Someone has to say it: The docking slot is stupid
- Thread starter AJStoner
- Start date
Don't be too sure of this. FTL is currently impossible, and FTL in normal space is completely possible. But we humans are a strange lot. If we want to do something, we exhaust all logical avenues and then will begin exploring illogical avenues until we find an acceptable answer. That's how the Alcubierre metric came about and it is definitely imaginary right now. But it is based on firm theoretical ground. Of course theory doesn't always translate to application, but without theory, you have no application. I do agree that this business of an individual owning a Federal Dropship, Federal Assault Ship, Imperial Cutter, Imperial clipper, and Imperial Courier are not likely to happen. Civilians, even those in the military reserves won't own military spacecraft. But they might own civilian ships like the Sidewinder, Python, Anaconda. As for weapons on these ships, I don't care if you are hauling sour cream and pickles, someone else is going to want to take it from you and have the weapons to do so even if they bought them on the black market. Since space is so vast and therefore cannot be policed effectively, they would allow people to defend themselves.
And you know this because...?
We *think* the physics we currently know is correct, we thought the same thing 100 years ago and 100 years before that. Our understanding of physics changed in the meantime though, i.e. we were wrong. We'll be proved wrong on some things again, naïve to think otherwise...
As to the OP. No, the slot makes perfect sense, nothing wrong with it.
No its not, its meant to be a.....wait for it .....challenge!
Don't mess with the Toaster!
It goes like this......
Panamax and New Panamax are terms for the size limits for ships traveling through the Panama Canal. Formally, these limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), titled "Vessel Requirements".[URL="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamax#cite_note-Vessel_Requirements-1"][FONT=inherit][[/FONT]1[FONT=inherit]][/FONT][/URL]
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Same design ethos used for Elite...Case closed
Panamax and New Panamax are terms for the size limits for ships traveling through the Panama Canal. Formally, these limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), titled "Vessel Requirements".[URL="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamax#cite_note-Vessel_Requirements-1"][FONT=inherit][[/FONT]1[FONT=inherit]][/FONT][/URL]
View attachment 98431
Same design ethos used for Elite...Case closed
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I think you are forgetting you have a force field system there that keeps the air in the station while still letting ships through.
That has to be enormously expensive in power consumption, and making it smaller would logically take less, and making it bigger would take more.
Also, consider there has to be a failsafe mechanism there so that if the fields failed, all the air did not rush out the hole. Making it smaller gives you more time to react, and makes whatever mechanism you have, like pair of giant blast doors that would close very quickly, much easier to implement.
So there is the design requirements that drive the slot.
I always find it funny when people say the word "impossible." No one has any idea of what will be possible in 1000 years. We don't even know what will be possible in the next 10 years really.
The game's year is 3302. Imagine what it was like to be a human in the year 1000 compared to today. You'd be labeled as a rambling lunatic or killed for witchcraft when you pulled out your cell phone to take a picture. You wouldn't even be able to speak the same language as people of that day.
The truth is that no one has any idea so any statements on what is or is not possible are "impossible" to justify. It's their imaginary game world. It's their rules. Our ships don't even follow the current laws of physics.
So enjoy the game and leave the mail box opening as it is. It offers a challenge to most players as it should. It you can't handle it then buy a docking computer.
The game's year is 3302. Imagine what it was like to be a human in the year 1000 compared to today. You'd be labeled as a rambling lunatic or killed for witchcraft when you pulled out your cell phone to take a picture. You wouldn't even be able to speak the same language as people of that day.
The truth is that no one has any idea so any statements on what is or is not possible are "impossible" to justify. It's their imaginary game world. It's their rules. Our ships don't even follow the current laws of physics.
So enjoy the game and leave the mail box opening as it is. It offers a challenge to most players as it should. It you can't handle it then buy a docking computer.
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But it is a space simulator, so not everything can be handwavium solutions. There has to be a significant amount of rational items that people can point to and say "Ok, I understand how that would work."
Or it is no different from WoW or even Starcraft, where nothing maps to reality.
Or it is no different from WoW or even Starcraft, where nothing maps to reality.
Ok. *Points to the FSD drive* I could understand how that would work. Not sure how it does it, but then I'm not sure how a TV puts a picture on a screen either. I understand the basics, radio waves and such, but not how it assembles the picture. Same with the FSD drive. It compresses space in front of the craft and expands it behind the craft. I don't know how it expands and contracts space (just as I don't know how a television assembles the picture), but I understand the closer it gets to a gravity well, the less it can expand and contract space due to the gravity wells exerting pressure.
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See? And that is pretty much the closest Elite gets to Handwavium.
Interstellar Jump Drive aka "Witch Space" is definitely Handwavium. Nothing to point to scientifically as to how it works.
This is no more handwavium than television would have been handwavium in the 19th century. Wait. I guess maybe it is because in the 19th century, television would have been handwavium. And to me television is still handwavium. I've done research on how they assemble moving pictures, but all I get is technical terms that leaves me scratching my head saying, "Huh?" it's still greek to me. Simple fact is we don't know what kind of propulsion, space or otherwise we'll have in 1000 years. I'm reasonably certain it won't be an FSD as in Elite Dangerous due to what I saw them predict in the 70's and earlier. It will probably be something stranger (to us). But not to the people living at the time. They'll just take it for granted like we do with TV.
I like the docking slot. At first I was scared to crash on it every time I got near the damn thing but now.. I like it because it feels I finally manage to handle my ship better (oh the first time going through with my asp). The docking slot is clearly one of the numerous way the game has to tell you "you got to get better at it", after all it IS a space sim, isn't it ?
In as simple I can explain it, the drive uses a massive amount of energy from converted matter to simulate a localized gravity field to compress space. There are two theoretical ways to go faster, which is either compressing space further with more energy, or compress a larger amount of space for the same energy. Near large sources of gravity, the projected field distorts, so it must be contracted to keep it stable, resulting in lower speed. For long range jumps, the drive compresses a tube of space, creating a worm hole, and relies on the stars gravity to anchor, and then fray the end and stop the jump. (Basically you would need this or two perfectly synced wormhole generators to jump. [Also, with the synced generators, you could have a constant worm hole that can deliver you directly to a station])
Tl;DR: (Sorry), it creates its own gravity that compresses space, and speed is limited by gravitational distortion.
So it is in line with physics as we know it today. That's the point I was making. They could have gravity plating, but there's no way to really explain it, (and there has been no even partially accepted theory as in the Alcubierre drive to account for it) so they don't have it. They require rotating stations, (and planet surfaces, of course) for gravity.
perhaps the the slot could be made slightly larger? not anything crazy, and keeps its shape, but enough so that players don't get freaked out when passing through it?
Oh man I lost it there, time to clean my monitor.
Too funny
1) The slot is plenty big enough - especially since they taught the NPC's how to move over instead of just going down the centerline.
2) If you really want a rational discussion about the slot, you first have to figure out why the docking pads are on the INSIDE!!!
The surface are on the outside of a sphere is much larger than the inner surface (I'll let the math wizards deal with the details).
If the docking bays were on the outer surface there would be a much more efficient use of the interior spaces for functional services and storage. Not to mention the decongestion of landing/departing traffic.
But, as is often the case in ED, it doesn't have to be rational to be fun.
EDIT: One downside - penthouse apartments may not get the best views...
1) The slot is plenty big enough - especially since they taught the NPC's how to move over instead of just going down the centerline.
2) If you really want a rational discussion about the slot, you first have to figure out why the docking pads are on the INSIDE!!!
The surface are on the outside of a sphere is much larger than the inner surface (I'll let the math wizards deal with the details).
If the docking bays were on the outer surface there would be a much more efficient use of the interior spaces for functional services and storage. Not to mention the decongestion of landing/departing traffic.
But, as is often the case in ED, it doesn't have to be rational to be fun.
EDIT: One downside - penthouse apartments may not get the best views...
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