Re: No longer ...

On Fri, 14 Aug 1998, Nyrath the nearly wise wrote:

>	In reality, thrust is applied continuously
>	over the entire turn, not in one giant burst
>	at the beginning of the turn.

Which is exactly what I see as the biggest "problem" with the
"hollywood vector" system in FB.
 
>	Would this help the problem detailed in the quote above?

Not really. The problem here is that you move your ship according 
to component vectors, one at a time. Thus while the end position may be
exactly correct, the positions in the middle of the move are not.

A simple example to illustrate the point: Figure you're moving
8" straight ahead and you want to stop. You order "rotate 180, thrust
8".

You move your ship according to the rules:

1) 8" along the old vector
2) Rotate 180 degrees
3) 8" back to where you started

Thus you see-saw over 8" of space even though you end up motionless
right where you were (in addition, this is not even where you'd really
end up with constant thrust).

Hmmm... maybe this yo-yo movement doesn't show it clear enough:
Figure the same situation, but you want to turn instead: rot90,th8.

1) Move 8" north
2) Rotate
3) Move 8" east

So the path you move your ship along is kind of L-shaped, while
in reality it's more like a curve (most specifically you're
never really in the corner of the L). So, if someone interrupts you
when you've just applied all your initial vector, he can shoot at you in
a
spot where you'd never really be.

(Or you have to break the component vectors into phase-sized chunks,
slowing the game quite a bit more).

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