Ship Speeds

Sadly there is still no way to stop in space. The only way to slow down is not to decrease speed but to fire retro thrusters in the opposite direction for the same time and power level as one did to go forwards.

So in the WC games when one "hits the afterburners" theoretically any ship would continue going really fast until thrusters pointed in the opposite direction slowed the ship down.

Science: 1, WC: 0
 
NuclearPenguins said:
Sadly there is still no way to stop in space. The only way to slow down is not to decrease speed but to fire retro thrusters in the opposite direction for the same time and power level as one did to go forwards.

So in the WC games when one "hits the afterburners" theoretically any ship would continue going really fast until thrusters pointed in the opposite direction slowed the ship down.

Science: 1, WC: 0
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Scroll up to the 'scoop field' mention - that creates drag, and it's been talked about enough on the novels that UNLESS you close your scoops (and thus stop gathering fuel), you'll be limited in speed. If you cut it off, then you can burn up to 10000+ kps and zoom on through a system, until you either burn fuel to stop or extend your scoops to create 'drag' again.

Fighters fly with the scoop fields on, which is why we never run out of fuel except for the afterburners (which have their own fuel supply).

Reading skills: -1. :D
 
zorach said:
The Universe has no centre.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the universe itself has been expanding outward like a bubble since the Great Pumpkin set off the big bang, it would have a center at that point.
 
There is too a center of the universe.

The problem is that with so many unknown factors... such as possible acceleration/deceleration of celestial bodies and not really knowing our relative speed to said center... I don't really know if it could ever be practically predicted.
 
Sadly there is still no way to stop in space. The only way to slow down is not to decrease speed but to fire retro thrusters in the opposite direction for the same time and power level as one did to go forwards.

So in the WC games when one "hits the afterburners" theoretically any ship would continue going really fast until thrusters pointed in the opposite direction slowed the ship down.

Science: 1, WC: 0
Click to expand...

The Confed Handbook/Bible stuff also deals with this a bit more -- talking about thrusters and how the magnetic fields can shift in direction to shop a ship and whatnot.
 
McGruff said:
As long as we're nitpicking about physics, I have to ask, what exactly is coming out of the barrels of your guns when you pull the trigger? It has to be a projectile of some sort because if you were actually firing lasers or some other kind of energy weapon that travels at the speed of light, there would be no need to lead an enemy fighter. Just put the crosshairs on the target and fire.

Ironically, the one gun that may actually be an energy weapon is the WC4 stormfire that requires no lead to hit a fast moving target.

It may be the lateness of the hour, but Corsair's above post isn't making sense to me. What are the "other forces"?
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That is a very valid point. In almost every sci-fi game, we have energy weapons that we can see fly through the air. A laser doesn't have any real travel since it is light. Therefor, you need to shoot at something extremely far away, like from planet to planet, to have any real need to lead your target.
 
Or perhaps we are talking about a concentration of photonic energy stored in a self-sustaining super magnetic shell that is able to keep photon leakage to a reasonable low. The lower bands of light escape more than the higher bands which makes the shot dimly glow red. Eventually all the light leaks out and the shot becomes useless and vanishes.

Not that I've ever known magnetic fields to trap photons.
 
Yeah, you can't trap photons with a magnetic field. And while you can make them slower it only works if they travel through some medium like water or air.
 
Corsair(pilot) said:
The whole 'no sound in space' nitpick has never really made any sense to me. A person in WC is never actually *in space*, but rather a confined environment in space. This environment could be a helmet, a cockpit, or even a giant observation deck... and in any one of these environments sound waves do travel (even sound waves created by forces external to that environment).
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*jaw drops*

There is no way for the sound of a starfighter exploding to reach the air inside your fighter, for it to then reach your ears, unless your ship is flying through the explosion. None. There is no sound in space. The air in the cockpit means you can hear the noise made if you smack your hand against your knee, or hearing what your wingmen say.

Sound waves travel in the air of the cockpit, but they have to get into the cockpit! With no air in space, the noise made by explosions will not reach your craft! Unless of course you're flying through the fireball - in which case the expanding gases will strike your hull, making noise which transmits through the hull and into the cockpit. Actually, if we're taking shields into consideration, the sound is likely to be muffled. Or not heard at all. Depends on how the shielding works; I don't know; ask someone else.

No, the heat and light from the explosion do not make any sound when they strike your craft.

No, without air there is nothing to propagate sound. The only reason you get any explosion at all is the air in the craft, anyway.
 
SoulSkorpion said:
No, without air there is nothing to propagate sound.
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Water propagates sound nicely. As do train tracks. Of course that doesn't counter your point at all, since there are no train tracks or water in space either ;)
BenoitBrunet2 said:
and if the noises were artificial, who do you think Confed contracted to make the "A Salthi just flew past your cockpit" noise?
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No idea, but an interesting point :) Ever wonder why every ship in Privateer makes the same sound? From kilrathi to terran to steltek even, all of them make the same noise when buzzing you. Further, no matter how fast the other ship is moving relative to you, the sound emitted has the same duration. This suggests that it is indeed "artificial," that a computer somewhere in your ship creates it when a ship goes by in order to get one more of your senses involved.

Same goes for enemy guns as well. You can't see in all directions at once, but it's nice to know when someone behind you opens fire. i just assume that your sensors (which can see in al irections) pick it up, and the computer translates it to noise for your benefit. This would explain why there is no time delay (you always here things right as you see them happen, unlike how there is a delay [opefully] between the lightning and the thunder).

If the compuer creates sounds wen guns fire, my only question is where did the sound for the steltek gun come from? Did your computer make it up on the spot the first time it saw the drone fire? Or did it base it off of what it heard (through the hull) when you fired your own 'tek gun?
 
Bandit LOAF said:
It's fuel for whatever kind of engine we're using -- there's a pretty lengthy discussion about that in the same sources listed above (bible and Handbook).
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Please enlighten me. Is it burned? Fusioned (is that a word?)? And what exactly is spewing out of the thrusters to make the ship move?
 
MamiyaOtaru said:
Water propagates sound nicely. As do train tracks. Of course that doesn't counter your point at all, since there are no train tracks or water in space either ;)
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Yeah, so does the ship's hull. :P
 
Well there's our solution. If we filled space with water, then it would make sense that you could hear everything that was going on. Sweet.

And the reason we hear train-tracks make noise is because the tracks themselves vibrate, producing the noise, and the air in our atmosphere carries the vibration right into our widdle ears.
 
You can hear certain things in space like explosions - the shockwave, a kinetic force hits something solid, like a spaceship and makes it vibrate thus creating sound waves. Same with engines firing.
 
No, you can hear nothing in space, nothing. There is nothing for it to go through. Especially in a pressurized cockpit, enough said, just drop it!!!
 
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