Re: Orbits, Detailed (Long!) repost

In a message dated 98-07-03 19:21:17 EDT, Richard S. writes:

<< Um, your math seems faulty to me. >>

*SNIP*

>Trouble is, FT isn't really consistent in it's model of movement. It
>has ships that have accelerated continuously for a turn both ending up
>at a final speed, but acting as if they had been travelling at that
>speed all the time. Ok, it's a game, and I for one don't want to use
>these formulas all the time either ;) But this gives a range of about
>a quarter to an eighth of a g per thrust point...

>Which still feels horribly slow, yuk. I'd always thought it was far
>more. No gravity compensators required.  But you might want to
>recalculate everything again for your system. I'm going to consider
>making one distance unit 10,000 kilometers. So each thrust point is
>more like 1.25-2.5G, feels better to me. YMMV.

>Alternatively keep your system, but don't try and use math to justify
>it, or fudge the scale so it fits.

Arrrrgh.  You're right, AFAICT.  I was so worried about getting the
gravitational attraction business right that I neglected the
acceleration
problem.  OK, everybody ignore that post, I'll come up with a cleaned up
one
soon.  

I still ike the 1000km/15 min turn - it seems to be pretty close on, and
it
makes the planets on-table into significant obstacles.	I liked GDW's
Brilliant Lances/Battle Rider system (30,000km/30mins), but it was more
suited
to a hex game, as planets became more like terrain than objects at that
scale.
Actually, some of my math was reverse-engineered from some of GDW's
stuff -
that'll teach me to confirm my sources.

I would go with your second model,

v=at
1,000,000/900=a*900
a=1,000,000/(900*900)
a=1.25

providing a thrust of 1/8th g per thrust point.  I'll go with that for
now,
cause that is the best observable result (I apply 1 thrust for 1 turn,
and am
then going 1 MU/turn).	Personally, I like the slower accelerations,
'cause I
have a hard time rationalizing interior artificial gravity (contra-grav,
a la
Traveller, I can live with).  It also allows some extreme ship designs
to
exist without having squash-the-crew-syndrome.	A thrust of 16 is 2 gs -
fast,
in my universe.  Also, I find it easier to rationalize low-thrust
engines with
very high fuel efficiency - makes for better long patrols.

Finally, try out the planetary acceleration stuff - In the few games
that I've
used it in, it was a lot of fun, and became very important - it'll be
less so,
now that I'm scaling up the thrust/g ratio.

Noah V. Doyle