I am looking to mod the game but I can't find the formula used to obtain the "acceleration" value of ships.
After many tests I found that this value seems only function of:
- Engine Thrust power (only the max thrust)
- Mass
- Reactor Energy Output
- Engine Energy usage
Can someone help on this subject? I need the formula in order to determine if it is possible to mod the game to design ships with low acceleration value (<10) but with a high max or cruise speed (around 2000 for example).
In fact I would like to simulate a max speed corresponding to more or less a "speed of light" value but with limited ship acceleration so it takes for exemple few seconds or minutes to reach this "speed limit".
By the way is there some kind of agreement about the "default" Light speed value in vanilla game?
Thank you!
Hopefully someone found this formula or even Erik can help directly?
EDIT:
Here is the Formula!
Thanks to Eliott Himself!
quote:
The basic acceleration formula is as follows:
accelerationRate = ((topSpeed / 8) + 0.5) * accelerationFactor
This defines the rate of acceleration in units per second.
The accelerationFactor value above relates to the ratio of total reactor power output (less static energy requirements) to total engine power draw at full speed. The formula for accelerationFactor is as follows:
accelerationFactor = ((reactorPowerOutput - staticEnergyConsumption) / engineEnergyDrawAtFullPower)
There's a further condition when spare reactor power is greater than engine power draw (which is usually how ships are designed):
if (accelerationFactor > 1)
{
accelerationFactor = min(2, sqrt(sqrt(accelerationFactor)))
}
In summary, I don't think you can easily do what you're after here. We've deliberately made it hard for players to stuff up acceleration in their ship designs (i.e. by having ships with very slow acceleration).
You could however play around with having high energy draw for engines, and/or with low power output from reactors.
Sorry about that.
Elliot