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Two words space elevator


friendlytyrant03

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Referring to early question "why?". The basic idea of space elevator is that even if it is very hard and expensive to build, it is cheaper to use. The actual usefulness of such thing depends on how hard it is to fly from planet to orbit and to build a ship capable of doing that.

 

For example in space engineers it is very easy to build ship in space stick couple of ion thrusters on it and fly. In planets atmosphere and and gravity it is much harder with atmospheric and hydrogen engines and constant worry of having enough thrust to counter the gravity.  

 

If  DU has similar challenges and some way to make efficient space elevator that can avoid some of those problems, the space elevator could be actually useful. It would take time to build but would be cheap to run. Maybe you could have some trade organisation have trade/cargo center built around space elevator with spaceport on top, and then charge small fee from individual players to use the elevator for themselves/their cargo. With enough players those would stack up to profit.

 

The users would benefit since they wouldn't need to make their ships atmosphere capable which could help new players to get into space. More advanced players wouldn't need a fleet of smaller ships to unload/load cargo/people for larger ships. I bet it would be at least difficult to land Executor class super star destroyer (someone is going to build one eventually). It is a lot easier to just dock on top of the elevator.

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  • 2 months later...

Well, here's the difference though. In EVE, it was only space combat, not ground combat as well. It's the old Planetside 2 motto "Jets don't capture bases, infantry does". Plus, in EVE, you had free-warp, in DUAL, you ain't  getting that. Stargates will be tied to a faction's network of said Stargates. You wanna go somewhere and "troll", you need to go system by system, fuel unit by fuel unit there. In fact, it's like in real world. Military protects the borders, internal traading goes well. If yoou were to piss off so many people in DUAL, you wouldn't have the same level of success as GoonSwarm had. Nobody wil ltrade with you if they knew you could wreck their ship "just cause" and you would slowly wither and find yourself with a fleet with no fuel, an organisation with no money and an easy prey for the other guys. THAT is the quintessential difference that makes DUAL stand out from EVE.

You might be somewhat optimistic here.  Goonswarm and BoB both had support networks of SOME sort in place to supply them with the resources they needed in EvE to harass and harangue people...  if they didn't they wouldn't have been able to continue to replace their ships and equipment, mods, etc...  not to mention implants for their skills, and such.  It would not be 'impossible' for a group like that to exist in DUAL, in fact, the basic fact is, it will be LIKELY there will be folks wanting to stomp on other people Just for the fun of it.  It might take a bit of effort, but don't think it can't, or won't be tried.  Folks will need to have good defenses and in some cases, be forced to take the offense in order to survive intact.  If PvP is possible, folks will find ways to play merry cobb on folks not interested in such, regardless of 'safe' zones, and such.

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I think space elevators are a waste of time but hey go for it

Ok... lets talk waste of time... and resources!

A Space Elevator offers several advantages to a player or player group for several reasons;

  • From the demos I've watched on vid (YouTube, etc.) I've seen that there is going to be some sort of 'fuel' powering vehicles.
  • Presumably that 'fuel' won't be something that just 'magically appears' in the tanks of said vehicles.
  • Power may, based on hints given in the stories and lore surrounding this game, be generated via Solar (and presumably other sources, perhaps windmills, etc...  see the story at this link: https://dual-static-web.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Dual-Universe-English.pdf)
  • Assuming that power can be generated without the continuous use of consumable fuels, a 'Space Elevator' might be powered by such.  If that is the case, then there is a possibility that resources could be saved by using such a device to ferry materials such as metals, people, etc. to an orbital platform.
  • In one of the demo vids I observed a 'different' fuel guage for atmos vs in-space flight... theoretically mass could be a factor in getting items out of a planets gravity well.... if thats the case, then carting up extra 'fuel' for space flight would also consume additional fuel... thus if that theory holds true, it would cost more fuel to get fuel out of the planetary gravity well.... 

So a Space Elevator concept offers ALL KINDS of potential advantages... its just a matter of how much the game designers are going to incorporate resource usage into game-play reality... 

 

Of course, for now... its just speculation, so we'll have to wait an see... but the possibilities are endless! :D

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Just for reference, AMA 2:

How high can we build? Is a space elevator a possibility?

 

Because planets should turn around their axis in the future (if no particular technical problem prevents us from doing it), we will limit the altitude of what you can build to avoid having to handle collisions on the server for potentially millions of nearby constructs. In practice, anything below the max building altitude will "turn" together with the planet. This should be a few kilometers high. So, no space elevator, or else no turning planets!

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Just for reference, AMA 2:

 

How high can we build? Is a space elevator a possibility?

 

Because planets should turn around their axis in the future (if no particular technical problem prevents us from doing it), we will limit the altitude of what you can build to avoid having to handle collisions on the server for potentially millions of nearby constructs. In practice, anything below the max building altitude will "turn" together with the planet. This should be a few kilometers high. So, no space elevator, or else no turning planets!

 

Interesting argument... by current theory something like a space elevator in real life might be a difficult prospect due to potential collision issues and such with satellites and meteoroids and such, unless such problems could be addressed... such a construct Would turn with the planet.  Of course, in RL most active satellites are capable of orbital maneuvering and could be set up to avoid predictable collisions, or even be set 'above' the level of the top end of the elevator.  

 

Stability wise, we'll have to see how the game mechanics work, and how far out the servers will consider an object to be a 'part' of the planet (or even if in the final cut planets will actually rotate at all), as the devs may set limits on how large a structure can be depending on what type of 'core unit' is used, if multiple structures with multiple 'core units' can be strung together, and if it is at all possible to make such a thing. (I'm sure there are those that WILL try regardless of negging in this forum!)  :D

 

Other factors involved could include game operated weather systems, building decay concepts (i.e. will structures eventually 'break down' through normal environmental wear and tear, fatigue from age, etc...) not to mention, how would the physics engine handle it if someone blew a supercarrier ship through the top end of the cable just below the orbital station its attached to!   :lol:

 

Heck, the whole concept might be rendered moot because the devs give us a skill tree that includes the incorporation of Mass Teleportation devices ala the Transporter System in Star Trek.... who needs a space elevator when you can just beam stuff up? :o

 

But I can assure you of this much... we're gonna find out in the not too distant future!   B)

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