(11-23-2023, 05:01 AM)Wildkins Wrote: Okay I guess we're doing this here then
(11-23-2023, 04:29 AM)Kauket Wrote:
(11-23-2023, 04:01 AM)Megaera Wrote: Essentially the choice right now boils down to: Torch your Core 5 POB in order to keep your NPC station.
Did you not submit a canonisation request of said station before? Asking out of curiosity.
The request was never made overtly, but feelers were put out to the previous dev team as far as I can tell, and the opinion at the time was a resounding no. At least, that is what I can gather from the extant request threads and the developer discord - what overtures were made in working groups or DMs, I can't say. The custom model request was made, and approved by the staff team, and when it was passed on to implementation by the dev team, they basically decided to go ahead and make an NPC base essentially purely to make it easier to implement the model, because the alternative would be to actually, y'know, model the base.
Kinkaku-ji was never meant to be canonized, as far as I am aware. The fact that it ended up as an NPC base happened pretty much exclusively because the developers at the time were unable or unwilling to implement the change the way it should have been done (purely as a custom model). The current system of custom models (where the POB is simply one piece and several system objects are tacked onto it and parented, see: Isle of Skye, Nichols, etc.) is understandably untenable, because it means every systems change then has to involve admin work of moving the POBs in place, and it also likely causes issues with sieging those bases because the damage may not propagate properly. The only "proper" way to do this system would be to actually create a custom model (rather than stapling pieces together in the system INI), but that requires modeling work that is ever in short supply.
I made the suggestion of keeping the custom model on the POB - because that is what was requested - and recycling the NPC base into a drydock extension or something of the like, something that would be much lower impact but still maintain some of the story beats from KKJ that are acceptable by the story team, and maintain the same gameplay effects of having another ship sale point.
So it was a miscommunication and a screw up on all sides then. The general consensus at GC is that we prefer to keep the NPC station and canonise that completely. The whole thing is arguably as frustrating for the staff as it is for us.
It is a mess in general.
In any case, we want the Kinkaku-ji NPC base to persist, because the afformentioned reasons. You would have to replace the missing docking bay on the model though, but I am sure that won't be too much work. If we have to sacrifice the pob for that, then that would be the lesser evil. Not something I like, but if I have to swallow that to keep the NPC base standing, so be it.
It still feels like a problem the staff has created and I am now retroactively punished for. It was never an issue until now.