-When you now redesign an Aircraft Model (negative command at end) the previous choices you made will be indicated with a † symbol and highlighted in yellow to help you fine-tune your design.
This is nice, but I already mentioned in the airplane design tech support thread that when the aircraft design is not able to fly, then pressing the "negative" button will close the window, instead of bringing you back to the beginning, so this new feature won't help in cases like that.
okay. will look into that, missed that remark. thanks for repeating yourself
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Thanks, Vic. Do you plan on changing the model design window to something that makes experimenting with designs more easy to do later or will you keep it the way it is right now?
I'm experimenting with helicopter designs right now and the process of finding a design that has a good range seems to require a lot of trial and error, because of how complex the calculations are. I just noticed that increasing the fuel tank of the helicopter can actually REDUCE the operational range, probably because of the added weight, and that the speed of the helicopter seems to also affect the operational range. I had increased the engine and noticed that the operational range increased, I assume because of the speed.
Were helicopters nerfed a lot in the last updates? I noticed that if I redesign the same helicopter I had before (on the same planet), then its operation range of 17 hexes goes down to 4.
Edit:
I'm trying to design medium airplanes now and I can't really seem to get it past a range of 3 tiles for some reason. Did you reduce aircraft ranges in general? When I started this game, I had a light plane with a range of 25 hexes, but now aircraft designs seem to be more around just 5 hexes most of the time.
I think I would probably be a lot less confused about aircraft designs if you were to expose a little more about how these stats are actually calculated. Right now it feels like punching random numbers into a black box and hoping for the best.
Thanks, Vic. Do you plan on changing the model design window to something that makes experimenting with designs more easy to do later or will you keep it the way it is right now?
I'm experimenting with helicopter designs right now and the process of finding a design that has a good range seems to require a lot of trial and error, because of how complex the calculations are. I just noticed that increasing the fuel tank of the helicopter can actually REDUCE the operational range, probably because of the added weight, and that the speed of the helicopter seems to also affect the operational range. I had increased the engine and noticed that the operational range increased, I assume because of the speed.
Were helicopters nerfed a lot in the last updates? I noticed that if I redesign the same helicopter I had before (on the same planet), then its operation range of 17 hexes goes down to 4.
Edit:
I'm trying to design medium airplanes now and I can't really seem to get it past a range of 3 tiles for some reason. Did you reduce aircraft ranges in general? When I started this game, I had a light plane with a range of 25 hexes, but now aircraft designs seem to be more around just 5 hexes most of the time.
I think I would probably be a lot less confused about aircraft designs if you were to expose a little more about how these stats are actually calculated. Right now it feels like punching random numbers into a black box and hoping for the best.
What kind of Planet? Gravity and Airpressure please?
And yes I reduced ranges somewhat since they can still be much extended by Tech improvements.
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The planet has 0.5 g and 84% atmosphere. (The game was started on a previous beta though, not sure if that messes the calculations up.)
It makes sense to reduce the ranges, because 25 hexes on a starting tech propeller plane does sound a bit overkill, but now the range of that same plane is down to 7 hexes and medium planes with propeller engines don't seem to be viable at all to me, so not sure if it's been nerfed too much.
Reducing the range of my starting tech, light and medium helicopter bombers to 4-5 hexes sounds extreme, too, but since they are helicopters and can just land anywhere anyway, it probably doesn't matter that much.
I think I would suggest changing the "eng. eff." to just "efficiency", because less abreviations makes it clearer.
What exactly does this number relate to again? Is it "force per unit of fuel" like the changelog says? Do smaller engines give more power per weight, but also more power per unit of fuel?
Also, Vic, can you confirm or deny that aircraft speed has an impact on range?
I think I would suggest changing the "eng. eff." to just "efficiency", because less abreviations makes it clearer.
What exactly does this number relate to again? Is it "force per unit of fuel" like the changelog says? Do smaller engines give more power per weight, but also more power per unit of fuel?
Also, Vic, can you confirm or deny that aircraft speed has an impact on range?
Yes higher speed has a positive impact on range, though engine efficiency comes into play here.
best wishes,
Vic
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Sweet, thanks. That sounds like it will be helpful.
I'm trying to accumulate the info on what value affects what in aircraft design and I'll put it into a thread later.
Thanks! once we get the formulas we will be able to make spreadsheets to calculate models without having to go back and forth till we get a decent model to our needs
Amateurs talk about strategy. Professionals talk about logistics!
Huh, I wasn't expecting air pressure to increase range so much, but it makes sense. Is this different for the other engine types or is only the rocket engine that is a special case? I assume the rocket engine actually increases in range the lower the air pressure?
By the way, this reminds me. When we are generating the atmosphere of a new planet, we don't get exact information for how thick it is until the later screens in planet generation. It only says something like "thick, but modest". Could you maybe add the mbar value to that screen, because it's important for aircraft?
