Unlisted Ship Differences?

[DaveK]

I'm going to time a variety of civ and mil frames from zero to 4000 (which are linear on the graphs - ie before they acceleration starts to flatten out)

Last time I focused on the relationship between speed increases and the time it takes to increase speed by (say) 100 mps and fuel use which helps describe why there is a max speed limit of around 7800 (basically you accelerate so slowly you run out of fuel, though extrapolating the graph (which models unlimited fuel) shows a max speed of 8000 mps) - I was focussed on whether and why there was a max speed and a testing out a comment in the forum about reaching the speed of light!

I noticed that all the ships have a linear acceleration up to 4000 - 5000mps but didn't look in detail, knowing that mil frames have a higher top speed, better manoeuvrability (ie better wing agility). The difference for example between Leviathan and Chimera accelerating to 4000 mps is 20 sec (Lev) and 17 sec (Chim) - this was measured by simply timing a standing start for each ship. It show that a top spec mil frame has a 20% greater acceleration than a top spec civ frame

I'll say it again - we sciencey nerds love to explore the detail - most players don't care and if, for them, bigger engines = faster max (TRUE) and therefore better acceleration (NOT TRUE) for a given frame and bigger guns = more damage quicker (NOT TRUE) then it doesn't really matter; after all it's a game!! (hard to believe in a combat furball with the Vonari or pVp with the experienced pilots, I know) and if you are happy with a big gun that makes a cool slow thumping sound but runs out of energy quickly then it doesn't really matter if a quick whiny, clickey C1 or C2 cannon actually makes the kill more efficiently/effectively - as long as you are enjoying the experience!!



EDIT: message to Vice (hint, hint) - I can test engines solo (all I need is a stopwatch) but I need a "standard test target" (free or paid for) to test guns/missiles because the variables in real combat are too numerous to evaluate and volunteers to sit and be killed and respawn for an hour are rare (thanks Marvin and Viper and Bleve and the couple of others) - even when I offered 2 million credits per 30 min session (one newbie pilot actually told me that it wasn't worth stopping mining for (40+ times mining rates)). In fact my volunteers were well established pilots who helped out to find out what the "truth" was and wouldn't accept payment anyway! (actually one asked (didn't demand ) a stealth generator for a friend! (I was happy to provide his friend with one . . . . and then a second one when he managed to jettison the first one - but your ID is safe my friend!!!)

I love this game and this thread epitomises why I love the community!



[Edited on 24-8-2012 by DaveK]

[-splosives-]

most players don't care and if, for them, bigger engines = faster max (TRUE) and therefore better acceleration (NOT TRUE)
[Edited on 24-8-2012 by DaveK]

Well actually they do give better acceleration according to my experiments.

From what I've seen it appears that both frames started out with the same acceleration, but as soon as the decrease in acceleration took place (about 2500-3000 speed) one of the ships (the one with the biggest engine, and in the case of same engines, the lightest frame) started gaining more speed than the other.
I say the difference between the two was the "decrease in acceleration at higher speeds"
This was for inertial thrust only.

When using afterburners or IDS speed, the differences showed a lot sooner. even at 1000 speed for some experiments.
I also noticed that the afterburner of a leviathan with a class 1 engine actually accelerates slower than inertial forward: 850 speed in 12 seconds compared to 1360 speed (starting from 0).

[Edited on 8-24-2012 by -splosives-]

[Marvin]

I think splosives actually has a lot of data there ... just not organized. But, if you need a target Dave, give me a holler and some lead time.

[EN4CER]

Yeah Dave same goes for me. I can make charts and bar graphs for us too.

[Marvin]

A couple standard aircraft performance charts found at Wikipedia:

[DaveK]

Well actually they do give better acceleration according to my experiments.

From what I've seen it appears that both frames started out with the same acceleration, but as soon as the decrease in acceleration took place (about 2500-3000 speed) one of the ships (the one with the biggest engine, and in the case of same engines, the lightest frame) started gaining more speed than the other.

Did you make a note of any of the timings etc? If so would you be willing to share them?

I can see that I muffed it by making assumptions about the initial acceleration behaviour of my set of test ships - because the numbers looked quite similar but that's no excuse! - and moved onto maximum speeds

[DaveK]

I think splosives actually has a lot of data there ... just not organized. But, if you need a target Dave, give me a holler and some lead time.

Thanks for the offer, but I think that the cannon comparison stuff we did is still OK - unless someone posts otherwise!

When the expansion arrives I suspect there will be loads to test in the "weapons lab" - drool drool - and unless Vice provides a standard "target" then I will definitely be seeking cannon fodder

(it's one of the few ways I can up my kill rate! )

[DaveK]

Yeah Dave same goes for me. I can make charts and bar graphs for us too.

Thanks for the offer - I'll send you all the data I have when I've had time to collect it and you can have a play around with it!

[Marvin]

(it's one of the few ways I can up my kill rate! )

Too true. Especially since I seldom fly without the IM tag ... ergo, you'd get credit for killing a clanmember (maybe we should test in Sapphire so we don't reduce territory percentages elsewhere).