ISO ship width/height/weight/service ceiling relation - formula / equation ideally.

[Mcas]

As the title says.
Hey! Super nerd here trying to make a spreadsheet ship builder calculator.
Please redirect if this has been answered somewhere else.
Searched all over the place, can't find anything.
Thanks in advance!

[Ernst Cornell]

be clearer with your question, what exactly do you want? like an optimal size formula?
(i don't have any beyond some rules of thumb tho)

[Mcas]

I want to know what variables come to play into service ceiling, and how. I thought it was a linear relationship with weight, but it seems heigth and width are also in the mix. I don't want rule of thumb data though. Maybe some freak programmer that can find/dig the coding... I wouldn't know where to look at. Thanks.

[AMURKA]

Oh of COURSE! the ISO service ceiling relation formula! Let me pull that right out. /s

If you're looking for a cheezed way to calculate service ceiling based off height/weight etc you're gonna have to make it yourself.

Shouldn't honestly matter that much though, since any service ceiling above ~315m is unattainable because the camera just won't go any higher... I have a decently combat ready ship with a stated ceiling of 750m but I can't use it that way because "reasons"

So there's part of your formula right there... The answer will always be less than/equal to ~315

[AMURKA]

Not sure but height might effect speed more than max alt. Or perhaps it was just the balloons naturally slow the max speed down.

[Mcas]

yeah, well... if my calculations are correct, the service ceiling to height relation formula is close to y=-2.297*x-56.667 per 10kg in single square (stacked on top of each other, when adding). That I figured today. Then, I spent the whole day looking for the answer of the question to this post. And found out it also involves width. So here I am in search of (ISO) this answer. Any info leading to this will be appreciated.

[AMURKA]

Whatever you say, Dexter. TBH finding this equation seems pretty useless atm with such a low ceiling anyway. Maybe if the dev removes the artificial limit and suddenly we can go 4, 5, 6, 700 meters into the sky...then finding an equation that makes building such ships easier might actually be worth the time.

It's also very hard to do due to having to keep a running tally for each ships weight since there is no "weight" indicator in the stats list. There are other annoyingly hidden variables too, like the weight/crew-structure equation.

[LoSboccacc]

it's not width, it's height https://i.imgur.com/PWXg521.png

you have to subtract half height to the service ceiling. suspendium placement doesn't matter (ie.e top vs bottom chambers)

need to see how this "ceiling" translates in game. if the ceiling is on the top edge of the ship, all those design will end up being center aligned at thier max height

[AMURKA]

Maybe it calculates ceiling by (among other things like weight and lift) basing it off the bottom part of the ship minus how tall it is. This would be an easy way to ensure ceiling similarity even with wildly different height ships.

I'd be willing to bet if you used a custom map with some bit of land denoting exactly 130, all these ships would have the EXACT same ceiling.

You went 4 grids higher for -9 altitude and then 6 grids higher for -16. Seems like my first guess would be every 2 grids of height lowers your ceiling by ~5. Each grid being about 2.5 meters then?

[Wenzel]

Originally posted by LoSboccacc:

it's not width, it's height https://i.imgur.com/PWXg521.png

you have to subtract half height to the service ceiling. suspendium placement doesn't matter (ie.e top vs bottom chambers)

That's very interesting! But it can't be half the height, if I'm not mistaken? Judging from your test in the picture, its 130m for 2 tiles height, 121m (-9m!) for 4 tiles (+2 tiles). And then, from 4 tiles to 6 tiles (+2 tiles), service ceiling decreases only by 4m (from 121 to 117m). So in one case +2 height is -9m, in the other it's only -4m. It's not linear. You seem to imply that it's because the suspendium chambers are ignored? But then there shouldn't be a different between the 4 and 6 height version.

Maybe it's calibrated around a certain height, ie. a malus on service ceiling sets in above a pre-determined height, the "higher" the ship's design, the sooner? I suppose someone more gifted at mathematics could set up an experiment. :D

Originally posted by AMURKA:

Whatever you say, Dexter. TBH finding this equation seems pretty useless atm with such a low ceiling anyway.

I like the current ceiling. Especially when I think about multiplayer, allowing for a very large variance in service ceiling can lead to problems. Also, excess lift modules are not entirely wasted, as they will allow you to keep floating high even if some of them break down.

[LoSboccacc]

well we tbh don't know if the grid is half meter or meter increments, I was just guessing it's half meter. we'd first need a ship floating at exactly 10 meter and 10 squares tall to have a comparison of sort

[Wenzel]

I've made a quick test. In my case, the results seem to be quite linear:

height of ship / change in service ceiling
2 / 0
3 / -2
4 / -2
5 / -3
6 / -2
7 / -2
8 / -2
9 / -3
10 / -2
11 / -2
12 / -3

So the change was always -2 or -3. So perhaps it's indeed not a matter of ship-height but rather related to the point at which service height gets measured, which each tile having a height of 2 (2.something) m?

[Mcas]

omg, you are all awesome!!! I will test all of what you have posted and bring back the results.

[AMURKA]

Be wary of controlling variables. I'm sure there's probably a difference if you're testing this with only one Liftium room vs 2 or 3. The more you add the less it drops per additional height/weight i'd bet.

[ɃƵ Crazy Cat Lady]

Do devs ever leave feedback, or just let the players sort this stuff out for themselves?

[Mcas]

I spent the whole day yesterday trying things out and couldn't find a single constant nor trend. Did I miss something obvious here like: there's no actual physics system in this game? I know nothing about programming, and my math doesn't go into logarythm/algorythm stuff. Wonder if there's actually something that acts as gravity. It seems to me the longer the fall, the faster they do. But not sure.