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Physics and Momentum

General discussion for players of Oolite.

Moderators: another_commander, winston

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Buckaroo_Banzai68
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Physics and Momentum

Post by Buckaroo_Banzai68 »

Hi All.

I'm new here, after spending too long playing No Man's Sky and Elite Dangerous. I want to return to my roots. I loved playing Elite in the 80s. Oolite looks fantastic.

I have a question about the physics in Oolite. In the original Elite, your ship had momentum, and you could turn your ship to any angle and keep moving in the direction you have momentum in. When playing Oolite today, I found that the ship has flight assist, and the ships momentum changes direction whenever the ship does. Is this something that can be turned off - so I can play with the controls/physics from the original Elite?

Cheers.
another_commander
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Re: Physics and Momentum

Post by another_commander »

Hi, welcome and happy new year!

You probably remember Frontier or FFE when it comes to momentum. The original 1984 Elite did not have momentum in its flight model - you can test that with any of the 8-bit emulators. Since Oolite is a remake of the original Elite, we have kept its flight model characteristics. So the answer to your question is no, at ths time you cannot turn off the built-in flight assist.

Having said that, there was an OXP once that came out only in experimental form and used the weapoms lock key as a switch for enabling and disabling basic momentum. Can't remember who created it and where it ended up, but if I manage to find it I'll let you know. It was by no means ready for a proper release.
Buckaroo_Banzai68
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Re: Physics and Momentum

Post by Buckaroo_Banzai68 »

Hi another_commander, and happy new year to you too.

Thank you for the reply. I must have been mixed up with Elite and Frontier. I tried one of the online versions of Elite today, and found that the gameplay was quite different to how I recalled it. I probably spent more time playing Frontier than I did Elite - and it was so long ago now, that my memory became a bit jumbled.

Reading some more on the web, I saw that the Newtonian Physics of Frontier was quite unpopular at the time. I must have been in the minority, because I loved it.

Thanks again.
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Cody
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Re: Physics and Momentum

Post by Cody »

Welcome aboard, Commander! If you're craving FEII-like Newtonian physics, there's always Pioneer.
I would advise stilts for the quagmires, and camels for the snowy hills
And any survivors, their debts I will certainly pay. There's always a way!
zevans
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Re: Physics and Momentum

Post by zevans »

Cody wrote: Tue Jan 01, 2019 11:06 am
Welcome aboard, Commander! If you're craving FEII-like Newtonian physics, there's always Pioneer.
And, if you download an Archimedes emulator, there's Black Angel. I think. Although I too may have mixed that up with Frontier a bit...
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