Star Citizen Alpha 2.0: Flight Model Changes

Erillion

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/15031-Star-Citizen-Alpha-20-Flight-Model-Changes

Major changes to Star Citizen Flight Control Model.   Check out the detailed in depth article.


Have fun

rpmcmurphy

I'm glad they are doing something because I really do not like the current design.

The changes sound quite good but it's the implementation that matters, a wait and see for me.

Erillion

Developers answer questions about new flight model :

https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/293412/flight-model-ifcs-2-0-feedback-and-discussion

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CIG Calix Reneau CIGCalixReneau

Posted: 5:52AM

Skyfaller @ Strike Witch | Skyfaller said:

[source]

Questions/Comments for Pete Mackay and John Pritchett:

1. Could you please specify how decoupled-only pilots would use these new 3 IFCS modes?

Particularly the precision and cruise modes. Decoupled flight really cares less about what speed the ship if flying in since the IFCS is not supposed to be negotiating vectors for it. So there should be no rotation rate nerfs under this mode in cruise.

Also, if I understood correctly, both boost and afterburner are to be available. Question is why? If a ship can switch from SCM to Cruise to exceed its IFCS speed limitation then instead of using afterburner to go beyond that speed the ship should literally just switch to cruise mode. Its the same 'push one button' procedure. What is the difference between SCM using afterburner to prop up to 2x its top speed and the pilot simply switching to cruise mode and doing the same?

Finally, I posted this suggestion some time ago about the new IFCS modes:

https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/289093/brainstorming-revealed-ifcs-modes-suggestions

It organizes coupled and decoupled into independent flight modes each with the same settings but these settings operate differently depending on the flight mode it is in.

('Universal' in that link's image is 'Cruise' ... perhaps a better name is needed? Universal is a word I used since all ships could reach the same universal speed with it but the name is not catchy...and cruise doesn't really describe what cruise does..its not a fuel efficient travel mode. )

2. What is the design decision/purpose of making the Hull series be slower than they could be even when they are unloaded? Mass:Thrust would say such ships could have very high accelerations and the only reason for denying them this is the 'can't have giant empty trucks as the fastest ships around' argument....which doesn't make sense. Artificially lowering their top speed 'just because' destroys much of the ship's flexibility/adaptability and bottlenecks it into being a slow, huge hulk no matter what.

"All of the flight modes are available in decoupled. Precision reduces acceleration a bit, to try to keep things nice and controlled when performing close proximity maneuvers, and this will be true in decoupled mode as well. We have talked about allowing precision to offer greater acceleration in contrary actions, or actions that reduce total velocity. This would make it highly responsive when trying to correct ship motion, like when you are about to crash into something, but it hasn't been tested yet, and we probably want to see how players do with the current implementation before exploring too deep in how to improve it from here.

SCM still imposes the same top speed in decoupled mode, ensuring that at any given time the ship can come to a stop within tolerable times. You might be advanced enough to never need this, in which case you can just get into Cruise mode and stay there - Cruise mode can throttle all the way down to 0, so if you have the control to make this work, go for it.

Cargo haulers in general are designer to accommodate far more mass than themselves, and we justify drastically increasing the Load Rating of the engines at the cost of really poor jerk stats - when fully laden, the ship operates as expected, but that low jerk value really becomes the primary limiting factor when the ship is empty. It's not really any different from any other kind of balance trade off."

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CIG Calix Reneau CIGCalixReneau

Posted: 5:56AM

BaconofWar | BaconofWar said:

[source]

How will overclocking work into the upcoming flight model or will that be worked in later.

Overclocking is a separate system, but since it affects the output of components, it will ultimately also have an affect on flight. Pushing the components harder to get more thrust can increase your acceleration, which can increase your top speed. This can be very punishing for the components though, so there's a balance to be found to get the absolute best out of the component without pushing it so hard that it breaks.

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Have fun