Fighter pilots targeting objects going thousands of km/hr

J

Joshua

Spaceman
I don't understand how fighter pilots have enough time to pilot their fighters to line up their guns onto another fighter moving thousands of kilometers per hour. It just seems impossible.
 
During combat, when maneuverability necessitates much smaller scoops, fighters travel at significantly slower speeds.
 
I did a test in WC1. I flew my fighter at 100 kps 3500 meters, using the TC as a refrence in 19.5 seconds. I divide 3500/19.5 and get about 180 m/ps. So if 100 kps = 180 m/ps, it means that 1 kps = a little less than 2 m/ps which seems reasonable to me.
 
Well, it might be impossible, like sound on space, artificical gravity, big talking cats, ships with open hangars with atmosphere inside that can launch and land fighters, genetic-cleasing fanatics that wear glasses, big talking cats with identities overlay experiments, jump points, pilgrims, space sonars that are not really space sonars but everyone thinks they are, cloaking devices, and a lot of other things that makes WC so cool.

Or maybe there's a neat way to explain all those things, if you search hard enought.
 
Sylvester said:
I did a test in WC1. I flew my fighter at 100 kps 3500 meters, using the TC as a refrence in 19.5 seconds. I divide 3500/19.5 and get about 180 m/ps. So if 100 kps = 180 m/ps, it means that 1 kps = a little less than 2 m/ps which seems reasonable to me.
Click to expand...

Watch your targetting VDU - when you lock on a ship, it's distance is measured in meters... when you lock onto a nav point, it's measured in kilometers.
 
Yeah, I think it's already been debated that combat occurs at meters per second, while cruising occurs at kilometers per second.
 
It's obviously a consequence of jump navigation. Space around ships is compressed by a factor of 1000 (due to the distortion of the space-time continuum by the anti-gravitons generated in the jump drives of major ships)...

*inserts tongue in cheek*
 
George Washington says that fighters obey the posted speed limits and that's why ships can target each other.
 
We didn't always have ITTS, but it does help a lot. However, when a ship can turn on a dime and go 100000 m/s, well, you'll have problems hitting it, even with ITTS. ITTS only helps when a ship is going on a straight line course and will happily cooperate by running into your gunfire.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
Watch your targetting VDU - when you lock on a ship, it's distance is measured in meters... when you lock onto a nav point, it's measured in kilometers.
Click to expand...

I saw this thread and happened to think to check it in game. Something that never occured to me before. lol

The distance units are listed as km when a nav point is selected, and as m when a ship or target is selected. However, the only thing that changes is the units, not the #'s. When you set your nav point for, say the Tigers Claw, and then press N to get the cross, the VDU will read a given # of "km". If you stop, then press T, the # will remain the same and the units will change to "m".

Looks like something that got missed in beta.
 
Why though?

If you are (just for the sake of arguement) 10,000km from the nav point, which happens to be a ship, how can it suddenly be 10,000m once you target it? Did you just warp a factor of 1000 meters? Or are these units not anything "real"?
 
Yeah, I don't think this can be sufficently explained, but the idea ijuin mentioned is probably the closest answer one can come up with....

Even then, though, it doesn't make sense. Sure, you're targeting objects in meters, but your ships are still flying at speeds measured in kilometers per second. I would think that space combat at those types of speeds would be like trying to shoot at bullets fired from a gun, literally - fighters and starships would be momentary blurs in your cockpit. Wing Commander isn't like that; combat and space navigation are far more comparable to fighter combat in WWII...

But hey, no biggie. We make crazy physical mistakes all the time.
 
Scoops open (in combat) your ship goes meters/second. Scoops closed (flying to nav point) your ship goes kilometers/second. That's as simple as it gets for an explaination.
 
It seems that if you target a ship that is on the nav point it will give the same reading as the nav point.
 
Hey, my space distortion theory would neatly explain the Tiger's Claw being both 10,000 m and 10,000 km away. Why won't anyone accept my theory? :(

*edit*
Second possibility: the navigational computers in that particular type of fighter had an error in it. I think later games have fighters that don't have the same navigational computer error... ;)
 
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