Flight model inertia problem almost solved. . .

[Second Chance]

. . .but with a fatal flaw.

Hi guys. I was discussing flight manuevers the other day when all of a sudden I realized what I was doing wrong in my attempts to get the EoC ships to fly like movie ships. So I ran to my computer and tried out my new idea, and guess what? I can now get the ships to fly around like they’re on rails. That’s right, zero inertia. And, I can even dial in as little or as much additional inertia as I want, so the ships can slide just a little.

Obviously, the solution is related to the thruster values. But now I see how they really work together. In assisted flight, the thrusters try to prevent you from moving sideways off your flight path (momentum). The max linear acceleration value is how hard the thrusters try to do this. But, the inertia of the ship always overcomes the amount of work the thrusters can do, so you slide off your flight path. And the faster you go, the more inertia you build, and the less effective the thrusters are at keeping you on track. So, I’ve discovered that if you set the max linear acceleration value close to or higher than the max forward speed of the ship, it will never move off the flight path at all, ever. Zero inertia. Then, by decreasing this value below the max forward speed value, you start to dial in the inertia setting you want. The lower the max accel value, the more inertia you get. The max linear speed value of the thrusters seems to have no effect on this, so it can be left at normal or whatever you want.

Now for the fatal flaw. Thruster override and free-flight. Since there’s no cap on the thruster velocity when using the override, or non-assisted flight, and with thrusters that accelerate at speeds close to full throttle forward velocity. . . Well, you can see the flaw.

You could disable thrust override and free-flight for the player, but the AI always uses it. And I haven’t looked at an AI ship’s flight with this setup yet. If you want to try it out for yourself and see what you think, here’s what I did:

Make a quick mod for the storm_petrel_prefitted.ini

1. Most Important – Change these values in flux.ini to 1.0[iiThrusterSim]
min_xy_lateral_acceleration_ratio = 0.2
min_xy_lateral_velocity_ratio = 0.2These values degrade the performance of the ships INI thruster performance settings on a global scale. Presumably for developer tweaking. The ships in the game actually perform at only 20% of their INI thruster ratings because of these. You don’t have to change the velocity ratio, I included it for completeness.

2. Then I simply added ones in front of the lateral thruster acceleration values for the prefitted Storm Petrel (this was so I could get the original values back by just deleting the ones, and I wouldn’t have to remember the original values).; Maximum linear acceleration as a vector (m/s/s)
acceleration=(1200, 1200, 300)

That’s all there was to it. Load up Instant Action and fly tight circles around the asteroids. You may have to get used to fighting the AI, since they’re still using the stock setup and you can’t joust in a straight line and simply pivot in place anymore. You are now moving in the direction you are pointing, at all times. Just like in the movies. [8D]

Don’t forget to activate the mod. I did. [:I]

Play around with the values. You’ll see the inertia increasing and decreasing. And try out the thrust override and you’ll see the fatal flaw I mentioned. This is probably not the solution we want, but I think I’m moving in the right direction.

mailto:second_chance@cox.net
The Ultimate Guide To Modding: I-War 2 – Edge Of Chaos (on hold during SW MP mod)
http://cartoons.sev.com.au/index.php?catid=4

---

[img]http://members.cox.net/hubner/images/sc_icon150.gif[/img] . [img]http://cartoons.sev.com.au/archives/s119.jpg[/img]

[Author]

Posts