Movement in space

[Tarran]

something I've been thinking of.. it keeps popping up in different forums

ok.. you have an object in space.. it has an engine on it.. does it really matter where that objects engine is in relation to the rest of itself?
there seems to be this theme of the engine having to be central to its mass.. and near an object with high enough gravities this makes sence (I think)..
thoughts?

[klauss]

If the engine is not aligned with the center of mass (the segment connecting the center of mass to the center of the exhaust must be parallel to the exhaust direction), then its use would cause torque to be applied to the ship, thus making it spin.

If such torque was small, it could be compensated with maneuvering thrusters.

If it's great, it can be compensated by other engines, mounted in a symmetrical position.

So... it's complex. You can have non-central engines, but you must think it carefully if you attempt any level of realism. The safest bet, though, is to have either central engines, or central-symmetric engines.

[Tarran]

ah ha.. thank you

[klauss]

May I add... when you have to compensate torque, the structure resents - although in the big scheme forces cancel out, in the smaller scale the structure is being stressed out to various degrees. So you still want to keep torque (and torque cancelling) to a minimum, or at least show a reinforced structure to cope with it.

[Tarran]

hmm.. I take it then that using those portions of the game that fall into the magic catagory (those existing within the game), should be disregarded when explaining the structure of units (how they work and why)