Damn gravity! Doh!

[Jack Carr]

Ok...how many times have you destroyed your own Paladin by forgetting about the funny gravity and flipping it because you went into a turn too fast. DOH!

[aittam]

not so many compared to the times I end up without a gun/ATGM launcher

[PseudoSimonds]

Even worse in a Shrike.

[cool breeze]

It would be great if there were an expandable or collapsible stats page that gives, amoung other things, the gravity and atmospheric pressure. other things... something which tells you the vehicles you have dropped and what damage they took. dropships lost while following you order. turrets dropped and lost. a stat and info page for all other players which is updated after a long enough delay that people cant use it to see what damage they have done? the

[Dark_au]

Low Gravity I always stack my hurricane cos I am so busy in the sights I miss the arty hole.

[poesel]

Turning the control slider a bit down helps.

Problem is that we control an analog device (the steering wheel) with a digital control (keyboard). Thats not a big problem with the tracked vehicles, but with the wheeled ones.

Since we have a digital input we could have an digital output as well: if we break down the maximum deflection into 3 or 4 parts to each side and each punch on the keyboard moves the wheel one notch to the left or right. Braking would reset the control to center (if moving forward).

That would give us a better control and even the ability to drive circles.

[adzling]

The physics for wheeled vehicles just feels wrong. I was playing arpinium last night and driving one of those anti-air vehicles up the tall hill to the east of the base.

The vehicle actually flipped over BACKWARDS end-over-end.

I don't think this is actually possible.

In all of my car-driving experiences (granted never driven a hermes) the physics of the car's road-holding seems very different.

It seems like the center of gravity doesn't account for engine placement/ mass or the fact that the tires and wheels actually have weight/ mass in and of themselves.

[dan/california]

Well I knew a guy who flipped a jeep backward end over end that way, it can be done. The fool was extraordinarily lucky to live through it. The problem is that nothing in the HUD tells you that you are about to do it. A simple inclinometer with a red zone would work.

In a a larger sense the fact that vehicles do not give good feedback about how violently/aggressively they are being driven is an issue, Especially on rough terrain. Maybe they could make the players view shake with increasing violence as the speed got really high for the conditions. I have been way to fast in a four wheel drive vehicle, and at some point you start bouncing so hard you think your fillings are going to come out.

"The physics for wheeled vehicles just feels wrong. " I don't think it is the physics. I think the physics model is showing what would happen to a vehicle whose center of gravity is too high for its intended use. the visual feels wrong because you go from fine to flipped with little or no warning.

[ClaytoniousRex]

The vehicle actually flipped over BACKWARDS end-over-end.

I don't think this is actually possible.

It certainly is. You really have to think about what you're asking that machine to do. You can't physically *feel* with your stomach and head the awful events beginning to take place like you can in a real vehicle, and you are NOT driving grandma's Buick on a nice, smooth interstate.

Problem is that we control an analog device (the steering wheel) with a digital control (keyboard). Thats not a big problem with the tracked vehicles, but with the wheeled ones.

You're exactly right, Poesel. Has anyone tried driving with joystick(s) or, better yet, those funny driving rigs?

[ July 14, 2006, 11:44 PM: Message edited by: ClaytoniousRex ]

[Jack Carr]

Originally posted by dan/california:

Well I knew a guy who flipped a jeep backward end over end that way, it can be done...

This happened to my Paladin on the cratered moon map. I came out of it completely undamaged!

[yurch]

Originally posted by ClaytoniousRex:

and you are NOT driving grandma's Buick on a nice, smooth interstate.

Interestingly enough, Grandma's Buick was built tougher than one of those wimpy IFV's.

[poesel]

Originally posted by ClaytoniousRex:

Has anyone tried driving with joystick(s) or, better yet, those funny driving rigs?

I don't think that will ever be a common input for this game. The keyboard mouse input combo isn't so popular without a reason.

I really wish that speed/deviation is not a function of "key pressed over time" but "number of times key is pressed".

The latter is even more unsusceptible to network failures.

[PseudoSimonds]

I did try it with my steering wheel for a couple of minutes today. I think I need to play with the settings a bit more. Currently the brake pedal is forward and the accelerator is reverse.

You still need the mouse to aim the gun, so it's left hand on the steering wheel, right on the mouse. Then I'll probably need to map the targetting button to one of the buttons on the wheel. I'm not sure I'm coordinated enough for this.

[bjarmson]

The low gravity thing is very interesting. If you watch carefully the front of the 120mm AFVs will lift right off the ground when firing. In fact, you should not fire to the sides, because you are likely to role your vehicle due to recoil (particularly the case with the lighter Apollos, but I've see Thors do it too). I've learned not to fire my Apollo at more than about a 20-30 degree angle, front or back. Nice touch of low grav realism.