Space ships: movement, turn, strafe and roll

[Krougal]

Well, the trick is, the Lunar Module (And our orbiters, and pretty much everything we've sent into space with the intention of being able to go anywhere with precision) have RCS thrusters, but they aren't very powerful and are basically just for minor adjustments to your course. If you really wanted to go somewhere fast, you'd turn the ship, fire the main thrusters in the back, and hang on for dear life.

Right. There's that. The other option would be large thrusters mounted on the sides, which would allow strafing. Which the hull would have to be designed for, which since we aren't at the point of having space-combat there isn't much need for strafing.

Enough realism though. I like to stick with "reactionless thrusters" or other SCI-FI tropes. I really hope they never do implement having to place thrusters facing all 6 sides of a ship to have full range of movement. Realistic spaceflight is boring.

 

[Ithirahad]

Right. There's that. The other option would be large thrusters mounted on the sides, which would allow strafing. Which the hull would have to be designed for, which since we aren't at the point of having space-combat there isn't much need for strafing.

Enough realism though. I like to stick with "reactionless thrusters" or other SCI-FI tropes. I really hope they never do implement having to place thrusters facing all 6 sides of a ship to have full range of movement. Realistic spaceflight is boring.

"Realistic spaceflight" isn't the issue here, it's just that ships should probably not be able to fly backwards or strafe to the sides, up (outside of gravity), or down as fast as they fly forward as it makes combat kinda shitty. There's a planned thrust revamp that will fix these issues already, though. We just have to (ugh) wait for it.

 

[Krougal]

"Realistic spaceflight" isn't the issue here, it's just that ships should probably not be able to fly backwards or strafe to the sides, up (outside of gravity), or down as fast as they fly forward as it makes combat kinda shitty. There's a planned thrust revamp that will fix these issues already, though. We just have to (ugh) wait for it.

Why not? How does it make combat shitty?

 

[Ithirahad]

Why not? How does it make combat shitty?

Flight tactics aren't really a thing. If you've watched any StarMade battles with ships larger than fighters, they usually consist of one ship flying forwards (Or diagonally up and forwards, or something similar) and the other one flying backwards and both just shooting at each other and strafing around a bit trying to avoid the other ship's shots. This leaves no room or incentive for actual flight tactics, because the best way to avoid getting hit is currently just flying backwards at max speed and strafing from side to side a bit while the other ship chases you.

 

[Krougal]

Flight tactics aren't really a thing. If you've watched any StarMade battles with ships larger than fighters, they usually consist of one ship flying forwards (Or diagonally up and forwards, or something similar) and the other one flying backwards and both just shooting at each other and strafing around a bit trying to avoid the other ship's shots. This leaves no room or incentive for actual flight tactics, because the best way to avoid getting hit is currently just flying backwards at max speed and strafing from side to side a bit while the other ship chases you.

Yeah, I guess that is a bit ridiculous.