Drag and artillery

Then it doesn't matter. Edit: Which basically goes for the rest of this thread too. There is no point putting in all these "realistic" effects if the result is a negligible change that barely affects gameplay.

I think the weapons shouldn't have lag I mean having drag would mean a lot of physics would have to come into place for example the bigger the planet the more gravity the list could have 2 ideas or dozens :?

Whut...

I though it might help with the UI, I was wrong.

But half the fun of the nuke IS the cloud. I suppose it could potentially reduce battlefield clutter... but not by much. It's not like there thousands of nukes going off in a game :/

Like I said, a bad idea.

O god I remember that thread ><


Also the OP idea makes physical sense but is potentially game-breaking, therefore not awesome, See sig

A man after my own heart.

replace drag with gravity and artillery with projectile weapons and i think it could be interesting, lack of an atmosphere i would also suggest increase the range but that would be the max on atmospheric effects (atmosphere and no atmosphere no differing levels on atmosphere).

I think that having weapon ranges affected by external factors like gravity, drag or whatever might be over-complicating things. I would like to be able to plop down a turret and know in advance that it will an X meter radius (or kilometers) just like it has on the other planet I used it.

BUT, if there's some sort of really good range viewer when plopping down guns and if the external factors influence just a small percentage of the gun range. It might be fun. Lets imagine that when you select a planet the interface tells you that "due to high gravity, unit speed and weapon range is reduced by 2%" or something like that.

Am I onto something? :?

A proper UI for affecting values like gravity is a must.

I think it would be more effective just to SHOW where the gun can shoot. The client has nothing but time, after all.

I approve of basic what-goes-up-must-come-down simulation. I don't this there is enough value in atmospheric drag, relativistic projectiles, or even gravity proportional to each planetoid's mass (also see my previous statement).

Planets are already horribly out of proportion to actual planets (for good reason) and trying to squeeze a real world phenomenon into the game universe would be very confusing. Think about it, if we keep to the gravity equation then on the average moon a tank will be able to fire a projectile with sufficient trajectory and speed to escape gravity, let alone an artillery unit. It may not make much sense in the real world, but it would make a lot of sense from a gameplay perspective if the range of a unit wasn't affected by how heavy the planet is.

The other issue is, as mentioned, effectively communicating all this to the player. This is essentially a hidden modifier, based on not the unit but where it happens to be. Unlike other environment effects (water, slopes, places like swamps/long grass in other games) there is no easy visual cue available for the user, resulting in the need to inform the player of the stats (gravity x2.1, drag +10%, etc). Fine if you are an Eve player, not so fine if you just want to attack the enemy.

Finally, there is still one way that you could affect units like artillery without resorting to difficult to explain phenomena - the smaller the planetoid, the more pronounced its curvature is, meaning that (esp. if gravity remains constant across all bodies) artillery shots can go around the planet further, meaning more range. This same principle can be used to make units on a higher altitude shoot further. And best of all the size of a planet is visually obvious and thus requires no explanation to the user.

sorry to lazy to grab quote but yeah there would be an indicator that shows up when you select the planet telling you the effectiveness of gravity (this % change in range from standard value), that and there should always be a way of showing range displayed on the ground (i personally don't do the math of 50m-25% grav nerf = i can shoot this target, i just look *sees range marker* enemy is in or out of it, done).

that being said i think gravity would quite be something Uber would rather ignore and just do normal earth physics on everything including asteroids.

I am not a number cruncher cause for me numbers always go out the window on the battlefield, best laid plans of mice and men kind of thing.

Actually projectile drag is a major coefficient in reducing the range of artillery.
Wikipedia

(I know I am stretching the conversation over 2 threads but...)
Drag may play a big deal, but will the difference in drag between different planet's atmospheres be significant, or at least significant enough to justify having a different coefficient for each planet, instead of the same for every planet with an atmosphere?

It depends on how much you want it to affect combat and how it affect strategies.
Wind in TA affected how effective wind generators were which in turn affects the viability of air and metal maker economy. Cheaper energy source means easier to make high energy cost airplanes and makes metal maker economy stronger compared to mexes.
Wind also affected cannon balls but I think it was only to a very small degree since I only noticed it when I created a map with extreme wind speed.