An observation on the combat video... Inertia

[Slythe]

The X-wing games were pretty good, but the flight model did have one flaw: The speeds were too slow, especially when you shifted power to shields and blasters. This wasn't obvious at first, but when you realized and looked at a recording it began to look rather like a lot of WWI biplanes dog-fighting: Low speeds, small diameter circles and very short combat ranges. IMO higher speeds are a must to avoid it looking ridiculous.

The videos we've seen of ED look pretty good to me, they seem to be striking the right balance.

 

[Zak Gordon]

Yeah i think we can almost disregard much of what is in the video as it was a completely scripted set-piece, with i assume all aspects designed for a specific look and feel. So the animators will have programmed the ships to come out of hyper space like that, which may not be how it happens in the game-engine running free.

The flight model in the video was hand animated to create a specific scene for the purposes of scoring music pitches to, the actual flight model in game is different and more physics based although we do want it to be more accessible than the model used in FE2 and FFE.

Michael

Called it

 

[natte hond]

The flight model in the video was hand animated to create a specific scene for the purposes of scoring music pitches to, the actual flight model in game is different and more physics based although we do want it to be more accessible than the model used in FE2 and FFE.

Michael

in the end its all good news.
I think its a good discussion for all.
it clarifies allot.
expectancy is high already from the start.
we all know the reasons for that.
its also nice to see that the international gaming community has responded
positive.
and players from other forums are flocking in.

 

[Michael Brookes]

I think there's some misinformation in this thread, we haven't said that you can't turn off flight assist, what was said was that when you did it resulted in a poor playing experience, in the same way that turning off fly by wire in a B2 results in a poor flying experieince

The current plan is for flight assist mode being the default, but you can turn it off (or maybe even have the flight assist damaged and turn off through malfunction). We'll probably leave it in for the alpha phase and see what the consensus is.

Michael

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I think there's some misinformation in this thread, we haven't said that you can't turn off flight assist, what was said was that when you did it resulted in a poor playing experience, in the same way that turning off fly by wire in a B2 results in a poor flying experieince

The current plan is for flight assist mode being the default, but you can turn it off (or maybe even have the flight assist damaged and turn off through malfunction). We'll probably leave it in for the alpha phase and see what the consensus is.

Michael

I don't care what consensus it, please give possibility to turn it off It will give depth to the game a lot Just kidding, but it seems quite logical to keep it on by default, have it possibly damaged or turned off if that's how pilot rolls. Hopefully this stays

Respectfully,
Peteris.

 

[RAMJB]

i think there's some misinformation in this thread, we haven't said that you can't turn off flight assist, what was said was that when you did it resulted in a poor playing experience, in the same way that turning off fly by wire in a b2 results in a poor flying experieince

the current plan is for flight assist mode being the default, but you can turn it off (or maybe even have the flight assist damaged and turn off through malfunction). We'll probably leave it in for the alpha phase and see what the consensus is.

Michael

WOOT!!!!!!!!

yay yay yay

 

[natte hond]

I think there's some misinformation in this thread, we haven't said that you can't turn off flight assist, what was said was that when you did it resulted in a poor playing experience, in the same way that turning off fly by wire in a B2 results in a poor flying experieince

The current plan is for flight assist mode being the default, but you can turn it off (or maybe even have the flight assist damaged and turn off through malfunction). We'll probably leave it in for the alpha phase and see what the consensus is.

Michael

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JwE08N-heY

these guy have teleportation as well , can we can we.
just kidding.

 

[Andrew Sayers]

Frontier have so far refused to say whether that was hyperspace travel or fast in-system travel.

Frontier have now said that was hyperspace travel

Here's the relevant sentence from a DDF quote:

The introduction sequence in the video was a hyperspace jump.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Yep it's a hyperspace jump, I honestly thought it was a interspace jump but it still looked great.

 

[Maxeren]

Frontier have now said that was hyperspace travel

Here's the relevant sentence from a DDF quote:

Yes.. but will it look and function somewhat similar in the game? or was that sequence "scripted" too?

 

[Perseus]

Very interesting that it's a hyperspace jump; in particular, the fact that the jump exited at the Damocles. Does this mean we can target vessels/structures from a distant system? Or was the FSS Damocles already at a jump entry point?
I thought it was an in-system jump too.
It was totally awesome.

 

[Dietger]

Very interesting that it's a hyperspace jump; in particular, the fact that the jump exited at the Damocles. Does this mean we can target vessels/structures from a distant system? Or was the FSS Damocles already at a jump entry point?
I thought it was an in-system jump too.
It was totally awesome.

Greetings Perseus,
I guess the game will provide you with the necessary data and guides you there, when you initiate the jump - shortens the time we are at each others throat. Just a guess though.

 

[stephen_usher]

I can see how, in a battle, turning off flight assist, spinning 90 degrees, powering and then turning it back on could give an advantage, similar to Harriers using vectored thrust in a dogfight (VIFF).

 

[Perseus]

Greetings Perseus,
I guess the game will provide you with the necessary data and guides you there, when you initiate the jump - shortens the time we are at each others throat. Just a guess though.

Greetings Dietger!
In the old games a player only had active information about the system they were in (Frontier/FFE). If we can 'see' in other systems it will make things very complicated on lots of levels.
The main issue I'm thinking about is making strategic decisions on attacking vessels if they can drum up immediate support from light years around. It might take some time for an aggressor to evaluate risk and therefore give a potential target opportunity to escape.
Then again, it would also be dangerous, like the game says!
I like the idea of a delay/race to get to a hot spot. However, I'm fully confident in the FD team making the right choice.

By the way, Dietger, are you an Imperial pilot?

 

[Dietger]

Greetings Dietger!

By the way, Dietger, are you an Imperial pilot?

Is there any other choice?

Seriously though, your right, I assumed, they would hailing in system.

Cheers!

 

[I_am_Jon]

Really don't want to see a fixed top speed for normal fight as this makes no sense in a space ship.

Just a crazy thought for how this could work. Using Einstein’s e=mc2 the speed of light is the universal speed limit the closer you get to this the acceleration speed of your engine will effectively decrease.

Forgetting about all the crazy relativistic effects. Why not use this kind of logarithmic scale as the speed limit for normal flight (i.e. really slow speed of light, say 20x speed of sound) the closer you get to it the less affective your engines are so no-one can reach and exceed this speed.

So average performing thrusters might take:

• Mach 4 -20 seconds
• Mach 8 - 45 seconds
• Mach 12 - 90 seconds
• Mach 16 - 3 minutes
• Mach 18 - 6 minutes
• Mach 19 - 12 minutes
• Mach 20 - infinity

Faster thrusters would get you to Mach 16 quicker but all ships would have the same top speed limit of just under Mach 20. This should still allow for a Newtonian style flight model without it taking hours just to match your opponents speed.

I guess all speeds need to be relative to nearest major mass (star / planet / space station...) Not sure how you could transition between these without using warp / jump drive, but guess frontier have this problem no matter what?

 

[natte hond]

Really don't want to see a fixed top speed for normal fight as this makes no sense in a space ship.

Just a crazy thought for how this could work. Using Einstein’s e=mc2 the speed of light is the universal speed limit the closer you get to this the acceleration speed of your engine will effectively decrease.

Forgetting about all the crazy relativistic effects. Why not use this kind of logarithmic scale as the speed limit for normal flight (i.e. really slow speed of light, say 20x speed of sound) the closer you get to it the less affective your engines are so no-one can reach and exceed this speed.

So average performing thrusters might take:

• Mach 4 -20 seconds
• Mach 8 - 45 seconds
• Mach 12 - 90 seconds
• Mach 16 - 3 minutes
• Mach 18 - 6 minutes
• Mach 19 - 12 minutes
• Mach 20 - infinity

Faster thrusters would get you to Mach 16 quicker but all ships would have the same top speed limit of just under Mach 20. This should still allow for a Newtonian style flight model without it taking hours just to match your opponents speed.

I guess all speeds need to be relative to nearest major mass (star / planet / space station...) Not sure how you could transition between these without using warp / jump drive, but guess frontier have this problem no matter what?

think you are right that makes no sense.
I,d like to ad to that.
one could argument that flight assist cant keep up the insane speeds.
so it can be done only in manual mode.
this way it wont wreak multi player.