So to give an update on mechanics work, I was surprised by the fact that I actually have to do a tiny bit of a physics to do this. And as it turns out, I'm quite bad with this type of physics. The problem is keeping the mechanics somewhat grounded in reality while still being based around gameplay.
Warning, people who appreciate physics: Do not look below!
So as it stands, a thruster is rated in Thrust, which is essentially force * time. The idea is somewhat rooted in actual real-world stuff but really it's abstracted to the point where the actual math would not really translate properly into real life, which is fine, since this is a game and not a secret NASA program to outsource rocket design.
Anyways. Thrusters are actually measured in total thrust (and a set fuel usage), which is more or less a measure of how much overall force you're going to get over an abstract period of time. A rocket's overall "raw" (not factoring in weight) lifting capability is determined by the rating for its thrusters and the amount of fuel it has.
But effective thrust (also known as change in velocity) is determined by thrust/mass. And effective thrust, measured per stage of a rocket then added together, is the unit of measurement used to actually determine the effectiveness of a ship.
You may now continue reading.
So essentially: Your thrusters provide a certain amount of thrust and take a certain amount of fuel, and depending on the mass of your stages, your amount of fuel, and your overall thrust/fuel, your ship will have a different effective thrust which is essentially the rating of how far a ship can go.
This may be too mechanics-based and that'll be determined in the pseudo-test-run.
And now for the final attraction: Rocket design! I shall be showcasing the Rokyos Rocket. Name awful as all my names are. Extremely subject to change.
The Rokyos rocket is a 3-stage starter rocket and has its advantage in its effective thrust. In exchange for being able to go further, you'll sacrifice reusability and general cost, but hey, you can go further!
The Rokyos design incorporates 2 types of stages - The final stage and the first 2 stages. I'll lay it out in a more "visible" format. Stages go from bottom to top, so the first stage listed is the first stage used, and the last stage listed is the final stage.
Remember: Stages are meant to be more of a crutch in the early-game.
Stage 1 & 2 - Ascent
The first two stages use the Internals Hull (name pending, as always). The Internal Hull has 1 Rear Slot, 2 Internal Slots, and 0 Front slots. Some hulls can have multiple rear slots, multiple front slots, and special characteristics, but the internals hull is fairly dry. The Internals Hull also has 0 reliability, meaning it's not any more or less likely to suffer a failure during flight.
The Ascent stages use 2 fuel tanks and a single thruster for lifting. Each fuel tank provides 10 units of fuel and the single chemical thruster provides 2,000 thrust for 20 fuel units. Meaning each stage has a raw thrust of 2,000 th.
Stage 3 - Orbiter
The orbiter stage uses the Expanded Hull - a bigger hull that has more mass and is slightly less reliable (though it only has a miniscule impact on the chance of failures), but it has 4 slots total! A single front slot, two internal slots, and a back slot. The front slot is filled by a 4-crew Rokyos cockpit. The 4 crew aboard can manage 4 components at a time, and since the biggest stage is only 4 components, this ship is covered crew-wise. In the first internal slot you have life support which is required for holding crew Supplies and keeping up to 4 crew alive with 30u of supplies. The last two slots - an internal and rear slot - are occupied by the fuel tank and thruster for some additional propulsion.
So the raw thrust of this stage is 1,000th, since we only have 10u of fuel.
After calculating the effective thrust for each stage (determined by the thrust of a stage divided by the mass of the stage and every stage above it), we determine that the Rokyos Rocket has an effective thrust of 2.803. But you have to rebuild the two ascent stages every time you want to launch this rocket, as you can only recover the Orbiter stage and not the Ascent ones.
So the units still don't mean much at this point, but they're there. The design and math will hopefully not be needed by the players - you should be able to use common sense to design a ship and it should fly how you expect it to based on logic. Feedback would be extremely appreciated.
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Topic: Interest Check: Interstellar Competition (Read 842 times)