Quantum Travel Times

StdDev

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if they had no QT times you wouldn't have any opportunity to actually perform those actions.(Also it makes a great time to take a real life toilet trip
This suggests an interesting Pavlovian type experiment! I wonder if QT travel time adjustments could alter the avg. time to pee.. 🤔
 

Michael

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Some good points have been brought up.

Here is why i think longer travel times are good and necessary: Logistics.

thats it i'm done.


(slightly exaggerated)
Just assume we have our fully server meshed servers with 100 Star Systems. Test Squadron conquered one Star System and is in constant combat with the inferior peasants from ADI.
- If you can "instantaneous" jump from one point to another its way to easy to hotdrop your fleet an a target and do some quick jump away if reinforcement arrives.
- This will most likely lead to large powerblocks defending empty space. If you can jump in 5 minutes through the whole universe and you're currently the Meta Powerblock you will crush everything on your way.
- 50% of your fleet gets destroyed, fresh respawned members (from the homeworld) will rejoin the enemy fleet within 5 minutes.
- Fuel transport, logistic routes, ship repeair all this will be less meaningful

Overall this will (imo) lead to FPS combat feeling. Join Attack Respawn Repeat

Also think about the Bounty Hunters wich will definitly need some time to hunt down someone (once the magical position marker vanished). If you can jump through the universe this will be a much harder job.
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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This suggests an interesting Pavlovian type experiment! I wonder if QT travel time adjustments could alter the avg. time to pee.. 🤔
As the way quantum drives work is by field compression, it would shorten the time the pee takes to reach the toilet, but not the speed it exits the body... unless you were compressing the bladder but that could be painful/end badly.
 

Scape

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The only thing that gets a bit boring in QT for me is the default travel animation.... But they recently addressed it saying its due a visual overhaul. The travel times for me are fine, new players in starter ships will also need to stop at rest stops for fuel and that encourages exploration. The ability to swap out drives in future for faster ones will help, but it is a big possibility Solar System and i would be annoyed if it was too much faster
 

Bambooza

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"I command you, REVIVE!

It's alive! It's alive! Bwwwaaaaahahahaha!"

Time for a necro.

Okay so who here recalls being told that the larger the Q drive the faster, and that small and medium ships will want to catch rides with large and cap ships on very long explorations, excursions, etc?

I'm asking because I've been going with that presumption for years now, and suddenly while skimming the travel speeds found this is not currently true AT ALL. In fact the fastest drives seem to go to small ships.


I will own feeling upset about this since I have been planning to run little ships down with a Sentinel, and now it looks like I can't do that if they choose the right drive. Likewise I see very little reason to have to carry ships into distant theaters. What's the purpose of a Kraken? If the issue is just refueling, which is easier to cope with than transport; lets have a StarG or some such.

Something seems broken. Anyone know what this is about?

They did say originally that larger ships would travel faster in QT and that fleets should pre-jump their fighters or have them ready to launch off the carrier ships. I personally am a fan of the launching of fighters off carrier ships as it would be visually stunning.

I hadn't heard or read anywhere that they were going to change the QT time of smaller ships to be just as fast as the larger ships. If it is currently then either they are testing it or it could just be an artifact of them tweaking flight dynamics. I would argue that some of the smaller ships should have comparable QT travel speeds or travel range as fitting with their lore like the Avenger and Defender, but still, be lacking the range of the larger ships even if they have faster QT time.

I would even go so far as to say ships like the Hurricane, Hornet, Sabre, Khartu-Al, Buccaneer and Gladius but to name a few should be pretty much limited in jump capability to near planet body and its moons and stations and possibly as far out as Lagrangian points allowing for multiple jumps and fuel stops to transfer some systems. In fact, I would push for some systems just not navigatable solo without a fuel truck or carrier ship for most of the fighters.

We already know that logistics is going to be important from ammo to fuel, food and water. It only makes sense that being able to ship the fighter and bomber wings with your fleet to the frontier will also require a lot of logistics and carriers to accomplish. It also goes to continue to support the idea that the Hammerhead is a terrible ship gameplay-wise. It asks the question of why to bother with carriers, fighters and bombers when a fleet of Polaris and a couple of Hammerheads can easily accomplish the same result with fewer players and easier logistically. Yes, you can say the cost will be a factor but every MMO to date has become hyperinflated within months of its release and thus costs quickly become mute.
 

maynard

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So i think a few big things people keep forgetting is Intradiction they need a chance for pirates to have the oportunity to pull you out of QT so they can try to kill and rob you ... (Also it makes a great time to take a real life toilet trip.)
those ebil piwates boarded and hijacked my ship while I was on the can!

:mad:
 

Mastersan

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I think travel time needs to be as long as the player wants it to be.
There should be choices and rewards. And as a rule of thumb I feel the faster you want to travel the more expensive it should be. This may come in a form of a more expensive quantum drive, less fuel efficient quantum drive, paid faster routes, etc.

I did some calcs for the Carrack previously, where I've compared Agni quantum drive (supposedly the worst) and RS-2 quantum drive (supposedly the best). What I've found is that Agni is actually the best for exploration. It's the most fuel efficient and you can travel about 5 times the distance that you can travel using RS-2. This is good when you are away from "civilisation" (e.g. Stanton system) and more into the unknown (e.g. Pyro system), where there are no rest stops here and there, and where you need to use fuel wisely. Since you are exploring, spool, cooldown and travel times shouldn't be as critical. From memory Agni takes about 20 seconds to spool and 15 minutes from Port Olisar to microTech. Also, Agni is cheap to buy and maintain. You can use the travel time to do different activities on your ship, like maintenance, research, etc., which is not yet in the game.

On the other hand using RS-2 you can travel about 4 times faster than using Agni. From memory RS-2 spool time is only 5 seconds and it takes about 3 minutes from Port Olisar to microTech. RS-2 uses about 5 times more fuel, it's the most expensive drive on it's level to buy and run, which is not good for trading or exploration. However, if you are doing operations like military, mercenary or ICN Alerts, the high cost is OK, because you want to be able to spool the drive and get to the destination ASAP.

The other thing that I would like to be in the game is the ability to only use the ship's main engines to travel, i.e. travelling without QT. There should be a function to disable the speed limit and continue acceleration only using the ship's thrusters. Acceleration and deceleration will take a lot of time, and this will most likely be the longest way to travel, as well as it will require advanced avionics to calculate your path and advanced radars to spot any obstacles and decelerate your ship to stop in time. However, this way of traveling should be the most eventful and rewarding for exploration, as you should come across various places of interest. Also, ships like the Carrack should always have full hydrogen fuel tank if traveling this way due to the on-board fuel systems that capture the hydrogen from space.
 

Cugino83

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...
From memory Agni takes about 20 seconds to spool and 15 minutes from Port Olisar to microTech. Also, Agni is cheap to buy and maintain. You can use the travel time to do different activities on your ship, like maintenance, research, etc., which is not yet in the game.
Also remember that now we have a global inventory and basically no great difference in enviroments, in the future, if plan goes as ... wel planned, we will have very different enviroments, with higther pressure/temprature, corrosive atmophere, extreamly cold surface, local no-friendly fauna etc, and we'll need to plan an exploration carefully.
The travel time will be used to plan the operation and prepare the suitable equipments and personal in according to the data retrived while scanning.

Also, ships like the Carrack should always have full hydrogen fuel tank if traveling this way due to the on-board fuel systems that capture the hydrogen from space.
Whait, this is not 100% correct.
Every ship equipped with a fuel intake will be able to replenish his fhidrogen fuel IF it's flying in an "atmophere" (being a planetm a nebula, or a space gas cloud) that contain the required components..
It will work, with less efficient and I think more restriction, like the Starfarer scoop: it will require the right place and a good amount of time to do that.
 

Michael

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The other thing that I would like to be in the game is the ability to only use the ship's main engines to travel, i.e. travelling without QT. There should be a function to disable the speed limit and continue acceleration only using the ship's thrusters. Acceleration and deceleration will take a lot of time, and this will most likely be the longest way to travel,
The Travelspeed is a Game Engine limitation. Something with floating point numbers, server lag etc.

So if i understood it right at a certain speed with a certain server lag your exact position is undetermined. Resulting in that you could get shot while you're actually not at that position anymore and probably some other funny stuff.

The other issue i see is how would a pirate set up a trap for someone like you? Lets assume you you travel at 100x (1000 m/s) the speed and someone fires up a "disruption field" right in front of you. You will travel travel far out of sight before he even noticed that you have been there. That would be 100 m/ms or with a ping of 30 ms = 3km.
The other option would be you get instantly stopped which should knock everyone out thanks to g forces. (Yes you could obviously build a system around it)
 

Mastersan

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Whait, this is not 100% correct.
Every ship equipped with a fuel intake will be able to replenish his fhidrogen fuel IF it's flying in an "atmophere" (being a planetm a nebula, or a space gas cloud) that contain the required components..
It will work, with less efficient and I think more restriction, like the Starfarer scoop: it will require the right place and a good amount of time to do that.
I don't think it has to always be an "atmosphere" or a gas cloud, since hydrogen is available in space, so ships like the Carrack should be able to replenish the fuel in space, while the efficiency and the replenish rate should vary. The farther away from stars, planets, gas clouds etc., the more deep the vacuum the less hydrogen. Gas clouds should just make it work faster. If the ship has accelerated, it can turn engines off, while the collection system can still work. Maybe saying that the hydrogen fuel tank should always be full isn't accurate enough, but the fuel should deplete slower as the hydrogen should still be captured away from atmospheres.
 

Mastersan

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The Travelspeed is a Game Engine limitation. Something with floating point numbers, server lag etc.

So if i understood it right at a certain speed with a certain server lag your exact position is undetermined. Resulting in that you could get shot while you're actually not at that position anymore and probably some other funny stuff.

The other issue i see is how would a pirate set up a trap for someone like you? Lets assume you you travel at 100x (1000 m/s) the speed and someone fires up a "disruption field" right in front of you. You will travel travel far out of sight before he even noticed that you have been there. That would be 100 m/ms or with a ping of 30 ms = 3km.
The other option would be you get instantly stopped which should knock everyone out thanks to g forces. (Yes you could obviously build a system around it)
The travel speed is the current limitation, maybe there will be some workaround in future.

To the second point. A pirate shouldn't have a free lunch by just setting up a trap. If they set up a trap, and it disrupted my engines, then the pirate should pursue me, while I use this time to prepare for battle. Still using the Carrack as the example. Currently it takes about 60 km and 3 minutes to stop from max speed of 1,235 km/s to 0. The ship shouldn't just stop instantly. If a pirate wants to board my ship, they should pursue me. In these 3 minutes I can prepare for the battle, or I may have some redundant systems or good engineers on board to revive the engines and get away.
 

Mich Angel

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The travel speed is the current limitation, maybe there will be some workaround in future.

To the second point. A pirate shouldn't have a free lunch by just setting up a trap. If they set up a trap, and it disrupted my engines, then the pirate should pursue me, while I use this time to prepare for battle. Still using the Carrack as the example. Currently it takes about 60 km and 3 minutes to stop from max speed of 1,235 km/s to 0. The ship shouldn't just stop instantly. If a pirate wants to board my ship, they should pursue me. In these 3 minutes I can prepare for the battle, or I may have some redundant systems or good engineers on board to revive the engines and get away.
Exactly no free lunch or beers for the wicked and twisted.. 🤣 😂 🤪

What you mean to say is, for pirate to be pirate they need to use their brain and plan ahead for the mission,
as in research on what ship is lucrative what cargo it have, where it's going and when, to gather info.

Not just swing around the store buy a quantum entanglement ship like mantis and wing it and see what they catch, it don't work like that.

And stopping a ship just to attack it and blow it up is not piracy that's criminal activity and got nothing to do with piracy.

To be a pirate you need to be smart, cunning and calculating, not just a gun slinging shoot on anything that move crazy retard, that wont make a profit.

For that to work there need to be balance, or neither the space faring cargo hulling, resource hulling, gold digging every day working space traveler or pirates wouldn't have any fun stories to tell.

Neither one who operate inside of the law or outside of law have a holding hand system, or ABC easy way to do it and there never will be, that's not what this game is about.

Both side need to plan ahead and think through and make ship/crew/fleet ready for the task at hand.. there is no shortcut.

CHEERS! 🍻
 

Mastersan

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Exactly no free lunch or beers for the wicked and twisted.. 🤣 😂 🤪

What you mean to say is, for pirate to be pirate they need to use their brain and plan ahead for the mission,
as in research on what ship is lucrative what cargo it have, where it's going and when, to gather info.

Not just swing around the store buy a quantum entanglement ship like mantis and wing it and see what they catch, it don't work like that.

And stopping a ship just to attack it and blow it up is not piracy that's criminal activity and got nothing to do with piracy.

To be a pirate you need to be smart, cunning and calculating, not just a gun slinging shoot on anything that move crazy retard, that wont make a profit.

For that to work there need to be balance, or neither the space faring cargo hulling, resource hulling, gold digging every day working space traveler or pirates wouldn't have any fun stories to tell.

Neither one who operate inside of the law or outside of law have a holding hand system, or ABC easy way to do it and there never will be, that's not what this game is about.

Both side need to plan ahead and think through and make ship/crew/fleet ready for the task at hand.. there is no shortcut.

CHEERS! 🍻
That's right. Either side of the business should approach their activities with enough thought. Of cause, limitless supply/demand and instant travel times is easy for the trading business. Likewise push-a-button piracy is easy for the "pirating" (what we have now is not really pirate activities). Also, both would become boring quite soon if implemented this way. Cheers! 🍻
 

Mich Angel

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That's right. Either side of the business should approach their activities with enough thought. Of cause, limitless supply/demand and instant travel times is easy for the trading business. Likewise push-a-button piracy is easy for the "pirating" (what we have now is not really pirate activities). Also, both would become boring quite soon if implemented this way. Cheers! 🍻
Indeed so true. 🍻
 
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