Mote absorbing mechanics
Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:57 pm
I've been playing around, and I've notices a bit of an odd quirk in the system. If you want to absorb a stationary mote, It's completely absorbed by you by the time you pass the original center of the prey. At that point, you should have only absorbed 3/4s of the mote, leaving the remaining quarter as a mote whose diameter has halved. As it is, close calls greatly favor the larger mote. if he grazes a percentage of the radius, it's as if he grazed twice as much as he really earned. To put it in photoshop terms, the anchor point of the scaling should be on the opposite edge, not the center.
And now a little math/logic problem. Mote x has an area of 100, Mote y has an area of 50. they are both moving at the same speed in opposite directions, and collide. How fast is the new mote moving? Logically, its speed should be half the original. EDIT: I meant one third. Half the velocity is lost, and the mass is increased by 50%.
All well and good so far.
Now, suppose it only just grazes the edge, and mote x grows to an area of 125. In the pure world of osmos, the speed drops to 75% the original speed. On closer examination, this doesn't quite fit, for a variety of reasons. EDIT: Same thing. one quarter of the velocity is lost, and the mass is increased by one quarter. If I'm not mistaken, that's 60%. I may be wrong, I'm rusty.
Firstly, the grazed off mass doesn't automatically lose it's velocity. Imagine it as a minimote inside the macromote. Most of it is moving one way, but 20% of it wants to move the other way, and it's all on the edge. I'm just assuming that motes won't undergo mitosis in any circumstances, so the result is a brief time where the mote is in an inhomogeneous state. The result of this is something this game is completely lacking in. SPIN!
The second issue is another aspect completely ignored. Friction. If I set up the above grazing experiment, No matter what the base speed is, the results would be the same. But logically, the slower I make the test speed, the more speed would be lost, percentage wise. Why? because the two motes would be in contact for more time, so the more friction is built up. This would also cause spin.
Gameplay-wise, I can see the reason for a lack of friction in the mote's gliding, no stable orbits. I can live with that, I'll just imagine it's an alien biome based in liquid helium. It does suggest the need for different biomes for when you get around to the sandbox mode.
Finally, if two motes of the exact same size touch, what happens?
And now a little math/logic problem. Mote x has an area of 100, Mote y has an area of 50. they are both moving at the same speed in opposite directions, and collide. How fast is the new mote moving? Logically, its speed should be half the original. EDIT: I meant one third. Half the velocity is lost, and the mass is increased by 50%.
All well and good so far.
Now, suppose it only just grazes the edge, and mote x grows to an area of 125. In the pure world of osmos, the speed drops to 75% the original speed. On closer examination, this doesn't quite fit, for a variety of reasons. EDIT: Same thing. one quarter of the velocity is lost, and the mass is increased by one quarter. If I'm not mistaken, that's 60%. I may be wrong, I'm rusty.
Firstly, the grazed off mass doesn't automatically lose it's velocity. Imagine it as a minimote inside the macromote. Most of it is moving one way, but 20% of it wants to move the other way, and it's all on the edge. I'm just assuming that motes won't undergo mitosis in any circumstances, so the result is a brief time where the mote is in an inhomogeneous state. The result of this is something this game is completely lacking in. SPIN!
The second issue is another aspect completely ignored. Friction. If I set up the above grazing experiment, No matter what the base speed is, the results would be the same. But logically, the slower I make the test speed, the more speed would be lost, percentage wise. Why? because the two motes would be in contact for more time, so the more friction is built up. This would also cause spin.
Gameplay-wise, I can see the reason for a lack of friction in the mote's gliding, no stable orbits. I can live with that, I'll just imagine it's an alien biome based in liquid helium. It does suggest the need for different biomes for when you get around to the sandbox mode.
Finally, if two motes of the exact same size touch, what happens?