Combat and Delta V

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Gerdz
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2020 6:27 pm

Combat and Delta V

Post by Gerdz »

hey so, two things on the same subject. i saw somewhere that you plan to treat all encounters as if they're the same velocity.

and i saw a video of the combat where a ship was able to plot a course back the way it came..

maybe its just me cuz i loved how right Coade got space combat. but i feel like both these things are going to break immersion, especially if the player knows even the basics of physics.

so i get it might be a technical hurdle or limitation but two fleets shouldn't pretend to be the same matched velocity when they enter combat, for instance if im orbiting clockwise and im intercepting the enemy fleet thats going counter clockwise, we should fly right past each other at high speeds shooting at each other for as long as we can. but by matching velocities in combat you have magically made it so that both of our orbits are the same when it would have taken an extreme amount of delta V to cancel out your velocity and then go the other direction. same thing when i saw a ship able to turn around in combat. i can understand going "side to side" or angling a different direction on a different vector, but without a massive amount of thrusting and delta V you're still going to be going in the same relative direction in kinda the same orbit, there is no way you would be able to turn your ship around in 5 waypoint clicks and start heading the way you came without a really really nice engine and a lot of fuel and burn time.

so yeah just my thoughts, tldr, fleets shouldn't magically match velocity and any maneuvers in combat mode should account for your Delta V in comparison to your orbit.
Zaza
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed May 05, 2021 12:54 am

Re: Combat and Delta V

Post by Zaza »

but ships can "turn around" in respect to another ship by having "negative delta V"

this turning around discussion is relative to the system of reference chosen: the planet or another ship

you can upload the video brought in discussion
Bobit
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat May 22, 2021 6:27 pm

Re: Combat and Delta V

Post by Bobit »

I read this thread as "will spaceships use pursuit (one flees one chases) or circle (both turn to face each other repeatedly) fights?

It really depends. Consider:

So far the natural progression of technology has been that armor/evasion doesn't keep up with weapons. Planes only did turnfights so that they get behind an opponent and match their velocity for better accuracy with their guns. Nowadays they actually turn away right after a missile launch so as to better dodge missile return fire. Soon it may get to the point where maneuvering won't matter because you simply can't dodge missiles.

For spaceships it's probably even harder to dodge because you can't turn without reversing, and because there isn't any sort of noise in space which makes it impossible to mask your signatures unless space combat is incredibly long range.

Unlike planes, spaceships are usually imagined with turrets. In that case there's no reason to turn to meet a superior foe, so that may mean that one side is always running from the other.

Slinghshotting around planets massively favors circle fights since you can turn very well only near planets.

Overall, who knows?
Last edited by Bobit on Sat May 22, 2021 7:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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