Idea Faster then light game in orbiter?

[colligpip]

Hello started playing orbiter again after not playing for ages. I have been playing faster than light the 2d space game and I was wondering if there was anything like this in orbiter?

It would be so good to have the faster than light type interface in orbiter so you could simulate controlling crew and damage etc. Is the orbiter battle project thing still going I was looking forward to that.

 

[jedidia]

FTL and Orbiter... two quite, quite, QUITE different pair of shoes, I'm afraid.

 

[colligpip]

Yes I was just wondering if there was an MFD that could simulate launching weapons at other ships and ship damage received etc. No need for fancy graphics yet just a simple mfd read out.

a bit like the interface in FTL. anyway just an idea to make orbiter more fun for those of us that want to go pow pow peeoww zap in space.

 

[Hielor]

If you want space combat, Orbiter is not currently the game for you.

 

[Quick_Nick]

If you want space combat, Orbiter is not currently the game for you.

You're living 10 years in the past Hielor.
There are mods. I just don't know of anything in particular made for Orbiter 2010.

 

[RisingFury]

You're living 10 years in the past Hielor.
There are mods. I just don't know of anything in particular made for Orbiter 2010.

There are a collection of mods like Bomb MFD, AA missile and UCGO nuke, but nothing comprehensive, since OBSP is not yet out.

 

[colligpip]

aghh i don't like any of the other space "combat" games none of them seem real at all.

I mean floating around in a box with a painted on planet just doesn't do it for me. I want proper orbital mechanics etc and the chance to outrun space torpedo's by flying down into the atmosphere etc. Would that work I dunno?

I want to be able to lock on missiles form thousands of KM away and watch as the other ship tries to out run it etc. I want to see starships on fire off the belt of an onion.


I want to be a captain of something better than a stupid zippy little arcadey space ship that ignores all the rules of physics like all the other games have.... im bored of them... I want it in orbiter!!! please.

Then i want to have to rescue stranded pilots of alien worlds and be nice and fluffy when the fighting stops and we can all go back to drinking tea on Titan whilst looking at the rings of Saturn.


or something

 

[N_Molson]

I want it in orbiter!!! please.

Then you're more than welcome to participate develop you own addons, all what it takes is a lot of motivation and free time.

You can exceed the speed of light in Orbiter, but you won't witness any relativistic effects.

I'm not sure that spaceships combat is a valid concept anyway. Big units would be sitting ducks, regardless of the weapon. Send a nuke and it's over. Starfighters would be very different from what you've seen in movies, and IMHO drones would be a much better option : in space, there's a lot about predictible trajectories calculations, and an advanced computer could probably handle that very well.

 

[Urwumpe]

And a drone could reach accelerations, that any big ship can only dream of...

 

[N_Molson]

And a drone could reach accelerations, that any big ship can only dream of...

Yeah, and even, if well designed, sustain accelerations that would kill any human being. I imagine the thing like a sphere, the most efficient shape to endure linear and angular accelerations. With holes for thrusters (that allow equally high manoeuvrability in every possible direction), and "torpedo tubes" to launch missles (well, those would have no reason to look like an atmospheric missle, could be spheres again), probably tactical nuclear warheads.

With a squadron of those, you could probably rain down enough warheads on a planet to annihilate most species living on it.

 

[Urwumpe]

Yeah, and even, if well designed, sustain accelerations that would kill any human being. I imagine the thing like a sphere, the most efficient shape to endure linear and angular accelerations. With holes for thrusters (that allow equally high manoeuvrability in every possible direction), and "torpedo tubes" to launch missles (well, those would have no reason to look like an atmospheric missle, could be spheres again), probably tactical nuclear warheads.

I would rather expect an conical shape there with little make-up. Conical for making it harder to destroy the drone by fire from the target.

 

[N_Molson]

With current or near tech, I think that the main challenge would be (again) propulsion. SRMs could be nice to avoid a projectile but are one-shot. Ionic propulsion, though it would allow to easily relocate the unit, wouldn't allow that, and there is the problem of power generation, solar panels are a no-go in a combat environnement.

I'd try hypergolics for main manoeuvers, and maybe several "one-shot" SRMs to escape projectiles in critical situations. Simply fuel cells for power. The thing would have to be serviced in orbit every 20 days or so (not by a space station, which is a sitting duck again), or deployed/retrieved by a shuttle-like system.

I guess that the closest existing thing from that is the X-37B. The drone is launched by a rocket and lands by itself. An interesting intermediate option.

 

[Hielor]

You can exceed the speed of light in Orbiter, but you won't witness any relativistic effects.

He's talking about the game Faster Than Light, not the actual process of travelling faster than the speed of light.

 

[wehaveaproblem]

Outrunning a missile by descending into the atmosphere would be interesting, since you technically need to slow down to descend, so presumably by going into the atmosphere you would be reducing the distance between you and the missile chasing you...? I may be a bit off here, but the concept of 'proper' orbital combat has always intrigued me as it just wouldn't work as it does in the movies obviously...

That aside, I like the game FTL, and an mfd that could simulate crew tasks could be an interesting project, building on the umma infrastructure, or xyon's xr damage modelling project etc... Could be worth some serious consideration by a coder?

 

[4throck]

Nothing against the notion of combat (I love World of Tanks) but I fail to see what Orbiter has to do with it.

» Instead of docking you would destroy other spacecraft once you got there...
» Projectiles would be the same as jettisoning some cargo in the direction of another vessel...

Don't want to sound negative, but I simply don't see how a simulator could be turned into an arcade game...

 

[Urwumpe]

Well, you could wrap Orbiter around a combat simulation. You could actually do that pretty well by using those resources that Orbiter currently ignores (other CPU core).

BUT:

The graphics engine of Orbiter is not made for combat special effects. They will never look like in a cheap year 2000 action game.

A realistic spacecombat will be 165,000 seconds of boredom followed 1.5 seconds of sheer terror. Not really what you want to play.

You would need some form of balancing to ensure that the lack of technological limits by Orbiter does not ruin the gameplay. Imagine Star Trek vs 2001 there.

You would need to provide an API for flawed sensor data so that deception and detection could actually make sense. Perfect sensors, like Orbiter currently assumes, would prevent any deception to work.



That is a lot of work, essentially you would only leave the graphics engine and the orbital physics engine of Orbiter left and have to add everything else.

Not that easily done.

 

[Donamy]

Kirk, "Mr. Spock, ...how long before we reach the crippled space colony, on Rigal 6 ?"

Spock, "... If my calculation are correct captain, ...we will reach the Rigal system in 27 years, 2months, 19 days, 7 hours and 2 min. to be precise."

 

[Eccentrus]

it's better if you work this, rather than as an add-on, but as an expansion pack, and for KSP rather than orbiter, because if you're going this direction you're going to invest much time and money doing this and won't finish at all if it's not a dayjob, of course the other solution is for you to ask people around to make it an open-source endeavor, but then again there's not much people in the orbiter community, let alone those who are dedicated and talented enough to do this.