Making a spaceflight game where the player must build generators, thrusters, etc...

Making a spaceflight game where the player must build generators, thrusters, etc... I want to use semi-realistic numbers and units for these things.

So these generators produce power, which is measured in Watts. Thrusters use that power to produce thrust, which is measured in Newtons.

What is really confusing me is the relationship between power and thrust. Dividing [math]\frac{1W}{1N}[/math] gives a velocity (1 m/s). So I thought maybe I should be working with energy rather than power, but that's even more confusing... Dividing energy by force gives a distance (pic related).

Can anyone shed some light on the relationship of these units?

For example, if my ship's generator produces 1MW, how many Newtons can the thrusters produce?

Kerbal space program beat you to it time for a new idea m8

yeah true, my game is better tho

bump

you obviously don't know enough to build a game.

but I'd like to see KSP with real world data. Including the solar system, earth's dimensions etc.

It may be more realistic but kerbal is successful because it's fun to play, I make games and as much as I'd like to make them complex autismfests you have to simplify it for brainlets

>you obviously don't know enough to build a game.
just too lazy to figure out the units

>but I'd like to see KSP with real world data. Including the solar system, earth's dimensions etc.
OK if you answer the OP question I will build this, put it on Steam, and post a free gift code here

>I make games and as much as I'd like to make them complex autismfests

go work for Paradox

P=F*v

For a vehicle with an engine of a fixed power output, the applied force depends on the velocity of the vehicle.

It's one reason why your car can't accelerate as well at 60 mph as it can at 20 mph

Pic related is waifu

>not kirino
into the trash

u wot m8

I'm not him but honestly all the best games are autismfests. Everything else is FPS and sports.

I've been working on this for four years. Your post indicates that you don't have enough understanding of physics to even count yourself where I was at the beginning. You probably have another two years before you even reach that standard.

Why is Veeky Forums so full of dicks? It even makes me answer questions in a similar dickish manner rather than trying to help

...

>working on it for four years
>have nothing to show for it
>finally go to Veeky Forums to ask a bunch of moon landing denying retards about simple physics
>get bogged down in junior high level unit management

That description doesn't make sense. That would mean that it takes zero power to accelerate something that isn't moving. Also, velocity is always relative to something.

More like "something that isn't moving isn't doing any work"

Velocity is relative to whatever you're pushing against. For a car, that's the road, for a rocket, that's the stuff your rocket is spitting out

I found an example that makes the units make sense. A motor is lifting an object (on Earth so a = 9.8m/s2) at a constant velocity of 1 m/s (upward). If we know the mass of the object, we can get the force (= m*a) and then F * 1 m/s gives the power of the motor.

Problem now is that my spaceships aren't affected by gravity... so all I really have is a mass and an acceleration. If I know the rating of my thruster (say 100kN) and I know the mass of the ship (say 10000kg), then I know how much it will accelerate (10 m/s2)... but how much power (energy?) is produced/consumed in the process?

>I know the mass of the ship
You know the initial mass of the ship

Anyway, you're better off looking at this in terms of momentum rather than energy. Google "rocket equation"

Are u thinking of No Man's Sky

>"rocket equation"
meh

These thrusters don't expel propellant... They're super sci-fi futuristic magic. Yeah, OK, so I'm already violating the laws of physics. But every game must do this to some extent, until the day when computers are fast enough to simulate every particle under every rule of physics, meaning never.

Anyway, the level of realism I'm after is just some simple math.

So let me try to say it in yet another way.

The ship has a mass m = 10000 kg
The thruster applies a force of F = 100 kN
The ship accelerates at 10 m/s2
The ship is accelerating in space (no gravity and no friction)

Given that, what more information is needed to calculate the power involved? And it's fine if the answer is "you can't calculate power because engines don't work that way," but I don't think that's the case.

You're right in suggesting that power doesn't work that way. Neither does force, for that matter, since every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and you can't just push against the vacuum of space.

But for fun, lets pretend that there's some massive, invisible point in space that you're spacecraft is always capable of pushing against. In this case, we go back to P=F*v. If you want your applied force (and thus acceleration) to be constant, and likewise, your velocity to increase at a constant rate, your power consumption will have to be constantly increasing as well.

If you want your game physics to be such that force is constant, I'd just leave power out of it. Or, you could have a max power rating for your spacecraft, and let your force be constant up until Pmax=F*v, basically giving your spacecraft a speed limit.

Also
>not replicating the entire universe in a game is the same as telling Newton to shove it up his ass
I feel you, but no

Ayo,if you wanna know where the equation comes from. Say you have a motor with power [math]P[/math]. Power is the derivative of energy so: [math]P = \frac{dK}{dt}[/math] where [math]K=\frac{1}{2}mv^2[/math], thus: [math]P = \frac{1}{2}m\frac{dv^2}{dt} = \frac{1}{2}m \cdot 2v \frac{dv}{dt} = m v a = F v [/math]

Also, the best way of learning things is by doing projects like this, don't pay attention to the dicks of sci pls. Good luck.