Spaceroom Consoles

Now that the communications are working it is back to functional aspects.

There are five available stations, Engineering, Helm, Navigation, Science, and Tactical.

Engineering manages the power systems as well as environmental controls. Monitoring functions should show fuel and power usage rates. Ideally the usage of power could be broken down by the source of usage. All power using components have efficiency and damage values which affect how well the components make use of the energy they allocate. It is good to know if components are damaged. Part of the engineering function is to perform “repairs” to the components. We still need a model about how that might be managed.

Helm manages piloting. I am still not really clear about the functions of the Helm aside from perhaps direct ship control. Actual space flight controls are very difficult to manage. (Check out Sim Orbiter as an example). In terms of information presentation I would imagine that it would show orientation and inertial information (relative to the reference coordinate system).

Navigation manages course plotting as well as monitoring navigational scanning. (I think there is a fair amount of cross over between this and helm.)

Science manages communications, environmental scanning and data gathering, as well as library lookups. This could be a fun station, scanning planets for lifeforms, or other ships and so on, plus talking to others while the rest of the crew has real work to do.

Tactical covers both offensive and defensive functions (weapons and shields). Defensive controls would include shields, and appropriate monitoring. Other controls could include weapons selection, power level, and targeting options. Information would show remaining ammunition or reserve power, as well as damage ratings to tactical components.

The challenge with each of these is coming up with the appropriate functions and then implementing some sort of model that will make the values change and respond in an entertaining (if not realistic) fashion.

I definitely plan on many iterations as we work out what will be best to include.