[Spaceships] It seems that TL7 Chemical Rocket's acceleration is an overspec.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Rupert

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Also, the F-1 rocket used in the first stage has a thrust/weight ratio of 94-to-1 on its own, so Spaceships is actually being conservative - an F-1 weighing 8.4 tons in a ship weighing 168 tons (twenty times as much) would have an initial acceleration of 4.7G.

Likewise, the 2nd stage J-2 had a 73-to-1 thrust/weight ratio.

Russian launch rockets have thrust/weight ratio of anywhere from 75:1 up to at least 137:1.

I.

I've seen the SpaceX Merlin engine listed at 150 to 1.

There's also no magic in any given number of Gs. The shuttle had to throttel back when it hit 3 Gs because of mechical limits of the vehicle. A Titan II second-stage carrying a Gemini capsule ended its' burn at just under 7 GS. So did an X-15 rocket plane.

The msot important thing to remebr is that though Spaceships does give you a G number and a Delta-V figure that you can use in combat those things are mostly calculated on an average per mission basis not as second by second simulation.

What does Spaceships do to simulate how your Gs of thrust go up as you burn fuel and/or how your fuel use goes down as mass decreases while holding a given aceleration? It averages your acceleration and fudges your Delta-V with that adjustment in the Fuel tank section for the number of tanks.

Spaceships is a simple system, an abstact system and not a second by second simulation. Even Ve2 wasn't really and it was far more complex than Spaceships.