Nimcha reverse thrust

[Grumbleng]

Did anyone notice that Nimcha's reverse acceleration and top speed are higher than forward? I wonder how it can be put to use? Can you fight while flying backwards?

[techstepman]

in this game you can fight like babylon 5 if you want to. Anything is possible. With flight assist off forward or backward thrust lose their meaning. Just fly the way you like.
But to answer the question yes you can fight backwards...but you will miss more cause you have to understand that your projectile speed is gonna be what it says in the encyclopedia minus your reverse speed (your bullets/missiles will be slower).

[Grumbleng]

Are you implying that auto aim won't work properly? Probably will have to use beams then. But don't missiles have their own engines and acceleration? Would be kinda silly if a missile becomes stationary even though it's supposedly flying at full speed.

[Carlsberg]

So, If your travelling at 500kph in your fighter in reverse and you fire a bullet with a travel speed of 1500 it will only travel at 1000kph, the advantage is that the enemy, (presumably you are firing at one), may be travelling toward it at about 500kph so it should balance out in theory.

Missiles I don't know, if a missile is fired backward then its control surfaces will not work, without flaps and rudder etc it will probably just tumble rather than fly i would think.

Edit; missile may even end up hitting craft that launched it, lol

[Grumbleng]

I think you assumed that the missile would be launched with it's rear forward. I don't think they're launched that way. The question is, will the missile climb out of negative 500 mps that it was launched at, back to it's own +500 mps.

[Carlsberg]

Originally posted by Grumbleng:

I think you assumed that the missile would be launched with it's rear forward. I don't think they're launched that way. The question is, will the missile climb out of negative 500 mps that it was launched at, back to it's own +500 mps.

Its rear would be forward if craft was travelling in reverse, it would not have control until it gained positive speed was my thinking.

[Grumbleng]

So, let's summarize. If I'm flying backwards, and you say the missile may even hit my own ship, then it's launched either from the front of the ship, but launched backwards, facing the ship it was launched from, or launched from the rear of the ship, but again towards my own ship? Or it would somehow turn around mid flight and fly at my ship?

That sounds out of whack on multiple levels. Why would't the missile simply get launched in the direction the ship is facing in and continue flying in that direction?

[Carlsberg]

Originally posted by Grumbleng:

So, let's summarize. If I'm flying backwards, and you say the missile may even hit my own ship, then it's launched either from the front of the ship, but launched backwards, facing the ship it was launched from, or launched from the rear of the ship, but again towards my own ship? Or it would somehow turn around mid flight and fly at my ship?

That sounds out of whack on multiple levels. Why would't the missile simply get launched in the direction the ship is facing in and continue flying in that direction?

Well, I read your summary and i did laugh a bit, I guess stupid questions do get stupid answers and maybe give rise to silly thoughts but I am not a flight engineer. I figured if the missile did tumble then there is no telling what direction it would be facing if it did gain traction at some point.

There are probably very good reasons why we don't fire missiles backwards and I think I will just leave it there because now my brain hurts lol.

[uni790]

The game treats missiles as accellerating bullets with guidence, they would function the same as the other projectiles do, except they'll accellerate towards your target.

Now, onto the bigger issue, isn't the Nimcha the terran scout? If that's the case, you don't want that thing anywhere near combat.