Big ship supremacy... Can little ships keep up?

Wenin · #1 March 25th, 2006, 07:01 PM

I'm currently playing the Imperium Verus Mod, and it made Solar sails only work for 600Kt (Frigates in the mod) sized ships. You also can't have a Solar Sail with any other engine. The top of the line Solar Sail gives movement of 8, using only 1 supply unit per movement. The other ships use QNP engine system, though their speeds can get up and past 10 per turn they won't have the range.

So in this system the FGs are still nice ships late in the game.

StarShadow · #2 March 25th, 2006, 07:24 PM

Well...it would be nice if the AI could use the advanced small hulls, but even if it doesn't, the idea (of advanced small hulls) is still good. After all, the point is to make the small hulls competitive against larger hulls, not to make them better than large hulls.

Dizzy · #3 March 26th, 2006, 03:37 AM

I had another idea, Starshadow. Advanced hulls could essentially be worked to where ship contruction tech can go higher and higher. Advanced hulls could sport advanced mounts. Kinda like going from Star Trek's The Motion Picture era to The Next Generation if you get my meaning.

Like narf poit chez BOOM said, I'd make an excellent MP mod, since SJ says i'd be hard to get the AI to do it. I think pretty soon I'm gonna start looking at the AI files. I've figured out all the components and mounts and am working on the techareas. Easily moddable game so for. I like it! Love it!

JonMacLeod · #4 August 10th, 2006, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Wenin said:
I'm currently playing the Imperium Verus Mod, and it made Solar sails only work for 600Kt (Frigates in the mod) sized ships. You also can't have a Solar Sail with any other engine. The top of the line Solar Sail gives movement of 8, using only 1 supply unit per movement. The other ships use QNP engine system, though their speeds can get up and past 10 per turn they won't have the range.

So in this system the FGs are still nice ships late in the game.

The movement on the ships isn't quite Quasi-Newtonian. I call it Improved Quasi-Newtonian. Quasi-Newtonian propulsion is based on the idea that it takes a proportional increase in thrust to move a proportionally larger vessel (a little artistic license must be allowed as thrust would actually affect acceleration rather than speed directly, impossible given the hard-coding of the game). This premise with the stated license is correct. However, the thrust of proportional rockets only squares as mass cubes, (thrust is largely a function of the cross-sectional area of the rocket nozzle). Thus: proportional, but larger, ships would accelerate slower. I have simulated this by having larger ships require more movement points even relative to their size. The end result is that smaller ships are generally faster, but weaker pound for pound.

I hope that's helpful

Suicide Junkie · #5 August 10th, 2006, 08:38 PM

The "Quasi" part of QNP is the fact that it works as
F = MV
rather than
F = MA

It should also be noted that engine sizes are measured the same way that other components are.

In QNP the sizes are presumed to be masses, rather than volumes or some other unit of measure. Doubling the mass of your engine room means doubling the number of engines, and thusly producing twice the thrust. Twice the thrust means being able to move twice the amount of ship at the same rate.

Newton says: Twice the engines + twice the ship = same speed

Your system as described would indicate that component sizes are linear dimensions, and that would disconnect a ship's "size" from its mass.

As far as gameplay, your system does sound like a quite nifty (and creative) way to diversify the hulls used in a game.
Some people tend to think that everything good has been done already after 6 years. Congratulations for proving them wrong!

narf poit chez BOOM · #6 August 10th, 2006, 08:49 PM

...And someday, sometime in the future, there will be only one member of the forum who *hasn't* worked on a mod at some point...

...Said condition will last for a whole five seconds past their forum registration date.

scJazz · #7 August 11th, 2006, 03:45 PM

Quote:

narf poit chez BOOM said:
...And someday, sometime in the future, there will be only one member of the forum who *hasn't* worked on a mod at some point...

...Said condition will last for a whole five seconds past their forum registration date.

[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/PointUp.gif[/img]

OK I have not worked on a Mod yet. I've thought about it. Taken some rough notes on paper. However, I have not yet actually made a Mod or editted files. I've played for years and years and years... actually I don't think my 13 year old daughter was in school when I started playing.

narf poit chez BOOM · #8 August 11th, 2006, 04:42 PM

Hey, I didn't say the that point is now.

Hunpecked · #9 August 11th, 2006, 05:41 PM

The fact that Space Empires models speed, not acceleration, suggests that the method of propulsion is entirely non-Newtonian, e.g. a slower-than-light version of the "stutterwarp":

http://www.freelancetraveller.com/fe...utterwarp.html

scJazz · #10 August 12th, 2006, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Hunpecked said:
The fact that Space Empires models speed, not acceleration, suggests that the method of propulsion is entirely non-Newtonian, e.g. a slower-than-light version of the "stutterwarp":

http://www.freelancetraveller.com/fe...utterwarp.html

The thing that always struck me as odd is that there is no penalty to hit for speed of target and shooter. Only range is considered. Why?