Read by Council Suggestion: Accelerator Rails

[scream323]

I thought of a new type of rail base on sci-fi media I've seen in the past. They would be a new type of rail use for both player controlled shuttles, ships, fighters, ect. The idea is that they could be used for almost anything. They could be used in a very long carriers. The idea is that you could use them in a long shaft where ever you want it facing upwards, along the side, underneath, or on top of the carrier. You could have a rail system load a small fighter onto a rail next to the accelerator rail the rail would charge up(or not depends on balancing), then the length of the rail would decide how much it sped up the craft. Now imagine a logic system that gets 40 of these fighters read and sped up straight into battle. Now the point of this is that the vehicle would already be at the speed the person wants the fighter to be at once they leave so the fighter is less vulnerable. Also they can be used to accelerate a craft towards a destination. I can see these being used in ways I can't even think of.

So what does everyone else think they could do with this, and maybe some iterations on it.

EDIT: Sorry hadn't kept up with the game lately I just saw that this already exist maybe not the exact same way, but still I think that this would still work. It's seems that rails don't work exactly like I stated above, so I'll leave this thread here all the same.

 

[Zekester81]

I like the idea of being able to accelerate rails further than what we currently can, even with the new ones.

In the mean time, if you're looking for speed boost on launch, I can offer you a semi-solution. Semi-solution, because it doesn't accelerate on the rail any more than what it can already do, and it takes more room on the ship being launched.

On your rail docker to your fighter(or whatever), attach an activator(touching the docker), link to a NOT, link NOT to a push effect array. Gives a boost to speed upon undocking. If you set up a delay (NOT to button, button to delay, delay back to button and button to array), it will loop giving you constant acceleration at regular intervals. If looping, I recommend linking the NOT to an AND, with a second activator somewhere else also linked to the AND, then the AND to the array. This gives you a cut out so you can interrupt the loop. You can also achieve this with a rotator. The button on the rotator activates every time the facings meet, also triggering the rotator again if the timing is right, and triggering a push effect array. You can use the AND lockout setup described to stop it as well, or prevent it from activating when you don't want it too.

If you want to see this in action, I have a rotator style one on a torpedo(450 m/s) launcher in the community content section. Every time it cycles, it adds another boost of speed to the torp. Mass and thrust limit the top speed, but you can achieve very high speeds if you balance things right. I have a torp that tops at 1000 m/s, and have gotten one up to @3k m/s (neither uploaded), and they do so in a very short space.

Not an ideal solution, but it may get you what you want until they consider more speed/acceleration in the rails.

 

[scream323]

I like the idea of being able to accelerate rails further than what we currently can, even with the new ones.

In the mean time, if you're looking for speed boost on launch, I can offer you a semi-solution. Semi-solution, because it doesn't accelerate on the rail any more than what it can already do, and it takes more room on the ship being launched.

On your rail docker to your fighter(or whatever), attach an activator(touching the docker), link to a NOT, link NOT to a push effect array. Gives a boost to speed upon undocking. If you set up a delay (NOT to button, button to delay, delay back to button and button to array), it will loop giving you constant acceleration at regular intervals. If looping, I recommend linking the NOT to an AND, with a second activator somewhere else also linked to the AND, then the AND to the array. This gives you a cut out so you can interrupt the loop. You can also achieve this with a rotator. The button on the rotator activates every time the facings meet, also triggering the rotator again if the timing is right, and triggering a push effect array. You can use the AND lockout setup described to stop it as well, or prevent it from activating when you don't want it too.

If you want to see this in action, I have a rotator style one on a torpedo(450 m/s) launcher in the community content section. Every time it cycles, it adds another boost of speed to the torp. Mass and thrust limit the top speed, but you can achieve very high speeds if you balance things right. I have a torp that tops at 1000 m/s, and have gotten one up to @3k m/s (neither uploaded), and they do so in a very short space.

Not an ideal solution, but it may get you what you want until they consider more speed/acceleration in the rails.

Thanks for the temp/permanent fix. The guys at Schine either already have something like this in development cause it's in almost every form interstellar space sci-fi media, even books. They might not always be rails, but the concept of a encircling, or rail like accelerator for everything from fighters to cruisers has been a thing. One thing I can't wait for is capital ships, and the hyper drives that ensue.

 

[Lukwan]

A spin on this idea is to have booster blocks that accelerate entities passing through them. This would be great for race-gates and drone launchers alike. Nothing says Science like accelerated fighter launcher. WaaaaaaHoooooooooooooooo