I've been giving this a lot of thought of late, and finally decided i'd pop these ideas up here. Some of these ideas actually come straight out of my design document for my own game...but, i can share many of them come straight out of the books, and just....thoughts over how to make buying military craft logical, and or how to fly them more....logical too. anyway, here goes. Really these are the two biggest things that i could think of which would apply here. most of the other stuff for my game, i don't think would be well received. so, i'll just leave em out.
- Hydrogen Ramscoops
Basicly, these are what fuel your ship while in flight. The idea for these was ripped straight out of the books. When activated, all newtonian aspects of flight are pretty well null and void. The drag created by the hydrogen particles impacting against the magnetic fields make flying in space pretty well on par with flying in an atmosphere. Also, they are balanced with your engines, fuel consumption would be, say...50, fuel collection would be 60. Larger ships tend collect more fuel as they are slower and have larger feilds than figthers. Fighters would constantly run at a deficit, unless you run at a slower speed, where the consumption/collection rate would be more or less balanced. But, obviously this wouldn't be to good for combat situations. Now, here is where it gets a bit tricky. As you decrease the field power level, you begin to pick up speed...less drag to hold you back. You shut the field off, you're burning your ships stored fuel, and essentially become a missile heading in a straight line...sir Isaac Newton takes over control. You can manuver, but not very well. all direction changes would have to be done by the main engines after you've oriented yourself in your new direction. now, there are those who would argue 'that's not realistic...' well, oh well. It's a kick ass game element. OH! most important part of this deal. The power for the field is gradual, not just 'on' and 'off'. i just set it up in increments of 10, and it adjusts the ships speed, fuel collection rate, consumption rate. Table as follows:
Field Velocity Collection Consumption Manuvering
Modifier Modifier Modifier Modifier Modifier
100% (full on) -- -- -- --
90% +10% -5% +5% -3%
80% +20% -15% +10% -6%
70% +30% -25% +15% -9%
60% +40% -35% +20% -12%
50% +50% -45% +25% -15%
40% +60% -55% +30% -18%
30% +70% -65% +35% -21%
20% +80% -75% +40% -24%
10% +90% -85% +45% -27%
0% (full off) infinite -100% +50% -30%
Now, you're probably wondering 'well, what happens when you run out of gas??'. Simple. Your computer automatically powers up your ramscoops to a reasonable level, you'll loose some speed, but collect fuel. Once they have scooped enough fuel for 2 minutes of continuous firing, they'll pulse back up automatically, brining your scoops up to full strength, and brining your speed back down to a reasonable level.
further things can be applied here to, such as if you kick up to some insane speed, and then slam on your scoop field, it'll tear your ship apart and you'll die, or it will weaken your ships structural integrity...lots of things you can do.
- Another thing that would be neat, and solve some issues. If you want to fly a military fighter....you either a) buy one that is so rediculously priced on the black market as to make it almost impossible, or b) you join the navy, and serve...say, 2 years game time in the navy. that's your job, and you'd live on the carrier. you wouldn't be able to do anything to your fighter. Also, the military fighters you buy, you can't mod unless you're willing to give up an arm and a leg. the idea here being that military ships aren't built to be customized. The guns are hard mounted to the hull and stuff like that. You want to change them, well...guess what. Prepare to fork over a crap load of cash to do it. Also, Military fighters are short range, in reading the books, they wouldn't be able to go gallavanting indefinately. So, what would you have to do to balance out a fighters fuel consumption/collection? as discussed above a) run at a decreased level of engine output.....or.....fork over a crap load of cash and have your ship modded with a mod kit which will put bigger scoops on it. the downside, decreased top speed to your fighter. If you decide to go AWOL 1) you'll run out of gas unless you've made some kind of arrangement. This could be done if you're raiding a pirate base or something like that. b) if you're successful in this endevour, you'll be immediately posted as wanted and hunted by everyone under the sun, unless you pay another rediculous sum of money (nearly to rediculous to even make it feasible to do) to get your record cleared by data hackers or someone like that.
Anyway...enjoy.
Brad Mick
- Hydrogen Ramscoops
Basicly, these are what fuel your ship while in flight. The idea for these was ripped straight out of the books. When activated, all newtonian aspects of flight are pretty well null and void. The drag created by the hydrogen particles impacting against the magnetic fields make flying in space pretty well on par with flying in an atmosphere. Also, they are balanced with your engines, fuel consumption would be, say...50, fuel collection would be 60. Larger ships tend collect more fuel as they are slower and have larger feilds than figthers. Fighters would constantly run at a deficit, unless you run at a slower speed, where the consumption/collection rate would be more or less balanced. But, obviously this wouldn't be to good for combat situations. Now, here is where it gets a bit tricky. As you decrease the field power level, you begin to pick up speed...less drag to hold you back. You shut the field off, you're burning your ships stored fuel, and essentially become a missile heading in a straight line...sir Isaac Newton takes over control. You can manuver, but not very well. all direction changes would have to be done by the main engines after you've oriented yourself in your new direction. now, there are those who would argue 'that's not realistic...' well, oh well. It's a kick ass game element. OH! most important part of this deal. The power for the field is gradual, not just 'on' and 'off'. i just set it up in increments of 10, and it adjusts the ships speed, fuel collection rate, consumption rate. Table as follows:
Field Velocity Collection Consumption Manuvering
Modifier Modifier Modifier Modifier Modifier
100% (full on) -- -- -- --
90% +10% -5% +5% -3%
80% +20% -15% +10% -6%
70% +30% -25% +15% -9%
60% +40% -35% +20% -12%
50% +50% -45% +25% -15%
40% +60% -55% +30% -18%
30% +70% -65% +35% -21%
20% +80% -75% +40% -24%
10% +90% -85% +45% -27%
0% (full off) infinite -100% +50% -30%
Now, you're probably wondering 'well, what happens when you run out of gas??'. Simple. Your computer automatically powers up your ramscoops to a reasonable level, you'll loose some speed, but collect fuel. Once they have scooped enough fuel for 2 minutes of continuous firing, they'll pulse back up automatically, brining your scoops up to full strength, and brining your speed back down to a reasonable level.
further things can be applied here to, such as if you kick up to some insane speed, and then slam on your scoop field, it'll tear your ship apart and you'll die, or it will weaken your ships structural integrity...lots of things you can do.
- Another thing that would be neat, and solve some issues. If you want to fly a military fighter....you either a) buy one that is so rediculously priced on the black market as to make it almost impossible, or b) you join the navy, and serve...say, 2 years game time in the navy. that's your job, and you'd live on the carrier. you wouldn't be able to do anything to your fighter. Also, the military fighters you buy, you can't mod unless you're willing to give up an arm and a leg. the idea here being that military ships aren't built to be customized. The guns are hard mounted to the hull and stuff like that. You want to change them, well...guess what. Prepare to fork over a crap load of cash to do it. Also, Military fighters are short range, in reading the books, they wouldn't be able to go gallavanting indefinately. So, what would you have to do to balance out a fighters fuel consumption/collection? as discussed above a) run at a decreased level of engine output.....or.....fork over a crap load of cash and have your ship modded with a mod kit which will put bigger scoops on it. the downside, decreased top speed to your fighter. If you decide to go AWOL 1) you'll run out of gas unless you've made some kind of arrangement. This could be done if you're raiding a pirate base or something like that. b) if you're successful in this endevour, you'll be immediately posted as wanted and hunted by everyone under the sun, unless you pay another rediculous sum of money (nearly to rediculous to even make it feasible to do) to get your record cleared by data hackers or someone like that.
Anyway...enjoy.
Brad Mick