Let's talk about artificial gravity

adni86

adni86
Yes, I know, this is not the first time, that this discussion is on the table, but with the Odyssey update there are new issues. I understad, that in Elite no such thing like artificial gravity exists, the concept of living in space is the "2001 inspired" centrifugal force. On the other hand, there are many things in the Lore, that are far from realism. In a word: It is science fiction. We have shields and force fields that can seperate between solid matter and "atmosphere". But on Outposts and ships people still walk on oldschool magnetic boots. They also seem to sit on magnetic booties and drink magnetic booze. So why not skip it and let someone invent artificial gravity, there are so many talented engineers in the Universe. We defeated Einstein with the Warp Drive and can do it again with gravity.


Side Note:
This is not a rant or some nerdrage. I am fine with it as it is. I can fully transfer my awareness between a game and reality. This is just a proposal to make things easier to be depicted in the future. :)
 

Astaran

Astaran
well, there's this entire Guardian lore and technology stuff just waiting to be used for new content, CGs and "technological" progress. Mankind is already using Guardian technology for weapons and ship modules in the Elite universe, so I wouldn't mind using some more reverse engineered Guardian technology (with some CGs and a proper plot) that would lead to a scientific breakthrough in that field.

But this only makes real sense if it's connected to new gameplay/content
 

Brrokk

Brrokk
adni86 said:
Yes, I know, this is not the first time, that this discussion is on the table, but with the Odyssey update there are new issues. I understad, that in Elite no such thing like artificial gravity exists, the concept of living in space is the "2001 inspired" centrifugal force. On the other hand, there are many things in the Lore, that are far from realism. In a word: It is science fiction. We have shields and force fields that can seperate between solid matter and "atmosphere". But on Outposts and ships people still walk on oldschool magnetic boots. They also seem to sit on magnetic booties and drink magnetic booze. So why not skip it and let someone invent artificial gravity, there are so many talented engineers in the Universe. We defeated Einstein with the Warp Drive and can do it again with gravity.


Side Note:
This is not a rant or some nerdrage. I am fine with it as it is. I can fully transfer my awareness between a game and reality. This is just a proposal to make things easier to be depicted in the future. :)
Click to expand...
We already have inertia fields, whatever the "lore" says. Just watch a Beluga docking under auto control and imagine what's happening to the passengers' drinks if we don't.
 

scadh

scadh
adni86 said:
Yes, I know, this is not the first time, that this discussion is on the table, but with the Odyssey update there are new issues. I understad, that in Elite no such thing like artificial gravity exists, the concept of living in space is the "2001 inspired" centrifugal force. On the other hand, there are many things in the Lore, that are far from realism. In a word: It is science fiction. We have shields and force fields that can seperate between solid matter and "atmosphere". But on Outposts and ships people still walk on oldschool magnetic boots. They also seem to sit on magnetic booties and drink magnetic booze. So why not skip it and let someone invent artificial gravity, there are so many talented engineers in the Universe. We defeated Einstein with the Warp Drive and can do it again with gravity.


Side Note:
This is not a rant or some nerdrage. I am fine with it as it is. I can fully transfer my awareness between a game and reality. This is just a proposal to make things easier to be depicted in the future. :)
Click to expand...

Gravity is not even a "real" thing, so I'm not sure how it could be created artificially by any means that don't involve thrust or centrifugal force. Gravity is not a force, per se, but is instead the manifestation of objects with mass moving through curved space. That's how Einstein explains it, anyway. Not everyone agrees with him, though -- some folks believe there is no gravity, the world just sucks.
 

Ted Striker

Ted Striker
I agree. At this point with spacelegs let's just invent artificial gravity. Stations can still spin but why keep the narrative of "no artificial gravity" going when we have spacelegs now?

Personally I don't want to have to float around ships when we get interiors, unless maybe it's a derelict with no power. It wouldn't be fun. At a certain point realism becomes a chore. I mean look at how our ships behave with FA. Can you imagine if we were all forced to fly with FA off? Or worse, if it worked like Dual Universe where you have to slow down by thrusting in the opposite direction and it takes forever, and maneuvering is near impossible because it's trying so hard to be realistic? It feels like actual space maneuvering, but it's not fun. ED ships are fun.

Most of the sci-fi we all know and love don't bother with gravity at all, because it's a cumbersome thing to worry about. They all just pretend ships in space have regular earthlike gravity, and I'm fine with that. Let's just say someone invented artificial gravity and be done with it.
 

Mack Winston

Mack Winston
It's about internal consistency.

Elite: Dangerous has always had the premise that there isn't artificial gravity, and this premise continues in Odyssey, with the magboots in outposts. However, the art assets are inconsistent with this.

Hollywood uses artificial gravity frequently because it makes filming a lot cheaper and easier, and in the past it wasn't possible to do zero-G environments. Even now with all the CGI we have, it's still hard (see the Expanse - where they do put great effort into it, but there are certain things you'll struggle with such as low-G walking on the Moon and Mars simply because you're using real actors, not CGI. But things like liquids, and being shot in a zero G environment (you won't fall down!) are portrayed).

But Elite has no such limitations: it's all computer generated so it doesn't have the problems filming with real live actors has. While to keep the coding effort from exploding, I can understand we might not (at this time) have any way to turn our mag boots off, it would be nice if the art assets were consistent with the lore; that's all we're asking for at the moment. Simple things like not having open containers of liquids on the "shoebox" outposts, rather than asking for great feats of programming to make zero-G environments (although it would I think add quite a bit to the game if gravity had a greater impact on locomotion). It's understandable things like boxes being sticky, or having magnetic attachments, but really there should be a greater hint that we're actually in zero G by having different liquid containers on shoebox outposts.
 

Chorda

Chorda
winston said:
It's about internal consistency.

Elite: Dangerous has always had the premise that there isn't artificial gravity, and this premise continues in Odyssey, with the magboots in outposts. However, the art assets are inconsistent with this.
Click to expand...

The asset placement bothered me too. Paper litter scattered all over the floor in supposed zero G outposts. And crates everywhere! Along with lifting gear designed for gravity environments. One bar had one of these propped next to it:


F80233U5-hvac-big-blue-hand-truck-right-front-angle.jpg


The sound team puts so much thought into generating a believable and consistent atmosphere that it's frequently praised. The graphical assets guys... please cut down on the onion head.
 

Ted Striker

Ted Striker
Chorda said:
The asset placement bothered me too. Paper litter scattered all over the floor in supposed zero G outposts. And crates everywhere! Along with lifting gear designed for gravity environments. One bar had one of these propped next to it:


F80233U5-hvac-big-blue-hand-truck-right-front-angle.jpg


The sound team puts so much thought into generating a believable and consistent atmosphere that it's frequently praised. The graphical assets guys... please cut down on the onion head.
Click to expand...
That tells me there is artificial gravity.
 

dubsdj

dubsdj
What I can't understand is how are the space people sprinting across the surface of low gravity planets and throwing grenades with pin point accuracy? Yet when they jump, they fly 20 ft in the air. Isaac, explain..

Isaac: Ah, that'll be my forth law
 
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The Wallet Inspector

The Wallet Inspector
adni86 said:
Yes, I know, this is not the first time, that this discussion is on the table, but with the Odyssey update there are new issues. I understad, that in Elite no such thing like artificial gravity exists, the concept of living in space is the "2001 inspired" centrifugal force. On the other hand, there are many things in the Lore, that are far from realism. In a word: It is science fiction. We have shields and force fields that can seperate between solid matter and "atmosphere". But on Outposts and ships people still walk on oldschool magnetic boots. They also seem to sit on magnetic booties and drink magnetic booze. So why not skip it and let someone invent artificial gravity, there are so many talented engineers in the Universe. We defeated Einstein with the Warp Drive and can do it again with gravity.


Side Note:
This is not a rant or some nerdrage. I am fine with it as it is. I can fully transfer my awareness between a game and reality. This is just a proposal to make things easier to be depicted in the future. :)
Click to expand...
They obviously have AG tech int he universe because the SC drive can warp space time and defy relativity and causality, which are both intimately linked with the distortion of space time and (probably) gravity manipulation. The stations merely spin for the 2001 vibe, so i woudln't really care for any nerd/lore reaosns if they introduced AG. Though i do think they physics of low g worlds should remain "interesting" for sandbox and gameplay fun purposes. However as someone else pointed out, neither the grenades or the bullets seem to care about the gravity of the worlds they are used on.
 

Nadreck

N
It really doesn't make sense to not have artificial gravity in the ED universe.

OK, it might not be possible to generate actual gravity. But all that's really needed is "a force which pushes stuff downwards", and ED definitely has force-fields. Our ships have shields that can stop bullets and explosions, and station mailslots have force-fields that hold air in.
 

mkizub

M
There is artificial gravity in ED. Otherwice our ships whould not departure from moons and planets (alternatively engine's jet must have such temperature that surface would vaporize). Otherwice we'd be smudged by ship's impact (alternatively we have telepresence in ships). Without artificial gravity we cannot walk on planets with 3G (alternatively we have exoskeleton which will allow us to jump 100 meters up on a moon). And so on.
 
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