Where is the Rocinante???

[LeftPaw]

I know the dev's must have hidden it in the game somewhere. All I want to know really (no spoiler) is has anyone found it secret berth and flew her yet?

[Kalisa]

this game would be great for an expanse overhaul mod, would love some of those types of ships, wonder if anyone is workin on something like that, though would probably have to tune down the engagement ranges, dont think X could really handle the ranges of missles and torps that are in the expanse without a heavy overhaul

[uni790]

I don't know much of anything about the ship in question, but the dumb fire missiles go pretty far, it was either 20 or 40kms? I use them on my battle stations so I can dedicate turrets to anti fighter, and the missiles to capitals, then have the station produce it's own missiles so it has infinite.

Game can probably handle the ranges.

[Kalisa]

considering most guns in the expanse are around the 1000km, and missles far longer, its a very different sense of scale then what X does, also that 1000km is considered close range in expanse, those shots are near instant
Missles get into the millions of km range, with the fast movers usually getting into range of the anti missle defenses within 6-8 min at that range.

[uni790]

Originally posted by Kalisa:

considering most guns in the expanse are around the 1000km, and missles far longer, its a very different sense of scale then what X does, also that 1000km is considered close range in expanse, those shots are near instant
Missles get into the millions of km range, with the fast movers usually getting into range of the anti missle defenses within 6-8 min at that range.

Near instant, considering a modern railgun's shell covers roughly 3km/s, they must have some amazing reactors involved, doubt even our most powerful nuclear powerplants could produce that much energy for a railgun. But it's make believe, so it can do whatever it wants, lol. (I wouldn't want to be anywhere near that thing, it'd likely fry anything it's attached to, the heat itself would probably melt a good portion of the ship, it's got to go somewhere)



But yea, with magic ranges like that, that's well outside the realms of possibility for the game. Personally I think X here has a far more believable engagement range. considering how often one can miss with a S pulse laser at less then 10km and those beat railgun speeds. (was it 6000m/s on those?(not looking at the game currently))

[Kalisa]

they explain quite thoroughly where they get the power in the show, but not the exact details on the amount per shot, and yes their power source far exceeds that of anything we currently have in the forum of advanced fusion power, the railguns in expanse fire at around 30k to 50k km/s
Some slower based on tech and availability, the large military ones are staggeringly powerful but those require station levels of energy to fire.
Edit: doing some quick research, that 30-50k km/s is only for the largest installations, most are around 15k km/s, allot of engagements in the show are usually several light seconds across in size.

In truth, X actually is closer to star wars engagement ranges rather then realistic engagement ranges, realistic would be somewhere in between these extreams, the ranges in this game are incredibly short range for space.

[Snapko]

15k km/s is already possible in some kinetic fusion labs rn on earth, dont forget that they do it in space and ships themselves already have some speed + opposing ships speed

[Kalisa]

the expanse is actually far more realistic in terms of allot of its tech then most sci-fi out there, far more then something like star trek, star wars, or X. Though they may stretch some of that with other parts of their story elements, and does push the boundries of what could be possible with the tech they have. Its not true hard sci-fi but its in the same ballpark.

no directed energy weapons (torpedoes, railguns and PDCs only)
no energy shields (a hit is a hit)
no FTL (which includes the transmission of information via radio and laser; creating a time delay)
no inertial dampeners (meaning thrust greater than 1g is not negated in terms of it's effect on the crew)
no artificial gravity created with magic (all ship-based artificial gravity is created through thrust, or spin gravity and is turned off when a ship is in free-fall or not rotating)
natural human development affected by low-g environments (Belters)
The Epstein Drive (a fusion engine with magical efficiency, and the only creative liberty taken by JSAC)

In x, we would all be stains on a wall with the way ships accelerate and decelerate, espically with travel drives, i assume we have some pretty strong inertia dampeners.

[LeftPaw]

It was that series that pointed my way back to X. It had you loving a space ship.
I know it's out there somewhere just waiting for the next outbreak of the proton molecule.
Here comes the juice.

[Sticky Wicket]

A space game based in the Expanse Universe would be very cool. One of the best sci-fi shows ever.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by Sticky Wicket:

A space game based in the Expanse Universe would be very cool. One of the best sci-fi shows ever.

It definitely is and IIRC it was originally intended as a game but turned into a book then a book series.

The problem with Expanse is it's realistic. I.e. realistic newtonian mechanics and inter-planetary speeds. Combat in Expanse is over in seconds as ships fly past each other at measurable fractions of light speed. You get one shot and your foe is gone - literally into the void. This is more obvious in the books than in the TV series.

The Rocinante has a badass rail gun but that is mostly used against fixed stationary targets. It generally used missiles against ship targets. It also has a badass PD system. Most of the Rocinante's engagements involved guessing where the enemy was likely to be in x amount of time, plotting an intercept course which could take days to complete and if the guess was right unloading one missile salvo and preparing the PD to fend off the opponents reply missile salvo.

Either it worked first time or it didn't. If not she had to try to find the opponent, now disappeared into the void, and plotting a fresh intercept course before another attempt, a lengthy process. If you are flying at several hundred thousand kph stopping and turning around is not easy unless you happen have a convenient Jupiter sized planet in the vicinity that you're roughly heading for anyway to slingshot around (which is something that happened more than once in the books).

Also there is no such thing as a "space fighter" in Expanse. The whole idea of "space fighters" and carriers being an absurdity in reality.

Which means it would be very difficult to make any fun gameplay out of a faithful reproduction of Expanse in a game. That's probably why the game idea was originally dropped and it became a book, the authors not wanting to compromise realism for a playable game.

It's also why X4 and pretty much every other space game essentially implements WW2 carrier warfare in space.

[Kalisa]

Originally posted by Gregorovitch:

It's also why X4 and pretty much every other space game essentially implements WW2 carrier warfare in space.

Pretty much this, star wars and x series have more in common with atmospheric flight and ww2 combat rather then anything even semi realistic in space

to be fair though, almost all sci-fi get space horribly wrong, espically when it comes to space empire sizes.

[LeftPaw]

If I was a space game dev I would most defiantly have made and hidden the Rocinante in my game somewhere, well you would have to wouldn't you?

So I got to wondering, and places they would hide it. I would imagine it's would be in the sol region, goes without saying.

[Kalisa]

could be fun to have it in some hidden part of the torus wreckage, perhaps a puzzle to open the hanger bay and finding it nestled inside there. or some faar off unamed depot in one of the Sol sectors, like 25000km or more further away, love easter eggs like that