Current Jump Range Calculation: Why?

[forsaken1111]

Perhaps a better analogy would be traveling via Cannon.

You can only load a charge into a cannon up to a certain point without shattering the barrel. Shooting yourself out of a cannon, you could travel any distance up to this maximum value.

Turn it around and imagine that you are firing the cannon out of the back of a vehicle to propel it forward. Your 'engine' is capable of a single great burst of speed and energy release, but that burst is limited by the size of the charge that may be safely expended without rupturing the cannon.

My suggestion for a 'streaming fuel FSD' would be more like taking that cannon and turning it into a jet engine.

 

[777Driver]

Because this game is still in beta. This is a Work In Progress. Questioning status quo is what creates change. You say it works very well, I disagree. There's posts on this discussion board that also disagree. We've all spent money and time on the game and have equal opportunity to question its mechanics. That's how they become altered, that's how things improve.

The example you give still takes the entire aircraft's capability to fly a particular distance (and we're talking about distance) based on fuel capacity... Your metaphor actually encourages what I've been talking about. Taking a longer jump (say 20 light year in a ship that currently only jumps 10) would require more fuel thus being less efficient. Still, you'd have the CAPABILITY to do so.

Warp mechanic has been the same since the original Beta. The game has been released, we are Beta testing new mechanics, and some minor mechanics have been tweaked. The logic of how jumps work has already been tested and validated by beta testers. The devs are not going to suddenly change it because a few don't like it.

and you have completely misunderstood how aircraft work, to increase distance you do not just fill up the tank like a car. You reduce weight to be able to climb to an optimum alt , that increases range. If you attempted to just add more fuel you would never make it to your destination, just like the 'Exceed mass' message in game.

The whole thing is a careful balancing act.

 

[DaveL]

Perhaps a better analogy would be traveling via Cannon.

You can only load a charge into a cannon up to a certain point without shattering the barrel. Shooting yourself out of a cannon, you could travel any distance up to this maximum value.

Turn it around and imagine that you are firing the cannon out of the back of a vehicle to propel it forward. Your 'engine' is capable of a single great burst of speed and energy release, but that burst is limited by the size of the charge that may be safely expended without rupturing the cannon.

My suggestion for a 'streaming fuel FSD' would be more like taking that cannon and turning it into a jet engine.

thats finally one of the best analogies that makes reasonable sense for that thing..
Lets think about it that way:
I have fuel tank that can take me lets say.. 100ly away.
For reasons i cannot make that 100ly jump in one-go. I must jump by 5-10ly max.
But why i cannot jump lets say.. 20 or 30? Its not "that" much..

 

[forsaken1111]

thats finally one of the best analogies that makes reasonable sense for that thing..
Lets think about it that way:
I have fuel tank that can take me lets say.. 100ly away.
For reasons i cannot make that 100ly jump in one-go. I must jump by 5-10ly max.
But why i cannot jump lets say.. 20 or 30? Its not "that" much..

Look at it this way.

You have a cannon drive on the sidewinder which can expend x energy against y mass to move z distance. If you reduce y, you increase z. If you increase x, you increase z.

To decrease y, you drop mass from the ship. Stripping out weapons, for example. This decreases the mass you are moving, thus extending your maximum distance.
To increase x, you fit a bigger FSD. This increases the safe detonation range of your 'cannon' allowing you to use a bigger charge, thus extending your maximum distance.

Does it make sense? I don't know. Trying to make sense of pseudoscience in a videogame is like trying to calculate the force exerted by a magic spell. Its probably a meaningless exercise.

In your example, you say it's 'not that much' but you are asking for a 4x-6x increase over your current jump distance of 5ly. That is quite a big jump! To do so, you'd need a better cannon.

 

[Poseidal]

One thing in this game is a longer single (continuous) jump takes exponentially more fuel the further you push it. A long distance may take an astronomically high amount of fuel to go directly, but folding shorter distances between mass-points (the way they navigate) would be to get there. Since jumps always take you to a star, I assume it must have a large mass to 'lock' onto to arrive.

With it being exponential, you have 100 LY to travel. Your jump range is around 10, and takes say 2 tons of fuel, but as it exponentially goes up, going 12LY may take 4T of fuel, and going 20 would require 64 tons. But 10 hops of 10 LY is only 20T of fuel.

 

[777Driver]

thats finally one of the best analogies that makes reasonable sense for that thing..
Lets think about it that way:
I have fuel tank that can take me lets say.. 100ly away.
For reasons i cannot make that 100ly jump in one-go. I must jump by 5-10ly max.
But why i cannot jump lets say.. 20 or 30? Its not "that" much..

lol dude, it is so simple, it doesn't work like a cannon and has nothing to do with damaging anything. It has everything to do with the mass of the object and the drives capability to propel that object, and most importantly the fuel burn during cruise.

Completely fictional, haven't got my stats to hand - My Clipper can take me 100LY, The drive on my Clipper has the ability to propel the ship into cruise and take me 20LY in one go, I can increase that range to 25 LY by reducing mass.

check the galaxy map, instead of plotting a route, mark a distant system outside of jump range then take a look at the fuel gauge, it will show as empty if you tried to jump. The ship is not capable of doing the jump and cruising at an optimal rate in one go, you will burn all the fuel.

doing smaller jumps is the equivalent of 'Step climbing' in an aircraft to increase it's range and decrease fuel burn.

 

[QziQza]

thought it worth mentioning that the FSD fuels up in the same way a capacitor charges up. it can be set to release the stored energy at any point in the charging process, that energy, when released, will have the potential to do 'X' work against a mass of 'Y' over 'Z' Distance. with each class and grade of FSD/Capacitor having different limits to their ability.

for instance, the potential energy in a car battery, is far greater than the energy required to create a spark in the cylinder. also, the fuel tank may contain the potential energy to get the vehicle 240miles, but it is restricted by the stroke and cubic capacity of the cylinder. no matter how much potential energy is stored in the battery or fuel tank, the vehicle is always going to be restricted from traveling its full potential distance, in a single step, by the limitations imposed by the system that uses them. try forcing tripple the charge to the ignition system or tripple the volume into a cylinder and see what happens lol.

not sure about now (777Driver, you would likely know better than me dude) but back in my day, a baffle system was used in fighter aircraft, to make sure that when flying inverted, the engine didnt become starved of fuel. the amount of fuel stored in that part of the system was only a portion of the total volume available. basically the system restricted travel time and distance in that specific manner.

there are so many examples of charging, storing and releasing energy for its accumulated potential. each and every example will have limitations set upon them, and everyone of them draws from an energy pool of some variety. it could be like a battery that slowly charges from a lesser source, or like an ignition system that takes what it needs from a greater source.