Why are big spaceships assumed to be slow?

[Shadowcatbot]

Thinking about it why do people consider big spaceships are going to be slow? There's no drag in space and unless the engineers are complete idiots it should be able to go just as fast, the only reason I can see for it going slow is fuel cost but in the future I would think most ships are traveling in FTL to go anywhere and if they can afford a big ship fuel shouldn't be to hard to afford anyway.

Thoughts?

[Error]

Large ships have more inertia - they accelerate slower, but can travel just as fast as any ship.

They tend to travel the same speed as everyone in FTL, but have longer range.

So inertia's the problem here, but you can only reduce that, not eliminate it. (This is not Lensman).

[Vinyl]

It's hard to have any room left for anything when you need either tons of engines or giant engines and the fuel stores and generators to use them. And unless you have that horribly costly propulsion, it'll take a while to speed up. It's a bit impractical, for some more than others, to use FTL during combat, no? And even if you can get up to speed in a reasonable amount of time, try stopping.

[Shadowcatbot]

It's hard to have any room left for anything when you need either tons of engines or giant engines and the fuel stores and generators to use them. And unless you have that horribly costly propulsion, it'll take a while to speed up. It's a bit impractical, for some more than others, to use FTL during combat, no? And even if you can get up to speed in a reasonable amount of time, try stopping.

That's the point here a bigger ship is just a scaled up small ship you'll have as much room as the small ship scaled up.

Stop? Why the fuck would I stop, that's what the enemy speed bumps are for.

[Error]

You'll stop because kinetic energy goes both ways, and hitting a planet is bad.

And yes, larger ships can travel as fast as smaller ones, they just need a longer run-up.

[Vinyl]

That's the point here a bigger ship is just a scaled up small ship you'll have as much room as the small ship scaled up.

That... that would be a very boring and uncreative fleet then if all your ships are all the same just at different scales.

[Professor Fenway]

Actually no, for the scaled up ship. The square cube law. Basically makes smaller things better in many respects than larger things (I.E if you double each dimension of the Golden Gate Bridge, including ALL stats, the mass increase makes it unable to support it's own weight, even with the added strength). Mass increases faster than surface area, so a "scaled up" engine will be slower than a scaled down one.

So you cannot simply "scale up" ships and expect them to be all to be at the same acceleration.

In space, there's acceleration and "safe speed". Safe speed is the speed at which ships can be expected to stop movement quickly in order to avoid something. Acceleration basically denotes how fast it gains speed. In orbit, for example, there are speed limits to ships to prevent catastrophic events (Such as a battlecruiser, unable to slow down in time, slamming into a space station). In deep space, nah.

Also; FTL isn't very precise enough to warrant everywhere-travel. It is relatively precise, but not very.

[ACH0225]

Please observe the opening sequence to Spaceballs. Thank you.

[cats]

*holds back urdge to call shadowcat an idiot but decides to do it in a more passive-aggressive manner anyway*

[Solar112]

Here, cats, I'll do it for you.

You're an idiot.

[Shadowcatbot]

Here, cats, I'll do it for you.

You're an idiot.

*holds back urdge to call shadowcat an idiot but decides to do it in a more passive-aggressive manner anyway*

Error according to rule 2 I'm being antagonized, I demand justice in the form of bans or twinkies.

[cats]

There's an exception to the rules for you.

[Shadowcatbot]

There's an exception to the rules for you.

Examine my avatar for my response.

[Iv121]

BTW making larger space ships slower makes sense gameplay wise, Try duel it out with a rocket frigate against a cruiser in starmade, that ship was twice my size and I could have probably taken it out if I kept out manoeuvring it's main turret, however that ship could move at the same speed I could meaning all my efforts to stay afloat were meaningless, its frustrating and only means small ships will never even scratch larger ones (OFC I don’t expect to fight a Dread in a fighter but at least a little balance) So if you ask me gameplay vs realism here Id pick gameplay. It also means that making bigger engines now makes sense to gain more speed, when in Starmade engines are all reaching same top speed there is little difference between them and once you make one that takes you from 0 to 150 hell even in 30 seconds you have no reason to improve your engines anymore, this also ruins gameplay and takes away creative freedom from the user.

[Solar112]

Maneuverability =/= speed

While a large ship may be able to move as fast as you, it won't be able to turn as fast as you. You could just switch directions, and accelerate away from it, turn around then come in for another strike. so all you have to do is out maneuver the turrets, and stay away from the main guns and keep firing until it's dead.