Can you describe the game design pipeline for setting ship top speeds? Are current values setby cryengine limitations, fidelity, bugs and are you attempting to change this in engine? Will relative ship values get rebalanced at progressive intervals? Should we not expect to see values ever topping 500m/s?asked by tommytrain {Archilele}
TL;DRThe 500 m/s limit was once an engine limitation that probably won't remain after the 64-bit change, but it's undecided whether to raise it; one idea is acceleration-based speed envelopes per ship.
Yes, 500m/s at one point was a cryengine limitation, but it probably won't be once we finish moving to the 64bit float system. The question is do we want to. Do I see a need for something to travel faster than 500 m/s in normal space-flight travel? One of the ideas that's been floating around is for every ship to be limited to a speed with a realistic explanation, is that each ship is designed to perform within an envelope up to that 500 m/s. Everything in that envelope is governed by accelleration. So maybe it's 300 m/s. You might be able to reach that in, say, 10s. Then when you push out beyond that, you can really only move in a straight line (mostly) because your thrusters are so weak they can't do much to change your velocity, and your ability to accelerate up to that 500m/s falls off dramatically after you reach the edge of your envelope. That was one of the ideas, which makes the game about acceleration rather than just flat out speed. We'll see what happens!