Luccul
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Posted - 2008.07.29 04:00:00 -
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I have been thinking along similar lines. But since in space there is no drag (except in Eve's odd world), so when you fire (sublight) engines you accelerate - MWD and AB increase that acceleration rate. When you stop firing the engines, you continue at your current speed. If you go in a straight line, you can go faster and faster, but: - you can't manoeuver easily; at higher speeds it takes longer to do anything, - you can exceed the pilot's ability to react and respond things not in a straight line in front or behind him - orbiting another ship becomes impossible; ships don't exert enough gravity on another ship for gravity orbit, so you'd have to do it with engine power, which would force you slow down, or take hull damage trying keep speed up in an arc path.
The bigger the ship: - the longer it takes to get to speed, - the long it takes to slow down, - the bigger the safe orbit radius is at any given speed.
Etc, etc.
The above is all really a mental exercise because it would take such a change in the whole game engine and user interface, you might as well start a new game.
But the VNE idea can fit in here. Let the VNE be a the max safe speed that allows the pilot to follow an arc path (orbit, collision avoidance, keep distance from, etc.) You can set that speed as you do now in the UI as max speed. AB and MWD help you get there faster, but don't exceed that max speed. You can go faster by deliberately setting a higher speed (UI change?), but in a straight line only. You will risk hull damage if you try to change direction while above VNE speed. The risk goes up according the extent of course change and speed above VNE. Your ship has auto collision avoidance which will force a course change at the last moment in if you are on a collision course, but you can sustain hull damage if you are going above VNE when that happens.
It would be possible to push the VNE envelop in orbit/combat but system and/or hull damage could occur much like it does in an overheated module now.
You can slow down in a straight line without risks, but in ratio to your ship's mass (so going too fast means you may not be able to stop in time which could cause damage if you get into an collision avoidance issue.
The VNE idea is a good one, but if you allow it to be exceeded in straight line flight, you can account for some of the objections expressed so far.
Food for thought: Ship A chases ship B, both above their VNE. B is overtaking A (lighter ship). They can fire on each other - missiles can still accelerate from B to catch A. Projectiles from B can still be fired at a higher velocity to hit A.
Hmm. Actually that might get kinda hard on the Eve physics engine.
There are some hurdles to overcome, but I like the VNE concept.
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