SETA drive and a persistant online universe

AlphaStratus · Post by **AlphaStratus** » Fri, 18. Jul 03, 13:06

I know it is too early to start giving input on XOU, but I was wondering about what will happen to one core element of the X games: time acceleration.

Obviously you can't accelerate time in an online universe, unless everyone does it simultaeniously- which isnt practical.

The X games probably are not even playable without the SETA drive, i cant imagine spending an entire 2 hour playing session flying from argon prime to teladi gain. The first two solutions I can think of would be increasing ship speed and making the sectors smaller. The second solution is no good, bigger is better. but making ships 10 times faster doesnt sound that great either, combat would suck when ships are so fast you cant even see them (ever anger a pegasus and go into seta?)

Any thoughts on what Egosoft might do in XOU?

Snokid · Post by **Snokid** » Fri, 18. Jul 03, 13:14

its been discussed before, what they will probably do is add a special drive system- maybe something like the lds drive in Iwar-2 and/or that turbo drive thing in freelancer.

sectors will be bigger- with more things to do in them.

both systems will be a suitable sunstitute. Lds drives can be inhibited with ldsi missles- so you might be able to stop people from running away.

and the turbo thing could probablly be stopped by somehow draining the ship of its power for a quick second or two...

Ego will probably come up with their own unique system and attribute it to one of the races- maybe the Goners

Al · Post by Al » Fri, 18. Jul 03, 13:14

I dont really know but perhaps a similar approach to that used by FL where you have trade lanes and by going through the gates you get accelerated at high speed to the next junction. Maybe not ideal but better than shrinking the sectors. Also I think speeding up of the ships will have to be done for in sector travel outwith any 'trade-lanes'.

I'm sure Egosoft will have ideas of their own but perhaps they will ask for a general opinion when the time comes.

Al

=Riebus= · Post by **=Riebus=** » Fri, 18. Jul 03, 13:21

There was a post a long time ago in dev-forum abaut this

There is solution nr. 3 for this, a turbo bust

maximize ship speed x10 for short period of time. And using cells and/or spec. nitro fuel. This will solve problem if u want fly true all sector use at x5, if u are in battle and want to escape u can use x10 but if something hit`s u like in FL, you will lose speed. And u can`t turn while using nitro, maibe whith some cool extensions to your engine, turbo murbo super druper trusters or smfg

Unimaginative · Post by **Unimaginative** » Fri, 18. Jul 03, 14:09

My first thought was an overdrive that sucks so much power you have to temporarily drop shields to their lowest level (i.e. just enough to protect the ship from minute space debris). Other than the shield drop, have it the same as seta.

Al · Post by Al » Fri, 18. Jul 03, 14:16

so basically back to the boost extension from X-btf. When you had that on your shields bascially dropped to zero and then recharged once you stopped using it.

Al

Snokid · Post by **Snokid** » Fri, 18. Jul 03, 14:28

yep, except that it will be more of use- I think that there should be a speed barrier in that small square where all the stations are at- when you activate the ecliptic projector it appears; and then there should be a peice of equipment that you buy- expensive for new people who are just starting out but with the same impact and efficiency/necessity that the seta system had in BTF- this could be activated outside the barrier and could be used for exploring the bigger sectors...

Jericho · Post by **Jericho** » Fri, 18. Jul 03, 16:33

AlphaStratus wrote:I know it is too early to start giving input on XOU, but I was wondering about what will happen to one core element of the X games: time acceleration.

Obviously you can't accelerate time in an online universe, unless everyone does it simultaeniously- which isnt practical.

The X games probably are not even playable without the SETA drive, i cant imagine spending an entire 2 hour playing session flying from argon prime to teladi gain. The first two solutions I can think of would be increasing ship speed and making the sectors smaller. The second solution is no good, bigger is better. but making ships 10 times faster doesnt sound that great either, combat would suck when ships are so fast you cant even see them (ever anger a pegasus and go into seta?)

Any thoughts on what Egosoft might do in XOU?

Persoanlly I hope it won't be the FL style jumplanes. This would only reduce the freedom of movement aspect of the game and make each station stuck in its own 'sector' for want of a better word. Trading would become as cumbersome as that of Freelancer.

I'd prefer somethign along the lines of the afterburner/boost of X-BTF or Privateer 2, but with a little more power. Don't mind havig to pay for fuel at a station where I docked, we managed in Elite like that, Fuel was very cheap IIRC.

monkman · Post by **monkman** » Fri, 18. Jul 03, 21:00

Yea but in elite you basically took off and jumped i dont think it can be comparable but yes the fuel was relatively cheap. Free hydrgoen fuel if you got it urself or about 10 - 11 credits and then military fuel about 49 - 50 credits.

Elky

AlphaStratus · Post by **AlphaStratus** » Fri, 18. Jul 03, 21:10

After hearing everyone talk about Elite for the last couple years, I am starting to wish I had played it. When was it released, around 1990? That would make me 7 or 8 at the time, too bad.

Seems like it had things that today's games don't even include:

-Fuel
-Planetary landing
-Deploying planetary surface mining equipment
-other stuff i dont recall

Anyone know of an app that can emulate Elite for Windows XP, or better yet Linux?

AlphaStratus

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Fri, 18. Jul 03, 23:34

AlphaStratus wrote:After hearing everyone talk about Elite for the last couple years, I am starting to wish I had played it. When was it released, around 1990? That would make me 7 or 8 at the time, too bad.

Seems like it had things that today's games don't even include:

-Fuel
-Planetary landing
-Deploying planetary surface mining equipment
-other stuff i dont recall

The original Elite did NOT have all those things (it was released around 1982 originally, so it precedes your birth!)--it had fuel for hyperspace jumps, a trading system, and the ability to upgrade your starting ship with various items. It can be emulated on virtually any 8-bit machine emulator (Spectrum, Commodore 64 etc) and Ian Bell has got versions for those emulators available free for download from his website at http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/

Its sequel, Frontier: Elite 2, came out for the 16-bit machines (Amiga, ST) and PC in 1994. It included fuel usage in normal flight, planetary landing, mining machines, realistically-emulated solar systems, and so on, but it used a pure Newtonian flight model which wasn't much fun when it came to combat. Frontier: First Encounters followed it in 1996, but was a bug-ridden pile of offal on release. You can actually download a bug-fixed version of FFE at the official Elite Club website (http://www.eliteclub.co.uk/) as a shareware product.

AlphaStratus · Post by **AlphaStratus** » Fri, 18. Jul 03, 23:55

ooooh newtonian flight physics, have always been a fan. looks like frontier is what i am looking for, i will go try to find an emulator and see if i can get it working. thanks knibbs, always the info pile this one is.

A.S.

CanadianBrit · Post by **CanadianBrit** » Sat, 19. Jul 03, 01:52

AlphaStratus wrote:ooooh newtonian flight physics, have always been a fan. looks like frontier is what i am looking for, i will go try to find an emulator and see if i can get it working. thanks knibbs, always the info pile this one is.

A.S.

I believe you're mocking him! And are you sure info was the word you wanted to use?

AlphaStratus · Post by **AlphaStratus** » Sat, 19. Jul 03, 08:23

no mocking, pj is the true info pile. especially when you got hardware questions. and newtonian physics rock, if it is done right. i mostly play sims though- no fighting, no mission, just stabilizing that perfect orbit when apogee and perigee unite to become one. or the all elusive halfway between earth and moon slow grav orbit, i havent been able to do that yet.

anyone know what i am talking about? orbiting at that perfect spot where the moon's gravity provides just enough pull to let you enter a stable 30 day orbit at a much lower altitude than an unassisted 30 day orbit? one day i will master that one, but not today.

A.S.

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Sat, 19. Jul 03, 09:19

If you want the be-all and end-all of true physics space simulations, get thee hence to http://www.orbitersim.com/ --this goes into far more depth about real orbital mechanics and the like than any game does, and it's a real achievement to get from Earth orbit to Mars orbit.

Jericho · Post by **Jericho** » Sat, 19. Jul 03, 09:56

AlphaStratus wrote:ooooh newtonian flight physics, have always been a fan. looks like frontier is what i am looking for, i will go try to find an emulator and see if i can get it working. thanks knibbs, always the info pile this one is.

A.S.

I quite enjoyed the game and its sequals, although you do have to map the entire bloody keyboard for all the shortcuts.

AlphaStratus · Post by **AlphaStratus** » Sun, 20. Jul 03, 02:34

pjknibbs wrote:If you want the be-all and end-all of true physics space simulations, get thee hence to http://www.orbitersim.com/ --this goes into far more depth about real orbital mechanics and the like than any game does, and it's a real achievement to get from Earth orbit to Mars orbit.

Orbiter is one of my favorites. I mentioned in another thread how acheiving that perfect orbit with equall apogee and perigee is pure fun. Orbiter's vehicles tend to be a little shy on fuel, making interplanetary travel a real trick. Did you ever play Microsoft Space Simulator PJ? It had some longer range vehicles, even one with a hydrogen scoop for refueling off of interstellar gasses.

I am still waiting for a game with Orbiter style dynamics combined with the economic and combat factors of the X games. It would be a true delight to intercept and match orbits with a foe before engaging in combat, perhaps followed by a dip into the upper atmosphere for some aerial dogfighting.

A.S.

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Sun, 20. Jul 03, 07:57

Try playing Frontier or its sequel before you ask for stuff like that--I think you'll find that pure Newtonian combat models are really not that much fun at all.

Jericho · Post by **Jericho** » Sun, 20. Jul 03, 10:17

pjknibbs wrote:Try playing Frontier or its sequel before you ask for stuff like that--I think you'll find that pure Newtonian combat models are really not that much fun at all.

Agreed. Although my sniping skills were greatly improved after playing them. The random chance of a ship passing in front of your crosshair, but you still needed to lead your target by a lot, which is odd if the laser is traveling at the speed of light.

egosoft.com

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SETA drive and a persistant online universe

SETA drive and a persistant online universe

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