scheherazade
Rear Admiral
suppose you wanna have real-scales (or something close to it) for planets and systems in a WC mod.
of course if you REALLY travelled 1000+ kilometres per second its not that bad, since you'll get wherever in a decent amount of time.
but at those speeds you can't fight because other ships would be on screen for a fraction of a second if you passed them.
you need to go slower for combat to be good gameplay
you need to go faster to get anywhere anytime soon.
requirement is : no autopilot time-trick (hit autopilot and you're magically there 2 seconds later)
which solution is better :
A) smaller scales, planets are smaller, etc. ships fly relative to each other at speeds that 'lie' about how slow they are really going. (the typical solution, ex. says 1500 kps, but its really more like 60 mph)
B) a dual-mode speed. for combat you're at 1000 METRES per second. and when you hit autopilot, your ship points itself to where you wanna go and accellerates to 1000 KILOMETRES per second.
(replace 1000 with whatever speed you like, 350, 1500, etc)
my question is related to vega-strike.
i plan on doing some WC sorta work with it, and i'm wondering which compromise is better.
+proper scales let you do some nifty things, like hide enemy strike fleets behind planets .
+slower speeds make combat more fun (as opposed to shooting by each other at a bajillion miles an hour), like ww2 dogfights.
i personally think the 'B' solution is best all around. but i hate to break continuity with wc. would it be too much to allow dual-mode engine operation?
loaf << pretty much whatever you say i'll go with, you're sort of 'the man to ask'...
but i'd like to hear some input on what people think either way.
thanks,
-scheherazade
note : real-scales don't have to be actually real (can be much smaller), just big enough to make planets look big. compare this to privateer, where if you managed to get close enough the planet looked like a toy. but big-at-all still needs fast speeds because you need a good distance to make a big planet look small in the distance. we don't want solar systems with a buncha planets stacked up next to each other.
of course if you REALLY travelled 1000+ kilometres per second its not that bad, since you'll get wherever in a decent amount of time.
but at those speeds you can't fight because other ships would be on screen for a fraction of a second if you passed them.
you need to go slower for combat to be good gameplay
you need to go faster to get anywhere anytime soon.
requirement is : no autopilot time-trick (hit autopilot and you're magically there 2 seconds later)
which solution is better :
A) smaller scales, planets are smaller, etc. ships fly relative to each other at speeds that 'lie' about how slow they are really going. (the typical solution, ex. says 1500 kps, but its really more like 60 mph)
B) a dual-mode speed. for combat you're at 1000 METRES per second. and when you hit autopilot, your ship points itself to where you wanna go and accellerates to 1000 KILOMETRES per second.
(replace 1000 with whatever speed you like, 350, 1500, etc)
my question is related to vega-strike.
i plan on doing some WC sorta work with it, and i'm wondering which compromise is better.
+proper scales let you do some nifty things, like hide enemy strike fleets behind planets .
+slower speeds make combat more fun (as opposed to shooting by each other at a bajillion miles an hour), like ww2 dogfights.
i personally think the 'B' solution is best all around. but i hate to break continuity with wc. would it be too much to allow dual-mode engine operation?
loaf << pretty much whatever you say i'll go with, you're sort of 'the man to ask'...
but i'd like to hear some input on what people think either way.
thanks,
-scheherazade
note : real-scales don't have to be actually real (can be much smaller), just big enough to make planets look big. compare this to privateer, where if you managed to get close enough the planet looked like a toy. but big-at-all still needs fast speeds because you need a good distance to make a big planet look small in the distance. we don't want solar systems with a buncha planets stacked up next to each other.