Space Windows!

Dr Roly

Dr Roly
Slightly facetious post here, but I can't resist.

In the heat of battle, with ships exchanging laser fire, would you want to be in a ship with a glass (or whatever TRANSPARENT material) cockpit?

All you'd need to do is 0% a taget's shields, aim lasers at the cocpit and - yummy - chargrilled pilot.

I'd rather be sat deep in the bowels of my ship, with external cameras and fly-by-wire. Oculus Rift may even have been perfected in 3100.
 

mhughes2k

M
You assume they're windows and not highly effective displays that give the impression of being transparent.

Or more simply that they are "active" windows with filters afterall if you look at a STAR you'd normally fry your eyeballs...
 

kfmush

K
It's been brought up before. Just imagine technology has advanced much in a thousand years, even glass technology. It's some kind of super-strong future glass, made using tempering methods that we cannot yet understand. Or maybe it's not glass at all and is some other transparent substance. Maybe it's possible to cheaply mass-manufacture diamond glass in 3100.

What you suggest is cool in it's own right, but it would certainly change the flavor of ED. I don't think anything will be changing. I don't think that's such a bad thing; I like the flavor.
 

Wolf

Wolf
Dr Roly said:
Slightly facetious post here, but I can't resist.

In the heat of battle, with ships exchanging laser fire, would you want to be in a ship with a glass (or whatever TRANSPARENT material) cockpit?

All you'd need to do is 0% a taget's shields, aim lasers at the cocpit and - yummy - chargrilled pilot.

I'd rather be sat deep in the bowels of my ship, with external cameras and fly-by-wire. Oculus Rift may even have been perfected in 3100.
Click to expand...

If I understood correctly what you mean is that with the current ship models you would be vulnerable to such attacks.

I think the Cockpit Screens are made out of finely crafted handwavium. ;)
The image you see through them is a projection not unlike a cameleon and no energy beam can get through. Otherwise you would be fried by the rays of any nearby star immediatly anyway.
This is, by the way, also the reason why you have no more HUD when it is breached.

So no need to sit in the centre of the ship, which would be very boring, and boring is bad! :p

Do you like my explanation? :)
 

Witzo

Witzo
With the level of technology to travel between stars, battle will be mostly unexpected, largely one-sided, and on a human time-scale, instantaneously resolved.
But that's not fun in a game.
 

trekman

trekman
When I first read this I thought for one horrible minute that ship computers of the future will still be using a version of Microsoft's operating system :D I don't think I could handle that. ;)
 

Georgio

Georgio
In 3100 we have perfected the art of altering the properties of a material at a molecular level, so what looks like glass to us is in fact just transparent alloy.

When you look at how much of the World has changed in just 150 years, then it's not outside the realms of reality that in a thousand years the technology then would be as confusing to us as taking a modern car back to 1000AD and trying to explain it to a peasant.

Look on the bright side at least you wouldn't get burned at the stake as you would have in 1000AD
 

RCKJD

RCKJD
my headcanon is that those transparent cockpits are a rather recent development anyways. At least until 300 years ago, cockpits were indeed inside the ships and operated with camera's and monitors. However, once a transparent alloy was developed those cockpits we have now came into being, simply because they offer a better view.
 

Normalguy

N
Talking of light and lasers and glass/see through metal......

Does anyone else wonder why lasers are visible in space from the side and from a loooong way away? In an atmosphere you may get some light scattering which would make a beam visible....but in space? Surely not?

'... and don't call me Shirley'
 

Dr Roly

Dr Roly
Normalguy said:
Talking of light and lasers and glass/see through metal......

Does anyone else wonder why lasers are visible in space from the side and from a loooong way away? In an atmosphere you may get some light scattering which would make a beam visible....but in space? Surely not?

'... and don't call me Shirley'
Click to expand...

Been pondering that one for decades. Visible laser beams seem to be a "thing" in games and films.

I guess seing things blow up for no reason would be confusing and no fun.

However, I read a scifi book years ago (can't remember title) which explained things nicely. In atmosphere, weapons grade lasers are so powerful they ionise the surrounding air molecules, much like a lightning bolt following the path of the beam.

Perhaps in space ultra-powerful lasers also burn off any space dust in their path, giving you a visible beam.

(best I could think of at short notice!)
 

mmaruda

mmaruda
Actually the way it is now, we get some interesting gameplay mechanics. Braben stated that he wanted space ships to handle like WWII fighters and back in the day cockpit visibility was an important feature of any fighter plane, since having good visibility not obstructed by struts and such, was crucial for survival.

I like the way the cockpits are balanced in Elite. The Sidewinder for example is a fairly weak ship, but apart from manoeuvrability, it has good cockpit visibility. You notice this straight away when switch to a Cobra. Sure we have the sensors, but being able to visually track the target can give you a significant advantage, even if your weapons and shields are not the best around.
 

Normalguy

N
Dr Roly said:
Been pondering that one for decades. Visible laser beams seem to be a "thing" in games and films.

I guess seing things blow up for no reason would be confusing and no fun.

However, I read a scifi book years ago (can't remember title) which explained things nicely. In atmosphere, weapons grade lasers are so powerful they ionise the surrounding air molecules, much like a lightning bolt following the path of the beam.

Perhaps in space ultra-powerful lasers also burn off any space dust in their path, giving you a visible beam.

(best I could think of at short notice!)
Click to expand...

Good one! :smilie:
 

Jigsaw

Jigsaw
Gorilla glass is so 21st Century. It's Godzilla glass! It's actually harder than the hull of the rest of the ship, but also much more expensive and not the best for privacy. :D
 
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