Has anyone done a loop in A2-FS1 ?

[Keatah]

Has anyone done a loop in A2-FS1 ? I have not been able to do this. I vaguely recall the manual saying it's either difficult or impossible (not supported).

[JamesD]

I've seen several posts that say it's not possible but I never spent much time with it.

[david__schmidt]

I can't imagine the physics engine would/could take inversion into account.

[JamesD]

I can't imagine the physics engine would/could take inversion into account.

You can do a barrel roll.

[david__schmidt]

You can do a barrel roll.

 

That would negate the controls argument... can you maintain inverted flight?

[JamesD]

 

That would negate the controls argument... can you maintain inverted flight?

I honestly don't remember.

From a programming standpoint, if you are doing real 3D the engine doesn't care what orientation you are.

The instruments have to display proper orientation but that's just a little more math.

I think it had to do with the aircraft they were simulating.

[david__schmidt]

I honestly don't remember.

From a programming standpoint, if you are doing real 3D the engine doesn't care what orientation you are.

The instruments have to display proper orientation but that's just a little more math.

I think it had to do with the aircraft they were simulating.

But the physics of the wings (lift, drag) change when inverted. One way of avoiding simulating that is to make it impossible to do.

[Keatah]

You can fly inverted, and even gain altitude. As you level out (inverted) and you begin climbing with down elevator you really have to watch the left/right roll stability. It's like balancing a ball on a ball. You've got severe negative stability, and you have to correct left/right quickly in order to maintain anything resembling a straight flight path.

 

You cannot reverse-immelman to get out of it. You need to roll back to level upright flight and then continue on your way.

[Keatah]

FS1 was a great thing for adventure. I always liked to fly off-world and out over whatever it was. Me and my buddies would theorize as to what was out there if you kept flying in one direction. This really scared me because we might not ever get back. I was always concerned that I might break the computer from overheating when we did this. And it was especially awesome when it was thunderstorming out at night. I felt just like Charles Lindberg 2Bsure, trying to make landfall before running out of gas. Most of the times we ended up like Amelia Earheart though, lost in the void.

 

We did prove the world was flat, and that the universe is closed. We also found that there was an extended grid in certain areas you could get to when you were far enough out. And we developed mission-control-like procedures to get there reliably, mostly. This was seriously heady stuff for a 6-8 year old kids!

 

Here we are at sector 47-A9

..392-L22

..392-L39

..4007-B505

..5502-C627

Some arbitrary point in spacetime at FL281.

Inverted and gaining altitude! But balancing very carefully on the roll.

 

I used my old coordinate map and TRS-80 Pocket Computer with a fictional navigation program I wrote to pretty much get back to these places with good accuracy. Just as I remembered them! For extra authenticity I used my old Casio watch from the 80's to provide the timebase. I could have used my real Apple II+, but it doesn’t have screenshot capability without an external camera.

Edited June 23, 2015 by Keatah