General / Off-Topic the physics of space battles - it's okay to be smart

[Everett Mcgill]

I just watched a fun video from It's Okay to be Smart on how science fiction has the physics of space battles all wrong.

http://youtu.be/ZFOuxAx-dkc

There are also lots of links to some interesting articles on this topic below the video.

I am not concerned about this for Elite, I just figure there are technologies invented in the future that we can not currently imagine. Also, when ever I try to imagine a fully Newtonian space battle it does not seem like it would make a fun game.

 

[Jason S]

If you read Peter F. Hamilton's The Night's Dawn Trilogy you are given a feel for what future space battles could be and basically it does not make for a good game.

And if future tech can warp time and space they would weaponise it and imagine what that would do.

 

[Slythe]

I'm sure you could make a decent strategic game out of it, but it would be difficult to make an appealing tactical game IMO.*

However I think that the video is wrong to assume that we are unlikely to see space combat. I agree that inter-planetary space combat is unlikely, but it seems to me to be very likely that we will see wars spilling over into Earth orbit one day. There is just too much military sense in shooting down the enemies' navigation and reconnaissance satellites (while protecting your own) and more and more nations are putting military satellites up.


*Of course you could always make a game that appealed to a small number of physics geeks who like some realistic orbital dynamics to go with their pew-pew and don't mind shooting at icons on a sensor scope.

 

[Yaffle]

Moved to off topic on account of being off topic.

Nice vid though.

 

[Zvanya]

I just watched a fun video from It's Okay to be Smart on how science fiction has the physics of space battles all wrong.

http://youtu.be/ZFOuxAx-dkc

There are also lots of links to some interesting articles on this topic below the video.

It depends on the science fiction. A nice example is the novel The Gripping Hand by Niven and Pournelle. A large part of the novel is about a battle that takes place in 3 different systems over several weeks involving hundreds of ships.

I am not concerned about this for Elite, I just figure there are technologies invented in the future that we can not currently imagine. Also, when ever I try to imagine a fully Newtonian space battle it does not seem like it would make a fun game.

I think it would make a fascinating game but it would definitely need time compression. Battles could take days or weeks, even months. Don't see how you could make it work for a multiplayer game.