Give me a guide on aircraft design.

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Shadow Empire >> Give me a guide on aircraft design.

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Give me a guide on aircraft design. - 1/2/2022 10:33:10 PM

Keifre

Posts: 17
Joined: 6/2/2020
Status: offline

How does atmosphere and gravity affect aircraft design. Can you tell me about the best ratio for engine, wings, fuel and weight? I have no clue what I am doing when I design an aircraft. And are aircraft better then tank divisions?

Post #: 1

RE: Give me a guide on aircraft design. - 1/3/2022 12:03:17 AM

zgrssd

Posts: 3385
Joined: 6/9/2020
Status: offline

Divide the Pressure (in bar) by the gravity. If the number is > 1, Aircraft are viable. Otherwise they are not and should be avoided.

For example:
200 mBar to 0.2g. 0.2 Bar / 0.2g = 1. Aircraft are viable.
350 mBar to 0.4. 0.35 Bar / 0.4g = 0.875. Aircraft are very much not viable.

Wings, Fuel, Engine, Weight:
We honestly do not know. The Manuals is stingy on information and all attempts to analyze this data have failed. I was actually the one that tried.
The best we got out of the effort is the fuel formula for vehicles.

Wings need to be large enough to carry the total weight. Items might be limited without enough "wingload".
The engine needs to be fast enough to the plane can lift off. Fuel is the biggest factor in range.

Aircraft vs Tanks
Those are incomparable. Aircraft work more like a realy long range artillery, that can always be shot. Planes also guzzle fuel and ammo like no other weapon type. So even with good aircraft, you will not get around having tanks.

(in reply to Keifre)

Post #: 2

RE: Give me a guide on aircraft design. - 1/3/2022 10:12:56 AM

mattpilot

Posts: 65
Joined: 3/8/2018
Status: offline

Divide the Pressure (in bar) by the gravity. If the number is > 1, Aircraft are viable. Otherwise they are not and should be avoided.

I've seen this a few times now and it somehow never rung true for me. Sure, initially aircraft range suck (like 4-6) but with some research and Applied Science stuff i've never failed to get 25 and 33 range aircraft. The best always seem to be thopter designs.

I usually end up spending way more time on trying different combos, and eventually you'll get one that works.

Having a too big engine that guzzles to much fuel will reduce range - so biggest engine is never the best engine.
Wing size seems to allow bigger payloads and reduce required take off speed. So at the end of a proposed design, see how much extra air/ground-speed you have. You might be able to take smaller wings (or see that you need to increase the wings to meet the takeoff speed requirement). Just start out with a simnple design and light weapons, and see how far you can push it before you say its unviable.

Initially i go for helicopters when i can, because building airbases is for suckers (j'k ;-)) and airplanes never really does it with the limited range. When thopters become available, i go for those. Typically i always only have anti-armour aircraft to help against the insane amount of tanks the AI sends. I've never had the AI build airplanes.. hoping one of them will this game :-).

(in reply to zgrssd)

Post #: 3

RE: Give me a guide on aircraft design. - 1/3/2022 12:46:20 PM

KingHalford

Posts: 488
Joined: 8/18/2016
Status: offline

Depends on what you mean by "better". If you mean "more effective for destroying the enemy" then the answer is "it depends on terrain, what you're fighting, your research and model quality". Aircraft can't take and hold territory like armour can, and it's probably more accurate to look at airforce missions like you would ranged attacks, like with artillery, rockets and missiles.

Aircraft are extremely effective once you get them going. On a planet with lower gravity and an earth-like atmosphere, even the very basic propeller engine bombers are well worth buying for the amount of damage they do, just watch their fuel consumption. The linear techs drastically improve the performance of aircraft.

_____________________________

Ben "BATTLEMODE"
www.eXplorminate.co

(in reply to mattpilot)

Post #: 4