Author Topic: Damn, can't change thread titles can you?  (Read 8935 times)

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Offline Alan Bolte

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    • @Compellor
Damn, can't change thread titles can you?
The speeds ingame are obviously rediculously slow. I don't remember much about the various cutscenes and ANIs, nor do I presently have either FS game installed, but I'm fairly certain that at some point I saw a fighter travel from surface to space in a fairly short amount of time. Could someone point me toward any animations that they think might contain high velocities or accelerations like the one I referenced? Any clues would be easier than trying to aquire all of them and watching each individually.

If I'm reading the ship table correctly, the Herc II has a forward acceleration of just over 15 m/s/s, sans afterburner. I haven't figured out how to read afterburner accel. Disregarding any nongame evidence, it is reasonable to assume from this data that they have very limited fuel and intertial dampening, so comfortable accelerations are not huge for sci-fi but quite large compared to present-day vehicles, but velocities are extremely limited for fuel conservation. Another possibility is a magnetic scoop system like in Wing Commander.

It occurs to me that velocities and ranges might not be correct in the first place because of the weapons. Many of the weapons are described as actual lasers, but they are represented as slow-moving glowy blobs. If these ships really do carry lasers, and said lasers have to be lead rather than simply point-and-shot, then we're talking about really huge ranges and speeds. This, of course, begs the question of what beams weapons really are, considering that they hit instantaneously ingame. On the other hand, if I recall correctly the animations and such all use these slow moving blobs, so one has to question whether the animations are reliable as well.

Any thoughts on this? Am I even making sense?
« Last Edit: December 14, 2004, 10:31:06 pm by 1132 »
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Offline Sesquipedalian

  • Atankharz'ythi
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Actual velocities and accelerations?
In the name of gameplay, the Freespace universe majors on the fi more than the sci on these matters.  It doesn't make sense, but it's fun.
Sesqu... Sesqui... what?
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Offline Grimloq

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Actual velocities and accelerations?
freespace doesnt need to be realistic.

*goes back to Freespace Shrine*
A alphabetically be in organised sentences should words.

 
Actual velocities and accelerations?
who said that freespace made any sense whatsoever?
its just an incredibly fun game that gives me the grounds to make a 2d version of it
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Offline Singh

  • Hasn't Accomplished Anything Special Or Notable
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Actual velocities and accelerations?
those vel. limitations were required as anything too much faster would breach the entire gameplay area and make it useless (iirc, the limit is only 150 kms or so)
"Blessed be the FREDder that knows his sexps."
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Offline NGTM-1R

  • I reject your reality and substitute my own
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Actual velocities and accelerations?
I think the reference bible said that they're called lasers, but in reality the Terran Turret and Terran Huge Turret are actually plasma emitters.

Can't help you about the fighter primaries and Shivan turrets, though.
"Load sabot. Target Zaku, direct front!"

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Offline Alan Bolte

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Actual velocities and accelerations?
Heh, I'm doing a crossover mod here, guys. I need to be able to compare the universes if we're gonna have them meet. I know it doesn't make sense, I just intend to come up with some 'best fit' type solutions.
Anything worth doing is worth analyzing to death -Iranon

 

Offline Andreas

  • Ai No Koriida
  • 27
Actual velocities and accelerations?
Didn't they try to go around explaining the lasers in Freespace 1 by calling them Xasers in FS2 (in the techroom).
« Last Edit: December 10, 2004, 03:36:18 am by 1607 »
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Online Col. Fishguts

  • voodoo doll
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Actual velocities and accelerations?
Xaser = Xenon laser (iirc)
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Offline Lynx

  • 211
Actual velocities and accelerations?
Xaser is actually an X-Ray laser.
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Offline T-Man

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Actual velocities and accelerations?
Quote
Originally posted by Alan Bolte
This, of course, begs the question of what beams weapons really are, considering that they hit instantaneously ingame.


If you listen to the Vasudan captain at the end of the first FS2 mission, he describes them as "Photon beam cannons". Now i'm no expert, but i'd take a guess and say they're sorta like the beam version of a photon torpedo. The captain also orders the gunners to "commence plasma core insertion" so that deals with the question of their power source.
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Offline Andreas

  • Ai No Koriida
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Actual velocities and accelerations?
Quote
Originally posted by Lynx
Xaser is actually an X-Ray laser.

Heh, thanks. I just always thought that V had just made that up.
"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another." - Jonathan Swift
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Offline Havock

  • 27
Actual velocities and accelerations?
current FS2 speeds are BS.
utter.and.only.Bull****.

they are lower than today's fighter jet-speeds.

 

Offline Alan Bolte

  • 28
  • Deneb III
    • @Compellor
Actual velocities and accelerations?
Photons are light. 'Photon torpedo' is a nonsensical nickname for an antimatter missile. "Plasma core" could mean anything. The way the technical data describes beams - "A focused burst of photon emissions" - makes them sound basically like lasers.

Some interesting notes about weapons while I think about velocities:
The ML-16 is described as being highly ineffective against shields, and as an "argon laser".
The Disruptor is described as a "krypton laser" which expels NO2 into space with every shot.
The Flail is also decribed as a "krypton laser" but is described as having "high mass", which makes no sense at first glance. It is also an effective anti-shield weapon.
The Prometheus is described, like the ML-16, as an argon laser with poor anti-shield performance. The greater overall damage, then, appears to simply be a matter of total energy output.

The HL-7 is described simply as a xaser, with excellent anti-shield performance.
The Morning Star is described as being like the Flail, but with a more coherent beam. This seems to confirm that the Flail is a laser-based weapon, but we still have the "mass" issue to figure out.
The Maxim makes no sense whatsoever:
"Reconstruction efforts have after the Great War inspired advancements in metallurgy and efficient conventional explosives. The two are elegantly combined in the GTW-66 Maxim. The Maxim is by definition an energy weapon, though it behaves like a high velocity mass driver cannon, accelerating uranium slugs along its smoothbore barrel. The Maxim has a difficult time penetrating energy based shields, but it has a devestating effect on hull plating and subsystem armor."
The Kayser is some kind of technobabble weapon.
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Offline Flaser

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Actual velocities and accelerations?
Quote
Originally posted by Alan Bolte
Photons are light. 'Photon torpedo' is a nonsensical nickname for an antimatter missile. "Plasma core" could mean anything. The way the technical data describes beams - "A focused burst of photon emissions" - makes them sound basically like lasers.

Some interesting notes about weapons while I think about velocities:
The ML-16 is described as being highly ineffective against shields, and as an "argon laser".
The Disruptor is described as a "krypton laser" which expels NO2 into space with every shot.
The Flail is also decribed as a "krypton laser" but is described as having "high mass", which makes no sense at first glance. It is also an effective anti-shield weapon.
The Prometheus is described, like the ML-16, as an argon laser with poor anti-shield performance. The greater overall damage, then, appears to simply be a matter of total energy output.

The HL-7 is described simply as a xaser, with excellent anti-shield performance.
The Morning Star is described as being like the Flail, but with a more coherent beam. This seems to confirm that the Flail is a laser-based weapon, but we still have the "mass" issue to figure out.
The Maxim makes no sense whatsoever:
"Reconstruction efforts have after the Great War inspired advancements in metallurgy and efficient conventional explosives. The two are elegantly combined in the GTW-66 Maxim. The Maxim is by definition an energy weapon, though it behaves like a high velocity mass driver cannon, accelerating uranium slugs along its smoothbore barrel. The Maxim has a difficult time penetrating energy based shields, but it has a devestating effect on hull plating and subsystem armor."
The Kayser is some kind of technobabble weapon.


Check your data and the techrooms more carefully.
The ML-16 is a high power laser.
The Distruptor uses NO2 to focus the laser beam, thereby doing less overall damage but gaining greater penetration.
The Prometheus is so deadly because unlike the older lasers it scans the target and emits a laser at the best wavelenght to destabilize either the shield or the molecular bonds in the target's hull.
The Maxim is a mass driver.
The Avenger was a high profile machine gun.

I don't know what's up with the Flail or the Morning Star but my bet is they are magnetic weapons, that pummel the target with pure magnetic waves.

The Kayser is a particle accelerator.

Beams are also particle accelerators, but they gain their ammunition directly from the on-board reactor core.
You could also dub them plasma guns, but the fact that the plasma is emitted at tremendous speeds thank to the acceleration made the beam title better IMHO.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2004, 02:53:56 pm by 997 »
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Offline karajorma

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Actual velocities and accelerations?
Quote
Originally posted by Flaser
The Maxim is a mass driver.


You've got to wonder why on Earth they classified it as a Energy weapon instead of a projectile weapon then :D

Cause if the maxim is an energy weapon what the hell in FS2 isn't? :D
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Offline NGTM-1R

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Actual velocities and accelerations?
The Maxim is an energy weapon that behaves like a mass driver. Therefore, I'm going to say it's a particle accelerator.

The Kayser accelerates a very specific type of particle, one that decays and explodes.

The Shield-Breaker, Leech, and Banshee from FS1 were focused electromagentic pulse weapons. Same goes for the Circe and Lamprey from FS2.
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Offline Ace

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Actual velocities and accelerations?
The Kayser (and all Shivan weapons) are zero-point energy based.

The Avenger and Maxim are odd as they're primary weapons but their tech descriptions would be better for secondaries or ammo based primaries.

Also the Prometheus R is an EM based weapon since it's based on Banshee tech. (it doesn't use Argon like the Prometheus S)
Ace
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Offline karajorma

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Actual velocities and accelerations?
Quote
Originally posted by ngtm1r
The Maxim is an energy weapon that behaves like a mass driver. Therefore, I'm going to say it's a particle accelerator.


That's even more wrong. :)

Quote
it behaves like a high velocity mass driver cannon, accelerating uranium slugs along its smoothbore barrel.


If you're going to reclassify it say it's a mass driver and be done with it.
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Offline Alan Bolte

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  • Deneb III
    • @Compellor
Actual velocities and accelerations?
Quote
Originally posted by Flaser
The Prometheus is so deadly because unlike the older lasers it scans the target and emits a laser at the best wavelenght to destabilize either the shield or the molecular bonds in the target's hull.

This fails to describe why it is so much more effective against shields; one would think that if fine-tuning of the laser was the sole method used to improve shield damage, that it would be mentioned. Therefore I concluded that the weapon outputs more energy per shot than the ML-16.
Anything worth doing is worth analyzing to death -Iranon