| sun + black hole = fwoosh! |
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   | |  | | ![]() Poll: In-system vimana drive?
28 members voted in this poll so far | | | | | | | | | Since there seems to be a difference of opinion about whether the vimana drive should be used (automatically or manually) for in-system travel, perhaps we could discuss it a bit.
A few points/concerns (feel free to bring others up, of course):
1. Apparently it takes you 55 grams of lithium and a lot of time to travel 0.6 LY with the in-system drive*, but with the vimana drive, it takes almost no lithium and about 5 seconds. If it's possible to vimana 0.6 LY with accuracy, why would the drifter be programmed to use the in-system drive instead?
2. Given that the vimana drive is precise enough to get you near enough to a star that it fills most of your viewscreen, it should probably be capable of getting you just as close to a planet, unless the sun's large gravity has something to do with it (in which case you should still be able to vimana to companion stars and substellar objects).
3. The drifter using only its in-system drives can travel *faster* than the speed of light, and even when travelling slower than light, ignores relativity, and this needs to be fixed or explained somehow. (I haven't measured the speed yet or implemented a way to automatically do so, but it's obvious if you're travelling 0.6 LY in less than 7 months  ) We probably don't want to simulate relativity, since that would eventually put everyone's in-game clocks years out of sync.
* = I didn't test it how long it takes or how much fuel it takes to travel 0.6 LY in-system, since I didn't find any planets/moons/etc that far away personally, so that figure is from someone else. I did check how long and how much fuel it took to vimana 0.5 LY, with the expectation that it would take not much longer to go 0.6 LY with the vimana drive.
My current solution is for the vimana drive to activate for distances over 20 dyams, but only long enough to get you within 20 dyams, at which point the in-system drives take over. This saves fuel and time, and preserves relativity and so forth (unless in travelling 20 dyams the SD speeds up enough that it ought to experience relativistic effects), but would be a problem for anyone who thinks reaching faraway planets should be a challenge - it currently travels 10,000 dyams in just a few seconds.
A solution to the relativity problem could be either (a) in-system drives use some sort of vimana travel and thus avoid relativity (but then why are they slow, etc?) or (b) putting a maximum cap on in-system travel speeds to avoid relativistic effects, which would also make a 0.6 LY trip take so long as to be completely impractical. | |  | |  |
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| written by Bensel on Feb 09, 2005 00:45 |
 | |  | | I think you should have vimana travel as an option, or make the ISD not take so much fuel. | |  | |  |
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| written by Chad on Feb 09, 2005 01:12 |
| | | | ![]() I need a spec design of the engine, a rope, nacho's and some gum. I will create a smaller version of the VD. Make it have 1/5 max speed as the Original Vinama Drive.
And I need a ten pound block of steel, a plasma torch, 100ft of wire and a doughnut. Then I will make a Teleportation device to land you on any planet, anywhere at anytime. Screw the lander and the damn gravity effects. No need to be bouncing for 5 minutes..
But, I think we activate the Vinama if the planet is over 20dyams then let it power down to about 25% and take you the rest of the way. Who says you cant control the speed of the vinama? Alex?! HA! Just reduce the power to the Vinama to redce the speed.
And I'll shut up. | | | | |
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| sun + black hole = fwoosh! |
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| | | | ![]() Ah, but you should notice that if you're only a couple dyams from the system's main sun and you attempt to engage the vimana drive, it goes quite slowly, simply because you're already so close to it. (In fact, for the in-system vimana, I made it use greater speeds than it normally would for those distances, which made it faster, but cost more fuel - though I don't know how if it really cost more fuel in the long run (would have to calculate the speed, fuel cost, and time, though noctis could do that itself in a new data screen).
Chad, could you please make me an Infinite Improbability Drive? You'll only need a cup o' steaming hot tea and some rubber bands, right? | | | | |
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 | |  | |  | Shadowlord said: | | Chad, could you please make me an Infinite Improbability Drive? You'll only need a cup o' steaming hot tea and some rubber bands, right? |
As I understand it, you need to know the probability of the Infinite Improbability Drive existing, a finite improbability generator, and a source of Brownian motion, such as a nice hot cup of tea.  | |  | |  |
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| written by Chad on Feb 09, 2005 04:05 |
| | | | ![]() Why im at it, might as well develope Cold-Fusion and a few other goodies. Um, I think the government has cold-fusion already, we the people arn't advanced enough. Damn law of not giving advance tech to unadvanced race's... | | | | |
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| written by Doozer on Feb 09, 2005 06:33 |
| | | | ![]() Allow in-system vimana jumps. As I said in another thread, setting your remote target and then taking a 10 minute nap is not a challenge. Also, who cares about relativity?
Make the game fun, instead. | | | | |
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| written by N5corp on Feb 09, 2005 07:01 |
 | |  | | I'd say yes, so long it's an option. That's me own two cents. | |  | |  |
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 | |  | | ![]() | Shadowlord said: | | The drifter using only its in-system drives can travel *faster* than the speed of light, and even when travelling slower than light, ignores relativity, and this needs to be fixed or explained somehow. |
I think Alex said that the in-system drive is also a Vimana drive, operating with lesser masses than the interstellar version, and therefore resulting in slower travel. I would like to recommend that it's left alone as it is, or that any changes could indeed be optional for the user.  | |  | |  |
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| written by Mr.fop on Feb 09, 2005 08:12 |
| | | | ![]() I'd have it use the original drive for a minute, then vimana but stay far enough that reaching the planet would take another minute or so. | | | | |
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| written by Doozer on Feb 09, 2005 08:54 |
| | | | ![]() Serious question from someone who doesn't play that much Noctis: Why do you all like waiting so much? There's not a lot to see or do while moving around. | | | | |
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| written by Mr.fop on Feb 09, 2005 14:55 |
| | | | ![]() It encourages to actually try to find something interesting instead of zipping around the galaxy. | | | | |
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| written by Bgreman on Feb 09, 2005 15:05 |
| | | | ![]() WTF = not compatible with relativity anyway. | | | | |
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| written by Doozer on Feb 09, 2005 18:33 |
| | | | ![]() Fop, care to explain how setting a very obvious local target then moving toward it for 10 minutes is finding anything? There's a difference between finding and going to. | | | | |
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| written by Mr.fop on Feb 09, 2005 18:41 |
| | | | ![]() I proposed two minutes, silly. After you get there, you feel inclined to search thoroughly because it'll take a while if you ever want to come back, plus you went through that trouble. | | | | |
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