Nav Beacon mass? Nnngh.... Comprehension is inverting...

[Windscreen Smudge]

I don't care how long I play this game, ramming things will never get old, and one of my favorite bullseyes is the Nav Beacon.

But I noticed something odd today. I've rammed it in a sidey, an eagle, a Viper, and I always boost into it headlong. In those three ships I've smacked dead on into it and haven't even had my shields drop. I just tried it in a Cobra today with D class shields and pancaked.

I'm not sure what... I don't... Ffffblblbl...

If the Nav Beacon has a high mass the smaller ships should pancake first right? If it's the mass of my ship the Nav Beacon should absorb more of the impact shouldn't it? Something seems backwards here, and I'm pretty sure I used to ram the beacon in a Cobra in Beta without dying. Anyone else notice something funny about it?

 

[ElleShaped]

Think about it this way, the ship's mass increases as a square function of size, but its structural integrity is most likely linear; the higher you go on the ship tiers, the more mass you have in ratio to your defenses.

This makes sense to me - the sidewinder is light but tough, the Cobra is tougher but way, way, way ,way heavier.

Also, consider that the nav beacon doesn't move. So that means that it's essentially a fixed point - you ca'n't bounce it away, so it might as well be a planet.

 

[Megameatloaf]

I don't care how long I play this game, ramming things will never get old, and one of my favorite bullseyes is the Nav Beacon.

Just out of curiosity... what other things do you ram on a regular basis?

 

[Windscreen Smudge]

Think about it this way, the ship's mass increases as a square function of size, but its structural integrity is most likely linear; the higher you go on the ship tiers, the more mass you have in ratio to your defenses.

This makes sense to me - the sidewinder is light but tough, the Cobra is tougher but way, way, way ,way heavier.

Also, consider that the nav beacon doesn't move. So that means that it's essentially a fixed point - you ca'n't bounce it away, so it might as well be a planet.

The nav beacons do move if I'm not mistaken, or else my ships have been bouncing backwards off of them, which would be rather silly.

Just out of curiosity... what other things do you ram on a regular basis?

Players, stations, cargo, dying targets, and anything else that I think I can mash against without sploding. I especially like hitting the boost and slapping things down with the belly of my ship like a giant flyswatter.

 

[Tarman]

If a baby falls down it doesn't seem to hurt itself, because it barely picks up enough inertia to bruise.

If an adult falls, things get bruised, there's more mass per unit area hitting the floor.

If a giraffe falls over sideways and can't break its fall, the injury can be far worse. More mass and more inertia concentrating into a single impact.

I was thinking about how that could have happened to all of them...

I especially like hitting the boost and slapping things down with the belly of my ship like a giant flyswatter.

...and then read this. I can't not picture it now.

 

[Midnight_Sun323]

I used to make a habit of ramming the crap out of the nav beacon. I think they changed so it would stay near the nav point that shows up on the HUD. I remember in beta the beacon would sometimes be 20km from where it should have been.