Explain please about ships top speed limit?

[daygobah]

If i remember correctly if an object in space has a thrust applied to it, doesnt it just continue to accelerate? And after you stop that thrust you just keep going at that speed unless a gravity or some other force is applied against the object.

Like the pluto probe it doesnt slow down after they turn off the thrusters.

 

[Caramel Clown]

Balance.

 

[Rilzi]

If i remember correctly if an object in space has a thrust applied to it, doesnt it just continue to accelerate? And after you stop that thrust you just keep going at that speed unless a gravity or some other force is applied against the object.

Like the pluto probe it doesnt slow down after they turn off the thrusters.

That's true, and it's how the two of the prequels worked - but it turns out true Newtonian physics make for sucky combat and flight mechanics, thus the artificial limits.

 

[Sapient6]

That's true, and it's how the two of the prequels worked - but it turns out true Newtonian physics make for sucky combat and flight mechanics, thus the artificial limits.

This.

Ships would travel at such incredible speeds during combat that two ships fighting might pass each-other once, never actually becoming visible to the human pilots. On-board computers would handle targeting, and the weapons systems (making use of super-luminal technology) would ensure that neither pilot returned home.

Probably wouldn't be a big seller on Steam.

 

[KellyR]

This is design behavior to enable good gameplay. The lore explanation is you can never completely disable computer control. If you turn flight assist off and then boost, the computer will still apply reverse thrust to bring your ship back to a safe speed. Once it is at that safe speed, all thrusters are disengaged until such time as an order to engage is received through the controls or flight assist is enabled.

One reason for this is so you can't go into time dilatation from excessive speed (more than 1/4 light or 75000 km/sec. It would take quite a while to reach that speed but it could be done if the onboard computer weren't programmed to prevent it. The most salient reason is FD's philosophy that gameplay is king. They believe (and I agree, not that it matters what I think) without good gameplay, it's not a good game.

 

[TaoZero5]

I think of the Hyperdrive/Frameshift Drive as a Gravity Drive.
In FSD the deeper you are into a Gravity Well the slower your top speed is.
In normal space, moving the Gravity Drive through space warps the spacewaveform (\o/) -
so that the faster you move it the more it wants to resist change.

 

[[VR] Deggial]

You are absolutely rigth, daygobah. If physics would be the only concern, ED space ships should zip around with thousands of m/s (at least after enough time to accelerate), meet for fractions of seconds, exchange some deadly blasts and then take hours to eat up their momentum and turn around.

This, while modeling space physics correctly, would be terrible game-play. Hence FD implemented some artificial restrictions. The ship's fligth assistance counteracts inerta with active thrusting in the oposite direction. This is why you stop turning, if you don't stir actively in one direction or come to a halt, whenas soon as you stop thrusting forward.
This doesn't happen if you use 'flight assist OFF': Without active counteraction, you will keep your movement forever. But even in this mode, FD implemented a maximum speed. This is an absolutely artificial limit and is not based on any law of physics. However, it is necessary to grant enjoyable dogfighting. The gaming experience trumps realism in this case.

--

Oh well... multi-ninjad!

 

[h347h]

That's true, and it's how the two of the prequels worked - but it turns out true Newtonian physics make for sucky combat and flight mechanics, thus the artificial limits.

This, if you have played Star Citizen or watched any Infinity Battlescape combat footage you'll likely fall asleep. Star Citizen has wisely decided to take a look at their flight and combat models and change it for more enjoyable combat.(It was my MAJOR dislike about the game.)

Frankly the dog fighting/Wing Commander style/Elite Dangerous style combat is the most fun even if it isn't realistic.

 

[daygobah]

I think of the Hyperdrive/Frameshift Drive as a Gravity Drive.
In FSD the deeper you are into a Gravity Well the slower your top speed is.
In normal space, moving the Gravity Drive through space warps the spacewaveform (\o/) -
so that the faster you move it the more it wants to resist change.

Thanks that does explain it in game terms. Its the framedrive. I like your idea.

The only problem with that is you can shutdown your framedrive cant you?

 

[TaoZero5]

Yeah, you can power it down but that doesn't remove the Pixie from the heart of it.

 

[Psychomorph]

Doesn't make sense though that the main engines are always active and always smoking. If thruster are only active to slow the ship down to the forced speed, than so should the main engines.

I find Elite combat system quite boring and muddy and Star Citizen and Infinity Battlescape more interesting and spacey. The problem with the latter both is that they're WIP, SC has way to responsive side thrusters and IB too much ship health.

 

[Schmack]

It's a bit like flight sims for fighter jets. IRL you'd almost never see the jet that shot you down, but in the game you see them basically miles away. That's at a few hundred mph. Take that same size platform and factor the speed by 100 and then the area by infinity with no hard deck, limited range scanning and you're lost.

How can your scanner see ships 500Ls or so away in super cruise but not pick up on one 8km away once you drop out?

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I think of the Hyperdrive/Frameshift Drive as a Gravity Drive.
In FSD the deeper you are into a Gravity Well the slower your top speed is.
In normal space, moving the Gravity Drive through space warps the spacewaveform (\o/) -
so that the faster you move it the more it wants to resist change.

Except you're not using the FSD in normal space speeds else it would need to charge. You're using thrusters.

 

[tranquil eternity]

Top speed limit is not for "good gameplay". It's just simplification for casual players of ED. Btw speed limit ruin immersion of space flight.

 

[Schmack]

Top speed limit is not for "good gameplay". It's just simplification for casual players of ED. Btw speed limit ruin immersion of space flight.

The bezel on my monitor ruins the immersion for me... well that and the fact I am sitting in my office.

It's not for "good gameplay". It's for possible game play. You ever try to have a battle in Space Engineers? Good luck and you're not even at light speed. Without limits you'd never catch the target, ever. They would always be accelerating faster than you, so if they get started ahead of you, no reason to give chase.

 

[tranquil eternity]

The bezel on my monitor ruins the immersion for me... well that and the fact I am sitting in my office.

It's not for "good gameplay". It's for possible game play. You ever try to have a battle in Space Engineers? Good luck and you're not even at light speed. Without limits you'd never catch the target, ever. They would always be accelerating faster than you, so if they get started ahead of you, no reason to give chase.

It's just excuse. Possible game play without speed limit available but it requires more hard work for it in development and more skills from players. Today ED is advanced arcade avia simulator with tiny pew pew lasers.

 

[bamber]

If i remember correctly if an object in space has a thrust applied to it, doesnt it just continue to accelerate? And after you stop that thrust you just keep going at that speed unless a gravity or some other force is applied against the object.

Like the pluto probe it doesnt slow down after they turn off the thrusters.

You do understand it's a game? And also a video game at that?
.
One reason there is an acceleration limit is there is a maximum speed and frame rate I believe the max speed is set at 400m/s (or there abouts) as above this the video would start to "jump" and stutter
.
If you want to argue the physics of e game explain hyperspace, super cruise, laser colours as there is no atmosphere and atoms to excite to a level they emit light how a station rotates given its mass and so on
.
It's all easy it's not space simulator 9.0 it's a game

 

[popuptoaster]

It's mainly a networking issue, the faster the ships go while in combat the more network traffic has to pass between the two computers to prevent "rubber banding", if the game was single player the ships top speed wouldn't be important.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Sometimes realism has to take a backseat to gameplay.

I enjoyed combat in Elite and FD, but it would never have got the sales it did if combat was like it was back then, it appeals more to the arcade style of combat that more people tend to prefer.

I remember in Frontier, combat at times could be really tedious, you got your thrust wrong, and you would spend the next 5-10 mins trying to adjust and messing around with time dialiation to speed up time because you overshot by a week.

 

[DNA-Decay]

If you need realistic acceleration, then you need to try this:

http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk

ORBITER

It took me four months to get sufficient grip on Orbital Mechanics that I could dock with the International Space Station.
Four months.
For one target.

I never survived re-entry.

I loved the challenge.

But having to read about two hundred pages on Orbital Mechanics and Delta V is no way to get a MMO to sell.

 

[Seonid]

Top speed limit is not for "good gameplay". It's just simplification for casual players of ED. Btw speed limit ruin immersion of space flight.

Can you link your videos of you dogfighting in KSP please?