Why are there 10 levels of maneuverability when the most maneuverable ship in the game is only an 8?

[DemiserofD]

In the shipyard, the most maneuverable ship in the game is the Imperial Eagle, with 8/10 maneuverability.

So...why is the maximum a 10? Especially since that leaves you with things like both the Type 9 and Cutter having the same maneuverability(0/10) despite actually being substantially different. Seems like it would make more sense to have the Imperial Eagle be a 10/10, the Type 9 be 0/10, and then everything else scaled between them, rather than squishing everything into 9/11 levels for some reason.

 

[Lightspeed]

Reserved for the Panther Clipper

 

[sabacthani]

Planet legs have 10

 

[Florenus]

In the shipyard, the most maneuverable ship in the game is the Imperial Eagle, with 8/10 maneuverability.

What about SLFs? I believe Gu-97 is more maouverable than Eagle.

 

[Elpapo]

What about SLFs? I believe Gu-97 is more maouverable than Eagle.

Gu-97 got that 10/10.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Ever collided with something in an SLF and started tumbling like crazy?

Yep, that's your "11 on a scale of 10" right there

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

Ever collided with something in an SLF and started tumbling like crazy?

Yep, that's your "11 on a scale of 10" right there

Not a pleasant experience in VR - even more when they first launched as they have been toned down quite a bit since then. If you crash in your fighter, don't look out the cockpit canopy as you try to right the ship, use the movement of objects in the scanner as your reference point.

 

[Frenotx]

Maneuverability is too vague, anyways. There really should be a value to show how quickly a ship can rotate (pitch and yaw), and a separate value to show how well a ship can change its velocity (acceleration, lateral thrusters). There are lots of ships extremely good at the former, but very few ships that aren't terrible at the latter.

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

Maneuverability is too vague, anyways. There really should be a value to show how quickly a ship can rotate (pitch and yaw), and a separate value to show how well a ship can change its velocity (acceleration, lateral thrusters). There are lots of ships extremely good at the former, but very few ships that aren't terrible at the latter.

The previous two games had much better ship rendering in that regard, the thrusters were rated in Earth G's - Main thrusters G & Retro thrusters G, Retro also covered lateral and vertical thrusters as I understand it. So the higher the G rating the quicker you could scrub off speed from a vector when you changed direction. The X out of 10 pips for agility is very acradey to me, like speed / handling / braking pips for a cars spec in some god awful game like rage racer.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Retro also covered lateral and vertical thrusters as I understand it.

FE2/FFE didn't have lat/vert thrusters - if you wanted to go sideways, you turned the ship and then used the main thrusters.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

FE2/FFE didn't have lat/vert thrusters - if you wanted to go sideways, you turned the ship and then used the main thrusters.

Panther Clipper could vector thrust down for landing and liftoff.

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

AFIK in FFE You did have lateral, well certainly vertical, thrusters, I seem to remember being amazed when a friend at school told me how to set them up in controls. Besides, without laterals / verticals, how would you pitch roll or yaw? Anyways, that was about a quarter of a century ago, does it matter?

 

[Florenus]

FE2/FFE didn't have lat/vert thrusters - if you wanted to go sideways, you turned the ship and then used the main thrusters.

AFIK in FFE You did have lateral, well certainly vertical, thrusters, I seem to remember being amazed when a friend at school told me how to set them up in controls. Besides, without laterals / verticals, how would you pitch roll or yaw? Anyways, that was about a quarter of a century ago, does it matter?

I believe it did have them. I think you had to use numeric keyboard to control them.

 

[Bob McBobblehead]

Level 10 is moving at the speed of thought. You need to be a space angel for that.

 

[Tharrn]

 

[Maggie_Oz]

No one ever gets 10/10

 

[bluecrash]

Boarding a Thargoid Fleet carrier, and stealing a ship?

Enjoy the maneuverability of ten - before the ammonia cockpit starts dissolving your Remlok flight suit.

"It's a ten," you'll scream, noticing your gloved fingers bending wrong, on the ship controls.

In your helmet, your left ear liquefies, sliding warmly under your chin. Things couldn't get worse.

An anti-xeno ship appears on your radar. The thargoid ship warns you that cmdr spike.k just synthesized premium ammo for his shard cannons.

It's a ten.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

AFIK in FFE You did have lateral, well certainly vertical, thrusters, I seem to remember being amazed when a friend at school told me how to set them up in controls. Besides, without laterals / verticals, how would you pitch roll or yaw? Anyways, that was about a quarter of a century ago, does it matter?

Interesting - I managed to play FFE for years without noticing that it did...

... and most of the big fansites (Jades, FFEAstro) don't mention it either ...

... and it's not in the original FFE manual [1] ...

Was this a JJFFE / FFED3D addition? Or was it just completely undocumented?


[1] That says you've only got one off-centre lat/vert thruster on each side of the Saker III, which would be fine for turning the ship but no good for moving sideways.