G-Force as a game mechanic

I think i’ll need to sit down with the prototype and measure a few things… How fast ships rotate in the prototype, cockpit distance from their center of mass and so on. I’m going by gut instinct here but i’m doubting you’ll see G-forces of more than 3-4 from rotating.

Compared with the ~30G acceleration from the main engines of those small ships under boost? Pretty so-so.

Let’s say the interceptor is 30m long, or 15m radius.

In a deathspin let’s say it spins just once a second which I would say could happen ingame and it could probably be faster in certain spins…

Well, a = v^2/R and v = w2πr or 2π*15 which gives

A= 4(π^2) *15 or roughly 600 which is roughly 60g’s which sounds kind of insane.

Units obviously in meters and m/s, and 1 rev/s for w

Basically rotations are very unintuitive. I did this on mobile so I could have done my math wrong or used a wrong equation but I double-checked 3 times so there you have it.

As a side note, as the number of rotations double, the acceleration felt increases by a factor of 4 for each doubling. 6 spins a second means 36 times as much acceleration as 1 rev/s.

@.@

Haven’t done this level of math in so long I no longer know how lol.

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Its not that bad :wink: that’s only high school physics

Physics wasn’t a mandatory class back when I went sadly. I don’t even think trig or calc was either. Also I’m paying for my high school years. I didn’t care and just wanted to have fun. I am a quick study on math actually but I need to know the formula and what the symbols stand for. Guess I need to study on the net.

Well I used the equation for centripetal acceleration which needs tangential velocity if you feel like researching all of that :smile:

It’s all plug n chug to solve for a

We were fiddling with our MathBot on Discord and it works out to around ~165g for the Corvette that is 82 meters long spinning around its center once per second.


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I originally used 5 rev/s for and it gave me 1500 g’s and I thought I had to be wrong which is where a lot of my double checking came from…

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Keep in mind that the max g-force the human body can sustain is right about 10g (Mythbusters taught me that. :stuck_out_tongue:). Higher g forces could be achieved if instantaneous, but if sustained, will kill.

IMO, if the level of technology is there to *not* kill the pilot for just getting into the ship, then g-forces become a moot point.

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So I have been thinking, and forgive me as I’m the furthest from an expert here, but how would this work in game with the different ships? Yes I know its all based on the amount of Gs you put on yourself, however each ship has its own mass, thrust, and agility. Again I’m no physicist but if say the bomber, which has less agility than the interceptor, is able to feel the affects and even need to be careful of not having a black/red out then wouldn’t it limit the faster and more agile ships like the fighter and the interceptor to something similar, or do I need to put a dunce hat on and sit in the corner? Or does the varying mass change how this works? If so, could capital ships turn fast enough for this to affect them? Also how would this affect pilots that like to burn hard in one direction then turn their engines off for a spin and fire attack?

Edit: Added more questions (as if the first were not enough XD)

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Yeah as the ships get slower the gforce system becomes less and less relevant for in-space flight. A really simple gforce system where the pilot just falls asleep when you turn too hard would indeed just become a cap on the speed of the faster ships, negating their utility and causing pretty severe balance issues. But the gforce system suggested in the OP using a bidirectional bar limits the ship as a function of the player’s skill rather than as a flat barrier. Sure your pilot’s body cant take an extended high G acceleration, but if you roll and hit your pilot with the same amount of opposite gs, you can utilize 100% of your ship’s potential acceleration power for your chase and evasiveness.

Atmospheric flight would change the situation and make gforce wayyy more relevant for bigger ships in atmosphere during pancake/drag related maneuvers, but the above holds true for space.

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Guess I would have to play test it to understand it. My mind works in patterns and the like so without seeing, or seeing and understanding the formula, I’m lost lol.

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Increased mass only increases the moment of inertia. This makes the ship more sluggish to rotate but if you wanted to spin a capital ship at 60 rpm you could if you wanted you just need to hold down the thruster for as long as it takes.

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