Post by Boxed Meat Revolution in Relatively Special Deliveries jam comments

Game Off 2019 » Entries » Relatively Special Deliveries

Viewing post in Relatively Special Deliveries jam comments

I love the idea of a relativity-based package delivery game, and I think there's a lot of potential in a more sophisticated version of this (e.g. choosing a route past neutron stars/black holes to try to minimize your ship time while still arriving at the target on time).

Just one little physics complaint: as a real spacecraft accelerates with a constant proper acceleration, its velocity would not increase linearly near the speed of light. Basically, it would become harder and harder to reach the next fraction closer to the speed of light. So, the correct upgrade for the ship isn't an unlocked max speed, but instead new ship engines capable of providing larger acceleration.

Like Reply

BethFromAbove4 years ago (1 edit)

Thanks, the original idea was much richer with physics phenomena, but in true Game Jam style I ran out of time and had to go with a simpler version :)

You are completely right about the acceleration! The formula for changing acceleration rather than speed is

$\Delta t=\int _{0}^{\Delta \tau }e^{\pm \int _{0}^{\bar {\tau }}a(\tau ')d\tau '}\,d{\bar {\tau }},\$

which results in $\Delta t={\tfrac {4}{a}}\sinh({\tfrac {a}{4}}\Delta \tau )\$ for a smooth accelration profile, which I could have implemented, but takes away a lot of agency for the player. The speed version is less realistic but all I could do with the time I had. Next time I'll dream bigger :)

Thanks for the feedback, will take it onboard.

Like Reply

itch.io

Viewing post in Relatively Special Deliveries jam comments