Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: ncc1701e

This is awesome. Hide a fleet in a nebulae, ready to attack... [8D]

ORIGINAL: praetorreich36

ORIGINAL: ncc1701e

This is awesome. Hide a fleet in a nebulae, ready to attack... [8D]

You do know sensors are useless in the Mutara nebula right? [:D]

ORIGINAL: Galaxy227



I am curious to see exactly how important "choke-point" systems are (if at all), and whether it's actually worth securing control over them, regardless if they have colonies or not. I imagine as the game progresses and technology improves, it'll be easier to ignore the potential benefits of controlling choke-points. With better fuel efficiency, longer jump ranges, and higher jump speeds, I doubt choke-point systems will remain relevant.

ORIGINAL: WiZz

Personally, I don't like any limitations in a game like this. Should the terrain be present in DW? We play the game in space you know. The biggest issue with hyper in DW1 was HUGE ship ranges. Was it right when your starting scout could fly through 2/3 of galaxy? I don't think so...

ORIGINAL: ClassicAz

ORIGINAL: WiZz

Personally, I don't like any limitations in a game like this. Should the terrain be present in DW? We play the game in space you know. The biggest issue with hyper in DW1 was HUGE ship ranges. Was it right when your starting scout could fly through 2/3 of galaxy? I don't think so...

I tried to think of some plausible scientific reasons for this existing in the game, and some technologies to resolve them that would also expand the warp range.

1) Parallax and Tracking Error

Assuming warp drives only go in straight lines (in 4d), The capability of your fleet to align accurately to the destination will determine how rapidly you offset from your intended target. Using the small angle rule tan theta = theta, For an alignment angular error of 1 arc second, you will drift from your target 1 astronomical unit (the radius of the earth's orbit around the sun) for every parsec (3.26 light years) travelled. Achieving an angular resolution of 0.01 arc second is very achievable in modern astronomy. This means that resolving power is generally not an issue, the milky way is 30 000 parsec across and the solar system is 40 AU. So an offset error of a few solar system diameters across the span of the galaxy won't prevent you from mapping a very direct route.

However just because you know where a star is does not mean you can align the entire fleet accurately to it without issues arising:

a) the ships ability to accurately align to the target may not match the angular resolving power of a telescope - this error I imagine would increase with the size of the ship, solar weather or other phenomenon. Would decrease with better gyroscopes and stabilizing engines.
b) relative angular errors in the formation of ships will place an arbitrary upper limit on the distance travel to avoid collision in the fleet, based on the largest angular error between two ships. This limitation could be overcome with fleet-wide warp bubble technology or other networked alignment features

2) Warp Drive energy output
Pushing Alcubierre drive through higher density fields (such as nebulae) may require more energy?

3) Occlusion
Stars far enough away to not be separately resolved by our instruments angular resolution will be occluded by foreground stars.

4) Timed warp bubble.
If warp bubble's are set on a timer like a microwave, then accurate distances to stars must be known to avoid overshoot or collision with other celestial bodies. Parralax angles will give you very accurate distances to stars within your angular resolving power, but there is an upper limit to this method. The distances of further stars must be charted by explorer ships or traded for with partner nations.

So i think you can invent enough plausible reasons for this to be a game feature, my only concern is what this does to the AI computational budget.

ORIGINAL: Grognerd_INC

You know way back when in Space Empires IV there was a realism mod

ORIGINAL: ClassicAz

ORIGINAL: WiZz

Personally, I don't like any limitations in a game like this. Should the terrain be present in DW? We play the game in space you know. The biggest issue with hyper in DW1 was HUGE ship ranges. Was it right when your starting scout could fly through 2/3 of galaxy? I don't think so...

I tried to think of some plausible scientific reasons for this existing in the game, and some technologies to resolve them that would also expand the warp range.

1) Parallax and Tracking Error

Assuming warp drives only go in straight lines (in 4d), The capability of your fleet to align accurately to the destination will determine how rapidly you offset from your intended target. Using the small angle rule tan theta = theta, For an alignment angular error of 1 arc second, you will drift from your target 1 astronomical unit (the radius of the earth's orbit around the sun) for every parsec (3.26 light years) travelled. Achieving an angular resolution of 0.01 arc second is very achievable in modern astronomy. This means that resolving power is generally not an issue, the milky way is 30 000 parsec across and the solar system is 40 AU. So an offset error of a few solar system diameters across the span of the galaxy won't prevent you from mapping a very direct route.

However just because you know where a star is does not mean you can align the entire fleet accurately to it without issues arising:

a) the ships ability to accurately align to the target may not match the angular resolving power of a telescope - this error I imagine would increase with the size of the ship, solar weather or other phenomenon. Would decrease with better gyroscopes and stabilizing engines.
b) relative angular errors in the formation of ships will place an arbitrary upper limit on the distance travel to avoid collision in the fleet, based on the largest angular error between two ships. This limitation could be overcome with fleet-wide warp bubble technology or other networked alignment features

2) Warp Drive energy output
Pushing Alcubierre drive through higher density fields (such as nebulae) may require more energy?

3) Occlusion
Stars far enough away to not be separately resolved by our instruments angular resolution will be occluded by foreground stars.

4) Timed warp bubble.
If warp bubble's are set on a timer like a microwave, then accurate distances to stars must be known to avoid overshoot or collision with other celestial bodies. Parralax angles will give you very accurate distances to stars within your angular resolving power, but there is an upper limit to this method. The distances of further stars must be charted by explorer ships or traded for with partner nations.

So i think you can invent enough plausible reasons for this to be a game feature, my only concern is what this does to the AI computational budget.

ORIGINAL: Amoebanzai
There is a video from Youtube titled: Dangers and Anomalies of Interplanetary Dust Revealed by the Solar Probe, by a productive Mr. Anton Petrov

ORIGINAL: SirHoraceHarkness

The particulate threat to spaceships traveling between solar systems has been known for decades and decades. I remember reading hard scifi from the 60's and 70's which used a huge ice shield on front of the ship to act as an ablative barrier to soak up random hits.