Life support mechanics make ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE

WeavingBird1917

W
I made this post just for fun, after reading an article about scuba diving (lol!). Answer is probably: Coz it's a game.

It is currently year 3303 in ED, How is it possible that the best life support emergency oxygen supply (class 4) can only last for 25 minutes? We don't even have to discuss sci-fi, since 25 minutes is ridiculous even by today's standards.

The flight suits, or "Remlock suits", in ED obviously function like high tech futuristic space suits, otherwise you would die within 90 seconds if the canopy broke. So assuming that a pressure of 1 atm was maintained inside the Remlock suit and helmet, that means breathing shouldn't be a problem.

The question is: Why do oxygen supplies only last for 25 minutes max (4A) in ED? Scuba tanks last for 40 minutes to 1 hour. The lower the pressure upon your body, the longer it should last. A scuba tank today will probably explode in a vacuum due to the pressure difference, but that should not really be a problem in the year 3303. EDIT: Nope, slim chance of exploding as most of you pointed out. An EMU/space suit today can provide up to 8 hours of oxygen for an astronaut from two oxygen tanks and a carbon dioxide remover, which can probably easily fit into the pilot seat.

Elite Dangerous 3.0 most anticipated feature: Purchasable scuba tanks? I don't want to rely on the support systems anymore. I'd rather wear a space suit from the year 1981 on top of the Remlock suits and I wouldn't even need a life support system to create a breathable atmosphere in the ship!
 
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Chris Simon

Chris Simon
Sure the answer is: "Cuz game mechanics :D

But on the other hand, the life support is (and it is believable) designed to last from the accidet to the nearest station. It's not designed to be used for scuba diving in the space. :)
There aren't any tanks on your remlok, afaik. What oxygen is contained in the suit itself is yours to breathe but no more.
 

lemny

lemny
Since the size/weight of the life support is totally different in big ships, it have to support the whole ship. I would also prefer a cold silent death when it runs out and not an explosion, but as most f the time... gameplay tops realism here.
 

lemny

lemny
WeavingBird1917 said:
A scuba tank today will probably explode in a vacuum due to the pressure difference, but that should not really be a problem in the year 3303.
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A diving cylinder is filled with up to 300 bars. A pressure difference of +/- one bar should make no difference.
 

777Driver

777Driver
Stating the obvious here -

First time in combat using an Eagle back in early Beta, canopy cracks, all hell is breaking loose, total newbie struggling to get back to the station with minutes to spare... Somehow wouldn't have felt the same if I had hours to spare.
 

Kaybe

Kaybe
Here's my logic:

Even with highly advanced tech, there's only so much you can compress O2 before it blows in your face. And flight suits in E:D are designed to be slim and comfortable, meant for long distance journeys. It's not like Scuba gear which is specifically designed to spend all your time in a hostile environment. In Elite, it's assumed there should almost never be a situation where your canopy blows out. So to keep the pilot as comfortable as possible, said pilot's reserve tank attached to his flight suit is likely kept small to only provide enough oxygen to get a station within 25 minutes, which is 100% doable within the bubble.
 

Chris Simon

Chris Simon
777Driver said:
Stating the obvious here -

First time in combat using an Eagle back in early Beta, canopy cracks, all hell is breaking loose, total newbie struggling to get back to the station with minutes to spare... Somehow wouldn't have felt the same if I had hours to spare.
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Exactly. It's all boils back down to "Gameplay mechanics should be engaging and fun.
 

xondk

X
WeavingBird1917 said:
I made this post just for fun, after reading an article about scuba diving (lol!). Answer is probably: Coz it's a game.

It is currently year 3303 in ED, How is it possible that the best life support emergency oxygen supply (class 4) can only last for 25 minutes? We don't even have to discuss sci-fi, since 25 minutes is ridiculous even by today's standards.

The flight suits, or "Remlock suits", in ED obviously function like high tech futuristic space suits, otherwise you would die within 90 seconds if the canopy broke. So assuming that a pressure of 1 atm was maintained inside the Remlock suit and helmet, that means breathing shouldn't be a problem.

The question is: Why do oxygen supplies only last for 25 minutes max (4A) in ED? Scuba tanks last for 40 minutes to 1 hour. The lower the pressure upon your body, the longer it should last. A scuba tank today will probably explode in a vacuum due to the pressure difference, but that should not really be a problem in the year 3303. An EMU/space suit today can provide up to 8 hours of oxygen for an astronaut from two oxygen tanks and a carbon dioxide remover, which can probably easily fit into the pilot seat.

Elite Dangerous 3.0 most anticipated feature: Purchasable scuba tanks? I don't want to rely on the support systems anymore. I'd rather wear a space suit from the year 1981 on top of the Remlock suits and I wouldn't even need a life support system to create a breathable atmosphere in the ship!
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Game play reasons, in essence because it scales with speed of which you can travel, consider the amount of distance you can travel in 25 minutes in the game, an enormous amount of light years.
There to give an element of risk.

If it was possible to have a "realistic" amount in a ship it and with modules being as heavy as they are, you would have life support for days on end, at which point there would be no real danger in losing your canopy and then hat would be the entire point of life support?
take sidewinders lightest life support 0.5 ton, that's a heck of a lot of oxygen and such if we say most of it is devoted for that. Heck even if it was just say 1/4 of it that was devoted to oxygen, it would still be enough for an insane long time for a single person.
 
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Naskoni

Naskoni
The same reason you can go to a combat zone, get slaughtered, barely make it out alive at 3% hull, all systems malfunctioning, get to a station and repair your ship back to 100% functionality in literally a blink of an eye. In actuality it'd take weeks, if you are lucky.
 

WeavingBird1917

W
Naskoni said:
The same reason you can go to a combat zone, get slaughtered, barely make it out alive at 3% hull, all systems malfunctioning, get to a station and repair your ship back to 100% functionality in literally a blink of an eye. In actuality it'd take weeks, if you are lucky.
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I guess so. I see it as two different categories:

1) Things which the game simplifies, but are actually much harder to do in real life. (This happens the majority of the time)
2) Things which are easier to do in real life than in the game. (Like looking around using default controls, or like trying to hide from cops in GTA V lol)
 
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Noctover

Noctover
Well there's no auto pilot and if you go by scale my sat nav can plot further routes than the galaxy map. It's a game :p
 

WeavingBird1917

W
777Driver said:
Stating the obvious here -

First time in combat using an Eagle back in early Beta, canopy cracks, all hell is breaking loose, total newbie struggling to get back to the station with minutes to spare... Somehow wouldn't have felt the same if I had hours to spare.
Click to expand...

That's true, having 10 mins of oxygen left definitely causes an adrenaline surge. I don't think corrosive cargo should cause the cockpit canopy to break though (that was what prompted me to start the thread), as it makes no sense since it doesn't seem to damage the hull. I've had plenty of adrenaline running through me as the corrosive cargo was slowly eating through my modules.

I fell out of supercruise at least 3 times, had reboot/repair the ship because powerplant had reached 0% while NPC pirates were scanning me (had to go silent running, overheating the ship). I guess corrosive cargo is the more realistic than running out of oxygen in terms of the "get there before you die" gameplay. Was limping back to station, kept falling out of supercruise and trying to evade pirates. That was a really fun experience, although terrifying.

I think that having an hour or two of oxygen will give the same experience for explorers in the middle of nowhere who have managed to run into a neutron star or something else (saw a post about this here recently). Then have them source for materials to repair life support before emergency supply runs out. With more advanced life support modules, getting back to the station is usually not a problem for most players within the bubble.

Still looking forward to scooba tanks though, I want mine to be gold coloured :p.
 
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Surprised Brony

S
I just wonder why it weighs so much on the ship. It makes no sense. If it's a scrubber system to recycle oxygen, we've got better ones today. If it's air tanks, then it really doesn't make sense to weigh that much. I just assume it's for "reasons." If it had no weight but still drew power, I'd understand why we have so little time.

Doesn't bother me though. Just something that raises a brow.
 

Chris Simon

Chris Simon
TGC Brony TO said:
I just wonder why it weighs so much on the ship. It makes no sense. If it's a scrubber system to recycle oxygen, we've got better ones today. If it's air tanks, then it really doesn't make sense to weigh that much. I just assume it's for "reasons." If it had no weight but still drew power, I'd understand why we have so little time.

Doesn't bother me though. Just something that raises a brow.
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It's one of those Elite mechanics that you shouldn't think too hard about, I guess. :D
 

777Driver

777Driver
WeavingBird1917 said:
I think that having an hour or two of oxygen will give the same experience for explorers in the middle of nowhere who have managed to run into a neutron star or something else (saw a post about this here recently). Then have them source for materials to repair life support before emergency supply runs out. With more advanced life support modules, getting back to the station is usually not a problem for most players within the bubble.
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Kinda already in the game now, we can synthesise life support, so an explorer with a cracked canopy at beagle point with 25mins life support could technically get back to the bubble, as long they keep stocking up.
 
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