Variable nuke speed; depending on location?

[rus|Mike]

So your complaint is about nuke arcs, not about nuke speed. You should've stated it more clearly

If you want to know, travelling time of a REAL nuke would be different in the example you posted The Earth is not stable, you know... so I personally don't see the problem here.

[Nightwatch]

So your complaint is about nuke arcs, not about nuke speed. You should've stated it more clearly

I dont really care about arcs. Its a graphical gimmick without any real relevance.
The crucial factor is the Speed. It is not constant from Silo A to Target B, depending on location.
The arcs dont matter. They could be different while the traveling time between two points would be the same.
It isnt and thats the problem.

If you want to know, travelling time of a REAL nuke would be different in the example you posted The Earth is not stable, you know... so I personally don't see the problem here.

The problem is that i can't create a unviersal ballistic chart.
If the arcs/speed of nukes were constant for a given distance at any location i would be able to create a chart with the exact traveling times. With that it is even possible to programm a simple tool to calculate the launching times of silos in order to get a perfect nuke package from any location to any location on the map.
And that would take silo nuking to a hole new level.
It doesnt has to be real, just constant.
Which it isnt

[rus|Mike]

I play without any ballistic charts and I'm okay. Go find yourself a real problem

[Nightwatch]

Like i explained to Ace, not everyone has the skill to deliver a silos package on a bad angle accross the map.
Im one of those players. Unfortunately.
Therefore, it is a real problem which i cant solve.
That sucks.

[Xocrates]

I dont really care about arcs. Its a graphical gimmick without any real relevance.
The crucial factor is the Speed. It is not constant from Silo A to Target B, depending on location.
The arcs dont matter. They could be different while the traveling time between two points would be the same.
It isnt and thats the problem.

Yes and no. I think your problem is that you are confusing several things.

The distance from A to B may be the same, but if the path (i.e. the arc) taken by the nuke is of a different length, than the time it takes it's also different at the same speed.

You appear to be calculating the speed over the distances as opposed to the length of the path. By that logic a racing car going is circles along a track has a speed of zero.

I'm not saying that the speeds can't vary (I haven't played Defcon for so long that I don't really even remember how nukes behave) but what you are saying is a bit misguiding due to some confusion along definitions.

EDIT: yeah, as can be seen in this picture you posted, the "faster" nuke has a shorter arc, and therefore a shorter path.

[Nightwatch]

Geez yes.
Arc or no arc, the point is that the travelling time between two locations is not constant.
Wether or not this is related to a graphical gimmick isnt really the issue in my book.

In the end we come to the same conclusion, for any confusion plz blame my crappy english, not me

[trickser]

On most parts of the map the lenght of nuke path is proportional to the distance, so you can calculate the speed by distance/time.
But the northpol makes the flight path flatter; not as much curved as in other parts of map, to avoid nukes leaving the map. And assumed nukes have a constant speed, the proportionality between flight path an distance is lost.

So u still could make some ballistic charts based on distance, you just have define an area/ start-target point, where its off by an unacceptable value.

For SA, Africa, Asia to SA, Afrika, Asia and for all north <-> south shooting, it will be mostly correct.

[Nightwatch]

Well its hardly worth the effort if you cant get the most common setups of NA, EU and Russia on the map.
But maybe there is a way to calculate the difference north of a certain latitude bayed on gridpoints.
The problem however is that the launch time has to be very exact (+- 5 in game seconds IMO) to create packages.

To do that one would need at least two universal ballistic maps, maybe many more.
Creating one isnt much work, creating multiple once based on the latitude of silo and target is.

[Sender]

Do you think this has to do with the fact the world is not flat?

If you stand in Moscow, and travel due west for 2 hours at 200 mph you would have traveled 400 miles (obviously). Do the same thing at the equator and you'll get the same result. However if you plotted these two points on a map using straight lines of longitude they will appear to be 'out of sync'. Take a look at flat map of the world. The longitude lines are arced to account for such 'anomalies'. It appears the overlay is not arced. Perhaps if this is corrected you will see the missiles do fly at the same speed (or maybe they don't).

[trickser]

The game engine doesnt know anything about a spheric world. The game happens on a rectangular map that will have its left and right boundaries connected. This map has the well known shape of earths landmasses. The nuke trails bow to specifc rules, but they are no result of calculating the nukes trail on a spheric world and then projecting it to a flat map.

The phenomen you describe is a result of projecting. Its a rectangular projection, which is only one of many possibities to do it. A flat projection can be either true to lenght, area or angle or to 2 of them but never to all. The rectangular one is only true to angle and the lenght along the longitude. So measuring distance makes only sence in some very limited cases.

see here to blow your mind with this stuff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_projection