Making a game

Concept: a near-future universe, limitations of combat in space: no upper limit on speed, finite deltaV, almost no fog-of-war, passive armor is essentially useless due to excessive mass, all combat takes place in orbit around gravitational sources.


A mobile frame increases maneuverability while decreases RCS fuel consumption.

As a pilot, your number one concern is fuel, or more importantly, deltaV. It is the change in velocity available to you based on the remaining fuel, engine efficiency, and mass. There are numerous tradeoffs: throw away weapons to gain deltaV, switch to low thrust engines with higher ISP, or dump fuel (and weapons!) for higher thrust-to-weight ratio (TWR) for higher maneuverability. Once you reach zero deltaV, you are stranded in your orbit, subject to gravitational disturbance and orbital decay. 


I don't understand how to use deviantArt anymore. When did the watermark get in there??

Your secondary concern is your orbital parameters. Periapsis too low and the ground will kiss you with death. Apoapsis too high and you'll be a sitting duck, or be outside the magnetic safety bubble of the map and be pummeled by debris. If your orbit profile is too similar to your targets, you'll end up spending too much deltaV getting close. Switch to a higher inclination or shift your augment of periapsis for a higher speed intercept!

There is a lot of work yet to be done. But it's work worth doing and not enough people are working on it. The source code of the game will be open sourced soon (when it's cleaned up and becomes readable), so other like-minded hard-science fiction nerds can join in on the fun.

Happy Thanksgiving!