Travel time

[r3vange]

[color=#FFFFFF]Here's something that's been bothering me for a while so here I am finally making a thread about it. I should warn you that this might seem borderline too extreme to some but for the hardcore RP games who like to build up a complete and breathing universe might as well be an interesting question.

So here's the thing; how long do you think it takes to cross a system, how long does it take to cross Sirius. From what I remember Trend did mention that it took him something like ~1 or 2 moths to get to the Sigma's and that seems rather realistic to me. Gameplay time it's not much than 15 min cutting through Liberty which if though upon is rather idiotic RP wise. Here's the scheme I've applied in the calculations I've used in my RP stories. For relatively short distances e.g Malta-Carinea I say it's about 2 hours, since it's a realistic time to travel several AU with high sub-light speed a.k.a your cruise engine. Jump holes/Gates are instant or what you see in game. Trade lanes are somewhat a different story. As we know they allow superluminal travel. Which means that realistically if the distance between Manhattan and Pittsburg for example is 1 AU the travel time will be something in the margin of approximately 5 minutes. However traveling with superluminal speed affects the general timeflow (based on recently 100% confirmed principles laid down by Einstein) So the 5 minutes you spend in the lane will actually be something like 2-3 to you.

What do you think about it. And no I will not be happy at posts like "get a life you dwell too much"

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[Echo 7-7]

I think your maths seems to be in the right order of magnitude.

However, Relativity only applies when you're talking about two objects with constant velocities (this includes stationary objects). I would assume Relativity doesn't apply to Trade Lanes since you accelerate and decelerate while using them, thus putting you back in the 'original' time frame.

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There was a sig here, once.

[Hielor]

However, Relativity only applies when you're talking about two objects with constant velocities (this includes stationary objects). I would assume Relativity doesn't apply to Trade Lanes since you accelerate and decelerate while using them, thus putting you back in the 'original' time frame.

Not quite--see the twin paradox. The travelling twin accelerates and decelerates, but still ends up younger than the stationary twin.

[Huhuh]

What stops a planet from moving away from the tradelane?

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[Zukeenee]

What stops a planet from moving away from the tradelane?

Magnets and string.


But travel-time and distances go right alongside relative sizes, two-dimensional planes and static solar systems on my list of things that I just let Freelancer get away with. I just avoid talking about the subjects in-RP because I know they make no sense.

That said, I still think of most journeys in Sirius as taking at least slightly longer than they're portrayed in-game. For example, maybe the trip from Bretonia to Rheinland only takes a few minutes in-game, but in-RP, I might consider that it'd take an hour or three to make the trip. Something of a halfway-point between "realism" and the actual portrayal of events.

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[Echo 7-7]

What stops a planet from moving away from the tradelane?

Don't even bother asking. Freelancer already violates basic Newtonian physics. A better question is how tradelanes are stopped from moving away from the planets.

But travel-time and distances go right alongside relative sizes, two-dimensional planes and static solar systems on my list of things that I just let Freelancer get away with. I just avoid talking about the subjects in-RP because I know they make no sense.

That said, I still think of most journeys in Sirius as taking at least slightly longer than they're portrayed in-game. For example, maybe the trip from Bretonia to Rheinland only takes a few minutes in-game, but in-RP, I might consider that it'd take an hour or three to make the trip. Something of a halfway-point between "realism" and the actual portrayal of events.

^ This is nice and sane.

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There was a sig here, once.

[Backo]

What stops a planet from moving away from the tradelane?

In Freelancer universe the guys that made the squids (Daam K'Vosh, thank you wiki) decided to prank the universe and removed the orbits of each solar object.

If solar objects (planets, suns, stations, etc, etc) are moving, that means that every lane grid should be made to move as fast and not cross anything bad, like the sun or another planet. That means that if your ship stops completely, it will be moving away from objects, or rather the objects moving away from it. Then comes the question - at what speed should a planet move? Out of wikipedia it turns out our sweet Earth is moving with an orbital speed of 29.78 km/s. While a cruise engine supports the speed of 350m/s. Unless of course the measurement unit in Freelancer is different, though. But if we considered it the same, that would mean that cruise engines won't be enough to reach the planet any time you want. Add the fact the planet is spinning and it'll turn docking into a nightmare! But while on a planet, you have it's speed so maybe there was an idea that your navigation computer adjusts your dead (0 on HUD) speed to the speed the solar object you just took off had? But it still won't explain why all planets share the same orbiting time. Either way, Microsoft =/= Nasa so we gotta deal with it.

Another flaw is - in space where is vacuum, you shouldn't be losing speed, unless there are some particles to create friction and eventually slow you down, but ingame you lose speed pretty fast, almost like there's air! Oh and did I mention we hear sounds in vacuum! How cool is that?

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Republic of the Sword and Sun

[SeaFalcon]

It's really hard to put the Freelancer universe into -realtime- travel.

Planets spin around at different speeds and at some point a lane between them gets right into the sun, because the two planets are in the opposite locations?

Who build a Jump Gate so far away from a base?

If I was to calculate travel time in a more 'Real-time' instead of 'gaming-time' I would go for the following:
Range/second > Range/hour.
So instead of 0,350k/s in cruise you go 0,350k/h

Also the measurments of range I think shouldn't be compared to Kilometers or anything, just Freelancer measurments.

[michiyl]

[...]
Another flaw is - in space where is vacuum, you shouldn't be losing speed, unless there are some particles to create friction and eventually slow you down, but ingame you lose speed pretty fast, almost like there's air! Oh and did I mention we hear sounds in vacuum! How cool is that?

Probably everyone assumes that the speed of the vessel is measured, and not the particle speed of their engines:D

(yeah, yeah, I know ... engine kill and speed:PI'll figure something out to explain THAT, too ... will have something to do with magnets:P)

If the real world had the technology of Freelancer, the jumpgates and tradelanes would've been built on way different positions (jumpgates nearby trade hubs like planets or big asteroid fiels; tradelanes ... hm ... );)


To original poster (op):
If you do want to have such hardcore-inRP "facts", expect to run into other "inRP facts" from other players;)

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[Not Espi]

questioning physics in a game with static planets which are 5km in diameter and 6 wormholes per system on average? some things are just better left be.