Gas station is sort of weird. This I find is a perfect time to discuss spaceship docking as well!
Attaching a ship - In space the lack of gravity means unless the ship has jets to stop itself from moving it will drift on forever. A docking port on a station exterior or otherwise should include clamps. There should be at least four clamps 2 for the upper front, 2 for the upper back. Under clamps should be used only for circular docking bays.
There are two exceptions to this though.
Hangar - A hangar is inside the ship and is encompassed by the artificial gravity. Smaller ships can fit in here and land (implying they have landing gears). If it is not a vehicle that can land than you have to add clamps up on the ceiling where they can be attached. This is how you can dock larger vessels as well inside a hangar.
Jets - Jets, smaller thrusters placed throughout the ships hull. Really tiny but still push the ship around. If you recall any old ships that have the 2x2 ramp vent on there hull, those are normally jets (sometimes there really vents though). Jets let the ship maneuver and stabilize itself for docking.
Docking Rings - Airlocks are used to get on the outside of the ships hull. Docking rings are used for as the name suggests "docking". Docking rings are rings around a single door (not two like an airlock) on a ships hull. A larger ship or a station can extend a bridge from theirs to attach to the ring. Once the ships are attached the bridge is pressurized and people can move from ship to ship. This is also how it works for fueling ports, a pipe is sent down from one vessel and attached to the other.
Laser A - Nothing here really about blocko-space tech. Just going to say that it should never be used for a thruster emitter. Mainly as a shield and pure laser (1x1 brick).
Now the problems with the gas station I have is the following.
- The door to the station should be more of a tunnel, this way you can make it a docking bridge for attaching to docking rings.
- The actual places for gas are odd. Its like your trying to make a gas station that would be found on the ground. The thing needs clamps right next to it for attaching. The actual pipe attachment could come from a pipe above the docked ship. Or if you want to have it come from the side it would have to come directly from the station.
-The consoles for imputing gas you want and payment amount means the player would have to get out of his ship, depressurizing it. As well they would have to take a spacewalk, going out into space should be limited to doing work on the hull and getting marooned. In any case the ships pilot would most likely link up with the stations network and input the amount of gas from inside the ship.
- the laser A thrusters coming up from the station look stupid, not to mention its not needed since the station is in space and can just float there.
Other than that this looks cool, might give the save of a ship I am currently working on once its finished to be used here.
Poll