[MOD] MIS: Hot Engines

Ginger470 · Post by **Ginger470** » Sat, 31. May 14, 23:36

[UPDATED 03 JUNE 2014]

NPC engines are now hot and produce a wake. Getting your ship caught up in that radioactive hot mess is not a good idea

Feedback is welcomed!

Can be removed from save games. No restart necessary.

From the readme:

INTRO:
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+ NPC ship engines produce a wake that will heat up the Skunk's hull.
+ The Wake is hottest at the engine nozzle and will increase with the speed of the ship (and the size of the engine)
+ Once the Skunk get's too hot, it'll start to loose shields (then hull) until it's cooled off.
+ If you're in a wake, the cockpit will shake (and Betty and Yisha will warn you) -- this means the hull temperature is rising (unless the skunk can dissipate the heat)
+ If the cockpit isn't shaking, the Skunk will be cooling off.
+ The Skunk will only dissipate so much heat at a time, so you may still be critically hot for a while even after leaving a wake.

This can be deadly. Don't park the Skunk in an engine

ABOUT HOT ENGINES
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A typical jet afterburner can produce temperatures in the range of 1500F -- this is just fuel burning in air. Temperatures around 27,000,000 F are required for fission and 100,000,000 F for fusion.

The engines in X Rebirth are physically large enough to park the playership in, yet produce no exhaust or wake.

At the same time, the Skunk can't survive planetary re-entry (approx 3000 F).

This mod aims to address this (as well as eliminate the engine blindspot). Engines are now 'hot' -- emmitting radiation that will fry the Skunk if you get too close.

DETAILS
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XL, L and M ship's engines now have a 'hot' wake directly behind each engine nozzle.

The temperature at any given point behind a nozzle is based upon the size of the engine, it's speed and how far from the engine the playership is.

This 'wake' is slightly conical, meaning that the further from the engine, the larger the radius of the wake.

Calculations are based upon proximity to the center of the wake. The closer you are to the cone's center axis, the hotter the temperature will be. Also, the closer to the engine you are, the hotter that point on the center axis will rise! Once outside this cone, no temperature effects are applied.

Finally, there's an emissions bubble that surrounds the engine component itself. This is nowhere near as hot as the wake behind the engine, but each engine will produce this bubble; if you're caught between two or three engines, expect the temperatures to rise!

As the Skunk cannot enter a planet's atmosphere, (3000F), calculations are based off this figure. Engine temperatures run in the region of 50,000 F at the engine nozzle (the hottest point) meaning the Skunk
has a survivability of maybe a minute if directly behind a large engine running at full speed.

The Skunk can dissipate only so much radiation per second, Once temperatures exceed this, the Skunk will start to overheat.

If the Skunk starts to overheat, the shields will start to drain. Once the shields have drained, the hull will take damage until 'KABOOM!' ... no more Skunk.

It takes a while for the skunk to cool down after being in an engine stream, so damage can still occur outside the wake if the Skunk has become too hot!

If the cockpit is juddering/shaking, then you're in an engine stream and the skunk's temperature will be rising (assuming it can't dissipate all the heat that's coming at it)

If the cockpit is not shaking, you're out of the stream and the Skunk will start to cool down.

You will receive visual and audio warnings that you are in a ship's wake (The skunk will start to judder and you'll hear turbulence buffering). Betty will also give a 'Danger' warning.

If you start to overheat the Skunk, Yisha will prompt you verbally that maybe it's not such a good idea to park your ship inside a fusion reactor

You have been warned

POTENTIAL ISSUES
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Currently, Yisha and Betty use pre-existing language specific voice files for warnings and feedback based on the English game version. There may be translation issues with other localizations, so let me know if anything they say makes no sense Smile

CHANGELOG
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v2.0 (Beta) 05.29.14
+ Complete rewrite of MIS Hot Engines
+ Public Release for balancing

v2.01 06.03.14
+ Increase time between 'Danger' warning
+ Added variable for external control of baffle efficiency

v2.02 06.24.14
+ Decreased length of trail by half
+ Doubled engine temperatures
+ Refined shake effect

Download: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =265849834

Post by **BlackRain** » Sun, 1. Jun 14, 02:12

This sounds pretty interesting. I hope you keep making immersion mods like this.

Reaperxvii · Post by **Reaperxvii** » Sun, 1. Jun 14, 06:13

I like the sound of it, the only issue I can see is when they're alot of capital ships like freighters on a jump beacon and they start moving to burn and they melt eachother

Unless thats been addressed somehow

Ginger470 · Post by **Ginger470** » Sun, 1. Jun 14, 06:55

The 'heat' only effects the playership precisely for the reason you say. Otherwise, all ships would have to be aware of their wakes and react accordingly... this'd be a bit too heavy scriptwise for the intention here.

It'd certainly be great to see captains use their engines as a defense mechanism

... but the payoff would be too small I think for the scripting involved.

That said, it looks like I need to consider drones when in VR mode

Post by **Sparky Sparkycorp** » Sun, 1. Jun 14, 15:18

Hi again, Ginger,

I've tested out your mod and it is very nice. Thank you very much once more for creating it

I'm going to complete the plot un-modded so that I have a post-plot starting point for future beta testing and then I will be diving back into this mod ASAP.

Regards,
Sparks

Saquavin · Post by **Saquavin** » Sun, 1. Jun 14, 16:07

Bravo ! I love your idea, keep working !
I will try your mod for sure, but I'm not far enough in the plot yet, so I'll continue easy boarding a bit

Madgamer13 · Post by **Madgamer13** » Sun, 1. Jun 14, 16:21

Greets!

I've played the mod since yesterday and I really like the consideration for engine wakes!

It has made combat with capital ships far more interesting now. I'll keep an eye for any more mods that add this type of flavour. +1

Cheers!

Ginger470 · Post by **Ginger470** » Sun, 1. Jun 14, 17:53

TY all

For anyone who's using it, how's the balancing? Does the Skunk blow up too quick/too slow?

For anyone using a non-English version, is Yisha making sense in her warnings (I hope Egosoft directly translated the phrases from one language to another, but I don't know)

Again Thanks

H.E.I.N.Z. · Post by **H.E.I.N.Z.** » Sun, 1. Jun 14, 20:12

Tested the mod a bit and for me its a really great mod!

I think the damage is ok as long as the skunk is behind the engines. But when the skunk get's damage you need to go too far away from the engines (even when you left the engine nozzles) to get no damage anymore. So maybe less damage would be better.

Also It would be nice if the skunk would be pushed away from the engines (if this is possible with the XRB engine).

Ginger470 · Post by **Ginger470** » Sun, 1. Jun 14, 21:48

Thanks H.E.I.N.Z.

To clarify -- it takes a while for the skunk to cool down after being in an engine stream, so what you may be seeing is damage due to the Skunk still being hot....

to check:

if the cockpit is juddering/shaking, then you're in an engine stream and the skunk's temperature would be rising (assuming it can't dissipate all the heat that's coming to it)

If the cockpit is not shaking, you're out of the stream and the Skunk will start to cool down.

You will take damage once the Skunk's hull is over a certain temperature, so even if you're out of a ship's wake, if the hull has become hot enough damage will still occur. The hotter the Skunk is, the longer it'll take to cool down.

As for pushing the Skunk, that's certainly on my wish list too ... all I can find is how to set the Skunk's speed to a percentage of it's max velocity but not how to get it's current speed as a percentage.

Post by **Sparky Sparkycorp** » Sun, 1. Jun 14, 21:56

Is it possible to set it to a negative percentage of maximum and have the Skunk reverse?

Not quite the same as a slowing down effect but the Skunk may often have the throttle set zero if it is trying to hug the engines within ride range. Thus it might not be that different to a slowing effect in practice. It would be a bit odd if trying to fly past the engines at speed (as would a straight-line slowing effect) but I could pretend it was an ABS

Ginger470 · Post by **Ginger470** » Sun, 1. Jun 14, 22:29

@Sparky Sparkycorp

Is it possible to set it to a negative percentage of maximum and have the Skunk reverse?

Yes, but it's not the answer to this puzzle unfortunately

I think speed is set only on the ship's z axis, not effecting x or y axes .... if you're flying perpendicular to an engine it should push you away, but using force_speed you'd start flying backwards, which would be odd.

Post by **Sparky Sparkycorp** » Sun, 1. Jun 14, 23:26

Yeah, quite odd. I'd be happy to pretend it was some kind of emergency reverse to get the Skunk out of trouble but if we reversed into the engines to begin with, it would indeed be pretty crazy

swatti · Post by **swatti** » Mon, 2. Jun 14, 13:56

Any visible effect in this? Boosting ships could leave longer lasting hot trails too.

Miniding · Post by **Miniding** » Mon, 2. Jun 14, 16:00

I m not very far from my plot's end so I will take a look at it when done!

I m a french user so I will tell you if any translation issue will come if nobody does before me!

Nice work though!!

Ginger470 · Post by **Ginger470** » Mon, 2. Jun 14, 17:20

@swatti:

There's no change to the engine trail graphics, so these wakes aren't visible. As for longer lasting temps -- it's a great idea but it'd require 'plotting' the temperatures in 3d space and then having them decay over time: too much scripting overhead. But larger ship's wakes are currently longer and hotter.

@Miniding: Thanks! And it'd be great if the translations are checked. Currently Yisha is using her warnings for other events that fit with this mod, so it's a crap shoot whether the translations are 100% the same

Miniding · Post by **Miniding** » Mon, 2. Jun 14, 22:39

I don't hear yisha a lot in french... the only warning i can tell is the "on nous tire dessus"(we are shot) so I don't know wixh one you choose for warning... I hope it's not that one lol!

As far as i can tell, the french translation is not complete... the dialog in plot are ok but tye encyxlopedia isn't translate vocally...

I'm building my Urvwarf and get mining in Devries so the end will come soon enough! Promise I'll have a full look at your mod till finished!

Don't esistate to MP me if I wait too long getting back to you! I sometimes make a copy of my saves to test the x64 version betas... So if you really need a french check, I can do one early before plot's end

See ya!!

Hardcard · Post by **Hardcard** » Tue, 3. Jun 14, 13:15

Hey Ginger, nice mod so far.

I've been missing engine effects since release date.

I have a couple of questions for you related to jumpdrive sound bugs in XRebirth.
Do you, by any chance, know how to tell XRebirth not to shorten the jumpdrive activation sounds of XL/L ships after the player has taken a ride onboard a cap ship? Yep, now that I read the question it seems more complicated than it really is, lol. The thing is that jumpdrive activation sounds are shortened after the Skunk has taken a ride on a cap ship...I just want to know if there's a way to tell the game not to do this. (By shortened I mean that a 30 second track is reduced to 23 seconds, for example)

Another bug is related to distance from the jumping ship. If the Skunk is too far from a cap ship (say 5+km) and that cap ship is ordered to jump, the jumpdrive activation sound is NEVER triggered, not even when the Skunk gets to "hearing distance", that shouldn't be happening.
Do you know of a way to trigger that sound normally?
It seems more complicated than a simple volume problem, sound triggering seems broken.

I'm asking because you seem to know quite a lot more than me about XRebirth's intricacies.

Miniding · Post by **Miniding** » Tue, 3. Jun 14, 17:24

I know this is a game and not reallity but there are no sounds in space cause there no air or other thing to carry it!

I agree that without any external sounds, any space game would be borring!

For the record, I don't know how to do what you want to

Hardcard · Post by **Hardcard** » Tue, 3. Jun 14, 21:01

Miniding wrote:I know this is a game and not reallity but there are no sounds in space cause there no air or other thing to carry it!

I agree that without any external sounds, any space game would be borring!

For the record, I don't know how to do what you want to

LOL, if I told you about all the comments I've posted on youtube on the matter of sound in space and exposure to vacuum, you wouldn't believe it!

XRebirth isn't realistic, you said it yourself, I'm just working with the stuff that is already included in the game.

Vibrations can travel in a vacuum if there are solids in it, don't forget that. You don't need air in order for sound to travel, you just need a MEDIUM, which can be liquid, solid or gas...but the thing is, would you hear sound traveling through a solid in a vacuum? I don't think so, your eardrums would still need to be exposed to a CAPABLE medium that translated those vibrations into sound waves, and that's not possible when you wear a spacesuit. Have you ever tried to hear the sound of a tuning fork through a wooden table? It's pretty cool actually, the whole table vibrates when you put the tuning fork in contact with it and the sound is amplified. But there are other solids that don't vibrate so well (like your skin or any spongy material), so sound vibrations can't really travel through them. Spacesuits are an example of that, they muffle and insulate, so physical vibrations can't be effectively propagated through them.

Imagine that there's an astronaut in space holding a tuning fork on his spaceglove. He strikes the tuning fork against the hull of the ISS and the tuning fork starts vibrating. Does that astronaut hear the sound of the tuning fork? Make no mistake, that tuning fork is vibrating, and if there were enough atoms in space, the astronaut would hear it as sound. The problem is that the tuning fork's vibration can only be transmitted by contact in the vacuum, and the spacesuit is muffling that vibration, it's not transmitting it into the internal air of the suit and ,thus, into the astronaut's eardrums in the form of sound...
Sooo, vibrations can travel in space through solids, the problem is that astronauts can't hear them as sound inside their spacesuits...
But I wonder what would happen if that astronaut put the tuning fork in direct contact with his helmet, maybe he would hear the sound then... spacesuit helmets are rigid, I bet they propagate physical vibrations if they are in direct contact with a vibration source...that vibration would then be transmitted to the internal air of the spacesuit as sound...perhaps the astronaut would hear some kind of muffled sound.

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[MOD] MIS: Hot Engines

[MOD] MIS: Hot Engines