Active Modules are single-use devices, until they recharge, and putting a time-limit on it is pointless. It should either be A Passive Module or a gameplay toggle.
If it’s put into the Game, Options submenu, then it should be called “Fly-By-Wire” (which is the proper term). Or more accurately, the option should be labeled “Disable Fly-By-Wire,” and have a tick-box. I’d be even better if it was mapped to a keystroke instead, like Freespace Open’s “Glide” and “Toggle Glide.”
Tho, I’m not sure if it should be a press-and-hold or a toggle. Maybe both?
Hmm… Descent’s “Rear View” key works the same way: If you tap the button, it’s a toggle, but if you hold it down for more than half a second, it becomes a press-and-hold - so likewise, when you let go, the view switches back. Also, this is on the original game, not just the source ports.
All-in-all, it’s a brilliant and possible addition to SC, Passive Module, option, or keystroke (it would suck as an Active Module).
Not all actives are single-use; I was thinking of the frigates’ and fighters’ repair and buff modules. They’re toggles with a cooldown after they’re turned off. That would prevent people from switching modes too quickly and give the game time to adapt to the new control settings.
They answered how inertia and the fact that you hear noises are viable in the Q&A sesh from 2 days back.
Q: Why do ships with the engine shut off lose momentum, and is there an explanation in the story?A: The ship's systems automatically compensate for inertia to make the fights easier for the pilots.Q: Sounds of shots are also confusing. Are you going to explain that?A: The sounds are generated by the on-board computer for ease of the combat situation.
They answered how inertia and the fact that you hear noises are viable in the Q&A sesh from 2 days back.
Q: Why do ships with the engine shut off lose momentum, and is there an explanation in the story?A: The ship’s systems automatically compensate for inertia to make the fights easier for the pilots.Q: Sounds of shots are also confusing. Are you going to explain that?A: The sounds are generated by the on-board computer for ease of the combat situation.
Pssh. I quoted that like 5 posts back. We know they answered it. Now we discuss why their answer is a bit lacking (I was trying very hard not to write “lame”. Succeeded? Err…)
I don’t see why they couldn’t implement an additional control mode where your ship responds more like an actual spacecraft. It would make high speed combat much harder, so nobody except the die-hard would use it.
Hollow_Knight, if you’d read the thread you’d have realised that people aren’t asking for actual spacecraft physics, but rather partial inertia - a little bit of drift, a little bit of continued momentum that the ship’s thrusters gradually counteract. Right now Gaijin’s other flight game, set in a much thicker atmosphere, has more inertia than this space game does. In SC ships fly through turns like they’re on train tracks, and for some people its so jarring (and restrictive) that it makes the game hard to enjoy.
Physics like this would be great (and yes it should be an option for those who want to use it)…
Hollow_Knight, if you’d read the thread you’d have realised that people aren’t asking for actual spacecraft physics, but rather partial inertia - a little bit of drift, a little bit of continued momentum that the ship’s thrusters gradually counteract. Right now Gaijin’s other flight game, set in a much thicker atmosphere, has more inertia than this space game does. In SC ships fly through turns like they’re on train tracks, and for some people its so jarring (and restrictive) that it makes the game hard to enjoy.
Physics like this would be great (and yes it should be an option for those who want to use it)…
Yes!
Never got a chance to play Moon Breakers (kind of odd considering I’m die hard fan of space combat sims, when I think of it), but from what I see it would be good compromise between “realistic” and “fun”.
Sure - turning rates seems much, much faster there, so drag/drift/momentum would need to be adjusted accordingly.
To cool down our excitement a little, though - I have to quote part of the official FAQ I stumbled upon (bold and underlined text by me):
_ 27. Is «flight» realistic or at least influenced by Newtonian movement, or is it Wing Commander-style with ships just whipping around? _
Flight are based on Newton’s laws of motion, but still, we are going to make handling as convenient as possible for players to concentrate more on the battle they are involved in rather than on keeping control over their own spaceships. In current version every ship is equipped with additional engines set to compensate undesirable inertia and rotation speed. We are also working on the option of switching these support engines off, however it probably won’t be required at all — players tend to enjoy the battle more than flight simulation in such games.
So, yeah - I think we should keep this thread bumped and try to get as many +1 as possible to convince dear developers that players tend to enjoy healthy mix of both - simulation and the battle.
Its a real pity you missed the short heyday of Moonbreakers when it came to Steam almost a year ago. Packed servers full of highly skilled pilots, with wild hectic battles that really set the adrenaline pumping - but then the dev company ran out of money and it all faded away. As you can see, MB was much, much faster than SC, and made a nonsense of the nay-sayers here who’ve said that inertia couldn’t be used in a “fast paced” game like SC.
Anyway, yes it looks like the devs made an executive decision that clicky clicky shooting is fun and fancy skilled aerobatics (spacobatics?) are not. More’s the pity. There’ll also be hordes of players who’ve never known what it is to power-slide a space fighter around a target like Starbuck, and will oppose any change without knowing what they’re missing. I’d say the devs also suffered from the misconception that it was a choice between no inertia at all and full newtonian inertia, not even giving the partial variety any consideration. To implement it properly would require them thinking it through and doing it carefully, not just flipping a switch - I’m not holding my breath
As I said previously, to create such a beautiful and rich game but deliberately dumb down the flying … don’t think I’ll ever understand it. Piloting a ship in SC could have easily been as exhilarating as the below vid …
Anyway, yes it looks like the devs made an executive decision that clicky clicky shooting is fun and fancy skilled aerobatics (spacobatics?) are not. More’s the pity.
Nice take.
There’ll also be hordes of players who’ve never known what it is to power-slide a space fighter around a target like Starbuck,
Actually, there’s Diaspora to remedy that. Oh, and it’s just as intense as the show.
Please note that the show doesn’t use Newtonian physics either.
As I said previously, to create such a beautiful and rich game but deliberately dumb down the flying … don’t think I’ll ever understand it.
I feel the same way about Freespace. Most of the new mods are pretty viscus too, with only a few exceptions that can be counted on one hand, including Dimensional Eclipse. I wish they would make more realistic mods like Wing Commander Saga and Diaspora. However, those are Total Conversions, but that means nothing as FS uses simple table-based physics settings for all ships and weapons, which can be edited with fraking Notepad. Everything else required is supported in FSO by default.
With alot saud above in my opinion there should be an option for players to chose from partial inertia to full inertia , and all the other fancy dandy space sim controles u could have. I would like to play as if it were realy space. but thats just me pple should be able to chose what thhey want = more clients = more $
I want to express my support for more realistic game play. Played a lot of War Thunder and having a good feel on StarConflict too.
War Thunder had a very good aproach to realism when it comes to gravity and inertia issues. Something should be learned from there… Physics could slightly alter between game modes, but the core of this message is: I hate to see my ship going full stop as soon as I release the throttle. When turning my ship behaves like a fish in water.
Maybe polling even more for this type of changes if that hasn’t been done yet would be great idea? Well thanks for reading and good luck with the battles for everyone!
I too would like some partial inertia introduced , it’s not like the core physics are not there . I though intially that was what the difference between basic and expert control modes was very dissapointed when i found out it wasn’t. The game needs something to make it more like a space game rather than a earthbound flying game with a space backdrop.
