[1.3] rotationAccel for playerships

[Atarlost]

The rotationAccel setting used for current Vanilla and CC playerships is not low enough for fine control on anything but the EI500, Constellation, and Manticore, at least not with my keyboard. Reducing it to 3.0 gives fine control without perceptible lag and is more in line with the rotationAccel value for NPCs.

[PM]

Player needs a light touch to not skip frames on the Wolfen - harder than it seems. It is funny that overloading the Wolfen (with heavy armor and expanded cargo) may help control its maneuverability.

@ gpm: How come playerships have accel of 5 instead of what NPCs have? How come the Manticore has max of 4.5 while NPC Manticores turn twice as fast at 9?

[george moromisato]

I'm still experimenting with these values (and hope you guys do to).

The NPCs default to pre-1.3 values, which was acceleration to max rate in 1 tick. I'll eventually change that (probably programmatically) but I don't know what the proper values should be, so your feedback is helpful here.

Currently the acceleration rate for the player ships is roughly proportional to their max turn rate; but I think that's a mistake. Perhaps the faster turning ships should have low acceleration. I'd love you all to try it out and see if there is consensus on good acceleration values.

[Atarlost]

As I said above, rotationAccel="3.0" works best for me for maxRotationRate= "9.0-12" and isn't problematic at maxRotationRate= "6.0". Values less than 3.0 make the first facing change take 3 frames, which is noticeable lag. At 3.0 the second facing change will be at the third frame of rotation and therefore have a rotation rate of 9.0 unless the max is lower so there's only one facing of hang.

[PM]

For a 40 facings Wolfen, 3 or 5 seem to work best, depending on keyboard and eye-hand coordination.

Will a future version of Transcendence have frame interpolation such that player can have 360 facings ships with only 40 or so facings on the sprite sheet? If so, low values will be useful for slight turns to aim.

Most NPCs take several frames to reach max turn rate.

[PM]

Played some more and I think I know why it is too easy for a Wolfen to skip a frame.

If I simply tap the key, I try to turn five degrees, but that is not enough to rotate a frame. I can tap repeatedly, but to no avail - the ship simply will not turn unless I hold key for multiple ticks.

If I hold the button long enough to turn, I rotate one frame, but because rotation has momemtum and decelerates automatically, and the Wolfen has to decelerate (5 or so per tick) from its max rotation speed of 12 (or more than 9), I rotate an extra frame. Unless I weigh down the Wolfen, precision aiming is too hard or impossible.

I really miss being able to rotate one frame with a single tap of the key. I need to hold key down for a few ticks then release at the precise moment just to turn as much as I want. Trying to rotate the Wolfen one frame is like trying to execute a 1-in-30 fps "just frame" move in a fighting game.

Playerships need a minimum of 72 facings (assuming accel of 5), ideally 360. If frame interpolation is not an option, 120 facings is probably a good compromise between fine control and image size.

[Atarlost]

A lot of people have the opposite problem: Transcendence somehow doesn't respect the system repeat rate so there is no single tap. This is why there were so many requests for things like binding 'h' and ';' to rotate a single frame no matter how long they were held under the old maneuver code.