Newtonian Aurora

[Yonder]

I don't think it will affect missiles that much, the example missiles that I was working with when I wrote that script calculating hit chances ended up with burn durations far less than the expected flight time of the missiles. (Although part of that was because flight times were shorter because the enemies were approaching at .05c).

The only time when this will really change missile behavior that much is probably very long distance sniping, where you may have been able to burn for the week or two required to get up to speed.

But in turn take less damage from kinetic projectiles.
Any plans on having a Fuel compression tech line?^^

Hmm... That tech line wouldn't do all that much, as ships are designed based on mass, not volume, so making the fuel denser wouldn't change anything. With one exception... The size of the ship actually does matter now for getting hit. If a ship had 50% fuel by mass (or more) then you may start getting noticeably smaller ships with denser fuel. (This may have minor benefits in decreased armor weights as well).

However I don't think you'd get a very noticeable affect this way, since the doubling the density of the fuel would halve the volume, but that would only shrink the length of the ship devoted to fuel by .125%, and in 2-D space the odds to hit you are based off of the length of your ship, not its cross-sectional area.

[Vanigo]

I think I'm going to miss In-System Hyperdrives.

Speaking of which, will it be possible to hyper from one star of a binary system to another, if they're small and distant enough that their hyper limits don't overlap?

[Yonder]

Steve, in NA could you change some of the names of stats to match scientific notation? For example right now in Aurora your "Engine Efficiency" stat is actually a consumption, though looking in the just posted Rules thread it seems like you may indeed have changed that to Consumption in NA.

You do, however have "Engine Power" which is actually a thrust. I noticed this because I was trying to calculate the power output of the engines in order to compare them to the power required to fire weapons, I was just wondering how much higher performance our engines would be than the rest of the craft.

BTW, looking at the latest Resolution:
Ve = 27070 km/s
Thrust = 22.5MN
Engine Energy: 3.04 E8 MW
Reactor Energy: 1.38 E3 MW
Engine/Reactor Ratio = 2.2E5

Now that seems like a pretty huge discrepancy, but rockets produce crap tons of energy, way more than could safely harnessed for any other purposes other than movement, so it's not the same as comparing a car or ship or an aircraft. We can compare it against another spacecraft though!

SpaceShuttle:
Ve = 4.423 km/s
Thrust = 6.51 MN
Engine Energy = 1.44 E4 MW
Reactor Energy = .021 MW
Engine/Reactor Ratio = 6.9E5

Wow, I was actually not expecting anywhere that close to a match. Obviously there is a huge amount of wiggle room for something like this, I was just hoping that the ratios would be within two orders of magnitude of each other, and they totally are, so sweet. (Of course comparing the ratio of specific power, or power/mass of the reactor/engine, would be more illuminating, but unnecessary IMO. I also can't do that anyways because I don't know the mass of the Resolution's Reactor and Engines.

Speaking of that rule page, I'm really glad to have it because I have been bouncing all around the different threads looking for your mechanics and design examples. Could you post the most recent variants of the Daring, Resolution, the Fighter, and those missiles you designed to the Rules thread as well?

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Yes, I have changed to fuel consumption per MN per hour rather than engine/fuel efficiency. As you mentioned, I really should change Engine Power to Thrust as well.

Steve

[LoSboccacc]

...
Thrust can be increased by up to 300% of normal and decreased to 10% of normal if you have the prerequisite techs.
...
Fuel Consumption per MN +300%, you would have something similar to the FAC engine in Aurora
...

I've two question on engines, based on those lines:

does the tech requirement means that FAC engines are available only much later in game now? they become comparable only at the max tech, if that +300% is indeed the max researchable.

what about comparable fighter engines thrust?

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

I've two question on engines, based on those lines:

does the tech requirement means that FAC engines are available only much later in game now? they become comparable only at the max tech, if that +300% is indeed the max researchable.

what about comparable fighter engines thrust?

A FAC Engine doesn't exist as such any more but you can produce an engine with double normal thrust when you research the "Max Engine Thrust Modifier +100%" tech, which is 15,000 RP. The fighter equivalent would be the "Max Engine Thrust Modifier +200%" tech, which is 60,000 RP. The fuel consumption multiplier penalties in Newtonian Aurora are much lower than in Standard Aurora.

This may not be as significant as issue as you might think. I would suspect that designing a fighter will be a balance between high acceleration and an acceptable Delta-V budget, so you may not want the max engine boost anyway. In fact, you might design a small, long endurance 'fighter' with an engine that has a negative thrust modifier.

Steve

[Mel Vixen]

Steve can yo outline how NPR will make decissions on the size of theyr engines and weapons? Ai is a small hobby of mine so it would be pretty nice to know how they wll handle this "problem".

[Yonder]

You say that the current FTL rules are that you come in between 100% and 110% of the hyper limit if the system is surveyed, and within 100% and 170% of the system if it isn't surveyed.

What do you think of having a target radius instead? So if you ordered the ship to jump to 3x the hyper limit it would come in from 295-305% for a surveyed system, and 265-335% for a non-surveyed system.

[blue emu]

I suspect that Tankers will play a much larger role in the game now.

Still hoping for either a component miniaturization tech line, or at least for an independant research line for Tractor Beams, with successive tech levels reducing the size/mass of the Tractor Beam equipment.

... I'm thinking primarily of Tractor-locked, jettisonable fuel pods, at this point.

[Yonder]

And right as I posted that you added another post to the rules page.

Re-reading your Railgun rules I realized that your heat-dissipation mechanics were a little contrary to "real life".

The heat generated by each railgun shot which needs to be dissipated is currently equal to the power of the railgun. If I read you right a 1000 MJ railgun with 25% efficiency would generate 1000 MJ of heat which needed to be dissipated. The way to do that which would be more realistic is to have the waste energy be the component that heats the railgun. That way in the above case the railgun draws 4000 MJ from the homopolar batteries, transfers 1000 MJ of that to the projectile, and the remaining 3000 MJ heats the railgun and needs to be dissipated.

If you did this there would now be two techniques which increased the rate of fire, the Heat Dissipation Rate and the Efficiency. For example lets say that our railgun dissipates 100 MW, in the above 25% efficiency scenario it would take 30 seconds to fully dissipate and be ready to fire. If you then increased the efficiency to 30% you now only pull 3333 MJ from the batteries, not only that, but you only heat your railgun with 2333 MJ, meaning that you are now ready to fire in 23.3 (25 in the game) seconds.

If you did this though you may want to cap the efficiency techs at below 100% though, otherwise you won't be producing any heat and your railguns will be able to fire as quickly as you can push power into them (which may not be a bad thing, gameplay-wise).

[Yonder]

And more rule postings to re-read!

Have you thought about having a "Shield Hardness" tech line for the point strength? Instead of having the rule that "200 m² of shield contributes to each single hit", that 200 could be a quantity improved with research. Maybe at first the shields energy can only travel from the closest 100m^2, up farther and farther and farther.

Another question on the Point strength. Is the equation MaximumShieldEnergy * 200 / ShieldSA, or CurrentShieldEnergy * 200 / Shield SA. In other words, during a fight if the 'Total Shield Strength' has been weakened by 50%, has the 'Point Shield Strength' gone done by half as well?

[UnLimiTeD]

Hmm, wouldn't that mean that shields never deplete?^^
Also,

5250 MJ Shield Generator
Maximum Shield Strength: 5,250 MJ
Maximum Recharge Rate: 12.5 MJ/s    Minimum Recharge Time: 420 seconds
Cost: 10.5    Crew: 3     HTK: 1
Materials Required: 10.5x Corbomite
Development Cost for Project: 1050RP

As far As I've read, shields gain a bonus of 1% per ton, so shouldn't this one, at 200 tons and the tech specified on that page before, have 6000 MJ of Power?

[blue emu]

Are you planning a "Linear Accelerator" installation, that could be constructed at airless bases (eg: Luna, or Asteroids) to augment the Delta-v of small ships and Fighters?

It could have a tonnage limit based on size (ie: on the number of installation levels), and a MN limit based both on size and on the available energy from the base's reactors.

This idea would allow the construction of more effective dedicated Fighter Bases, but could not be easily adapted to Carriers... thus giving LBA (Land Based Air) its traditional historical advantage over NA (Naval Aviation).

Also,As far As I've read, shields gain a bonus of 1% per ton, so shouldn't this one, at 200 tons and the tech specified on that page before, have 6000 MJ of Power?

1% per 10 tons.

Each 10 ton increment adds a 1% bonus to maximum shield energy...

[Beersatron]

You have 'Align To and Jump' command, will you also have an 'Align To' command as well?

Or maybe have a conditional order that is 'Align To xx'. That way you could be in combat outside the hyper limit being chased, so you align out but keep on fighting until the last moment - then jump out.

[Mel Vixen]

A lack of survey information could also result in the ship arriving slower or faster than expected, although within 30% of departure speed, and correspondingly earlier or later than expected. Because the ship is out of contact, you will be unable to determine the likely arrival point ahead of its arrival

This could make an interresting gamble for operations where time is crucial. The abillity to be at a destination before you actually should arrive there is pretty valueable. Depending on distance it might mean that you can get hours if not weeks of additional time out of a jump. This could be used for a number of things.

Steve will shields/armor acount the solar-wind? As in would getting to near to a star vaporize your armor/shields?