The Chieftan is annoying

I just think that the Fdev ship designers should be tied to a chair and forced to watch the entire series of The Expanse. That's how you design ships.
 
Had the same thought myself when I saw it actually; only took a second then my brain went "Hang on. How the hell does that, fit into that?"
It bothered me for an ETERNITY
4.56 seconds
before I realised .. I don't care. It looks AWESOME; and I want one. If that means handwavium, so be it. :D
 
I don't know... The space stations look like they could be legit with their habitation wings and virtually 0G central chambers.


Nope, look at the buildings on the Coriolis exteriors, they are aligned with the flat planes of the station instead of the centre of rotation, either the interior floors are all on slopes or it appears to everyone living in them that they are all leaning over on an angle.
 
Can't things just be cool or fun sometimes? Does every little detail in a science fiction game need to be believable?

Sure but when it's just as easy to do something in a plausible way as to do it in a wacky way then I'd prefer it to be done in a plausible way.

Take a look at something like a V-22 Osprey for a real-world comparison.

SUB-JP-OSPREY-jumbo.jpg


See how the landing gear protrudes from the engine-pods on that?
Nope, me neither.

Because that isn't how aircraft are built.
You don't put the landing gear at the extremities of an aircraft because that means, on landing, you're transmitting shock-loads through the entire aircraft unnecessarily.
Far better to have the landing gear as close to the centre-of-mass as is practical.

I really like FDev's ship design, for the most part, but it sometimes seems like it might be wise for them to run the initial design-sketches past somebody with a bit of technical expertise.

For me, the rear landing gear of the Chieftain should have extended rearwards out of the main fuselage.
 
I have a problem with rear engines rotation during the landing, it should flip whole ship over the top as no counter force is applied... but its a cool ship and i'll try not to think about this nonsence heh... but it wont be easy for me. :p

... and i know, i know its a game but sometimes when i see things like that it just itching my brain and i cant help ... [noob]
 
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You're right, it's impossible to mount landing gear in an external engine pod on a large multiengine craft

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b17registry/images/b17-4485740-1.jpg

Ha lol, but to be fair those are radial engines which are shorter by comparison to a rocket/jet and shorter even than inline piston engines.

The pic I posted was with a lot of tongue in cheek. If I have to explain it for myself I would go with what Monk said, in fact first time I saw any rotating outlets I thought Harrier.



https://s9.postimg.org/jjjjm5ijz/Pegasus.gif

Just extent the four (or in this case back two) with flexible ducting and that is the way I will justify it if I have to. As we are more than a thousand years in the future we have no way of knowing the advances that will be made. Smaller power plants with larger output is very possible. At the end of the day though it's a game and handwaveium is a versatile substance.

;)

The Harrier concept! Damn I'd not thought of that :D

Here's a shot I found of the inside of the Lanc's landing gear, ahh taken from behind... so to speak.

1MhZFwR.jpg
 
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One thing that would stop the Tang flipping on landing is that its ventral manoeuvring thrusters might apply more force to keep stuff level. It would also mean in FAO gear down would have fun side effects...

Personally I want FD to have no (or greatly reduced) exhaust plumes on the rear engines when the landing gear is down.
 
Yes, I know it's just a game, but all the ships so far have been at least a little bit believable. This ship, for the most part is but that rear gear. grr.

I'm really not complaining I'm just pointing out that the internal mechanics don't seem to work in the really cool looking ship and it annoys the logic in me :)

Well I agree it should make sense mechanically. It's still a great ship design.

A possible explanation is that they integrated the landing gear with the thrusters. That sounds overly complicated. It's the 34th century though.
 
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We also appear to be ignoring the fact that the thrust from the forward pair would surely "cook" the outboard side of the rearmost pair!

That's something which always bugs me when I see sci-fi ships with "rotating engine pods".

Prometheus dealt with it quite cleverly by having the 4 engine pods diagonally offset to avoid having one engine cook the other one although, in practice, that would generate a whole heap of other wackiness related to how the ship handles - although I suppose that could be dealt with by software, somehow.

In ED, the Chieftain seems to be narrower at the back than it is at the front so I guess we're supposed to accept that's sufficient to avoid any issues with heat.
Course, given that you can fly right up the chuff of another ship without taking any heat damage at all, maybe we should assume that ship engines just don't generate heat in the ED universe? [where is it]
 
That's something which always bugs me when I see sci-fi ships with "rotating engine pods".

Prometheus dealt with it quite cleverly by having the 4 engine pods diagonally offset to avoid having one engine cook the other one although, in practice, that would generate a whole heap of other wackiness related to how the ship handles - although I suppose that could be dealt with by software, somehow.

In ED, the Chieftain seems to be narrower at the back than it is at the front so I guess we're supposed to accept that's sufficient to avoid any issues with heat.
Course, given that you can fly right up the chuff of another ship without taking any heat damage at all, maybe we should assume that ship engines just don't generate heat in the ED universe? [where is it]

Oh engines generate heaps of heat in Elite. But it's kept in the ship to be uselessly radiated away, later. :D

So that heat haze is artificial.

I knew it.

Yeah. Vacuum doesn't shimmer.
 
ED is not an arcade game. I wish people would use the correct terminology. It's is a simulation with game elements. Or a game the simulation elements, basically a hybrid. But one thing I do know is that you could never play this game in an arcade.

Not sure about the correct terminology, or where it is defined. And not trying to pick a fight.
But what is it simulating: because it is not our universe and it is not space flight.
Which I do not have a problem with. It is a game. And I would have said of the absurd magic type
But I do have a problem with it being called a simulation - of real life.
 
Can't things just be cool or fun sometimes? Does every little detail in a science fiction game need to be believable?

In a game where we have something called a "Frame Shift Drive", all bets are off in the realism/science department.

The OP makes some valid points in terms of simple spacial mechanics, but again... As long as we have faster than light travel, the player must learn to suspend their disbelief up to 11. ;)
 
Yes and yes, and somewhat yes.

The ship is cool looking I've admitted that. Fun - it probably is. Believable - FD have made efforts to try and be as scientifically accurate as possible in a space travel game so this small bit here just breaks that a little for me.

Lol what? Artificial speed limit in space. Yaw thrusters being useless. The fact that our engines are constantly burning despite staying at a steady 450m/s (in reality they would only activate until we were at 450 m/s and then they would switch off).

Elite is a good game but it's far from scientifically accurate.
 
Ha lol, but to be fair those are radial engines which are shorter by comparison to a rocket/jet and shorter even than inline piston engines.

Rocket engines aren't necessarily all that long. There's plumbing to the combustion chamber, which can be mounted radially, the chamber itself, and the exhaust bell, which on real spacecraft makes up the majority of the length.
236b2f5ca995b4b96ea036440be8bbf4.jpg

Most sci fi ships ignore the bell, or use atmospheric bell shapes which are shorter, or sidestep the issue altogether and use ion/plasma propulsion, which wouldn't need a bell.
ioneng1.gif

Elite seems to mostly use the ion engine type, which could be remarkably compact units, where most of the "engine" mass would be in plumbing and power tranfer cables, capacitors and the like, which could be mounted anywhere, really.
 
Not sure about the correct terminology, or where it is defined. And not trying to pick a fight.
But what is it simulating: because it is not our universe and it is not space flight.
Which I do not have a problem with. It is a game. And I would have said of the absurd magic type
But I do have a problem with it being called a simulation - of real life.

It's a galaxy sim with a load of gameplay elements in it.
 
We also appear to be ignoring the fact that the thrust from the forward pair would surely "cook" the outboard side of the rearmost pair!

^^ I agree. I won't be purchasing a Chief. I know its just a fantasy game but that is just a poorly designed ship and I have no desire to own one. I'm waiting and saving money to buy a Krait if it looks good to me when its released. The Type 10 looks OK (w/o the spoiler) but I flew a Type 9 exclusively for over a year and will most likely pass on the T-10 too.
 
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