Is it possible to mod the speed of trade lanes?

[Fletcher]

One thing started to bug me the other day, is how ALL ship types no matter what have the exact speed boost and top speed in a trade lane. Granted, I know bugger all about the science that propels things into subliminal speeds (I assume) but there is a main problem.

Mass.

Surely a fighter or small freighter would be able to be propelled a bit faster as to say a warship? That said however, Ageira probably had some sorporate egg-heads wanting to keep their space formations intact for escorts and such, so everyone goes along at the same speed. Maybe its even for safety over convenience trade off?

Either way, how can things as small as those trade lanes shunt a warship at those speeds the same as a fighter?

While we're on the subject, if its possible to even alter the parameters of the trade lanes, would/should enemies of the trade lanes get a speed penalty?

Or maybe its down to a simpler answer, stop us ramming into each other in the lanes?

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[glassofwater]

This would be difficult to code, my good sir. Chances are it wont happen. This is coming from a 'nobody' on the forums though.

[Ichiru]

The trade lane speed is a fixed value in the engine that applies for all ships. I think it was a dll/exe hack to change it in the first place.

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Acolyte of NoMe

[AeternusDoleo]

It may be possible. But given you want to avoid collisions in the lanes, all ships HAVE to fly at the same speed and with the same accelleration inside lanes. If you're looking to differentiate between shipclasses, that's a definate "no" from the dev end.

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[jammi]

Trade lane speed is 100% modifiable. Modifying the speed for different ships within the same lane is a no, though. One lane equals one speed.

Adoxa has an EXE hack that allows for different lanes to have different speeds. When I was helping out with the (now dead) Broken Bonds mod, we had civilian transitways, and exclusive lanes for military use that were more faster. We'd even locked the usage to IDs, so civilians couldn't use them.

The option is there - for example, we could have newer more efficient lanes in the core systems, with more robust and slow lanes in the border systems.

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[Toaster]

I read somewhere (on the wiki, I believe) that the lanes don't actually accelerate the ships, but warp space around them. And having all ships' surrounding space get warped to the same degree, thereby "accelerating" them at the same rate and up to the same velocity seems to make sense to me.

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Olivia Sable

[jammi]

This is also true. Trade lane speeds are unrelated to the mass or hardware equipped on the ship using them. It's entirely reliant on the hardware in use by the trade lane.

Messing around with trade lane speeds would probably wreck Freelancer Companion as a trade route calculator though.

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[Tunicle]

A mass transport system, along a "tube" where things can travel at different speeds, think about it a bit!

Even if possible it may be deemed a bit silly, especially to the LF pilot who has just flattened himself upon the back end of a Shire.

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[Challenger]

Surely a fighter or small freighter would be able to be propelled a bit faster as to say a warship?

There is no reason whatsoever that this should be true.

Acceleration, on the other hand, is an entirely different matter.