The logic I use when playing the game in respect to speed an

Wed Apr 23, 2003 6:35 am by [[]CoFR]Optimus Prime

I use the following logic when playing so I can try to put a semblance of reality into the distances and speeds in Freelancer….

M = metres (obviously most man made space objects should be measured in respect to this scale)

K = Kilo or ‘000 (so when a distance is reported as 19.5 then I deduce this is 19,500 kms

Speed is also a measure in K so 80 is representational of 80,000 kph and cruise is approx 300,000 kph (the Space Shuttle circling the earth travels at approx 17,600 kph so a few centuries in the future should give us fusion engines and a 60,000 kph speed increase (Incidentally Deep Space 1 with it’s Ion Drive got to 180,000 kph after 3 months thrusting).

Lanes at 1000 speed are a 1,000,000 kph etc

None of these speeds are near relative light speed at 300,000 kps.

As to targeting at objects travelling at 80,000 each in combat – well add advanced targeting and like velocities when tailing etc means you just have to be a bit frugal with reality.

Wed Apr 23, 2003 7:23 am by Cheezwiz

I always assumed ship speeds were measured in m/sec

Wed Apr 23, 2003 5:15 pm by JTCurry5

Im with cheezwiz. But really people, does it even matter?

Wed Apr 23, 2003 6:41 pm by RadioactiveYeti

It doesn't matter how you work it out, either the people are giants or the stations and planets are really small

Thu Apr 24, 2003 12:07 am by cat92

Well, its always seemed to me that its all a bit scewed because the pilots VR system simply cant generate an accurate universe...

Sat Apr 26, 2003 7:53 am by portos

I was just wondering if anyone noticed: At cruse speed with 300 (let’s say flying units) if you flying straight ahead to the waypoint your distance decreases at the speed of ~ 0.1 K (may be kilometers) per second. I can’t come up with the formula to calculate Flying Unit unless speed and distance are in the different measuring systems? If I remember correctly from school for inter stellar travel you need something around 300 Km/s. That brings us to the assumption that Flying Unit is Km/s but in what are they measure distance?
Now, it takes about 2 sec to go from 80 (normal speed) to 199 (thruster speed) – does anybody have an idea of what type of pressure we talking assuming pilot have to breathe before and after ? And this thing decelerates even faster!? Think for a second what kind of impulse engine should produce to accelerate spacecraft with the weight of at least a ton!
So let’s just play and forget about physics and demographics (there was another thread on it) - game should looks and feels good the rest is for the real world.

Death – is just a beginning

Sat Apr 26, 2003 3:53 pm by Deramonic

i reckon the speed 80 means about 80 kilometres persecond.. based on scale... diameter of earth is about 12000km...now on cruise,,, it takes me bout 1 min or so to pass a planet... so are we passed the sound barrier...

Speed of light is 3x10 to the power of 8 m/s, that is 3000km/s
we are travelling on trade lane, 1000km/s...
Jump gates and holes are prolly travelling at speed of light
so i think 19.5K means 19,500 kilometres (12187 miles)

Sat Apr 26, 2003 7:07 pm by Edison

I was interested about the actual speeds in the game so when I was in a trade lane i counted in seconds how long it take for you to travel 20 km. I counted roughly 45-50 seconds (obviously I cannot count exactly perfect like a clock). That means it is 20,000 metres divided by, say, 50 seconds, which gives you 40 metres per second. That is just a rough calculation during flight in a trade lane which shoots you through at about 1000 units of speed which is shown next to your hull health, shield health and power. I don't know if it definitely 1000 units because it loses track of speed after 999 but then the speed goes down from 999 down to about 30 or something when you leave a trade lane.

NB: I know that this is delving too much into the physics involved in Freelancer and whether or not it is possible etc etc because it isn't the first thing you think about when you play a game, is it?

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