The one extremely frustrating thing to me is how ships accelerate in battle. Currently, ships accelerate at a fixed rate, and abruptly cease to accelerate at their speed limit. It is completely unrealistic and obnoxious. Now, you may say: "But Catattack, it is hard on both developers and the game engine to make this game that realistic. This isn't a simulator!" Well, I completely agree, but I propose a method that is just one level above this system in terms of realism, and hardly more taxing on the game engine.
My Proposition:
Ships should have an acceleration curve, to represent their engines providing less and less thrust as they approach their listed "top speed". I don't propose removing speed limits at all, and don't take it that way! Ships should have an acceleration curve based on their top speed and their mass. Also, it would make sense that low-tech ships would have a steeper acceleration curve (meaning that they reach low speeds faster, and high speeds slower), and high-tech ones would have a flatter curve (meaning that their acceleration changes less). This would represent the differences between older propellent-based rockets and newer ion-engine-like thrust devices.
Benefits:
-
More realistic, doesn't break immersion like current system- Instead of reaching max speed and coasting, the player can feel the tension mount as they keep their engines on to eke out every ounce of speed they can (until floating-point rounding cuts them off)
- Makes ships realistically more maneuverable at lower speeds
- Just generally gives more character to the engines (and therefore to the ships)
Drawbacks:
- Ever so slightly more taxing on game engine
- Takes some time to code (although my experiences with coding an acceleration curve tells me that it isn't
that hard)
- Makes the game more realistic (This is a drawback if you hate reality)
![Grin ;D](https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/Smileys/default/grin.gif)
EDIT: Link to post with my original idea:
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=1332.msg13876