Orbital Mechanics
Just a quick update to let you know that things are coming along nicely in CIC at the moment. I’ve decided to put together my second tech demo (alpha 2) which wills how off movement and may have orbital mechanics involved. I’ve always been interested in orbits, both how they work, and the math that goes into entering and exiting them. I haven’t played a game to date that includes them so it seemed like a good mechanic for a tech demo. My hope is that I can hide all of the boring and complex 3D math from the player and let them concentrate on having fun sling shotting of planets, entering/exiting and changing orbits and other fun things.
Without accounting for the orbital parts, I’ve estimated about 55 hours of work to reach the tech demo. As I’m doing a lot of overtime at work at the moment I won’t be able to hit my usual 10 hours per week of work so I can’t set a date for the tech demo yet. Having said that, I’m making good time so far and will do as much as I can when I get the chance.
As always, any comments, ideas or feedback on the ‘fun’ parts of orbits or anything to do with moving in space is always welcome. I’m aiming for true* Newtonian physics which will allow for fun real 3D combat thanks to my as yet unannounced time algorithm.
*Many games claim to have Newtonian physics only to add in a ‘dampener drive’ (or equivalent) which magically takes away all the pains of REAL Newtonian physics. I hope to have a game that finally allows true physics without the player worrying about spending hours speeding up and slowing down.
“I hope to have a game that finally allows true physics without the player worrying about spending hours speeding up and slowing down.”
Unfortunately, “true physics” *does* require spending hours speeding up and slowing down. Look at what the Space Shuttle has to go through to get into orbit.
“Unfortunately, “true physics” *does* require spending hours speeding up and slowing down. Look at what the Space Shuttle has to go through to get into orbit.”
Exactly, in real life space flight there is hours (or days to years) of boredom followed by a quick bit of excitement. I’ve come up with a way that I think will reduce this boredom by dynamically changing the speed the game is running at based on what is happening. Only time will tell whether this works, but I hope to allow people to speed through the boring parts and concentrate on the exciting bits.
Shouldn’t you rather concentrate on getting rid of the boring parts?
For example by using fake (and *fun*) physics?
What I really want to see is complex physics under the hood, with a nice simple user interface for users. So the game will stand out for being original in the way it handles physics, without bogging the user down to stop it being fun.
Doolwind… I’ve thought long and hard about a good time bending mechanic for multiplayer… and I’m pretty sure that you can’t escape the fact that slowing down time for one player inconveniences others – unless they can switch to something else / other mini game etc. But still that would be frustrating because it’s jerks you out of your in-game flow. Though I know you know this already- bullet time in multiplayer wouldn’t work so well… so I’m interested in your concept.
Oh – and have you played Frontier? (Elite’s successor?) It’s entirely possible I was doing something wrong (e.g. playing it like Elite) – but true physics made ship to ship combat extremely difficult when intercepting at the speeds required for interplanetary travel. We’d come together for 2 seconds and fly apart for another 30 til we came within range again
Arrrgh. 
Here’s a game I’d like to see involving orbital mechanics.
Basically you have a system (2d would suffice – particularly for a casual version of the game) with orbiting planets. You somehow build up your fleet / planetary defences but the real twist comes that the movement of the fleet in space has to take into account planetary motion. For example you can utilise this to dump a large fleet into space just off your planet, skimping on fuel, and allow the planetary motion to carry the target planet towards your fleet. Of course the other play would probably see this coming & prepare – but there’s always stealth tech
Access to resources from other planets is also affected by return time to home planet. You may have a strategic advantage if a planet just beyond yours is constantly in close proximity due to similar orbits etc.
And perhaps you could switch off the automatic intercept plotting for a real challenge. Would you be ticked off if your armada was practically marooned in deepspace, watching the target planet sailing off into distance. Then again – just wait one more planet year… and hope some backup arrives
I like the idea that this game could be really simple casual game, or become a deeper RTS.