Hardcore space sim for X4
V 1.5.1
Built on latest Steam's update (5.0 + Hotfix4)
Compatible with ALL dlc's SV and COH (their ships are modified too)
Compatible with Tides of Avarice
DOWNLOAD LINK: https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/848/
What inspired this mod
Even for a futuristic craft, X4's ships have accelerations/decelerations that are totally un-immersive. In "real life" any pilot would become a gelatin at every boost or stop. This mod attempts to recreate more believable physics for all ships. Moreover, there is no speed limit in space except that of light. Accelerations, on contrary, vary according to the mass/thrust.
What the mod offers:
1) There is no real speed limit (there is, but you never get there in actual game). There is a speed limit for assisted flight, still it is quite high.
Since accelerations are not instantaneous you have to manage the top speed or let the autopilot do it for you.
2) Horizontal/vertical thrusters can be used for navigation, there is much less friction (there is none in real space) and they have higher top speed (virtually unlimited). As for thrusters, the basic cheap mk1 has very nerfed performances
3) Accelerations/decelerations are more believable, so don't expect instant stop. Don't go close to an object at high speed and ask for instant stop.
This reflects in the travel mode too, which is still very useful for faster accelerations and for reaching higher speeds
4)
5) Mouse wheel throttle is more precise, so you can set smaller increases. Since top speed is higher and inertia is a thing, you need to use small increments when close to a station
Nerdy considerations you don't need to read:
For what I understood, X4's physics work a bit differently than in Rebirth, where I made a similar mod even before v3.6 (before 'flight assist off' was introduced). Instead of having parameters for drift (which also relates to mass), there is a drag factor, which is the inverse. Also it affects top speed. It makes no sense because there is no friction in space, but there is no top speed either anyway (and I did not mess with mass parameter to see how it effects physics). At the end it does not change much. But you can't have real inertia, there is always some minimal friction at work even with flight assistance off. Nothing really tangible
Mod is very safe to remove since I only changed ship's physics, nothing more (no model nor guns). You can even change its parameter and reload the current save without closing the game
Please report any issue, in particular how big ships behave with this mod, I still did not test it
Other considerations for playing:
The way the game's engine manages physics is kind weird, it calculates a drag factor (that does not exists in space) to address accelerations and speed. The other (contrary) factor being thrusters oc. So when you cut engine, the ship goes back to its top speed even with flight assist off, but if drag is low this happens slowly so you barely notice it. So I have to find the right balance to still have inertia and not overdo with the non-sense drag (you can see it at work when cutting engine off, if you keep going in circle, the ship decelerates as it was a glue). In general, F.AssistOn makes some tricks as f.i. keeping the inertia you had and transferring it to the new direction you go (which would happen only to an airplane in the air). The good news would be that this kind of physics model could easily be applied to atmosphere flight simulation (by increasing the drag factor on the fly), had we some some atmospheric sector in this game...
This is not an issue but a sort of in-game help/trick: autopilot can manage crazy speeds by teleporting the ship, it does it also for npc, so for as silly as it is, this trick avoids crazy things happening. When in trouble, activate autopilot!
In general, one should approach travelling in a different way: either let the autopilot do its job, or manually setting top speeds by using the throttle (that I made having more discrete steps) to max 3000/4000 ms inside a sector.
More is not needed, you risk spending more time to decelerate. But if you use mods that enlarge sectors, then having higher top speed is great
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Known issues:
1) Split start, where you have to be rescued. The stupid pilot keeps accelerating away instead of waiting for you. I changed the script in the start mission but that did not resolve the thing. Simply start the game without this mod, be rescued, the turn it on.
2) Some ships that have a mass different from the expected class, as the kuki, can have bad performances. This happens bc mass is a very important factor now that engines are not overpowered and friction is no more, so please report any ship that has very different performance. Be aware that Mk1 engines/thrusters for S and M are intentionally very sh**ty, as they have to be, given how cheap they are