Cooperative Drone Swarm and Formation Flight in vanilla v1.100

Hei, everyone!

Made a video applying the new autopilot API features v1.100 brought us, concepts that were talked about to some extent on reddit at https://redd.it/3lgore

Video can be found here:

(Yepp, my first ever internet video! Certainly arrived in the future now...)

Naturally, this is a demo only: Use your imagination to flesh out these basic principles! I know for a fact all Space Engineers have imagination aplenty.

Because I'll be traveling for a week starting 24h from now, it'll be easier for me to answer any comments on the new reddit thread https://redd.it/3n004l . However, once I'm back, I'll also be back on here.

Cheers,
sepen_

 

How come this is not yet a thread full of praise and awe?


PRAISE!

AWE!




I just might need to get from using scripts from the workshop to at least try to wrap my head around this stuff, this looks just too awesome. Thanks a million for showing us this, it looks cewl as frack.

 

whoa...
So this really could turn into a sandbox RTS

 

aaaah, thanks, now I know what that video reminded me of! Homeworld!

 

Very nice.

Also, this is why we need a way to send messages between PBs. (string messages between grids connected by the antenna network.)

 

Personally, I hope it's because many chose to post on reddit instead, and not because everyone's bored.

Thanks, mate! Appreciated.

Yes, that's the long game. As stated in closing this video, I do hope Keen realizes the positive potential this has, and does not shy away from its complications. One can do so many things! We need to remind them.

 

Awesome!
Great work!
Totally reminds me the old Homeworld

 

Looks very impressive.
Can you explain this "little trick of keeping a C# reference around to a later potentially disconnected grid" ?
Can you memorize a grid part ref before disconnecting and then control separated grid through previously saved ref?

 

Since they are all part of the assembler at one point in time you can simply create a list containing all autopilot blocks and then use them for a starting point to get the other blocks on the same grid. (Just create/add to the list before enabling the grinders and place the List variable outside of the main method so it will stay beyond the execution of that method.)

 

And I cracked my head trying to use laser antennas with their 5 sec lag for guided torpedoesops:
And this is so simple.

 

Great concept. This does however touch on the silliness that is accessing remote grids without an antenna. I'm hoping that'll be removed in favour of functional antennas. Still, great work!

 

It should not be just removed. It should check if controlled grid has antenna and is it in range with controller antenna.

 

Agreed. Essentially, I just want the system to be realistic.

 

This is ridiculously amazing! I hope cross-grid communication does become a supported feature, rather than having to use code loopholes.

 

Looks so great! maybe this is a breakthrough on fleet maneuvers with automated systems. or maybe we could finally make them follow our larger ships.
anyways very good work and thanks for showing us

EDIT: Intelligent Minefield! WOOP WOOP!! let's play minesweeper - in space

 

Script? anywhere... I WANT TI REVERSE ENGINEER IT... yesh pls

 

This is by far the coolest thing I've seen in a while. Would be neat if large NPC ships had fighter groups cooperatively flying around ships like that.

 

Who needs allies when you can just build them yourself?

 

Damn I wish I had time to spend playing around with this. That is freaking awesome what you did. I can just imagine the rain of destruction if every one of those drones had guns. There would be nothing left of your ship.

 

if they were a touch heavier and accelerated faster, they would make great swarm torpedos! Love the simple drone design btw, and that printer!

 

I am going crazy waiting for the script, I wanna build homeworld, HOMEWORLD!

 

I cant find the script on the workshop

 

Woah o.o That's amazing! I can just see the fleets of drones tearing each other apart already!

 

Homeworld called and wants its Drone Frigate design concept back

Mother Nature called and wants her Killer T Cell Autoimmune DNA codon sequences back

Naw, never mind- awesomesauce!

- and PS: Von Neumann called and said:

.. honestly that's what he said! (Von Neumann Machines are awesome and terrifying)

 

the selfreplicating dorne that harvest recources and the build itself again? i love these things!

 

Yeah everyone loves machinolution- machinology? Cyberzomes?

.. until they actually meet one. Then they (too late) realize that a dog eat dog world was more fair than a man eat woodchipper world.

That movie "The Virus", while being campy and forgotten- to its credit had this part right:
"But what does it WANT from us?!?"
"[screen flickers to life]
- Visual cortical ganglia: 2.2 mg
- Rhibosomal protein DNA codon: 42 copies of RNA transcription
- Red and White Calcium Marrow substrate: 2 Kg
- neurologic axon chemoreceptors, 4 mg"
...
...
"

"What is that?!? what does it mean?!?"

"Parts. They are body parts. It... sees us as a bunch of parts that it wants!"

"so we cannot reason with it?"

"no more than a bin of screws at a hardware store can reason with us..."

[or something like that]

 

I would happily excange my left arm for some epic machine prothese that would be more effective... but no my right arm! or my D!

 

Awesome. Did not see that addition to the API until this thread. I have been working on a remote controlled artillery formation of ships that can fire from multiple long range locations at one target location. This API was the missing link, I know what I'll be doing this weekend

 

Amazing!