jjabrams55
Science fiction fantasy
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2014
- Messages
- 93
Newtonian maneuvering in a space sim might as well be called linear maneuvering, because that is a more precise way of putting what you are doing. Moving along a line and pivoting any direction you want while drifting. Of course to make it fun, you cannot be allowed to accelerate in ANY direction. Combat would then be very much like Galaga, since the target could face you and side-thrust accelerate any time it wanted to evade getting shot.
Linear maneuvering would allow acceleration forward or backward ONLY, while pivoting in any direction. Speed caps are a must, because without speed caps, players can't see the ship they blew up. They will be too far away. For the same reason, weapons would have closer ranges (12k is not bad). All ships would have the same top speed. But more massive ones will have slower accelerations getting to top speed. Missiles would reach top speed REALLY fast obviously. I also discovered that with linear maneuvering, airplane maneuvering adds no advantage EXCEPT against missiles. It would be easier to dodge linear moving missiles by curving than pivoting and accelerating away. But other than that, they wouldn't offer any advantage.
Also bullets. If they were incorporated how they work in IRL, they would be very useful. Bullets would not have a max range. So a fleet of ships firing flak and you flying right into it... would not be pretty. It gets worse if they fire shotgun cannon... but only at close range. I imagine cannon shells would also do plenty of damage, shields or no shields.
So for a long time I had a headache seeing how newtonian (linear) maneuvering only could be fun in a space sim. And I found how it could be. In this way it is superior to airplane maneuvering anyway, except against missiles. Assuming ships have turrets, airplane manevering gets ships shot up even worse. So a space sim could get away with only newtonian maneuvering, so long they speed cap everything, and ONLY allow forward and backward acceleration with pivoting while drifting.
Linear maneuvering would allow acceleration forward or backward ONLY, while pivoting in any direction. Speed caps are a must, because without speed caps, players can't see the ship they blew up. They will be too far away. For the same reason, weapons would have closer ranges (12k is not bad). All ships would have the same top speed. But more massive ones will have slower accelerations getting to top speed. Missiles would reach top speed REALLY fast obviously. I also discovered that with linear maneuvering, airplane maneuvering adds no advantage EXCEPT against missiles. It would be easier to dodge linear moving missiles by curving than pivoting and accelerating away. But other than that, they wouldn't offer any advantage.
Also bullets. If they were incorporated how they work in IRL, they would be very useful. Bullets would not have a max range. So a fleet of ships firing flak and you flying right into it... would not be pretty. It gets worse if they fire shotgun cannon... but only at close range. I imagine cannon shells would also do plenty of damage, shields or no shields.
So for a long time I had a headache seeing how newtonian (linear) maneuvering only could be fun in a space sim. And I found how it could be. In this way it is superior to airplane maneuvering anyway, except against missiles. Assuming ships have turrets, airplane manevering gets ships shot up even worse. So a space sim could get away with only newtonian maneuvering, so long they speed cap everything, and ONLY allow forward and backward acceleration with pivoting while drifting.
