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[Girlinhat]

I've been toying with having my main engines on a turret in the center of my ship that can be rotated 90 degrees left or right in order to strafe side to side to avoid projectiles from a distance.

I've attempted this.  The big issue is that all ships are marginally aerodynamic, and that even if you set the engine in the center, the ship will slowly turn forward, rotating the ship in the direction the engine faces.  Obviously this happens more slowly the heavier your ship is, and you're probably mounting a lot of armor if you're doing a turret engine, so it probably doesn't matter anyways.

[Pillow_Killer]

Try this for strafing

[Paul]

Using a bunch of directional thrusters is too expensive, takes too much of your money.

A main engine set that can rotate 90 degrees allows you to go forward or rotate it to go side to side, all with the same engines.

Something like this:



That way it only costs you the price of the turret and platform instead of a bunch of extra thrusters. Just by using the Q and E keys that one can shift its engines to allow it to strafe left and right or back and forward. The left and right motion is handy for dodging incoming shots without ruining your own firing solution. Since the engines are at the center mass of the ship they don't make it spin, just move it.

[Shadowlord]

I've used rudders well in pairs, one at the front and one at the back.  Just do some testing with them, in the testing range or a private server.  Fiddle with the different left/right options and the front/back placement.  You've basically got 4 options, front/back/left/right, just change them around and see how it handles.

Aye, I use ships with rudders like this:



One rudder in front (Edit: or in this case, two in front, JUST IN CASE), one in back, directions on them reversed from each other, both set to 45. The further they are from the center of the ship, the stronger they will affect the ship.
The front fin makes the ship turn faster, the rear fins combined with the front one make it more stable (it stops turning instead of continuing forever).
The only problem with rudders is that unless you also include expensive maneuvering thrusters, you can't turn or strafe while stationary.

It's also worth noting that a rudder is just a fin on a turret.  If you need some POWERFUL rudders, then set a turret and then set a large fin on it.  If you follow that concept, then a fin's purpose is to turn angular motion into forward motion - that is, if you take a turn and your ship slides, the fin is there to give you "traction" in the air and prevent sliding, ensuring that your direction of movement is the same as your direction of thrust.  Or rather, the direction of movement wants to be the same as the direction of the fins.  That's the real thing about fins and rudders.  All they do is try to face you in their direction, more or less.

Hmm, it might then be possible to combine the fins and rudders. Of course, uncombined it's less likely to break down entirely from battle damage.

[Girlinhat]

You seem to have the right idea there.  1 fin on front, 2 on back.  If the front is more aerodynamically stable than the rear (or the center is more than the rear) then any turn tends to send the ship spiraling hard.

[Neonivek]

So uhhh... is all you do in this shooting other ships until they die?

I'd think a game like this would benefit a lot from multiple mission parameters.

[Paul]

You destroy the other ships, or their carrier, to win. Most of them are basically just death match with an added thing of protecting/attacking the carriers, although some set the lives to a limited amount so that people run out. Some are set to a single life each person.

A capture the flag type mechanic might be fun, but would probably end up being dominated by super fast unarmed ships zipping around with the flag and none of the armed ships able to chase them.

[Neonivek]

A capture the flag type mechanic might be fun, but would probably end up being dominated by super fast unarmed ships zipping around with the flag and none of the armed ships able to chase them

Add a "Max Speed" boom fixed.

If they complain simply state that the "Speed Limit" is in fact the max velocity a ship may move at before it will destroy the hardware components of the machinery and thus the max is imposed for safety reasons.

Which is scientifically sound especially for anyone who has ever designed a roller coaster.

or use those "Floating blocks in space" as a way to create choke points to prevent EXACTLY that from happening. No matter how many "Super Fast unarmed ships" there are they will be destoyed.

[Girlinhat]

So uhhh... is all you do in this shooting other ships until they die?

I'd think a game like this would benefit a lot from multiple mission parameters.

You'd think, but it's really very interesting.  Since you can design a ship from the ground up, you really never know what to expect.  If the enemy is sporting railguns, then some armor will deflect them pretty well and let you barrel through their fire.  If the enemy's got explosive rounds that destroy armor, then you want speed and agility.  If the enemy's got missiles to chase you, then you want flares and some amount of protection.  Which seems simple, "just counter X with Y" but then you have to design your Y for their specific X.  50mm cannons hurt but you can evade.  50mm cannons in sequential fire are MUCH more likely to hit.

And at the end, the game has a free demo.  Why not try it?

[LordSlowpoke]

Still painfully dissecting this game and everything it stands for. This time, to better understand the mechanics, I tried to assault the physics engine. After numerous crashes, I have learned... nothing, really. Managed to crash the game in many novel and creative ways, and had quite a laugh at negative air density, but other than that, nope. And now, for the bot AIs!

[Pillow_Killer]

High-drag(Though very controllable) turreted fighter with ballistic control. Any potential improvement on this one??

[Shadowlord]

Since I reset my levels earlier, I personally can't look at high-level ships until I re-level back up, or I'd take a look at it.

[Ozyton]

How many people usually play this? I tried the demo and it looked neat, kinda like an expanded Cosmic Rift. Doesn't appear to be many people playing though, unless I can only see demo servers?

[Girlinhat]

As with all games, depends on the day, and time of day, and connection.  It's suffered huge connection issues recently that have now been mostly fixed, but player base is likely to rise with stability and time.

[Paul]

Since I reset my levels earlier, I personally can't look at high-level ships until I re-level back up, or I'd take a look at it.

Why would you reset your levels?