For the same reason that pawns attack diagonally and not forward, and knights can move across occupied squares. It's a game, not a simulation.

*snip* ...ultimately its to keep combat to visual range and not beyond visual range which would be boring as hell.

Can I ask why we have falloff I do not understand how in space you get falloff. You would either hit, or if you tracking was bad , miss. The projectiles or laser beams would keep on going until they hit something. Especially light, it does not bend except under extreme gravity like a black hole or is reflected.
So why have CCP put it in the game. What am I missing, because based on the laws as we know them space combat would not work as it does in this game so there must be some game play reason they have done it.

I understand this. however Eve markets itself on its complex systems based on science, but in this regard, "falloff", they suspend reality. I do not understand why they should. Far better to have the ordinance simply disappear when it has gone off the grid then let it fall?

I understand this. however Eve markets itself on its complex systems based on science, but in this regard, "falloff", they suspend reality. I do not understand why they should. Far better to have the ordinance simply disappear when it has gone off the grid then let it fall?

But nine time out of ten you are not even looking at what is actually visible in space. The combat "visual" part take place using the overview only. I tried this last night. I stayed on map view (solar system map) and did a mission. I never once had to close the map. Click,orbit, click, orbit ad nauseum.

Light loses energy as it travels...

Ummmm... no. A beam of light is not a single thing, but rather a collection of a huge number of photons.

The further you are, the fainter the light has has to do with the scatter of the photons because they are not traveling in perfectly parallel directions. Close up, pretty close to parallel photons will both hit you. Further away, the result of small differences in direction of travel magnify to the point that both photons will no longer hit you.

No matter how well you attempt to focus your laser to an infinite point (perfectly parallel photons of light), there will always be some variance in the direction of travel of individual photons. The further away, the more the photons scatter.


Think of it like shot fired out of a shot gun. With an open choke, at 0 meters, the scatter is the diameter of the muzzle. 1 meter, the pattern of shot is like the size of your hand. At 10 meters, the pattern may be a meter across. Replace the open choke with a full choke to try to get the shot packed more tightly and traveling in a more parallel direction. Well, at 0 meters, it is still the size of the muzzle. At 1 meter, it is now half the size of your hand, and at 10 meters, it is half a meter.

No matter how much you choke down the end of the barrrel, you can never get the pieces of shot to travel in perfectly parallel directions, so it will never stay the size of the end of the muzzle.

Can I ask why we have falloff I do not understand how in space you get falloff. You would either hit, or if you tracking was bad , miss. The projectiles or laser beams would keep on going until they hit something. Especially light, it does not bend except under extreme gravity like a black hole or is reflected.
So why have CCP put it in the game. What am I missing, because based on the laws as we know them space combat would not work as it does in this game so there must be some game play reason they have done it.

That's pretty much all I meant, I was sparing them from the mechanics of photons and saying it "loses energy".

But thanks for the explanation, it supports my claim in the way that "lasers have a tiny amount of spray like a machine gun does, on a molecular level..."

Can I ask why we have falloff I do not understand how in space you get falloff. You would either hit, or if you tracking was bad , miss. The projectiles or laser beams would keep on going until they hit something. Especially light, it does not bend except under extreme gravity like a black hole or is reflected.
So why have CCP put it in the game. What am I missing, because based on the laws as we know them space combat would not work as it does in this game so there must be some game play reason they have done it.

Spin stablised projectiles not having perfect rotational symmetry?

But in space there is no friction so why would a shot be inaccurate?

EVE is in space, how come we hear engine sounds from the outside of the ships. Space is a vacuum and in vacuum there is no sound (in before: EVE has sound?)

Can I ask why we have falloff I do not understand how in space you get falloff. You would either hit, or if you tracking was bad , miss. The projectiles or laser beams would keep on going until they hit something. Especially light, it does not bend except under extreme gravity like a black hole or is reflected.
So why have CCP put it in the game. What am I missing, because based on the laws as we know them space combat would not work as it does in this game so there must be some game play reason they have done it.

Can I ask why we have falloff I do not understand how in space you get falloff. You would either hit, or if you tracking was bad , miss. The projectiles or laser beams would keep on going until they hit something. Especially light, it does not bend except under extreme gravity like a black hole or is reflected.
So why have CCP put it in the game. What am I missing, because based on the laws as we know them space combat would not work as it does in this game so there must be some game play reason they have done it.

Explained as a translation of electromagnetic data as part of the pod interface. Which is also a good way to explain away why space is very colorful, and not to scale.

Why the planets don't move?

Why can we sit motionless above a planet and not be sucked in by gravity? Why can we bounce harmlessly off a moon/planet/sun...

Why can't I pull in an asteroid with a tractor beam?

Why is there a max speed? Why does our ship slow down when we turn off afterburner?

Why do we hear sounds of other ships?

Why are out "camera drones" not destroyed when our ship goes boom? How about we create the whole ship out of whatever that camera that is showing us the outside of our ship is made out of?

Why does autopilot warp to 5K off gate?

why, why, why....

Because it is a game!