Thruster positioning and maximum speed

[akimzav]

When I first played Starmade, one thing seemed exeptionally odd to me: no matter how hard you try, how many thrusters and in which shapes do you place, your ship's maximum speed will be the same. Now I'm suggesting to fix that. How do I see the solution:
Each parallelepiped of thrusters (completely filled, not hollow) will provide the ship with thrust, defined by the size of it's projection on the Y-Z plane, but only until maximum speed, defined, in it's turn, by the X-size of the parallelepiped, is reached.
So, basically, if the thrusters of your ship can be divided into three parallelepipeds like this:
{l1=5; w1=1; h1=1}, {l2=1; w2=5; h2=3}, {l3=3; w3=2; h3=2},
where l, w and h correspond to the sizes in X, Z, and Y axes respectively,
then each engine of the above will result in following thrust:
1:{f1=1*t; v1=5*a}, 2:{f2=5*3*t; v2=1*a}, 3:{f3=2*3*t; v3=3*a},
where 'f' is the thrust of each group, 'v' is max speed, beyond which the corresponding group will not add any acceleration at all, 't' and 'a' are base thrust and some speed value respectively.
With theese (above) thrusters, the ship will have:
1+2*3+5*3=22t of force while speed is less of equal 1a;
1+2*3=7t of force while speed is less or equal 3a;
1t of force while speed is less or equal 5a;
As a final word, the 'max speed' of the ship in this system can also be calculated not only lineraly, but, as an alternative, tangentially, or even exponentially.

 

[starhaiden]

small ships should have faster acceleration then large ships but larger ships should have more max speed so carriers will be used for carrying small ships that can't travel that fast

 

[akimzav]

small ships should have faster acceleration then large ships but larger ships should have more max speed so carriers will be used for carrying small ships that can't travel that fast

So... You approve don't you?

 

[FunnyBunny14]

No, there have been multiple suggestions to have s variable speed limit, and they mostly aren't really liked. This is what the server speed limit is for. I think you will be glad to hear that the mechanics thrusters will change. So most likely the x,y and z lengths will mean something, but for the rest not much more is known. This is a semi-realistic game, and I feel that having a speed limit depend on size is a bit stupid. And besides, you have already got a speed limit of sorts. The dampening causes your ship to have a lower top speed when you have too little thrust.

 

[akimzav]

That's why i said about exponential relations. What if the speed limit will still exist, but you'll not get it with just one engine? What if there will be a curve, like:
v=V^(1-(1/(n+1)))
(a^b is meant to be a in power of b)
where V is absolute maximum speed, v is 'local' maximum, for the current ship, n is number of thrusters by X axis, or even:
v=V*atan(n/10)

 

[akimzav]

No, there have been multiple suggestions to have s variable speed limit, and they mostly aren't really liked. This is what the server speed limit is for. I think you will be glad to hear that the mechanics thrusters will change. So most likely the x,y and z lengths will mean something, but for the rest not much more is known. This is a semi-realistic game, and I feel that having a speed limit depend on size is a bit stupid. And besides, you have already got a speed limit of sorts. The dampening causes your ship to have a lower top speed when you have too little thrust.

The damping seems to be too small, i didn't even notice it before your post :p
No, realy, it's good to have it, but now when i see it- that's not enough.

 

[Ixalite]

Friends, if you wish to make small ships fast and big ships slow, you can simply apply a diminishing returns curve to thrust per thruster block. My own server has such a curve, set at y=x^0.68 and I find that the smaller ship almost always has the initiative in deciding when to attack and when to retreat. This makes use of ships in the fighter-frigate range much more of a winning proposition.

There are, however, a lot of angry aspiring dreadnought captains, learning that their babies now top out at 10kps.

 

[FunnyBunny14]

I think you mean 10 m/s or 36 km/h

 

[Ixalite]

yea yea thanks.
10 km/h.
I'm too immersed in a sci-fi book that uses reasonable units.

 

[NeonSturm]

1.
This game needs a easier configuration ability

"(a mult b) pow c mult d" is nice to compute, but hard to understand for peoples.
Peoples want to enter xX in:

• aT mass * %thrusters == aE efficiency (for cores + a few blocks)
  
• bT mass * %thrusters == bE efficiency (for medium ships)
  
• cT mass * %thrusters == cE efficiency (for titans)

Then they want to see a graph showing them 2 lines for maybe 5% and 90% thrusters with x=mass, y=efficiency
If they are happy, they want it being translated into "(a mult b) pow c mult d" for them (and a wiki-entry).

You want to limit max ship speed (maybe as % of the server's max speed) and the time to reach this max ship speed separately? I really like that.

I just miss a drag big ships have on small ships, causing them to move in relation to big ships, making navigation in and around moving ships easier (defensive, own) as well as bombing them when they try to run away (offensive, enemy).