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What are people doing to achieve lateral 6 axis thrust?


xycrone

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I would love to hear what some of you are doing for 6 axis or less lateral thrust. I want to build a ship that feels more like a spaceship and less like a space jet. I got my flight-stick to work with joystick gremlin, vjoy and hidhide and I just feel like there are no real good options to use my flight-stick to enjoy 6 axis lateral thrust. 

 

I would love it if adjusters fired when I activate the lateral thrust binds; or, I think a better option would be the release of a new engine type that is designed to work specifically with the lateral thrust key binds with less or no warm up time.

 

It would probably take a while before DU implemented a better system anyway, so what are some of you doing now; I would like to Know!  

Edited by xycrone
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If they gave us thrusters that were more effective than the ones we have now, that were intended for lateral thrust, everyone would just use them for forward thrust too.

 

You can add space engines facing in any direction on you ship though.  But each one you add is more weight.  When you're moving at a decent speed in space, the more thrust to weight you have, the faster you'll be able to change your momentum.  So no matter how many engines you decide to add, you'll have a more maneuverable ship if you focus all that thrust in one direction, and then use the adjusters to point it where you need it.

 

 

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Only thing you can do for less warm-up is using smaller military (or better) engines and level up talents.

For engine directionality you can either taking full engine control using LUA, or try experimenting with the engine tags.

 

Edit: Another trick when using LUA is to never throttle the engines completely off, this will prevent the warm-up at the expense of some fuel consumption.

 

And I am also still waiting for proper analog joystick support in this game.... .. .

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I have been advocating proper RCS mechanics for space for years actually. 

 

In principle we have the elements for it with adjustors, but they can't be controlled individually. If that option would be available it would be fairly easy to have plane changes and lateral movement close to "real life" space manoeuvring.

Funny bit is that if you check out some of the latest Falcon9 launches where the booster returns to the launch site, the manoeuvres using the RCS cold gas thrusters give a good idea of that. The tracking from the ground gives a really good impression of how that works and it's not entirely unlike what we see in DU.

 

 

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6 hours ago, CptLoRes said:

Only thing you can do for less warm-up is using smaller military (or better) engines and level up talents.

For engine directionality you can either taking full engine control using LUA, or try experimenting with the engine tags.

 

Edit: Another trick when using LUA is to never throttle the engines completely off, this will prevent the warm-up at the expense of some fuel consumption.

 

And I am also still waiting for proper analog joystick support in this game.... .. .

 

Yeah is just ok. LUA is interesting though.

 

NEED better joystick support for sure IMO!

Edited by xycrone
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5 hours ago, blazemonger said:

I have been advocating proper RCS mechanics for space for years actually. 

 

In principle we have the elements for it with adjustors, but they can't be controlled individually. If that option would be available it would be fairly easy to have plane changes and lateral movement close to "real life" space manoeuvring.

Funny bit is that if you check out some of the latest Falcon9 launches where the booster returns to the launch site, the manoeuvres using the RCS cold gas thrusters give a good idea of that. The tracking from the ground gives a really good impression of how that works and it's not entirely unlike what we see in DU.

 

 

 

Yeah would be a good to give us that option with adjusters.

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13 hours ago, Atmosph3rik said:

If they gave us thrusters that were more effective than the ones we have now, that were intended for lateral thrust, everyone would just use them for forward thrust too.

 

You can add space engines facing in any direction on you ship though.  But each one you add is more weight.  When you're moving at a decent speed in space, the more thrust to weight you have, the faster you'll be able to change your momentum.  So no matter how many engines you decide to add, you'll have a more maneuverable ship if you focus all that thrust in one direction, and then use the adjusters to point it where you need it.

 

 

 

Joystick support should probably be #1 priority since they decided to develop the spaceship part of the game first, IMO. You need that to refine things that rely on a good control scheme like PVP and engine power. Right now joystick support is so bad it's hard to properly review those things to see what could be improved on.

 

However I believe adjuster control for lateral thrust bindings or something is really needed because it is so difficult to park a ship with no lateral thrust and no good options for creating lateral thrust exist, IMO. Lua is good but you need 2 different types of engines at least (space, atmo) for a fully featured less frustrating ship; and quick adjustments are at least acknowledged as necessary for good gameplay, as adjusters exist to at least turn the ship in a decently responsive manner. 

 

I understand the logic for not wanting something to usurp the current space and atmo engines but ultimately I think there is a way to give us lateral thrust that is better than the current options, without usurping anything. Lateral thrusters don't need to as strong as the current engines; we just need better options for lateral thrust bind buttons; it would be more practical and fun IMO.    

 

I think maximizing your power to weight ratio is 1 philosophy to aim for when designing a ship; but another is optimal low speed maneuverability; But the options are not good from what I understand. I could be wrong but I don't think so.    

 

But yeah, for now looks like I need to learn LUA,

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14 hours ago, Atmosph3rik said:

If they gave us thrusters that were more effective than the ones we have now, that were intended for lateral thrust, everyone would just use them for forward thrust too.

 

You can add space engines facing in any direction on you ship though.  But each one you add is more weight.  When you're moving at a decent speed in space, the more thrust to weight you have, the faster you'll be able to change your momentum.  So no matter how many engines you decide to add, you'll have a more maneuverable ship if you focus all that thrust in one direction, and then use the adjusters to point it where you need it.

 

 

People seem to be ignoring this response. Let me say that adjustors are intended to produce TORQUE without producing linear FORCE (thrust). This makes it much easier to to build ships that can point in any direction without inducing drift. I personally like the fact that DU uses physical laws instead of video game physics when possible.

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1 hour ago, JayleBreak said:

People seem to be ignoring this response. Let me say that adjustors are intended to produce TORQUE without producing linear FORCE (thrust). This makes it much easier to to build ships that can point in any direction without inducing drift. I personally like the fact that DU uses physical laws instead of video game physics when possible.

 

I did not know that. That is cool, thank you! 

I did turn on torque for vertical boosters and engines together and separately but I then could not increase my altitude at all; also I disabled torque and now when I'm past 40% throttle, thrust goes to 0; I suspect the issue is a bug so I submitted a bug report.

I hope the torque issue is worked out because I want to experiment more with that. 

Edited by xycrone
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Every game that has flight in it attempts to create a good balance between realism, fun and difficulty.  Too difficult or realistic and most people won't enjoy it.  Too easy and it's like No Mans Sky, where flight is basically a pretty cutscene where you get to steer a little.

 

But NQ has to consider balancing building too.  They gave us overpowered, light weight adjusters, that don't consume any fuel, to make the game a little less complicated, and more fun.  But if they produced thrust, they would be too overpowered.

 

The one unfortunate side effect is that we can't use the Adjusters to nudge a ship to the side, when we're parking.

 

 

3 hours ago, xycrone said:

However I believe adjuster control for lateral thrust bindings or something is really needed because it is so difficult to park a ship with no lateral thrust and no good options for creating lateral thrust exist,

 

I think the keybindings for strafe left and right are, ALT+A and ALT+D.  If you put an engine facing in that direction, and then run the autoconfigure, it will tag them automatically, so they should fire when you hit the key.  No LUA needed.  And engines facing up or down will fire with Spacebar and C.

 

A ship with rocket boosters facing in all directions would be interesting to fly.

 

But i think it's always going to be more efficient to point all your thrust in one direction, and use Adjusters and Brakes to do everything else, because they are so overpowered, and don't cost any fuel. 

 

 

 

 

 

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48 minutes ago, Atmosph3rik said:

Every game that has flight in it attempts to create a good balance between realism, fun and difficulty.  Too difficult or realistic and most people won't enjoy it.  Too easy and it's like No Mans Sky, where flight is basically a pretty cutscene where you get to steer a little.

 

But NQ has to consider balancing building too.  They gave us overpowered, light weight adjusters, that don't consume any fuel, to make the game a little less complicated, and more fun.  But if they produced thrust, they would be too overpowered.

 

The one unfortunate side effect is that we can't use the Adjusters to nudge a ship to the side, when we're parking.

 

 

 

I think the keybindings for strafe left and right are, ALT+A and ALT+D.  If you put an engine facing in that direction, and then run the autoconfigure, it will tag them automatically, so they should fire when you hit the key.  No LUA needed.  And engines facing up or down will fire with Spacebar and C.

 

A ship with rocket boosters facing in all directions would be interesting to fly.

 

But i think it's always going to be more efficient to point all your thrust in one direction, and use Adjusters and Brakes to do everything else, because they are so overpowered, and don't cost any fuel. 

 

48 minutes ago, Atmosph3rik said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, efficiency is important for some builds; but what if you just want to make a ship that feels good to fly? 

I did not know the binds work auto atomically with lateral engines; I did try a vtol setup and it seemed to use way more fuel because they never turned off. I don't actual know if I tried small engines on the side yet. I guess I just need atmo engines on the front and sides and then at least 1 space engine on all 6 sides to get the results I'm looking for. 

 

I would not mind new shapes of engines that are easier to put on ships for looks and convenience. Should not be the focus now though, with so many other issues that need attention. 

 

I guess I need to try it; it might be good enough. TY for the info. in your post.

 

I would also like to try engines with torque enabled to see how good it feels as an addition to the adjusters on the ship. I wonder if you can use them for both turning and lateral thrust with the same engine. If someone has a build like this please tell me about it. I would love to see how it's done.

Edited by xycrone
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I've played around with that was able to get work somewhat the ship felt more like a drone there's some advantages the side engines help balance the ship and make a more stable ride but I always end up scraping it because the fuel consumption is high and the extra weight due to the extra engines made it not practical but it was fun to tinker with. I might try to play with that again on small scale using mostly small engines and a couple/ few medium engines or xs engines with small engines for rear thrust that would more fuel efficient but I wouldnt try to haul a lot like that it's not efficient.

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53 minutes ago, Namcigam said:

I've played around with that was able to get work somewhat the ship felt more like a drone there's some advantages the side engines help balance the ship and make a more stable ride but I always end up scraping it because the fuel consumption is high and the extra weight due to the extra engines made it not practical but it was fun to tinker with. I might try to play with that again on small scale using mostly small engines and a couple/ few medium engines or xs engines with small engines for rear thrust that would more fuel efficient but I wouldnt try to haul a lot like that it's not efficient.

 

Did you use LUA or just default flying construct setting? Did you enable torque on any of your engines?

 

I'm hoping the small engines will will be enough thrust and the fuel use is insignificant compared to the many large engines that are on my ship.

 

I'm low on quanta so it will be a while before I can test it.

Edited by xycrone
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29 minutes ago, xycrone said:

 

Did you use LUA or just default flying construct setting? Did you enable torque on any of your engines?

 

I'm hoping the small engines will will be enough thrust and the fuel use is insignificant compared to the many large engines that are on my ship.

 

I'm low on quanta so it will be a while before I can test it.

 

I know there are ways to adjust the way the engines fire / behave in LUA but I haven't really went down that rabbit hole yet just dipped my toes in it. If there is a way to make stmos engines synch with or behave like the ground engines that would probably do the trick but Im just throwing that out there I don't even know if that's possible. I was going off default engine / cockpit config I was more impressed with left right and down thrust than the ones facing towards the ground to be honest it feels like your hovering floating and it smooth hard to explain but it was interesting.

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Am I missing something obvious in this conversation?

 

All of my ships that are not focused on out and out max speed, have sideways and front facing engines a rank (sometimes two) smaller than the main rear facing engines.

 

If you make those engines advanced manoeuvre engines or rare manoeuvre engines, then there is pretty much no warmup time. They react immediately. Default key is alt plus A or D for lateral motion. or scroll wheel back for reverse. 
 

This makes parking super simple. Although of course a heavy freighter means relatively low acceleration.

 

If said ship is also space capable then I add top and bottom facing space engines too, to allow full three axis motion. Vertical space engines can behave weirdly on re-entry into planet’s atmosphere, though.

 

I created a number of small transporters for ferrying gear to and fro on the base. These craft are omnidirectional and have identical thrust backwards left and right and quadruple forward thrust for a bit more speed in regular flight. 

 

Using LUA I remapped the forward reverse left right strafe keys to the regular WASD keys. Now I have a platform that can travel in all four directions very precisely without banking. Space and C key control vertical offset.

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But you can do all that except remapping keys simply by adding engines at right angles or forwards facing.


That’s all you have to do put an extra engine facing left an extra engine facing right and if you want reverse an engine facing forward.

 

Ironically, it’s not actual rocket science. ?

 

The default flight script is actually fairly sophisticated and handles the engines independently. If you want to slide your ship left press alt +A.  If you want to slide your ship right press alt+ D. No LUA needed at all. Completely default. 
 

same goes for space engines. 
 

no need to change the adjusters’ behaviour at all. 

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30 minutes ago, Jinxed said:

Am I missing something obvious in this conversation?

 

All of my ships that are not focused on out and out max speed, have sideways and front facing engines a rank (sometimes two) smaller than the main rear facing engines.

 

If you make those engines advanced manoeuvre engines or rare manoeuvre engines, then there is pretty much no warmup time. They react immediately. Default key is alt plus A or D for lateral motion. or scroll wheel back for reverse. 
 

This makes parking super simple. Although of course a heavy freighter means relatively low acceleration.

 

If said ship is also space capable then I add top and bottom facing space engines too, to allow full three axis motion. Vertical space engines can behave weirdly on re-entry into planet’s atmosphere, though.

 

I created a number of small transporters for ferrying gear to and fro on the base. These craft are omnidirectional and have identical thrust backwards left and right and quadruple forward thrust for a bit more speed in regular flight. 

 

Using LUA I remapped the forward reverse left right strafe keys to the regular WASD keys. Now I have a platform that can travel in all four directions very precisely without banking. Space and C key control vertical offset.

 

Perfect; where can I get that LUA code.?

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5 minutes ago, xycrone said:

 

Perfect; where can I get that LUA code.?

I’ll say it again, maybe I wasn’t clear enough. Spending a quarter century in Japan like I’ve done can play havoc with one’s English. 
 

If you just want strafing, you don’t need any LUA. 

 

First place laterally facing engines.  Link them to a fuel tank. 
 

when in flight, press alt+A instead of A and your lateral engine on the right side of the ship will fire and push you left.  

Press Alt+D instead of just D and your ship will automatically strafe right. 
 

Simples!

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43 minutes ago, Jinxed said:

I’ll say it again, maybe I wasn’t clear enough. Spending a quarter century in Japan like I’ve done can play havoc with one’s English. 
 

If you just want strafing, you don’t need any LUA. 

 

First place laterally facing engines.  Link them to a fuel tank. 
 

when in flight, press alt+A instead of A and your lateral engine on the right side of the ship will fire and push you left.  

Press Alt+D instead of just D and your ship will automatically strafe right. 
 

Simples!

 

Let me be clear, I WANT IT ALL! I want lateral thrust in 6 directions in space and atmo.

 

What you described is what I wanted to hear. Now, that said, where can I get that LUA code you used?

 

I think what you described will work for me perfectly. Also Japan is on my bucket list. I think it would neat to visit; if it doesn't sink before I get a chance.? 

Edited by xycrone
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24 minutes ago, xycrone said:

 

Let me be clear, I WANT IT ALL! I want lateral thrust in 6 directions in space and atmo.

 

you can get all 6 directions in space by adding space engines in all six directions. 

ALT A or D strafes left / right. 
Scroll mouse for forwards / reverse. 
space will strafe you up

C will strafe you down

 

IF you have engines pointing in the correct directions. Keep them as close to facing the XYZ directions as possible rather than diagonals and stuff.  

 

24 minutes ago, xycrone said:

 

Now, that said, where can I get that LUA code you used?

 


Now you’re just being silly… LOL

 

you CAN reassign the keys using LUA or you can just any of your favourite keyboard reassignment / macro software / joystick gremlin.  
 

 

Japan sinking? I think you’re mixing us up with Tuvalu. 

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14 minutes ago, Jinxed said:

 

you can get all 6 directions in space by adding space engines in all six directions. 

ALT A or D strafes left / right. 
Scroll mouse for forwards / reverse. 
space will strafe you up

C will strafe you down

 

IF you have engines pointing in the correct directions. Keep them as close to facing the XYZ directions as possible rather than diagonals and stuff.  

 


Now you’re just being silly… LOL

 

you CAN reassign the keys using LUA or you can just any of your favourite keyboard reassignment / macro software / joystick gremlin.  
 

 

Japan sinking? I think you’re mixing us up with Tuvalu. 

 

Ok I think I understand; but why did you use LUA?

 

Also I learned a lot more than I thought I would in this thread. TY to all that posted such good info.?

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1 hour ago, xycrone said:

 

Ok I think I understand; but why did you use LUA?

 

Also I learned a lot more than I thought I would in this thread. TY to all that posted such good info.?

 

I applied the hover vehicle LUA script to a remote controller on my small base transport ship just so that WASD moved the ship as when walking (w moves you forward a bit, s moves you back a strafes left and d strafes right... Q and E are yaw left and yaw right respectively... The ship stays level at all times, like a magic carpet.

Its a very specialist vessel more like a crane gantry or floating platform than a long distance ship.  It was useful for mining and crafting.

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I agree that you can get somewhat decent 6 DOF control out of the box, but part of the problem is that DU only has basic digital on/off controls for all axis beside throttle.

 

And that is causing havoc when you want exact control for more advanced maneuvers like docking a ship in a space hangar that will just fit etc. Or even something as simple as trying to align a vector at high speed without overshooting the target..

 

So if we had an option to use analog joystick and more fine grained control of directional engines, we would actually be in control of the ships instead of just nudging them in the general direction. And just imagine what having proper joystick controls would to for racing.

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