Movement

For discussions about the release version of the game.
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psusi
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Feb 27, 2010 5:06 pm

Movement

Post by psusi »

The last beta I tried several months ago the class 6 engines were almost ridiculously fast and the rate of decay was low enough that you could thrust for 1-2 seconds and then coast across the entire system. Now I am using class 5 engines as a freelancer and they seem far too slow. It takes ages to get anywhere, and the rate of decay is now so high that coasting at all is impossible; you just have to burn the whole way there.

I think that the speed needs bumped back up a bit, and the rate of decay needs put back to where it was, but retro rockets added so you can choose to slow down actively. Also the rate of rotation is now too slow. It used to be fast enough that you could spin the ship around and burn to slow down your coast.

I just had a pirate encounter and the ship is now so slow that I almost could not maneuver into firing range of the pirate ships.
toyotaed
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 7:51 am

Re: Movement

Post by toyotaed »

I played the earlier betas, I was rather frustrated with the innerspace speed; I kept overshooting the planets.
All too often I had to make several attempts at getting close without zooming past.

In the latest release, the innerspace speed has been slowed down, most likely due to concerns voiced by prior testers.

Personally, I find the innerspace speed adequate. Hyperspace speed could be bumped up a bit, in my opinion.

However, I too have noted a marked drop in speed in hyperspace, and also in combat at times. I traced this issue to some automatic programs running on my machine; virus background scans, Java/Adobe update reminders, Windows update reminders. The performance on my second machine was real bad (both are XP Pro). The second machine is pretty maxed out on hard drive space; that might have something to do with it. One thing I did do was download and run Glarysoft's freeware registry cleaner on my 2nd machine. This procedure upped my speed on it pretty decently.

Might be worth a try to get all your updates handled, set your background scans to run at a different time, and def get the registry cleaner program ran.

Just a thought.
psusi
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Feb 27, 2010 5:06 pm

Re: Movement

Post by psusi »

I agree that it used to be too fast, but now it seems a bit too slow, and more importantly, the game advises you to pulse and coast to save fuel, but this is no longer really possible because you decellerate so fast. If you want to be able to pulse and coast, but also avoid overshooting your destination, then you need to be able to fire retro rockets to slow down.

I don't run any background scan garbage and this is a brand new machine running Windows 7 so that isn't the problem.
Corgano
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2010 4:42 pm

Re: Movement

Post by Corgano »

Think I have to agree, the engines used to be too fast in the inside the star systems, but they seem fine to me inside the solar systems now. Not concerned with over shooting planets now, good work.

But, the engines in hyper-space seem too a bit slow to me now. I also have the class 5 engines and am a Freelance captain. Glad fuel usage has been fixed as well.

Thanks for working on this game still, it's much appreciated!


Edit: Movement in combat seems very slow to me, and I have a class 5 engine.
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Steve
Site Admin
Posts: 167
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 4:33 pm

Re: Movement

Post by Steve »

If you look at the debugging code in the top left corner, there is a FPS counter called "Core" - the frame rate is capped at 60 so if the game is running significantly below 60 fps then your computer or video card/video card driver is at fault.

If your frame rate is close to 60 then this becomes an issue of game tweaks. The game does not differentiate between speed and acceleration in encounters, hyperspace, or in a solar system. The decay rate or "friction" in space value is buried in the source code, but the acceleration and top speed of every engine class may easily be tweaked or modified. Open data/globals.lua with a text editor or Notepad and scroll down until you see these values:

-- ship component classes
ENGINE1_ACCEL = 0.03
ENGINE2_ACCEL = 0.05
ENGINE3_ACCEL = 0.08
ENGINE4_ACCEL = 0.10
ENGINE5_ACCEL = 0.12
ENGINE6_ACCEL = 0.15
ENGINE1_TOPSPEED = 1.2 -- base
ENGINE2_TOPSPEED = 1.6 -- + .4
ENGINE3_TOPSPEED = 2.2 -- + .6
ENGINE4_TOPSPEED = 2.8 -- + .6
ENGINE5_TOPSPEED = 3.4 -- + .6
ENGINE6_TOPSPEED = 4.2 -- + .8
ENGINE1_TURNRATE = 1.0
ENGINE2_TURNRATE = 1.4
ENGINE3_TURNRATE = 1.8
ENGINE4_TURNRATE = 2.2
ENGINE5_TURNRATE = 2.6
ENGINE6_TURNRATE = 3.0

Fill free to modify these values until you find settings that you like and then post the modifications here. If I agree with you I'll change the values for the next release of the game. You must quit and then reload the game every time you make a change for the changes to take affect.
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