Variable Thruster acceleration and max speed Based on Grid

Giannis Raikos shared this feedback 3 years ago
Submitted

I love the game, but the one thing i dont like and i find quite boring is the fact that all ships have the same max speed, and acceleration is only based on number and weight of each grid. How come a drone with 1 small grid Ion engine, can keep up with a mother ship with 30 Large grid Hydrogen Engines? Its not "realistic".


What i suggest that you consider is the following:

Have Small grid thrusters Have a faster acceleration but a lower max speed for example 75m/s and have Large grid Thrusters have a slower acceleration but higher max speed for example 120/ms or you can make this dynamic depending on the number of small and large grid thrusters on a grid.


The reason i suggest this is because it would make the game much more exciting. for example, I am mining an Asteroid with my small mining ship and a large grid pirate ship attacks me or is heading towards me, i can try to get away but eventually the large grid with its Large thrusters, will catch up to me! Like it should. On the other hand, if I am crusing on my Mothership and a bunch of small grid pirates attack me, i will eventually get away, but not without fighting against them untill i get out of range of their weapons. that would be exciting and would add depth and strategy in MP.


Thank you.

Replies (3)

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1

From the general physics point of view this does not make sense, speed (velocity) just describes how fast position of object changes in time, independently on any forces that brought that object into movement. Acceleration is just defined by the mass of an object and the force acting on that object (defined by very well known Newtonian formula F=m·a). The lighter the object is and the larger force acting on that object is, the bigger the acceleration. No matter on the size of individual force generators. So as it is now it makes completely sense and is consistent.

On the other hand, SE is just a game and from the game-play point of view your proposal of max speed of 75m/s for small grids and 120 m/s for large grids would be interesting and thrill-adding element. It could influence the creativity and motivation to use either small or large grid.

After deeper analysis of your proposal I can see at the very least potential problems in situations when you have large grid rotor with small rotor head and you fly 120m/s. What happens when you detach the small rotor head? Based on what you proposed it should fly max. 75m/s, but it has current velocity of 120m/s. Should it slow down to 75m/s instantaneously? Should it fly 120m/s if max. speed for small grid is 75m/s? Or other scenario, how should be solved situation when you start to push small grid by large grid? What happens when hitting the velocity of 75m/s?

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2

It makes perfect sense the way the game is made. If you want what you describe, simply we need to disable the speed limit. A small ship and a large ship will have the same characteristics if their relative engine power is the same, but realistically a small ship won't be able to go on as long because its life support to engine power ratio won't be enough to sustain long voyages. So having a normal standard and cheap engine, if you put in on a small ship it will go fast, but if you put it on a big ship it will take some time to attain the speed. Very small engines on small ship are useless, because it will move like a boat, and large engines on a large ship are damn expensive when you don't need that much acceleration. Everything balances itself.

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2

The true max speed of a ship is balanced by its autonomy.

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