Distance Scale in combat
 

I was just wondering what each tiny square in combat is called, or in estimates how long it would be and i what units. Generally how far is it from edge to edge how far a ship moves with one combat movepoint. I'm sure theres a word for it or a rough distance. For some reason parasec comes to mind as a measure but i'm not sure. Any help on this would be appreciated

Re: Distance Scale in combat
 

I have always just refered to it as a sector or grid or square when talking about it. As for any actual distance it may represent... well there isn't one. This is most apparant when looking at battles around planets/stars etc. The differences in the number of squares different planets take up vs the number of squares a star takes up make it clear that they don't clearly represent any set distance. It is just a way to contain the combat in an effective system.

Re: Distance Scale in combat
 

Lol i just figured that out and spent the Last 5 minutes trying to edit it with no sucess...

Well anyway anyone got an idea what it could be called? i'm sure i heard it called a parasec before...

Note: Anyone who wants to ridicule me for this don't get any brownie points or christmas cards! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Distance Scale in combat
 

Do we get christmas cards if we don't ridicule you and can brownie points get me anything? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Parsec wouldn't be the correct descriptor even if these squares did have a set distance.

From one website with info on this...
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Now consider that all engines in SE4 say slower than light speed travel (unrealistically) on them. One combat square is more than 3 light years if you call it a parsec. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif Doesn't quite work out. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

In fact there isn't really any distance you can call the squares in combat. Even the ones in a star system are iffy as to what you could call it.

Quite simply SE4 due to the limitations of the game engine does not accuratly model distances in just about any of the grids you can see in the game.

Make up your own names and stick with em. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

I personally call the galaxy map a Quadrant (though it isn't that either really) and consider it to be just a small fragment of the galaxy bounded by strong energy fields that prevent warp points from leaving it within the confines of the SE4 technology tree. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

And I won't go into what I call the rest of the different squares... It isn't relevant really. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

And there isn't any way to edit the battle grid or the amount of space the planets take up on it that I am aware of.

[ April 09, 2003, 20:44: Message edited by: Cyrien ]

Re: Distance Scale in combat
 

I'd estimate between 100 Km and 100,000 Km, but as others have said, it is a very abstract representation. Unless it is an inertialess 2-D universe, for instance, the squares would represent distance in three dimensions, as well as velocity, etc.

Note that in the real universe, the Earth is roughly 12,750 Km in diameter, and the distance to the moon is about 384,000 Km. This is partly why I gave those figures above.

PvK

Re: Distance Scale in combat
 

Not that I would ever ridicule anyone, but the squares are about 1/2 inch on my screen. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Distance Scale in combat
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Why do you say "unrealistically"?
While sublight speed travel is a given in RL, the warppoints in SE4 will give FTL travel... The description implies that ion,etc engines aren't what are used to travel warppoints.

Re: Distance Scale in combat
 

You don't need any special engines for the warp points, or there would be such components in the game. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Distance Scale in combat
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You need a bigger monitor then ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Distance Scale in combat
 

I always called them "combat sectors"... says what they are straight out http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif Well, sometimes I've tried to get trendy and called them "subsectors" but that sounds a bit too cheesy...

Re: Distance Scale in combat
 

Read what I said more closely. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif It is unrealistic if you use the parsec as a measurement for 1 combat square.

It is quite possible that the engines are sublight as it takes light only a few hours to travel from the sun to the outer limits of our solar system. The systems in SE4 are 13x13 grids. Thus to travel from one edge of the system to the other in a single game month is possible with the fastest ships at sublight speeds, indeed at just a few percents below light speed you could do it in a few hours.

Sun to Pluto 5.4 hours
So 5.4 x 2 = 10.8 hours to go from one side to the other.

A parsec on the other hand is just over 3 light years in distance all by itself. Move several of those in one combat turn, one combat turn being a small measure of time (some minutes or hours) and you have much faster than the speed of light for engines. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif Quite unrealistic.

I was simply stating that a combat square is clearly not a parsec. Hope no confusion resulted from that.

Re: Distance Scale in combat
 

A parsec is 3.26 lightyears. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Actually, it takes at least 6 game days (as there are 30 in one turn) to do that (and that is if you mod engines to get 30 MPs http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ). Light does not take 6 days to reach the edge of a system, so all engines must be sub-light. That, and they are all specifically labeled as sub-light. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ April 10, 2003, 19:26: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: Distance Scale in combat
 

-=This is an unneeded, rank bumping pointless public service announcement=-

Yay i started a technical disscussion! Who would have though that? I feel my IQ points rising *Daisy pops out of Raging Deadstars head* http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

-=This is the end of an unneeded, rank bumping pointless public service announcement=-