Sadly, yes, ships cannot top 100 meters per second without using thrusters or the cruise drive.

`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`


Rogue Squadron: The True Force in the Galaxy!

Granted, I've only owned the game for about a day, but so far I've never gone beyond 80 as my top cruising speed, even after trading ships.

*shrugs*

The Devs apparently wanted to "balance out the game" so they kept the speeds for all of the ships the same...80 for normal speeds, up to 200 with a thruster, and up to 300 with cruise engines. Trade lanes operate somewhere above 1000...

I honestly don't know how that is balancing though. since they all go the same speed, there's little way for light fighters to beat heavy fighters. There's no speed advantage, so the bigger ship wins.

Well supposidly the light fighters have a little better maneuverability, but it doesn't seem like there is that much of a difference to me. I agree too that the light fighters should be able to go faster.

turn speed differs though... a lot

*If you have a cat and a dog in the same house, will that be a problem? Of course not, you might just have solved world hunger*

It may be a spoiler.

I once read the news at corsair's base that their scientists invented a way to boost speed 1.5 times or so. Couldn't find a way to install that booster.

"The Devs apparently wanted to "balance out the game" so they kept the speeds for all of the ships the same..."

ROFL. That makes absolutely no sense. The devs made all pilotable ships the same speed because they're dumb. If they were to balance the ships, wouldn't freighters and light fighters be able to use level 10 weapons and/or shields?

80 m/s (IF those really are the units used) is 180 mph. Up to 450 mph if you count thrusters. There's really no point going any faster in space, at least for dogfighting purposes. Too little action would be happening - you'd be passing each other for a split second then turning to meet each other again =P

And does anyone remember that the fastest one could go in Freepace was 90, 120ish with afterburners?

Depending on the energy you assigned to your engine, it was possible to fly over 100 m/s in FreeSpace - or was it FreeSpace2? And don't ask in which fighter...

At least in FreeSpace it was possible to successfully fight heavy fighters or bombers in a light fighter, but it seems that in Freelancer there are no such things as "interceptors" or "recon fighters", which is quite new to the "Lancer" universe since StarLancer was full of strike crafts with different handling

Edited by - YuriEd on 12-03-2003 15:03:22

FS you could get over 100 if you pumped all energy into your engines and were in something like a Ulysses or a Perseus.

It seems like a strange way to balance a game if that really is the case. Sort of like releasing a RPG where everyone has to play as a warrior. Well, no one could complain that the classes weren't balanced atleast.

The way I see it, cargo ships should be slow but with massive weapons, fighter ships would be agile and carrying less powerful weapons. Why should a large cargo ship carry less powerful weapons than a smaller fighter ship? Especially considering there's a pirate attack every 5 minutes in this universe.

If you really want to get your mind boggling, why do you slow down to 80 when you turn off your thrusters, exit a tradelane, or leave cruise? There's no inertia in space! You'd just keep going!

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If you really want to get your mind boggling, why do you slow down to 80 when you turn off your thrusters, exit a tradelane, or leave cruise? There's no inertia in space! You'd just keep going!

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Right...and wrong.

First off, "inertia" is EVERYWHERE. You got that backwards. Inertia is the energy which KEEPS an object traveling in the same direction, at the same speed, unless another force acts upon the object.
Perhaps you just meant to put a "?" at the end of that sentence instead of a "!"?

Furthermore...

A ) Ships, even the US Space Shuttle, are equiped with stabalization thrusters which are always activated to keep the ship from going were the pilot does not intend it to go.
The only way to turn these off is manually..."engine kill".
Why?
What would happen to a pilot that is knocked unconscious and has his ship traveling at top speed? He would quickly find himself far beyond any hope of any "rescue mission" being able to recover him.
Floating out of the Sirius System would be a real biatch! LMAO!

B ) Contrary to common misconception an object in space will not "travel forever". It will eventually stop.
Even the minute friction of "spacedust" is enough to bring any object to an eventual standstill...and that doesn't even take into account the many invisble magnetic fields present which would also act upon said object.


Fly well,


Pyrate Dredd