Momentum

from StarControl Forums

Another way at looking at the speed issue is that the ships have too much momentum. They can't maneuver. This is Star Trek: Bridge Commander combat, an endless jousting match. The ships are moving so fast that you cant turn left or right, you have to turn around and thrust for a long time before slowing down enough to maneuver. This creates an endless jousting match, or said in the technical terminology of the SFU... there are only two possible forms of attack, High Speed Overrun or Oblique Attack. This makes for a very boring fight.

Trust me, this gets a lot more fun than this. The Earth ship's missile is a perfect example. You can't dodge it because you can't maneuver. With the ships grounded in the reality of fighting fixed location, a turret, they will be able to maneuver. Then you can dodge the missile, “turn in” for a “knife fight”/close-in dogfight, and a whole range of other maneuvers and tactics at both short and medium range all of a sudden exist where they did not before. It really does get a lot more fun than this.

 

To PC my former employer of a different era so that it doesn't come off as offensive, “They don't even know what they want.” The ships are moving way too fast.   

8,745 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from StarControl Forums Top

We can't doge the nuke right now (not even with Measured) because the ships are not maneuverable or fast enough.

Reply #2 from StarControl Forums Top

The ships are about the right speed - until a recent update they were too sluggish. A bigger arena would probably be good though.

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from StarControl Forums Top

Have you considered a possibility that ships are moving fine, you're just too old? :)

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Reply #4 from StarControl Forums Top

The problem wasn't manueverability, the problem was the nuke was too good.  Check out the latest update.

Reply #5 from StarControl Forums Top

Actually, you can't dodge the nuke right now because you are flinging across space a warp speed.  You can't maneuver because you first must spend a very long time, tactically, thrusting in the opposite direction of travel just to slow down enough to maneuver.  "Turning in" is not an option, which leaves only high speed attack runs as tactical options... and there are only two basic forms of that.  Said another way, all of the ships fight like Klingons or Andromedans.  None of the ships fight like Kzinti, Hyrdans, or the Federation.  They can't, because high speed passes are the only available tactics.

Replacing the planet with a turret and finding the balance where you can just barely stay out of the firing arc of the turret as you pass by it on a "sideways strafing run" will ground the speed balance to the reality of a fixed location.  The ships really are moving very, very fast.  These types of games naturally have "fast paced action", they don't need to be flying at warp speed to make that true.  It really is WAY too fast, which is why the gravity feels like it has so little effect and you can't slingshot around the planet like you can in other games like this.

Put the Tywom ship on a pedestal at the center of the map as a turret and balance the fight against the turret.  You'll see right away how fast everything is currently moving.

"They don't even know what they want." - John Olsen

;-)

 

Reply #6 from StarControl Forums Top

I realized that I should also point this out... how fast and maneuverable were the Ur Quan, Mycon, and Khor Ah?

The Mycon could barely move, remember?

 

Reply #7 from StarControl Forums Top

Quoting Kavik_Kang, reply 6

I realized that I should also point this out... how fast and maneuverable were the Ur Quan, Mycon, and Khor Ah?

The Mycon could barely move, remember?

 
End of Kavik_Kang's quote

Mycon is quite slow, yes. It's one of the ships that lives and dies by gravity whips.

Ur-quan is slow, but actually not THAT slow. It's faster than about a third of SC1's ships, including the Earthling Cruiser. If we want the Scryve to be similar its speed should be low tier but not bottom.