I've read in the Bible and seen other posts about this. There is supposed to be an option for gravity to exist in a system. From what I heard the option is not used in the stock scenario but can be used in plugins.
Have any plugins used this feature yet? If so, what kinds of things have been done? What are the limitations of the option and what are some things that can be done with it?

------------------
Dawn of Infinity(formerly OpenEV): the open-source multi-player EV (url="http://"http://openevgalaxy.sourceforge.net")http://openevgalaxy.sourceforge.net(/url)

Make a deadly spöb with a high gravity in an isolated system and voila! -- instant black hole.

Gravity does have a tendency to mess with the A.I. behavior, though, so, as recommended, it's a bad idea to put a spöb with gravity in a populated system.

------------------
Starfleet Adventures: A Star Trek TC for EVN (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=145") Discussion Board (/url)
Starfleet Adventures (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=71")Progress Log(/url)
denki's Starfleet Adventures (url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/starfleet_adventures/")FAQ page(/url)
It is better to feed the goat than it is today.

I recall hearing someone say that giving a spob a very low gravity will tend to keep battles around the center of the system without confusing the AI.
-Az

------------------

From what I've found, the gravity value doesn't need to be very high to be effective. I was testing on a ship similar to a shuttle and found that a value of just 10 made it impossible to leave the system. Also, gravity has no effect on ships with no enertia.

------------------
((Ż'ˇ.¸(Ż'ˇ.¸Ť•-KAME-•ť¸.ˇ'´Ż)¸.ˇ'´Ż))
I used to jog but the ice kept falling out of my glass.
(url="http://"http://www.0three0.net/l-1551/")L 1551(/url) - The official site of RONIN and The Way and the ten thousand things

Quote

Originally posted by Azratax2:
**I recall hearing someone say that giving a spob a very low gravity will tend to keep battles around the center of the system without confusing the AI.
-Az

**

Yeah, but it still inhibits it. It has made combat ridiculously easy in some cases that I have tested.

Still, it makes black holes massively cool. (and destructive)

_bomb

------------------
"that'll be 15 cents hippie!"

Gravity is great fun... it was used in one system (that I know of) ... in that one plug-in... (runs off to find the name).... ah yes! Polycon. One of the systems has a star in it, utilizing gravity. Great fun!

Another question that I'm too lazy to figure out:
*After starting a jump, but when you're still in the system, does gravity still affect you?

------------------
"The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably the day they start making vacuum cleaners." -- Ernest Jan Plugge

Quote

Originally posted by Madman80513:
**Gravity is great fun... it was used in one system (that I know of) ... in that one plug-in... (runs off to find the name).... ah yes! Polycon. One of the systems has a star in it, utilizing gravity. Great fun!

Another question that I'm too lazy to figure out:
*After starting a jump, but when you're still in the system, does gravity still affect you?

**

There's a second system in Polycon with a lot of gravity. Pretty dangerous, as all the spobs are deadly.

To your question, the answer is no.

------------------
(url="http://"http://www.evula.com")EVula(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.Evula.com/survival_guide")EVula's survival guide(/url) | (url="http://"http://pftn.evula.net")Pilot File Trade Network(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net")EV-Nova(/url) | (url="http://"http://home.comcast.net/~slagblah/")Slagblah's home page(/url) | (url="http://"http://home.comcast.net/~slagblah/pilotlog.html")pilotlog(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.resexcellence.com/support_files/resedit.shtml")ResEdit(/url) | (url="http://"http://w00tware.ev-nova.net/")W00tWare(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.ariossoftware.com/programs/evone/")EVONE(/url) | (url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/mc.php")Mission Computer(/url) | (url="http://"http://home.comcast.net/~slagblah/PilotlogAnalyzer.hqx")Slagblah's pilotlog analyzer(/url)
Visit my (url="http://"http://perso.wanadoo.fr/straven")home page(/url) !
My plugins: ( (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evn&category;=plugins&display;=date&file;=outfits_enabler_v1.1.sit")Outfit Enabler(/url) ) | ( (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evn&category;=guides&display;=date&file;=ResUsedList_v1.0.6.txt.sit")ResUsedList(/url) ) | ( (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evn&category;=plugins&display;=date&file;=Mission_Expansion_v1.0.0.sit")Mission Expansion(/url) )

(quote)Originally posted by STraven:
**(QUOTE)Originally posted by Madman80513:
**
Another question that I'm too lazy to figure out:
*After starting a jump, but when you're still in the system, does gravity still affect you?

**(/quote)
**(quote)
To your question, the answer is no.

**(/quote)

Sorry Straven, I have to disagree. If the Gravity is set high enough, I have found that it is impossible to jump out of the system, as I recall, It made the charging up to hyperspace sound, and even the flash, but stayed stuck on top of the planet. I'll double check this in a minute though.

Edit: I've just checked, and If the Gravity is set high enough (I set it to 100) (b)some** ships will not be able to jump into hyperspace. It seems that smaller ships cannot jump. I tested it out with a Valkyire, a Terrapin, and an Arachnid. The Arachnid was the only one that could jump. On top of this, If you are stuck on a high gravity spob in a small ship, and try to jump, it basically freezes the computer. It trys to jump, it makes the charging up sound , but no flash, and it's still in the same place. It keeps on repeating trying to jump out but never works. Because of this, you cannot do anything, you have no control over the ship, and you can't even use the escape key to go back to the main menu. The only way out is to force quit Nova.

So I don't recommend you set really high gravity on any spob, because it will basically freeze your game.

Hope this helps.
------------------
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain.

(This message has been edited by TheRedeemer (edited 10-29-2003).)

OR, if you are going to have incredibly large gravity in a system, make the spob deadly...

Small gravity is interesting, big gravity is just annoying.

~A~

------------------
"How can I make it go faster?" -Me-

Quote

Originally posted by Azdara:
**

Small gravity is interesting, big gravity is just annoying.

~A~

**

But also incredibly fun to watch. Using it in systems with many ships in is hilarious. Seeing Auroran and Fed fleets fly past you at fantastic speeds is quite funny. And they all pile up on top of each other on the spob and carry on shooting, so eventually everyship in the sytem gets destroyed.

Quote

Originally posted by Azdara:
**OR, if you are going to have incredibly large gravity in a system, make the spob deadly...

**

Ahh, good point.

------------------
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain.

(This message has been edited by TheRedeemer (edited 10-29-2003).)

Gravity of 1 draws ships in slowly and serves to focus battles on specific areas of a system without hugely confusing the AI. Gravity of 2 is a lot stronger and can make low acceleration ships unable to leave planets. Gravity of 3 is pinful to fly in and anything above you would rarely want to use.

Classic4Nova uses gravity on at least one system.

------------------
(url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/jonathanboyd/evn/index.html")Classic4Nova plug-in(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Jonathan Boyd:
Gravity of 1 draws ships in slowly and serves to focus battles on specific areas of a system without hugely confusing the AI. Gravity of 2 is a lot stronger and can make low acceleration ships unable to leave planets. Gravity of 3 is pinful to fly in and anything above you would rarely want to use.

I think it is more proportional to the accel and speed of the ship you're flying. I use a gravity of 5 in one of my plug's systems and although noticeable, flying around and jumping out of the system is still possible. At first I used a gravity of 10 and even this gave a false hope of being able to regain control as it just kept throwing you around the planet, but never being able to get enough momentum to escape (the whole slingshot effect).

------------------
((Ż'ˇ.¸(Ż'ˇ.¸Ť•-KAME-•ť¸.ˇ'´Ż)¸.ˇ'´Ż))
I used to jog but the ice kept falling out of my glass.
(url="http://"http://www.0three0.net/l-1551/")L 1551(/url) - The official site of RONIN and The Way and the ten thousand things

I experimented with gravity for the Black Hole in Frozen Heart 2.

Eventually I went back to my original system.

Although gravity + deadly spob is a convenient shorthand for a black hole, it doesn't do the damage on the way in that an event horizon would cause. It also breaks the EVx convention that flying on top of an object isn't the same as flying into an object - otherwise the star would have to be enormous on the screen to make any sense at all.

However, I agree that there's tonnes of exploration on the gravity to be done. I always find that where the EVx Bible says 'don't do this because it will cause the AI to behave strangely' there are excellent effects to be had if you only dress them up in the right way.

------------------
M A R T I N • T U R N E R
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category;=plugins&display;=downloads&file;=FrozenHeart104.sit.bin")Frozen Heart(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category;=plugins&display;=downloads&file;=FemmeFatale.sea.bin")Femme Fatale(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/dl-redirect.pl?path=evo/plugins&file;=Frozen Heart - the No.hqx")Frozen Heart - the Novel(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by TheRedeemer:
I've just checked, and If the Gravity is set high enough (I set it to 100) some ships will not be able to jump into hyperspace. It seems that smaller ships cannot jump. I tested it out with a Valkyire, a Terrapin, and an Arachnid. The Arachnid was the only one that could jump. On top of this, If you are stuck on a high gravity spob in a small ship, and try to jump, it basically freezes the computer. It trys to jump, it makes the charging up sound , but no flash, and it's still in the same place. It keeps on repeating trying to jump out but never works. Because of this, you cannot do anything, you have no control over the ship, and you can't even use the escape key to go back to the main menu. The only way out is to force quit Nova.

Sounds like it's proportional to the ship's mass. I wonder what the formula for figuring out if a ship with x mass in a system with y gravity can jump out.

Anyone care to attempt to find an answer to this?

------------------
The programmer's code of entomology: there's always another bug.

Edit: I've just checked, and If the Gravity is set high enough (I set it to 100) some ships will not be able to jump into hyperspace. It seems that smaller ships cannot jump. I tested it out with a Valkyire, a Terrapin, and an Arachnid. The Arachnid was the only one that could jump. On top of this, If you are stuck on a high gravity spob in a small ship, and try to jump, it basically freezes the computer. It trys to jump, it makes the charging up sound , but no flash, and it's still in the same place. It keeps on repeating trying to jump out but never works. Because of this, you cannot do anything, you have no control over the ship, and you can't even use the escape key to go back to the main menu. The only way out is to force quit Nova.(/B)(/QUOTE)

Prehapse the arachnid was a late-model one, and had a fast-jump effect (tunneling organ)? That lets you jump without slowing, and could concievably influence this situation. See if tossing a tunneling organ lets ships escape....
-Az

------------------