Comments on: Orbital Mechanics

By: Marbs

Marbs — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:00:38 +0000

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.

By: Marbs

Marbs — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:47:43 +0000

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.

By: Doolwind

Doolwind — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:00:52 +0000

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.

By: Fjölnir Ásgeirsson

Fjölnir Ásgeirsson — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:11:49 +0000

Shouldn’t you rather concentrate on getting rid of the boring parts?
For example by using fake (and *fun*) physics?

By: Doolwind

Doolwind — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 01:23:37 +0000

“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.

By: Ross Presser

Ross Presser — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 20:37:00 +0000

“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.