Devs Detail New Engine & Ship Dynamics

The Dual Universe blog has been updated with a blog post to detail new ship dynamics and engine designs. All of the most recent changes are based on player feedback from those participating in the pre-alpha gameplay opportunity. "We don't want a one-size-fits-all ship design that encompasses all atmosphere conditions, high or low altitude, space, etc." the post reads.

Several key systems are coming in the next update, with others to follow at a later time:

• Vertical Booster Mechanics overhaul - "We have redesigned the current Vertical Boosters to replace hover engines on very large ships for short periods of time. "
• Wings - "wings generate an upward thrust in proportion to their size and the projected squared speed of the ship onto their forward direction. They will also generate a drag force in proportion to their size and the squared front speed, so there is a tradeoff with which size of wings you should consider in proportion to the overall size of your ship."
• Stabilizers - "The benefit of these stabilizers is that they will realign your ship in the direction of the movement and attenuate any drift that you might have, especially with hovercrafts or fast airplanes."
• Rocket Boosters - "These engines can be manually turned on or off as needed. When activated, they will produce an incredibly powerful thrust that is capable of lifting a Dynamic Construct either into space or the local atmosphere."
• New Dynamics for Atmospheric Engines - "The new property of Atmospheric Engines is that their fuel consumption is high at low speed when the engine first sets the ship into motion, but is reduced at high speed for a more realistic behavior."
• Antigrav Generators - "Antigrav Generators will create a distortion in the gravity field to allow a very large ship to stabilize around a zero-g altitude. This altitude can be set by the player, but cannot go below 1000m. So, you can still land with a large ship, but you need some rocket boosters to lift it up at least over 1000m to be able to then activate the Antigrav Generator."
• Bumpers & new damage model - "When an amount of damage energy reached an element, this element absorbed it entirely. We are now introducing a buffer that will absorb part of this energy and inflict damage only on parts beyond the buffer."

There are lots more details, so head on over to the Dual Universe site to learn more.