It's definitely significant to gameplay if the orbital period of a planet you wish to trade with means it is <1AU from the arrrival point by the star for three months of its year, and >100 for three months at its apoapsis.
Game Discussions Star Citizen Discussion Thread v12
- Thread starter Yaffle
- Start date
-
- Tags
- star citizen
Side note too : tractor beam
CIG has always stated that NPC will be less efficients than players. Just add a x% penalty to loading time by NPC and the system will be used. Or add cost in money hiring those NPC.
I'll just get that one (there are quite a few other possible quotes here): Kerbal Space Program is a pure space sim. Here, you have the true feeling of space. Yes, you do have EVA, seamless planetary transitions, etc. AND pure newtonian mechanics. I could name a few others, going back to Amiga games actually (Frontier, etc.), but that one stands out. This is what defines a "sim", simulation. Otherwise we are talking about arcade games, which is an entirely different subject matter.
SC is lacking a proper physical model at the moment, the ships movement is goal-based and not inferred from newtonian physics. There is no simulation. It feels like dragging assets in a 3D editor, not like flying a space ship. I reserve my opinion on the atmo model until 3.10 pops out in the next few weeks as it's been redone, but until now, there was nothing to be said about it. Again, KSP (with a mod called "Ferram Aerospace Research") had a terrific atmo flight model, with all subsonic and supersonic effects. And that was developed by a team of how many, 5 ? And the mod done by a single guy. Let's compare this with the $300 million project from CiG with a 500 person strong team...
(edit) before the usual zealots answer with "but it's not supposed to have orbital mechanics !!!! orbital mechanics not fun !!" first i have never said that, i would just mention that CiG themselves advertised "True Newtonian Mechanics !" for pages with a huge amount of details on 2nd and 3rd order movement etc. back then in 2012-2014. I would certainly not expect a fully orbital sim but at least have proper scaling of thrusters on ships and the according reactions to movements, and proper inertia and accelerations. At the moment the ships exhibit instant infinite accelerations when changing directions.
Last edited:
Yeah the thing you miss is called "moment of inertia". A long and thin ship will roll very easily with little effort, even with the mav thrusters near the axis. While it wont pitch or yaw all that easily even with mav thrusters located at both ends. The shape or rather mass distribution is key here.
As of 3.9.x, no they dont. I have observed some walking in circles around the central hub in one city, otherwise they are static, clipping over each other, standing on seats, or just waiting in perfectly aligned ranks (like at A18 spaceport)..
Just you wait they finish the Bartender 2.0 tier-0, then you will witness how sentient the NPC will be thanks to Chris' magic fingers.
Neither do yours or mine for that matter
I certainly remember Chris Robert claiming that looking up from a planets surface you ll be able to spot Fort Ollisar orbiting on its track fully simulated ^^
That's a matter of debate, and an interesting one. But this is about the BDSSE, and what was promised. And we have an advocate here claiming SC is a space sim.
CIG say a lot of things.
If we are talking about things CIG have stated, then where was SQ42 in 2014?
I think If would be shorter if we talk about things CI -g have not promised. I can’t actually not remember a mechanic they have not promised.
Last edited:
CIG has stated that NPCs will be indistinguishable from players as part of their goal to create a "living breathing universe."
So which is the truth?
NPCs were supposed to offer various tiers of skill reflected in their hire wages but even the most proficient NPCs were supposed to be under a theoretical skill level that players were supposed to have mind you none of these things has ever been specified. Its far-in-the-future stuff because as you know....early days.
edit: aww you know going down memory lane really drives the point home for me how Star Citizen wasted this opportunity epic(e?)ly /sigh
At the moment it's quite easy to notice who's an NPC or not. Just the movements: players run like Quake characters, with infinite accelerations and incredible speeds, and huge jumps that defy all laws of physics and gravity. Well, you see how the Doom guy moves, that's it. NPCs do move at a normal pace.
Another way to notice the difference apart from NPCs clipping into objects or each other, is they are all wearing civilian clothes, while players all sport heavy armors and openly carry various weaponry. With some effort one can go and buy civ clothes though and sit on a chair pretending to be an NPC... but once they move the illusion falls apart.
So Cryengine3 default settings then?
A few of used to have great fun pretending to be NPC's...blocking elevators and doorways, wandering randomly onto other folks ships and blocking the walkways...not much else to do that is either fun or engaging in the BDSSE really. The one difference when dressing as NPC's is we randomly choked to death in the many areas that have no atmosphere inside the various ships or stations...NPC's didn't
Of course they do, it's just that most NPCs have autonomously decided to have a competition to see to see who can stand motionless on a chair the longest