[Distant Worlds] Man Down!

[SvennoJ]

I stuck my results in a graph as in the words of Mythbusters, the difference between science and messing around is writing stuff down.

Horizontal axis: local gravity
Vertical axis: net vertical acceleration (ship rotated in position to provide thrust directly against gravity)

It pretty much confirms what was already known.
Main and bottom thrusters always provide at least 5.0 m/s2 on top of current gravity.
Since the main thrusters start out with 20.2 m/s2, it is faster to slow down or accelerate while vertical up until 1.55g, beyond that it doesn't matter and the bottom thrusters are equal in strength.
Side and bow thrusters act strangely against gravity. From 0.10g to 0.30g their thrust is reduced from 10.2 m/s2 to 2.0m/s2. 0.285g is the highest in which you can make a barrel roll without falling.
The bow thrusters show even stranger behavior. Between 0.10g and 0.28g the ship won't fall on it's nose, but it will wobble as if dangling on a string.
From 0.30g to 1.00g the ship reaches a terminal velocity and will stop accelerating further at:
0.30g nose down unstable, holds at 63 m/s
0.40g nose down unstable, holds at 72 m/s
0.50g nose down unstable, holds at 80 m/s
0.75g nose down unstable, holds at 98 m/s
1.00g nose down unstable, holds at 117 m/s
At 1.25g and beyond nose down position has the full 10.2 m/s2 (1.04g) reduction in acceleration again. So at 1.25g, nose down, you accelerate towards the ground at 0.21g

And one word of advice, turn on shields before landing!
I forgot again, luckily just a minor 4% scrape at between 1 and 2 m/s2

 

[Eisen]

Nice. So nice. I dont want to even think about how much scan data i just lost. Even if i could get my Python back to where it was with the ticket i just made to Frontier, scan data is gone for good.

I remember at least one case in last fall, when they resurrected a CMDR with his scan-data intact, that had been killed by a NPC-Interdiction after they beefed up interdictions. So it may be advisable to be patient in your case if you have evidence

 

[Micha]

I stuck my results in a graph as in the words of Mythbusters, the difference between science and messing around is writing stuff down.

Nice analysis! But is this across all ships and thrusters, or for a specific ship (and if so, what ship and what rating of thrusters)? Sorry if this is mentioned earlier in this thread..

 

[Henkka77]

I remember at least one case in last fall, when they resurrected a CMDR with his scan-data intact, that had been killed by a NPC-Interdiction after they beefed up interdictions. So it may be advisable to be patient in your case if you have evidence

Might be possible, but thats no longer an option as i began my journey again last night from Pallaeni and already got 3000Ly away from the bubble.
And because this expedition is at very early stages, i recon i have plenty of systems yet to scan.

 

[SvennoJ]

Nice analysis! But is this across all ships and thrusters, or for a specific ship (and if so, what ship and what rating of thrusters)? Sorry if this is mentioned earlier in this thread..

It's for the Anaconda with 5D thrusters, flying under optimal mass.
http://coriolis.io/outfit/anaconda/...50s0sf3v4432f2i.AwRj4yq5VMg=.EwBjIRg8d3rMUwFA

Here's a thread showing the difference in thrusters, also showing the effect of total ship mass
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=182057

And one for all the ships
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=182465

I was mainly interested in the effect of gravity which was already discussed here
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=218171
Except for the strange behavior with the side and bow thrusters. I don't know if that's specific to the Anaconda. It's getting kinda far now to go back and switch ships to try

 

[SvennoJ]

Since I kept landing without shields, I decided to go back one more time for repairs and squeeze in a few quick tests with other ships:

Measurements in a Viper and Asp reveal that lateral thrust reduces to 1/5th of the maximum between 0.1g and 0.3g

With my lightweight (under optimal mass) ship versions:
Anaconda 10.2 m/s2 lateral thrust at 0g-0.1g reduces to 2.04 m/s2 above 0.3g
Asp explorer 15.8 m/s2 lateral thrust at 0g-0.1g reduces to 3.17 m/s2 above 0.3g
Viper MK IIII 26.3 m/s2 lateral thrust at 0g-0.1g reduces to 5.26 m/s2 above 0.3g

This leads to a max hover g of 0.32g for Asp and 0.54g for Viper MK III.
The Asp did indeed hover sideways at 0.32g without being able to accelerate up, with the Viper I managed that at 0.55g, pretty close.
The odd unstable nose down behavior is also the same and seems to scale the same with lateral thrust.

The rest is the same between ships. Also with higher initial thrust, vertical and aft thrusters bottom out the same at local gravity + 5 m/s2.
Btw my 34.88ly Asp Exlorer came to 25.3 m/s2 aft acceleration which means that it's faster to stop nose pointed up until 2.07g in an Asp.
In the Viper I tested it was about 61 m/s2 aft acceleration which means it beats vertical lift up until 5.71g
Yet eventually all ships are equal when it comes to landing in high g.

It was pretty fun to fly the Viper for a bit after the Anaconda. Land at Jameson memorial in about 1/10th of the time of the Anaconda. Easy of course with a repair bill that's 0.05% of the Anaconda, no worries, boost away.

 

[Pirin]

We just lost another Cmdr at WP5. Anaconda crashed trying to land. Not sure who was that.

Spoiler

 

[Pirin]

...and an Asp was lost on the same spot only minutes later. This place is haunted

Spoiler

 

[Txakal]

WP5 has been a bit of a graveyard. As mentioned by CMDR Pirin, minutes before the official departure hour a Conda exploded during landing.




And minutes after the main departure of the fleet, the ASP mentioned tried to launch, but suffered a slow fall to the ground, as the pilot pushed hard at full throttle, trying to save the ship...




I thought it was ok, as the ASP went straight up, very slowly. But then, gravity hooked again on the spaceship and it came down really fast. The brave pilot couldn't eject.

View attachment 99671


I took a round in my SRV, looking for anomalies that could justify such a high number of casualties. I couldn't find anything ...except this lost probe, at almost 800 meter from the landing place. It did have three data links, but (very strange) I could read them: every time I tried, the computer stablished link, the data seems to pass to my ship, but no data cannister at the end (...and yes, my hardpoints deployed).

View attachment 99672

For sure, there should be no connection with our casualties, simply coincidence, but ...who knows?

 

[Rikk]

The front thrusters on that Asp are lit.

I can't help but wonder if he has his thrusters mapped like me, on one of the analogue wheels on the X55. That would explain why his ship was fighting the full forward thrust of the engines.

 

[Pirin]

The front thrusters on that Asp are lit.

I can't help but wonder if he has his thrusters mapped like me, on one of the analogue wheels on the X55. That would explain why his ship was fighting the full forward thrust of the engines.

There is a video in the DW thread. Commander filmed his own crash . It seems like the pilot was too busy filming the departure of other ships and didnt notice their own ship is falling down due to main engines set only to about 30% power.

...not sure what happened to the Anaconda though

 

[racer1]

The front thrusters on that Asp are lit.

I can't help but wonder if he has his thrusters mapped like me, on one of the analogue wheels on the X55. That would explain why his ship was fighting the full forward thrust of the engines.

I think he posted his (the asp pilot) video in another thread. I think he stayed in full reverse thrust and just boosted off the surface, and hence came back down again, hard.

Edit: ninja'd

 

[Rikk]

Oh crap, seen the vid now, he was just in reverse throttle.

Ouch, feel for the guy

I nearly had (another) mishap which diu relate to the analogue control on my X55. Lifted off at WP5 and right away was going backwards hard, the analogue was in full back position (preflight check fail). Lucky I was with it and just pitched down, yup folks, I reversed into the sky from WP5.