OK kids, new big patch may have done all kinds of wonky things so I'm flagging this as depreciated until I can dive in and redo the whole thing to make it current.
While we're complaining about physics and railgun bullet travel...
Does it bother anyone else that the ships all have a limited range related to their fuel? The implication here is that if you want to go to Neptune, you have to have a fuel-efficient ship or a LOT of fuel.
In truth (assuming we consider the vacuum to be frictionless, which I know it isn't quite), once your ship starts moving, you can shut off the thrust engines and stop using fuel and you'll eventually get where you're going (though it might take a LONG time).
I think a mechanic that lets you travel anywhere, regardless of DV, but at much longer transit times if you don't have a high DV.
*shrug* My pet peeve in innumerable movies, and now I have it in TI. Oh well, still a GREAT game.
I realise that it's intuitive to think that way, but this is actually completely, totally wrong.
Look up orbital mechanics. Or just play some Kerbal Space Program.
The short version: You are always in orbit around something, and orbits have associated energies, and you have to supply energy to change that orbit. Orbiting the Earth? Got to add energy to get to a higher orbit. Escaped the Earth? Now you're in orbit around the Sun, still got to add energy to move to a new orbit.
You do, in fact, need specific minimum amounts of delta V (change in velocity by applying thrust) to reach other planets. It's actually modelled very well in games like TI and KSP, a rare thing.
Unfortunately none of this changes the fact that railguns look and feel horribly lame in this game, which is why we're here looking at mods.
One thing though... I get your point, but it is kinda' wrong info; space is a vacuum environment and moving projectiles and objects case moving sooner or later... probably few billion years for a modern rifle bullet and I guess you can hear if you fart in space. :D
What do you mean? In a true vacuum environment a projectile will never "stop" or "slow down" (relative to what?) until it hits something, although it might change course by passing near a massive body. In practice space is not quite a true vacuum, with interstellar space containing something around the order of 1 hydrogen atom per cubic meter(?), and of course that number is higher inside a star system, and I assume this is what you are referring to. However, the rest frame of (the average motion of) the interstellar medium in any particular region is generally not the same as the rest frame of any nearby star or other body, and is not uniform through the galaxy, which leads back to the question of "cease moving relative to what?"
Of curse in a practical sense the effective maximum range of a solid projectile is the range at which even the slowest ion-drive ship will easily dodge every shot, which is already well beyond the range limits of the game's combat model, and the game is not set up to allow for lobbing missiles or kinetic slugs at non-evasive targets from the other side of the solar system.
Yes, you're right because even space isn't a "true" vacuum (thanks, quantum mechanics!). In a theoretical true vacuum then infinite travel would be possible but yeah, eventually you'll hit a nebula or a black hole's gravity well or pass through the gravity of another galaxy, etc, and get your projectile's course altered.
... or would it? We also know that space is expanding and, due to Special Relativity*, things might be moving away from you at a speed technically faster than light. This means that once your projectile leaves the Milky Way it's pretty much clear to travel forever without hitting anything, because everything else is moving away from it faster than it's own velocity. Which is kind of a bummer for our dreams of long range space travel.
* (if a red ball is heading west at 60% of C and yellow ball is heading east a 60% of C then they're moving apart at 120% of C, which would be impossible if it were not for the Special Relativity clause)
I don't understand Quantum mechanics, I only know physics; vacuum creates friction over all objects and that means objects slow down and stop without any thruster eventually. So, infinite movement without any counter force or thrusters or gravity well or whatever is not possible. I'm talking about tens of billion years, I assume it is closest thing to infinite though.
Yes you read it right, vacuum creates friction over AAAAALLLL objects; I'm not sure on Black Holes though. They are weird shaits of space, cheeky little buggers even suck the frickin godly light; yup, black holes are more powerful than our gods.
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Does it bother anyone else that the ships all have a limited range related to their fuel? The implication here is that if you want to go to Neptune, you have to have a fuel-efficient ship or a LOT of fuel.
In truth (assuming we consider the vacuum to be frictionless, which I know it isn't quite), once your ship starts moving, you can shut off the thrust engines and stop using fuel and you'll eventually get where you're going (though it might take a LONG time).
I think a mechanic that lets you travel anywhere, regardless of DV, but at much longer transit times if you don't have a high DV.
*shrug* My pet peeve in innumerable movies, and now I have it in TI. Oh well, still a GREAT game.
Look up orbital mechanics. Or just play some Kerbal Space Program.
The short version: You are always in orbit around something, and orbits have associated energies, and you have to supply energy to change that orbit. Orbiting the Earth? Got to add energy to get to a higher orbit. Escaped the Earth? Now you're in orbit around the Sun, still got to add energy to move to a new orbit.
You do, in fact, need specific minimum amounts of delta V (change in velocity by applying thrust) to reach other planets. It's actually modelled very well in games like TI and KSP, a rare thing.
Unfortunately none of this changes the fact that railguns look and feel horribly lame in this game, which is why we're here looking at mods.
One thing though... I get your point, but it is kinda' wrong info; space is a vacuum environment and moving projectiles and objects case moving sooner or later... probably few billion years for a modern rifle bullet and I guess you can hear if you fart in space. :D
Of curse in a practical sense the effective maximum range of a solid projectile is the range at which even the slowest ion-drive ship will easily dodge every shot, which is already well beyond the range limits of the game's combat model, and the game is not set up to allow for lobbing missiles or kinetic slugs at non-evasive targets from the other side of the solar system.
... or would it? We also know that space is expanding and, due to Special Relativity*, things might be moving away from you at a speed technically faster than light. This means that once your projectile leaves the Milky Way it's pretty much clear to travel forever without hitting anything, because everything else is moving away from it faster than it's own velocity. Which is kind of a bummer for our dreams of long range space travel.
* (if a red ball is heading west at 60% of C and yellow ball is heading east a 60% of C then they're moving apart at 120% of C, which would be impossible if it were not for the Special Relativity clause)
Yes you read it right, vacuum creates friction over AAAAALLLL objects; I'm not sure on Black Holes though. They are weird shaits of space, cheeky little buggers even suck the frickin godly light; yup, black holes are more powerful than our gods.
3.49 version works fine with game version 3.76, no need for an update yet. But the option is there if you want to my "improved" weapons.