SpaceSimCentral

Hi,this time I will not talk about crazy implementations of planet walking and strange stuff like that Instead, I have an idea that would make the Orbit View much more interesting: What I like much in Pioneer like in the Elite series is the exact simulation of Newton laws for objects travelling in space from planet to planet etc.It would be great if the orbit view could --- track the player's ship position with a symbol --- not too large but just clearly visible and with a contrasting color. As there is already a time acceleration mode for the orbit view, one could simulate and observe the ship doing orbits around a space body, one can even play to make a travel route with limited acceleration of the ship (by turning the engine off) and observe the ship leaving Earth (or other planets), slinging around Venus, getting accelerated by the sun's gravity and finally flying towards Jupiter. This could all be observed in the Orbit view with time acceleration and one can plan and execute such orbital activities. Another advantage is: you get a better idea of the planetside you are flying at which could be useful to fly towards a specific location. I think this will enhance the playability of Pioneer also it fits perfectly in the game. XenonS

That one's already in the issue tracker. [url]https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/985[/url] But you got me thinking, so thanks for posting!  Even just marking the Lagrangian points and 'gravitational corridors' to bodies in some way would be cool. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Transport_Network[/url] You could target one of the major L points and have the autopilot park there, watch the world go by. Or you could select a body like a planet and the lowest fuel route to get there could be marked out in the HUD, like the navigational tunnel, and the autopilot told to follow it. If you're desperately low on fuel you could still try to get to a station, or somewhere you can use your scoop. Presumably it would need to be constantly recalculated on the way, but I don't see why that would be impossible (admittedly I have no relevant maths knowledge, so could well be talking rubbish...) [url]https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/1879[/url] Could there be spaceports, or even just smaller assets parked at the L points? [url]https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer/issues/1878[/url]

Hi Mike,unfortunately I don't have enough coding experience to say how difficult such a feature would be, but I'm almost certain that some mathematical formula has to be applied in order to update the ship position.I think about 2 formulas from the classic Physics: - The classic Newton gravitational law to update an object in space being influenced by the gravitation of a body; - The mechanik formula that governs a ballistic displacement on the surface of a planetary body, which is a simple equation of the 2nd degree involving acceleration (it would be g for Earh), distance, time of displacement, initial velocity. I have to re-open my old school books to get them exactly , also David Braben, the Frontier 2 author, can certainly help out as this feature was implemented in F2 . It's certainly worth asking him  XenonS