.com.unity Forums
  The Official e-Store of Shrapnel Games

This Month's Specials

Raging Tiger- Save $9.00
winSPMBT: Main Battle Tank- Save $6.00

   







Go Back   .com.unity Forums > Shrapnel Community > Space Empires: IV & V

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #21  
Old January 26th, 2003, 06:38 PM

Baron Munchausen Baron Munchausen is offline
General
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Ohio, USA
Posts: 4,323
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Baron Munchausen is on a distinguished road
Default Re: weapon platforms, weight ratios and modding questions

Two light-years is much too big. The two Pioneer spacecraft are expected to hit the heliopause sometime in the next decade and they are only moving at something like 25,000 miles per hour. If there really is an 'Oort cloud' out there, though, it will be 1 light-year or more distant.

So it really depends on how you want to define the 'limits' of the solar system. What practical use is the Oort cloud? What effect does it have in the game? (Assuming all stars have one...) Not much unless we allow it to be 'harvested' somehow or other.

Using the orbital domain of planets seems much more practical for the purpose of the game. If you use the orbit of Pluto as the 'limits' of the solar system you get a much smaller area. Pluto is anywhere from 4 to 6 'light-hours' from the sun (it has a highly eccentric orbit). Even with the larger distance light can cover the 'entire' width of the solar system in only 12 hours. Assuming that our solar system is fairly average, SE IV ships only need to travel at about 1/60th of the speed of light (less than 2 percent!) to be able to cross the solar system in one month. 300,000 km/sec divided by 60 is about 5,000 km/sec or 3,100 miles per second. Still quit a clip. Out fastest spacecraft to date only do about 7 or 8 miles per second.
Reply With Quote
  #22  
Old January 26th, 2003, 07:19 PM
Rollo's Avatar

Rollo Rollo is offline
Brigadier General
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Kiel, Germany
Posts: 1,896
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Rollo is on a distinguished road
Default Re: weapon platforms, weight ratios and modding questions

Baron, I basically agree with you. I have opened a new topic on this, btw. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=23;t=008034
My calculation comes out to be twice the speed of yours: 1/30 of the speed of light, since I assumed a system to be twice at large (1 light day). Since there are some objects beyond Pluto (remote mining the Kuiper belt?) and I am not sure that our system is indeed average, I doubled the size to be sure .

Rollo

[ January 26, 2003, 17:27: Message edited by: Rollo ]
__________________
SE4
Devnull Mod Gold:
Version 1.80
Dungeon Odyssey:
Hack and Slash
Version 0.53e
Reply With Quote
  #23  
Old January 26th, 2003, 08:50 PM
orev_saara's Avatar

orev_saara orev_saara is offline
Corporal
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 62
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
orev_saara is on a distinguished road
Default Re: weapon platforms, weight ratios and modding questions

Geez. I'd just like to apologize to Graeme Dice, whose name suffered an unfortunate accident in my Last post on this thread. Hope there's no hard feelings.
__________________
If one binds one's heart firmly and imprisons it one can allow one's spirit many liberties: I have said that before. But no one believes it if he does not already know it...
-Friedrich Nietzsche
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:57 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©1999 - 2024, Shrapnel Games, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.