Gravity in ships, how does it work ?

[Dsign]

So I know Braben told us that gravity in ED was not a sci-fi thing were it was generated by some device but rather by centrifugal force.
So I get it for the stations, rotation makes the gravity work. But how does it work inside ships ? David loves to be scientifically accurate so... How do we sit and don't float around ?
How will space legs work ?

 

[MadDogMurdock]

Gravity on ships works like everywhere else.

The ars-squared law means that your butt is perfectly wedged into the flight chair and you don't drift off.

 

[Xenith]

So I know Braben told us that gravity in ED was not a sci-fi thing were it was generated by some device but rather by centrifugal force.
So I get it for the stations, rotation makes the gravity work. But how does it work inside ships ? David loves to be scientifically accurate so... How do we sit and don't float around ?
How will space legs work ?

Taking a look at the seats, I would hazard a guess that some kind of magnetic adhesion is in play. Think seat belts... with invisible belts. As for the ships themselves, full zero-g, unless you have a rotating habitation ring. How would you move around? You'd float, using all the nifty hand-holds the cockpits have for that very purpose, or engage your magnetic boots if you needed to actually stand in place.

There's no magic anti-gravity in this game, and I for one think it was the right choice. We just need Space Legs to really see it in full effect.

 

[Ca$hback]

Your suit plugs into your chair, acting as a sort of seat belt. Magnetic boots. And I don't know about you guys but I just roll my ship everywhere I'm going. I don't get dizzy until I go to land.

 

[GilliganTX]

Per the Elite Lore:


Just like everywhere else.



Anti-gravity magic has not yet been invented.

Pilots stay secure with their feet on deck via magnetic boots.


How the rear end stays in the chair, I don't want to speculate.

 

[John Stoutbeard]

According to the book Premonition, they all used magnetic boots. At least for the smaller ships.
For the Flagships Drew didn't tell, except for a larger prison ship. Mag-boots again + Zero-G.
Drew went to great length to explain how peoples hair was designed to work in zero-G.

 

[Teh Smoo]

We're glued to the seat, obviously.

 

[GilliganTX]

According to the book Premonition, they all used magnetic boots. At least for the smaller ships.
For the Flagships Drew didn't tell, except for a larger prison ship. Mag-boots again + Zero-G.
Drew went to great length to explain how peoples hair was designed to work in zero-G.

Lots of hair gel/spray?

 

[Marcus Machiavelli]

How will space legs work ?

like this, Zero G baby

 

[Dsign]

So Zero G, magnetic suits/boots. Cool stuff !

 

[Stealthie]

I always think it's just being stubborn to refuse to adopt artificial gravity within the ED universe.

I mean, considering the wacky, inconsistent, unrealistic, hare-brained stuff that we HAVE been forced to accept in the ED universe (telepresence, I'm looking at you but you're not on your own) why on Earth would you just stubbornly dig your heels in and refuse to accept a justifiable conceit such as artificial gravity?

Yes, we all get that there's currently no plausible way to generate artificial gravity but gravity is a pretty-much fundamental requirement for humans to live in space long-term and it's also a pretty-much fundamental requirement of all fiction involving humans living in space.
And it's that way for a good reason; by not having artificial gravity, you just end-up creating a whole bunch of problems that will require their own wacky solutions which are just as contrived as the idea of artificial gravity, itself.

I mean, "magnetic boots" ???
Great. magnetic boots stick your feet to the floor.
Do we also eat magnetic food off magnetic plates with magnetic cutlery and wash it down with magnetic beer out of a magnetic can?

And, in practical terms, I bet one of the big reasons FDev aren't keen to pursue space-legs is because they KNOW it's going to be a total PITA to get an FPS engine to work properly in zero-g.

You don't even need to get rid of the iconic spinning stations.
Using centrifugal force to provide gravity for thousands of people on stations, and in mega-ships, makes perfect sense because the power-requirements to generate a fancier type of AG would (presumably) be massive.
On a small ship (such as the ones we fly), it's probably not going to be so much of a big deal so it's more likely a fancy AG system could be in use.

So, sod the books. Retcon artificial gravity onto our ships and get cracking with those space-legs.

 

[Shadowma]

Any idea as to when ?

 

[777Driver]

The devs could definitely take some ideas from lone echo.

[video=youtube;ggZvKL3pArc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggZvKL3pArc[/video]

 

[Dsign]

I always think it's just being stubborn to refuse to adopt artificial gravity within the ED universe.

I mean, considering the wacky, inconsistent, unrealistic, hare-brained stuff that we HAVE been forced to accept in the ED universe (telepresence, I'm looking at you but you're not on your own) why on Earth would you just stubbornly dig your heels in and refuse to accept a justifiable conceit such as artificial gravity?

Yes, we all get that there's currently no plausible way to generate artificial gravity but gravity is a pretty-much fundamental requirement for humans to live in space long-term and it's also a pretty-much fundamental requirement of all fiction involving humans living in space.
And it's that way for a good reason; by not having artificial gravity, you just end-up creating a whole bunch of problems that will require their own wacky solutions which are just as contrived as the idea of artificial gravity, itself.

I mean, "magnetic boots" ???
Great. magnetic boots stick your feet to the floor.
Do we also eat magnetic food off magnetic plates with magnetic cutlery and wash it down with magnetic beer out of a magnetic can?

And, in practical terms, I bet one of the big reasons FDev aren't keen to pursue space-legs is because they KNOW it's going to be a total PITA to get an FPS engine to work properly in zero-g.

You don't even need to get rid of the iconic spinning stations.
Using centrifugal force to provide gravity for thousands of people on stations, and in mega-ships, makes perfect sense because the power-requirements to generate a fancier type of AG would (presumably) be massive.
On a small ship (such as the ones we fly), it's probably not going to be so much of a big deal so it's more likely a fancy AG system could be in use.

So, sod the books. Retcon artificial gravity onto our ships and get cracking with those space-legs.

I agree, but at the same time to try and make the game as "realistic" as possible is one of the things I love about ED... So if they manage to get around all those wacky solutions you mentioned above, it could be great !

Zero-G, if done in the right way, would be awesome !

The devs could definitely take some ideas from lone echo.

That's awesome ! But try and do that without all the VR gear [noob]
Definitely should be a source of inspiration though, I agree.

 

[Arthur Shappey]

Personally - my ship does have artificial gravity. I'm role playing, and when I fly - I don't care what David Braben & FDev say - I have artificial gravity.

I certainly prefer that to have a my butt sucked by my chair all day. But I am sure, in this omni-sexual universe (yes, I fancy Altarian Hamsters...), that will turn on a number of my compatriots...

I am sure the real reason that artificial gravity is not in ED - is the implications. The second you have a way of creating artificial force in a small scale (for a SideWinder) for instance, then you logically have tractor beams and gravity weapons.

But so what? This could be fun. And at least it would be one less thing holding back space-legs - which is going to be horribly difficult to look convincing with magnetic boots and butts.

 

[Jackie Silver]

Many of the cockpits have visible grab handles for moving about in zero-g.

 

[777Driver]

Many of the cockpits have visible grab handles for moving about in zero-g.

Fairly certain all of them do except the Beluga.

 

[Voubi]

I always think it's just being stubborn to refuse to adopt artificial gravity within the ED universe.

I mean, considering the wacky, inconsistent, unrealistic, hare-brained stuff that we HAVE been forced to accept in the ED universe (telepresence, I'm looking at you but you're not on your own) why on Earth would you just stubbornly dig your heels in and refuse to accept a justifiable conceit such as artificial gravity?

Yes, we all get that there's currently no plausible way to generate artificial gravity but gravity is a pretty-much fundamental requirement for humans to live in space long-term and it's also a pretty-much fundamental requirement of all fiction involving humans living in space.
And it's that way for a good reason; by not having artificial gravity, you just end-up creating a whole bunch of problems that will require their own wacky solutions which are just as contrived as the idea of artificial gravity, itself.

I mean, "magnetic boots" ???
Great. magnetic boots stick your feet to the floor.
Do we also eat magnetic food off magnetic plates with magnetic cutlery and wash it down with magnetic beer out of a magnetic can?

And, in practical terms, I bet one of the big reasons FDev aren't keen to pursue space-legs is because they KNOW it's going to be a total PITA to get an FPS engine to work properly in zero-g.

You don't even need to get rid of the iconic spinning stations.
Using centrifugal force to provide gravity for thousands of people on stations, and in mega-ships, makes perfect sense because the power-requirements to generate a fancier type of AG would (presumably) be massive.
On a small ship (such as the ones we fly), it's probably not going to be so much of a big deal so it's more likely a fancy AG system could be in use.

So, sod the books. Retcon artificial gravity onto our ships and get cracking with those space-legs.

Why do they stick to zero-G ? Because of one little, tiny, minimal plot hole when it comes to AG : if you can mess up with a fundamental force of the universe such as gravity so much that you can practically generate instant 1G everywhere, why would you use this kind of tech just for AG ?
You could imagine some kind of Gravity-based superweapon, why would something like not be used everywhere ? Or hell, why would we be bothered by low gravity driving in SRVs, when you can generate 1G attraction under said SRV to stabilize it ? Or why wouldn't we use this kind of tech to move ships, generating gravity ahead of said ship to move it, instead of using costly and heat generating fusion drives ?

You get the idea, and that's only some examples on why they chose not to up one of the most basic principles of the universe and be a little imaginative... Because as a wise man once said : "If it's easy, it's not funny..."

On a side note, telepresence and instant communications without range limitations are not unrealistic, as far as our current understanding of quantum magnets go... The ONLY issue with this, is that data delivery missions and the impossibility to buy system data from afar now makes no more sense... Is that THIS bad for everyone to whine about it 24/7 ?

 

[Stealthie]

I agree, but at the same time to try and make the game as "realistic" as possible is one of the things I love about ED... So if they manage to get around all those wacky solutions you mentioned above, it could be great !

Zero-G, if done in the right way, would be awesome !

ED isn't "realistic" in almost any way though.
About the only thing that is realistic is the stuff the Stellar Forge is responsible for.

Beyond that, we've got FTL travel, we've got no temporal shift as a result of FTL travel, we've got FTL supercruise which contradicts almost every law of physics, we've got ships that are made from materials that don't freeze at absolute zero or melt when they fly close to a star, we've got thrusters which provide unlimited propulsion, we've got powerplants (and thrusters) which don't provide enough energy, or use enough fuel, to achieve the things they do, we've got a universe where interstellar comm's is banned and everybody communicates via text messages but where you can also send a hologram across the galaxy instantly and (once it arrives there) it gains substance so it can interact with the world around it.
We've got sensors with worse range than a decent WW2 bomber, we've got a docking computer which takes up the same space as 2 tonnes of cargo, we've got a variety of modules which scale in size and price depending on what ship we fit them to even though they do exactly the same job, we've got deflector shields, we've got weapon-gimbals which work on some types of weapon but not others, We've got anti-missile weapons that have a 10,000 round magazine while out main weapons can't store 10% of that.

We've got all that stuff and then we're saying "Artificial Gravity? Hell, no! That crosses the line!!!"
Srsly?

Yep, zero-g would be cool with space legs but it's also really, really hard to do.
I'd rather have regular FPS-style space-legs than hope for zero-g floatiness (much) later on.

 

[Dsign]

ED isn't "realistic" in almost any way though.
About the only thing that is realistic is the stuff the Stellar Forge is responsible for.

Beyond that, we've got FTL travel, we've got no temporal shift as a result of FTL travel, we've got FTL supercruise which contradicts almost every law of physics, we've got ships that are made from materials that don't freeze at absolute zero or melt when they fly close to a star, we've got thrusters which provide unlimited propulsion, we've got powerplants (and thrusters) which don't provide enough energy, or use enough fuel, to achieve the things they do, we've got a universe where interstellar comm's is banned and everybody communicates via text messages but where you can also send a hologram across the galaxy instantly and (once it arrives there) it gains substance so it can interact with the world around it.
We've got sensors with worse range than a decent WW2 bomber, we've got a docking computer which takes up the same space as 2 tonnes of cargo, we've got a variety of modules which scale in size and price depending on what ship we fit them to even though they do exactly the same job, we've got deflector shields, we've got weapon-gimbals which work on some types of weapon but not others, We've got anti-missile weapons that have a 10,000 round magazine while out main weapons can't store 10% of that.

We've got all that stuff and then we're saying "Artificial Gravity? Hell, no! That crosses the line!!!"
Srsly?

Yep, zero-g would be cool with space legs but it's also really, really hard to do.
I'd rather have regular FPS-style space-legs than hope for zero-g floatiness (much) later on.

That's why I said as realistic as possible we wouldn't have any gameplay at all if the laws of physics were respected in every way !
For many of the things you talk about we can assume that in the year 3300 we would have very advanced tech.
But one of Braben's goal is to get as scientifically accurate as possible, to pursue that goal without destroying the gameplay is, to me, a good thing.