Everything I know about Aircraft Design

[zgrssd]

There isn't a lot of clarity about Aircraft design. So here are the few things I do know with some certainty:

Planetary Suitability
- take the Air Pressure in Bar
- divide it by the Gravity in G
If the result is even slightly below 1, this planet is terrible for Aircraft. At 1, we are about earth Level. Above 1, they will be dominating. Even allowing stuff like Thopters.

But note that there is another limit - particularly thin atmosphere will result in non-Rockets to not have enough reactive mass to push around. If that is the case, Rockets are more viable while non-Rockets are less.

Example: 0.464 Bar Pressure, 0.51G. Result is 0.902

Design Rolls
It seems that for most Air Related things, Design rolls are entirely ignored.
The only possible exception I am still hoping for is Air Attack. It is possible these values are still effected by Weapon Design Rolls. Of course it is heavily modified by relative Dogfighting score.

Operational Fuel Cost
The "Cost per Hex" seems to be:
- Size of the Fuel Tank
- divided by 100
- divided by range in Hexes

Example: 800 L Tank, 11 Hexes Range,

Uncertainty everywhere
Very few components have a unambigious "best" options. Stuff like the Air MG as such a case.
Some engines are better then others (Turboprop > Propeller) at the same weight. But that usually comes at the cost of needing much better materials.

For every other component, there appears to be a "Goldilocks Zone". Some value where having a bigger, heavier, more expensive thing is better - up to a certain point. After that point, performance will quickly go down.

Derived Stats everywhere
Most of the Airplane Stats are themself derived from other stats.
Dogfighting is derived from the Model Type, Agility Score and Maximum Speed
Agility score is derived from Turning Score and Wingload.
Turning Score is derived from HP:Weight Ratio and Wingload
Wingload is derived from Weight, Gravity and Wing Area.

And of all those, only Gravity and Model Type are anywhere close to a constant - at least for the same Airframe and the same planet.

Tendencies
Bigger Engines tend to increase Range.
Bigger Wings tend to increase Range.
Bigger Fuel Tanks tend to increase Range.

Lower weight, higher powered engines and shorter wings tend to favor high Dogfighting.

But with all of them: If you overdo it, you end up at the exact opposite effect!
The extra weight or drag will kill range.
And if you overdo Wingload by making them to small, you won't be dogfighting anything.

[Soar_Slitherine]

EDIT: The theory I posted here turned out to be incorrect.

[zgrssd]

Design Rolls
It seems that for most Air Related things, Design rolls are entirely ignored.
The only possible exception I am still hoping for is Air Attack. It is possible these values are still effected by Weapon Design Rolls. Of course it is heavily modified by relative Dogfighting score.

Engine design does have an impact, unless you have a different explanation for why entirely new aircraft models get slightly different values in the design preview every time when repeating the design process with an identical set of components, and why the finished design may end up with fewer hexes of range compared to what was stated in the preview (this does not affect iterating on existing designs, so presumably their existing engine design score is used in their preview).

I have 2 planes, 24 points of Engine Design apart, both exactly the same range.

All my attempts to figure out even a aproximate Range Formula have been a disaster.
I have a theory that Air Speed and Fuel Range are the deciding factors, but I noticed what appears to be a large penalty on smaler fuel tanks.
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 2#p5087742

[Soar_Slitherine]

I have 2 planes, 24 points of Engine Design apart, both exactly the same range.

You're right, the variance I was attributing to Engine Design was actually because thopters have their wing area randomized (visible in the debug tables). Engine Design indeed appears to have no effect.

[Vic]

Added to do list!