comforts for curtains if they were solid threns.


The airlock accesses a small external passageway to the library.  There's an internal door too, but it's permanently sealed until the library is pressurised... no immediately plans for that, but apparently Chairman Broez intends to at some point, or there's little reason to include an internal door between pressurised and vaccuum-filled sections of Dry Station...  Either that or there's a little red button in his quarters that allows him to open that hatchway if ever he decides my services are no longer required... heh.  Good thing I'm good at what I do, I guess.


The WDU's always get a little cranky when I pass through the shipyard area... but I've got to inspect for maintenance issues now, don't I?  Nothing to do with getting a sticky beak at the progress of the ship being built, of course.


Dry Station has grown so much since I was hired by Chairman Broez...


I lay in a course for Sarafrey Mining Outpost, and increase the tint on my LCD visors, putting Green Meanie into overdrive as she heads almost directly at the sun.


I pass through the outer asteroid belt, which is studded with 6-point turret emplacements... they always get a bit twitchy if you hang around too long, so a quick inspection is enough for me in this unshielded boat without disarm codes at the ready...


Several hours later I reach Sarafrey and approach the dock... hailing the station's operator to inform them I've arrived to carry out the inspection and repairs.


Already I can see some of the damage to the infrastructure... shouldn't be hard to fix in zero gravity with the aide of the station's WDU... just some simple combinating and welding... no big deal.


One of the lateral I-Beams got hit pretty badly it seems.  Again a reasonably easy fix, if time consuming.


The main habitation facility appears to be structurally intact.


Airlock systems functioning fine.


Internals are fully pressurised, and the station operator reports no issues.  I have to check it all out thoroughly for myself though, while I'm here.  The operator is a twitchy fellow that prefers to just let me go about my duty, staying in his quarters till I'm done.  Pretty typical for operators of stations like this - they live out here alone for so long that interacting with people tends to make them uncomfortable.


External airlock to the drone facility was a little glitchy, but turns out it was just a small wiring issue - fixed it as I inspected it.


The drone control facility was grubby and scattered with trash, but otherwise functional.  Not my job to recommend different life-style choices, although the conditions would certainly go down in my report...


Structurally the habitation facility appeared in pretty good nick.  I've seen far worse.  Micro-asteroids cause the most damage usually... smashing into the most unexpected places and leaving tiny holes no bigger than a pin-prick that leak fluids, atmosphere, sever wires, and sometimes ignite combustables.  Cheaper to risk the entire facility and crew than to install shields, apparently.


The cargo bay had a light out, but the doors functioned well. Cargo pods were scattered hap-hazardly and again there was clutter everywhere.  I carried out the necessary repairs over the next two days, prefering to live in my suit and Green Meanie than to interact too much with the station operator. Stam, his name was. He seemed to prefer it that way too.


Repairs were completed without incident, and it was good to return home.  I'll spend the next day filling out paperwork.


Glad I've got my quarters and don't live out there like those mining outpost operators...

Ajax Keelboat is downloadable (available in white and green) and available for public use for free.  Simply put the file into your "blueprints" folder (eg: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\StarMade\StarMade\blueprints) and you will have access to this station in-game under "Catalog" menu.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Ship Catalog

Dry Station's library AI notified me of a new addition to the databanks - a ship catalog.

This catalog is a growing database of the vessels that I have encountered so far in Dry Empire, both those I'd built as well as those owned by other astronauts and empires... It excludes Isanth pirate vessels, as the Trading Guild already has an expansive library detailing these vessels.

This databank can be accessed at any time through the Library link on the right hand side of your HUD (titled "The Library")... along with a history of my broadcasts, and a host of other useful information.

The AI also now offers me an option to search through the Library and my various posts, giving me quick access to anything I want to know more about.

Tags can also be used to display transmissions only relating to that particular tag, gathering all useful information together with one quick click.

Currently it also has entries on the various Asteroids I've encountered, along with a growing list of Minerals and Resources.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

The Library

As time went on I found that one thing tended to lead to another.

For example the build of FRG Thor required me to use particular types of components (for example shield capacitors), which in turn required particular types of materials (for example Rammet and Sertise capsules).

As I had since breaking free of the now obliterated Gundabadt, I had been purchasing materials and even components from the nearby Trading Guild station, however the station was having supply issues due to pirate blockades in a nearby system, and were unable to provide me any more than I had already purchased.

As a result, I was reaching a point where more and more items were now unable to be built or purchased, and the only way I would be able to build these items for any more vessels and expand my budding empire would be to mine and process the minerals myself.  Or destroy the blockade.  If the Trading Guild couldn't despatch the blockade, then clearly I would have no chance, so really, the only option was to find, mine, and process the necessary minerals myself, and use them to manufacture my own items.

But I was new to this, having been a process slave in Gundabadt I knew nothing about minerals, asteroids, what they looked like, where they could be found, et cetera.

I would need to begin exploring, sampling, and cataloging my discoveries.

I knew this would require a huge amount of processing power, and so the concept for a Library addition to my shipyard station was born.

Databases and servers whir and blink as they wait to absorb, catalog, and as required present compiled information about the discoveries I made.
Everything from asteroids found, mineral content, resources, capsules, refineries, technologies, building techniques, blueprints for ships, research, starbase and asteroid field locations, and a host of other information would be fed into these servers and processed by their AI into a range of useful information.

Connected to the main deck of my shipyard and the basic factory I had previously built, the library is almost as power-hungry as the entire shipyard and factory to date, warranting the addition of another 2 3x3x3 power generators.

To protect the delicate servers from random pirate fire, the Library has a much denser structure than the rest of the shipyard's facilities, and is wired directly into the power grid.
This Library Wing adds a further 10x5x10 structure to the basic factory and power/shield generator grid structure connected to the shipyard, and is helping to form a small station attachment to the entire structure.

With the docking arms (completed with ship maintenance systems and cargo siphons) added to the station some weeks ago, the entire shipyard complex is becoming much more like a small station now.

Dubbed "Dry Station", my shipyard was almost a small port nowadays.
Pirates seemed to give me wide berth these days, although occassionally a sniper or two would sit outside the range of my homing missile turrets and pepper Dry Station with long shots... but they did little more than give me a smirk if one managed to actually strike the base instead of sail by through empty space.