Cryptic Devs, THIS IS FOR YOU!!

HOW COULD WE TRAVEL BETWEEN SYSTEMS AND SECTORS FROM THE INTERIOR SHIP VIEW INSTANCE WITHOUT REWRITING THE GAME ENGINE?

TIME TO DESTINATION PROPOSAL

The basis for this method of travel is the 'Sector' you start from, the 'Sector' your destination is in and how many sectors are between you and your destination.

Each sector traveled is a set number of minutes to your destination. Example:

You are at earth starbase, and you choose to travel to Vulcan. You must travel though sol sector and into vulcan sector. This is two (2) sectors so your time to destination is five (5)minutes.

One (1) sector of travel (destination is in the same sector) = 2.5minutes

two (2) sectors of travel (adjesent sectors) = 5 minutes

Three (3) sectors of travel = 7.5 minutes.

Td = St x Ns

Where:

Td = Time to Destination
St = Sector travel time (in my example it is 2.5 minutes)
Ns = Number of sectors between you and your destination, including the starting sector and destination sector.

Now it doesnt matter exactly what system within the sector you are traveling to, only the sectors matter. This makes the calculation easier. Think of it as an average time to your destination.

HOW WILL THIS WORK IN THE GAME? (now this is where the game mechanic limitations come into play)

At the end of a mission, or when you hit the 'galaxy' button to warp into sector space the following happens'

- Your helms person pops up with the following three (3) options

1. Warp to Sector Space - Tactical View - When you choose this optiion it takes you to sector space, nothing is different than how we play the game today

2. Set Course to Destination - Interior View - When you select this option a map comes up, a list of all destinations, perahps a search bar that helps filter the list, and you pick your destination. This destination can either be a system, or a sector. Once selected you see the warp out aninmation, and then you are instanced within your ship interior.
3. Not Now - Enough said? this is where you can stay in your current instance

The key here is that you are not instanced in sector space if you choose interior view, only a timer is activated and when this timer is finished you arrive at your destination.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GET THERE?

When the timer runs out your helms person once again pops up and gives you the following options:

Enter System - Tactical View This option brings the warp in annimation and you are either in the system view or in sector space if your destination is a sector and not a system - The instance has changed from interior to the appropriate system or sector space instance

Hold Postion-Interior View This should be pretty self explanitory, but you do not enter the system or sector space instance until you choose 'Tactical View'
ANY OTHER COOL IDEAS?

Yes of course...

Even though you are not actually in a sector space instance, you can have the sence of traveling though it using the timer. You can be updated when you are 'traveling' through a partuclar sector just by knowing what sectors you must pass through to reach your destination, and the amount of time that has elapsed. So at any time you could exit the interior view instance and enter the tactical view - 'sector space' instance. Now depending on your destination, the course (sectors you must pass through) and the time that has elapsed, a simple calculation will place you in the appropiate sector space instance.

You can also pop up your Navigation map at any time within your interior view and change your destination. It recalculates your time to destination based on the current sector you are traveling in and your new destination.

So you have set your destination and you are on your bridge, what else can you do? Well you can go to your tactical station and select 'Patrol for Enemy Encounters' or 'Avoid Enemy Encounters'. If you select 'Patrol' this will randomly place you within an enemy encounter in a sector between you and your destination. Then you enter the encounter just like you would in sector space, except this is random, and based on a sector you are currently 'traveling' within.

Let me reiterate however, you are technically not in a sector space instace. So you could be 'traveling' through the Vulcan sector, but people within the actual sector space instance will not see you, because you are not in that instance.

Random Encounters

Unlike the 'patrol for enemy encounters' this is not optional. This is just plain fun, and should be able to occur if you are in a sector space (tactical view) instance or an interior view instance. These could be distress calls, major ship breakdowns, an intruder on your ship, a specal episode mission. These just come up randomly and you have to deal with them.

So there you have it, my solution to traveling while viewing the interior of the ship. For those of you who read it, what do you think? Cryptic, do you have any comments? Can this be achivieable given the current game engine constraints?

There is a potential short fall of this solution, and this is the abandonment of sector space. If players dont like sector space and alway use the 'Time to destination' for travel, then sector space instances will be pretty baron. But I would have no problem with this because I dont like sector space to begin with.

Also CHAT may be an issue. But I am sure there could be easy remedies to this.

So do you think this, or something like this, could work??

"Yes, I had this in my other interiors thread, but felt it was getting passed over. So I put it in its own thread"

Sounds like a great idea. I'm all for it.
One aspect of Star Wars Galaxies that I liked was the ability to walk around inside your own ship and look at what is going on outside.
I hope Cryptic takes your ideas on board and gives you some positive feedback.

Fingers Crossed!

You ask if Cryptic has any comments? They already have. Use the search forums function To find your answer. You will find it under topics like "bridge functionality" or "bridge + sector space". You have been around for a long time. You know this already. Starting a new thread on an old topic will not get any more out of the devs than the old thread did. Comment in those and keep those old discussions going if this is that important to you.

Sorry dude, thats not my MO. Its much to simple to hit 'New Thread', plus I barly post anyway and I am lazy. But thanks for pointing out the obvious

See, the problem is repeat threads and topics have a much higher chance of being flagged and closed. It is actually Cryptic forum Policy to do so. My comment was more or less a FYI.

Thanks for being snarky btw :p