In my space-opera single-player game, I try to accurately simulate physics. There are, of course, creative allowances made for the sake of playability; for instance, FTL travel at maximum rate for a typical FTL drive only takes the energy needed to power 672,000 incandescent light bulbs -- enough to provide the domestic lighting for a fair portion of any city at any given moment, so it's not exactly free, but it's still very relativistically incorrect (since relativity defines achieving the speed of light as requiring all of the energy in the universe ;-)).
However, there is one convention I'm not so sure about. Presently, masses and volumes are measured in custom measurements defined from the metric system. The Cubic Unit (CU) is a volume equal to a cube measuring one-third of 2.5 metres (roughly 83.3 centimetres) on each side, or roughly 578 litres. The Mass Unit (MU) is a mass approximately equal to 578 kilograms; one CU of pure water at one atmosphere of pressure at 4°C is equal to 1 MU, with the MU defined in terms of the mass of water at this temperature and not as its mass in kilograms.
However, since all of these systems are effectively arbitrary (to someone who doesn't understand the reasons why I selected these measurements, and I'm not really ready to explain it here, though suffice it to say that an average comfortable room is exactly 3 CU high), I'm wondering if I should just go ahead and move onto masses in kilograms (kg) or tonnes (t) and volumes in litres (L) or kilolitres (kL). On one hand, it's easier for people to understand, but on the other hand, I lose some of the uniqueness of my game.
What do you think?
Jun 1 2007, 2:52 pm
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Jon88
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Don't bother with telling people how your units are derived. You can mention it as a point in the backstory, but if the units are useful to your game (exactly 3 CU being the height of a comfortable room, for example), then there's no problem using them. Besides, non-metric people would have to do two conversions. :P
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Actually, doesn't it require more than all the energy in the universe?
You could always try for an Alcubierre Drive, though, and ignore some of the possible drawbacks. =P | |
I actually use two different types of FTL, and both are roughly similar to the Alcubierre theory even though they're completely different in the way they work. The "Spatial Insertion" drive is commonly called the FTL Jump drive. It creates a bubble around the ship, opens a rift in space, then the ship waddles through the rift and appears a certain distance farther away (proportional to how much energy was discharged into the rift opening).
The "Physical Compression" drive is commonly called the "FTL Thrust" drive. It's a little closer to the Alcubierre theory... it creates "compressed space" in front of the vessel where mass becomes lessened and force becomes heightened -- the speed of light exists, but for a double compression factor, the speed of light is four times normal, for a triple compression factor the speed of light is nine times normal, etc. [edit]The Physical Compression drive is commonly called the FTL Thrust drive, not the FTL Compression drive (as the latter doesn't really help anyone very much). =P | |
Or, you know, instantaneous transport via quantum entanglement or wormholes. >_>
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Too breaking of the suspension of disbelief, and most of those would make FTL too easy.
The Spatial Insertion uses the next closest thing to a wormhole, but the opposite end has to be controlled somehow, which is essentially what the drive does. The hole "folds space" proportional to the actual amount of energy discharged from the FTL drive's capacitor (which uses some sort of non-physics to be able to store an unlimited amount of energy, which is curiously unable to be used in any other form ;-)). | |
I'd say use the custom measures. Every game requires its players to learn new measurement systems anyway. E.g.: the value of an experience point; the value of a .22 bullet; the value of a dollar. Lots of games include XP, .22 bullets, and dollars, yet the exact worth of them can vary dramatically from game to game (and even in the same franchise -- a dollar spent in 1980's Vice City goes a lot further than a dollar spent in 21st-century Liberty City.). A .22 bullet in a game that allows insta-kill head-shots is a lot more (potentially) powerful than one in a game that just accumulates generic damage points. If a player likes your game, he will accept learning new measurements as part of the cost of doing business, so to speak.
Besides, you're already using a wacky, screwed-up measurement system in Canada, so you may as well go all out. :) | |
Well, given that all official functions of the United States already use the metric system, and they only use the Imperial system for the purpose of the public...
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