Gravity
- Thread starter Meowth
- Start date
So the moon in the trailer, that's currently running on mag boots?
A really quick and dirty way to implement it would just be to fudge the science to disable mag boots (maybe they don't work because of local charges particles or whatever, who cares, most of the tools are space magic anyway) and then use the same constantly velocity on all players and whatever the adjusted equivalent is on vehicles. have a decaying area of the gravity well after whatever distance, and then "snap" to the microgravity ruleset at the end of that.
As orbital mechanics aren't a goal of the design, I think this implementation would satisfy most people as well as make the rules in a planetary gravity well feel sufficiently different from microgravity to be interesting from a gameplay perspective.
A really quick and dirty way to implement it would just be to fudge the science to disable mag boots (maybe they don't work because of local charges particles or whatever, who cares, most of the tools are space magic anyway) and then use the same constantly velocity on all players and whatever the adjusted equivalent is on vehicles. have a decaying area of the gravity well after whatever distance, and then "snap" to the microgravity ruleset at the end of that.
As orbital mechanics aren't a goal of the design, I think this implementation would satisfy most people as well as make the rules in a planetary gravity well feel sufficiently different from microgravity to be interesting from a gameplay perspective.
Seems like being required to build 40 individual transistors to make a YOLOL chip or something. More realistic? Sure, but is it fun?
This seems like one of those times where you take realism out behind the shed and put it down in the name of fun to me.
Generally, when I'm playing a video game with realtime controls I want to know a binary pass/fail for all of the stuff I can do. Does my gun have ammo? Is this thing connected to the YOLOL network? Do I still have my left arm? The cases where I have a "maybe" are generally a penalty. In ideal circumstances when I throttle my spaceship will do what I tell it to. If I'm getting shot up then... maybe. Getting rid of maybe is the end goal of most equipment.
It might be more realistic, but if the answer to whether or not my boots will hold against complex forces I can't get a read on is almost always "maybe" in a gravity well that just seems like less fun than a more reliable pass/fail system.
This seems like one of those times where you take realism out behind the shed and put it down in the name of fun to me.
Generally, when I'm playing a video game with realtime controls I want to know a binary pass/fail for all of the stuff I can do. Does my gun have ammo? Is this thing connected to the YOLOL network? Do I still have my left arm? The cases where I have a "maybe" are generally a penalty. In ideal circumstances when I throttle my spaceship will do what I tell it to. If I'm getting shot up then... maybe. Getting rid of maybe is the end goal of most equipment.
It might be more realistic, but if the answer to whether or not my boots will hold against complex forces I can't get a read on is almost always "maybe" in a gravity well that just seems like less fun than a more reliable pass/fail system.
Another issue is simply the load on the server running the calculations. While a hard border for gravity is less realistic, it is much easier for the system to calculate than a soft/gradual border.
Although, if we're talking realism, there's no reason mag boots wouldn't work on a moon. A planet, sure, but a moon is low gravity anyway, and we're talking about exos/robots, with literal ankles of steel.
Mag boots would work fine on pretty much any planetary body that's significantly smaller than Earth.
About the only thing that wouldn't work is jumping while upside down on a ceiling.
Although, if we're talking realism, there's no reason mag boots wouldn't work on a moon. A planet, sure, but a moon is low gravity anyway, and we're talking about exos/robots, with literal ankles of steel.
Mag boots would work fine on pretty much any planetary body that's significantly smaller than Earth.
About the only thing that wouldn't work is jumping while upside down on a ceiling.
Fun is such an subjective thing.
It's not about realism, it's about avoiding invisible magic barriers.
So I guess for ships you also want none/full gravity border, to know if the ship will fall or not. And damaged generators either working at 100% or not at all. And ship either being fully functional or blowing up?
Those are maybe extreme examples, but so is yours with the chip.
I wouldn't worry about "server" load, since each player would just calculate his own magboots.
Also they do it already, to determine if you get pushed by other objects. And there was talk by Lauri about breaking mag lock in case of rapid manoeuvres.
From realism point of view those aren't mag boots, but grav boots. After all you can flip your orientation to ceiling by a press of a button, or fall down a shaft.
It's not about realism, it's about avoiding invisible magic barriers.
So I guess for ships you also want none/full gravity border, to know if the ship will fall or not. And damaged generators either working at 100% or not at all. And ship either being fully functional or blowing up?
Those are maybe extreme examples, but so is yours with the chip.
I wouldn't worry about "server" load, since each player would just calculate his own magboots.
Also they do it already, to determine if you get pushed by other objects. And there was talk by Lauri about breaking mag lock in case of rapid manoeuvres.
From realism point of view those aren't mag boots, but grav boots. After all you can flip your orientation to ceiling by a press of a button, or fall down a shaft.
What's the intrinsic value in it not being a barrier to you? Do you just like things being more complex for the sake of being complex or is there a specific gameplay reason you'd prefer it function this way?
Personally I'd rather have an invisible barrier that allows me to reliably use my equipment or not than a soft gradient that impases basically a DMZ where I'm not going to try because there's no way the human brain can process the chance of success or failure reliably and quickly enough to make an informed decision. Effectively, for all practical gameplay purposes it has the same effect with an annoying middle ground.
Ships aren't mag boots. They're a collection of simple objects with binary function states. each of those objects either works or it doesn't work. HP is a single, easily assessed number, and when it is depleted that module goes from "functioning" to "destroyed"
Boots are basically modules for your feet.
Personally I'd rather have an invisible barrier that allows me to reliably use my equipment or not than a soft gradient that impases basically a DMZ where I'm not going to try because there's no way the human brain can process the chance of success or failure reliably and quickly enough to make an informed decision. Effectively, for all practical gameplay purposes it has the same effect with an annoying middle ground.
Ships aren't mag boots. They're a collection of simple objects with binary function states. each of those objects either works or it doesn't work. HP is a single, easily assessed number, and when it is depleted that module goes from "functioning" to "destroyed"
Boots are basically modules for your feet.