Well, the exterior surface is easy to place in your system:

[Object
nickname = DysonSphere
Archetype = dyson
pos = x, y, z
rotate = a, b, c

Getting the door (which has its own archetype) to open and close is more difficult, as that's triggered by a script.

Edited by - Nephilim on 12-04-2003 23:10:08

i played around with the dyson sphere gate...it turned out to be extremely unstable in gameplay since the jump out point, when you return from the interior , is not well defined (remember in the SP you don't jump back).

When i tested it, it worked from the outside (was very funny because i used the jumhole effect to evade the script), but on the way back my ship sometimes popped out beneath the surface of the dyson sphere...and was lost forever.

My solution was to place a nomad jump gate just above the gate and use this instead...works great in my mod

...i just had a brainstorm...what if you took the Black Hole other people have been working on and placed it onto the Dyson surface, maybe even right on top of the gate, and then placed the whole rig faaaar away in a system...OH NO BIG BIG SPACESHIPS COMING TO EAT THE UNIVERSE!!!! EEEK!!! lol

Here's a concept...use the sphere models to create a "box" system... or use em to simulate the interior of some star cruiser...look everybody its the SHAFT SYSTEM MOD!!! HAHA........or the Deathmatch Arena!!! *grins* of course that would REALLY spoil it for the beginners so you'd have to really warn them hehe

it would be even more fun to create a mod where the premise is, the universe is falling apart and being overriden by another, and whenever that happens these big grey (or whatever color) barriers appear in the middle of space destroying all things on the side they occupy...imagine a Dyson surface running RIGHT THROUGH planet manhattan or something hahhahhah...

You could just use the door archetype (if its seperate) and make a jump gate with it, hten when u dock u get sent to the interior in another system.

What i was originaly thinking was to use the dyson sphere surface as a simulated atmospheric landing. as in instead of burning in the atmosphere, you would enter the "entrance" to the dyson sphere, be surrounded by a nebula "for the cloudy effect" and have the surface act as the ground of the planet, with a docking ring to go with.

Although it wouldnt be realistic "because atmosphereic flight wasn't really invented in FL" it would still be kind of cool, then again there's the problem of getting out.