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So, everyone is probably familiar with the dampening (space friction) that exists in the starmade universe. It serves a couple of different purposes, such as ensuring that ships will eventually stop if a player jumps out, making it easier to control ships and avoiding lag issues from a couple of ships freely floating around. However, there are also some issues with the dampening that can compound into pretty annoying problems.
Facts
First of all, dampening is keeping ships with low thrust/mass ratios from attaining max server speeds (which is ridiculous, this is space). Secondly, having low fps lowers acceleration, which compounds with the first problem; a ship will have lower top speed depending on how good your computer is.
For example, I was flying in to dock a rather big ship (which had a 1:1 thrust/weight ratio). Now for whatever reason I started getting massive collision lag, even though my ship wasn't colliding with the station, and the imput lag problem kicked in. That's right, my ship actually started DECELERATING because my thrust could no longer overcome the dampening at that speed. I've noticed situations like this also occuring in combat; getting bad top speed due to a low FPS count.
So, an opponent with a better computer will not only have better fps; He will also have better acceleration and a higher top speed (and better aim due to less imput lag).
Note: This might not be as noticeable at the default top speed value as it isn't high enough to notice the problems. However it certainly is on servers with higher speed values (most good servers) and modified single player configs.
Solution:
First of all, I strongly suggest that imput detection gets a look at. Being penalized with lower thrust for having an average computer isn't cool.
Now with the actual suggestion; Have the dampening value get set to 0 when directional imput is detected (a player is actively moving the ship). I know that the dampening value can be changed through ingame actions, since that's how the stop effect works. It shouldn't be that hard to implement what I said above.
Why do this?
What this would do is eliminate all problems with dampening and ensure that a player has the same acceleration, no matter the speed he's going at. For those out there thinking that capital ships would be greatly buffed by this, they would not. It'd still take an eternity to reach the maximum speed compared to smaller, lighter crafts (with better thrust). It'd also level out the playing field speed wise between different computers. Having atmospheric-like drag in space also breaks the immersion quite a bit.
TL;DR Reduce dampening to 0 when a player is actively moving, removing the unrealistic drag issues that occur at higher speeds and/or low fps.
Facts
- Dampening increases with ship speed
- Dampening is always present
- Fps lag also causes imput lag, meaning that you'll actually get lower acceleration with lower fps (frames per second). So if you have a thrust/mass ratio of 2, at 20 fps you'll probably have a 1:1 thrust/mass ratio (not that actual numbers but I can confirm that acceleration is lower).
First of all, dampening is keeping ships with low thrust/mass ratios from attaining max server speeds (which is ridiculous, this is space). Secondly, having low fps lowers acceleration, which compounds with the first problem; a ship will have lower top speed depending on how good your computer is.
For example, I was flying in to dock a rather big ship (which had a 1:1 thrust/weight ratio). Now for whatever reason I started getting massive collision lag, even though my ship wasn't colliding with the station, and the imput lag problem kicked in. That's right, my ship actually started DECELERATING because my thrust could no longer overcome the dampening at that speed. I've noticed situations like this also occuring in combat; getting bad top speed due to a low FPS count.
So, an opponent with a better computer will not only have better fps; He will also have better acceleration and a higher top speed (and better aim due to less imput lag).
Note: This might not be as noticeable at the default top speed value as it isn't high enough to notice the problems. However it certainly is on servers with higher speed values (most good servers) and modified single player configs.
Solution:
First of all, I strongly suggest that imput detection gets a look at. Being penalized with lower thrust for having an average computer isn't cool.
Now with the actual suggestion; Have the dampening value get set to 0 when directional imput is detected (a player is actively moving the ship). I know that the dampening value can be changed through ingame actions, since that's how the stop effect works. It shouldn't be that hard to implement what I said above.
Why do this?
What this would do is eliminate all problems with dampening and ensure that a player has the same acceleration, no matter the speed he's going at. For those out there thinking that capital ships would be greatly buffed by this, they would not. It'd still take an eternity to reach the maximum speed compared to smaller, lighter crafts (with better thrust). It'd also level out the playing field speed wise between different computers. Having atmospheric-like drag in space also breaks the immersion quite a bit.
TL;DR Reduce dampening to 0 when a player is actively moving, removing the unrealistic drag issues that occur at higher speeds and/or low fps.
