inertia effects

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gwgardner
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inertia effects

Post by gwgardner »

In combat mode, when engaged in a sector, ship movement is toy-like. A ship can go forward, then straight back, etc.

I'd like to see inertia taken into account in movement. Changing vectors should require some serious energy consumption on the part of a ship, even small ones.

In short, there is no sense that the game takes into account physical laws of motion.

Spaceman_Spiff
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Re: inertia effects

Post by Spaceman_Spiff »

gwgardner wrote: I'd like to see inertia taken into account in movement.
Something like the early arcade game 'Asteroid'? That could make for a crazy screen. :lol:
I would hope that ftl space travel would need to have overcome/accommodated inertia, lest all the souls onboard be mashed into a minestrone soup. Perhaps therefore we can assume that inertia is accounted for even at sub-light vectors, a-la the inertial dampers in Star Trek?

gwgardner
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Re: inertia effects

Post by gwgardner »

Spaceman_Spiff wrote:
gwgardner wrote: I'd like to see inertia taken into account in movement.
Something like the early arcade game 'Asteroid'? That could make for a crazy screen. :lol:
I would hope that ftl space travel would need to have overcome/accommodated inertia, lest all the souls onboard be mashed into a minestrone soup. Perhaps therefore we can assume that inertia is accounted for even at sub-light vectors, a-la the inertial dampers in Star Trek?
Inertial dampers would be internal to the ship, for crew comfort and safety. They would not overcome the inertia of the ship itself in attempting to turn or slow down.

Try to imagine a Star Trek or Star Wars episode, in which ships flit about willy-nilly, changing directions on a dime. It would appear incredibly unrealistic. Same in this game.

In the game, in the same way that there are firing arcs for weapons, there could be turning arcs, which would take into account the mass of the ship, the current speed, the power of the engines, fuel consumption, and so on. With that kind of effect, the combat mode in this game would take on the nature of a true space opera

Lithari
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Re: inertia effects

Post by Lithari »

ok, I know I am all for realism, but only to a degree, for me, if I wanted to experience realistic space flight, i would do the real thing, i would prefer, if this idea is implemented, that it is an option you can have on or off, because if there is no choice for if it is implemented, the game is an instant failure to me.

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Zaimat
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Re: inertia effects

Post by Zaimat »

I liked how it worked in star control melee combat. But that was like an arcade game and it was best played with a joystick.

To the extent for a turn-based game, I see it more like a travelling obstacle if you are near a blackhole for example, speed slows down or can even damage/destroy if you get too close to it. We have this in Horizon when passing by sectors with Anomalies ships slow down, shields and communications are affected etc.
Horizon - Lead Designer | a.k.a. Raf

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True_poser
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Re: inertia effects

Post by True_poser »

Adding inertia will certainly open a can of worms.
Why won't we have gravity wells also? Hohmann's transfer while surveing a system? Specific impulse in engine specs?

Making it playable is also a long and sad story.
I mean, Attack Vector: Tactical doesn't outsell WarHammer, because reasons.

The space is flat here, so why do you worry?