Should empty gravwells be smaller?

from Sins Forums
I was thinking about this for a bit and i find it a bit weird that the empty gravwells (asteorid belt and the nebulas) have such a big gravwell.
There is really nothing there to create it.
I know that they are there as neutral grounds, but without a celestial body in the middle there is so much space.
I think they have the same sized gravwell as a normal asteorid but without the empty center zone.
That way there is quite a bit more room than in those.
I would suggest to reduce the size of those empty gravwells a bit, maybe to the size of an asteorid with a porous core.
That way you could traverse them a bit faster and they would make better battlegrounds rather than huge empty spaces.
5,189 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
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asteorid belt
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these would be orbiting a central or several central gravity points.

the nebulas
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these could also have a gravity point if they are spinning. the problem i have with nebulas is they don't exist in a star system. the star system exists in the nebula.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Interesting point, Pithlit. Another way to tweak it instead of physically making the grav well smaller, just make ships fly through it faster than the grav wells of celestial objects (this mechanism already exists since ships fly much slower through solar grav wells). I'm not sure what would be involved in assigning a non-colonizeable celestial object a property of a colonizeable one.

I'm inclined to think the devs might have something up their sleeves as far as these things go, though, because whether or not their grav wells are smaller or not, they'll still remain empty spaces, with varying degrees of hugeness Their placement usually doesn't give them much strategic value, I've never in all my games seen a carrier-heavy fleet get ambushed (or even go through) a cloud that prevents fighter launch, for instance.
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

(this mechanism already exists since ships fly much slower through solar grav wells).
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I think that effect is actually a bug, as it only occurs if you send you ships across the sun, if you keep then on a tangent course they seem to move just fine.
At least it seems that way to me

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
(this mechanism already exists since ships fly much slower through solar grav wells).
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Thats actually an issue with scale -- stars have such a huge grav well that ships seem to travel slower, not that they actually travel slower.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Well I suppose you could make the Gwell for some anomalies smaller, its a matter of taste though, I personally think they are fine the way they are.

Though I would personally love irregular and oblong shaped Gwells for various asteroid fields, comibined with jump points, it could make a very interesting battle arena.

Too advanced a feature for this late in development though.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Thats actually an issue with scale -- stars have such a huge grav well that ships seem to travel slower, not that they actually travel slower.
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Okay, point taken but it's essentially the same thing.. the physical representation of the sun's grav well isn't that "huge" compared to normal planets, but it's a lot more dense so you get pretty much the same effect?
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top


Okay, point taken but it's essentially the same thing.. the physical representation of the sun's grav well isn't that "huge" compared to normal planets, but it's a lot more dense so you get pretty much the same effect?
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Except that if you shrink too far, the scale effects of weapons range come into play... Not to mention the turning radius! Its already a quarter of a grav well for some ships...
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
Well I suppose you could make the Gwell for some anomalies smaller, its a matter of taste though, I personally think they are fine the way they are.

Though I would personally love irregular and oblong shaped Gwells for various asteroid fields, comibined with jump points, it could make a very interesting battle arena.

Too advanced a feature for this late in development though.
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yes, but this has been talked about since at least beta 2... if not earlyer.

Thats actually an issue with scale -- stars have such a huge grav well that ships seem to travel slower, not that they actually travel slower.
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well if these stars have such huge gravity wells, then they should make them seem that big. Size scale is one of my complaints about this game. A stars grave well "appears" to be about the same as that of a planet, and only slightly bigger then that of an asteroid. PLEASE fix this. if ships move slower so that they take longer to cross a stars grav well, then why not make them move normal speed and have the well much bigger.

this could be partly fixed by re-sizing the tactical grid. Right now it really throws off our perception of size, because the grid spacing is different for different class of grav well. A star has huge squares and an asteroid has smaller ones, rather then having them all uniform with ALOT more squares in a huge well then a smaller one.

I personally like playing with the tactical grid on, so this really bugs me in game play. Does any one else notice this? plus if they tweak with the grid spacing they could cause asteroid grav wells to appear much smaller, even if they arent really... same with the sun, they could make it appear much bigger, with out it actually being changed that much.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
Yup, I would like a bigger star gravity well but have your ships move at normal speed as well....just checking, but ships around a star move at reduced speed, right?
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top


well if these stars have such huge gravity wells, then they should make them seem that big.
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One suggestion -- which I believe they took -- is consistent tactical grids. I. e. instead of having the grids spaced X% apart, they'd be spaced Y units apart and have more/less squares with the size of the grav well.

Yup, I would like a bigger star gravity well but have your ships move at normal speed as well....just checking, but ships around a star move at reduced speed, right?
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Star grav wells are larger -- its just that there isn't a lot of decent visible feedback for it. You can (easily) tell this if you use the zxc keys to control zoom... but most people don't.
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
I haven't used the nebulae yet, but an anti-matter heavy fleet in a starwell is much more powerful than one out of it. A TEC capship group is damn near impossible to kill in one, continual shield restores are a real bitch. I've taken advantage of a gas giant several times, hitting large fleets of small guys in one is perfect. If I had the oportunity sure, but I just haven't run into one in a good spot for ambushing or using as a choke point yet. It has to be really prime real estate to pick squadron lockdowns over orbital defenses.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
One suggestion -- which I believe they took -- is consistent tactical grids. I. e. instead of having the grids spaced X% apart, they'd be spaced Y units apart and have more/less squares with the size of the grav well.
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well if this is true, and i hope im wrong, then its very decieving in the latest beta. It sure looks to be, because i play with tac. grids on, that a star has MUCH bigger squars then a planet or astroid belt.
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
To rephrase: I believe they took but haven't yet implemented.