anybody knows how Mars orbit varies with Earth orbit?

[kharille]

Earth seems fairly consistent, 1 year to circle the sun.  Does anybody know how the Mars orbit look like?  Just wondering if it does anything weird like some of the other planets, the distances could be quite vast.

Wonder whether the Avenger will return?  Does it have enough fuel or was it meant to be a one way mission?

[davide]

I fyou win on Cydonia you could get a lot of Elyrium,
if you loose, you dont return 
and the problem there is not

[kharille]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Marsorbitsolarsystem.gif

Trust wiki to explain everything... 

[Jstank]

With my experience with Kerbal space program (to duna) it would take several years to get there and back due to the orbit tracks. <-- Completely scientifical!

But it would be an interesting extra mechanic to throw in there. Turn this mechanic on and it will give you sort of a count down timer of when mars and earth will be in alignment to launch the final mission. A very specific month of the year where there is a window. You would be doing a mad rush to prepare for this opportunity and if you miss it then game over.

Or possibly have the opportunity arise once a year (not realistic) but would be neat to try. Hard to implement with a rule set i don't know...

[Falko]

since the ufo fly from mars to earth on a weekly basis and our craft is based on ufo tech and flys with deus ex machina elerium the earth idea of "give at a push while starting from earth and let do gravity does the rest" does not necessarily applies here

[kharille]

Now there is a thought.  Why is the elerium stores always at 50.  Maybe some variation would make this even rarer....

[moriarty]

yeah, that is something I suggested a long time ago... power sources should contain random amounts of elerium. since almost everything in the game is randomized, why not this?
(along with that, I suggested that the power sources should be capable of exploding on the battlefield, with an explosion force equivalent to the amount of elerium contained )

[Falko]

one could create a mod with a new "avenger-spacecraft" that can only be built with like 1500 elerium (and remove the spacecraft ability from normal avenger)
so you have to collect a long time until you get enough fuel to get a craft to mars in short amount of time (faster travel = getting detected is less likely)
according to lore cydonia is a surprise attack you cant do it twice.. so a fast ship would make sense

[kharille]

Maybe the supply ship ought to be revised to contain different amounts of Elerium, weapons, alien food...  stuff like cloning chambers and chryssalid nesting material.

[moriarty]

[...]chryssalid nesting material[...]

aka humans? 

[Solarius Scorch]

one could create a mod with a new "avenger-spacecraft" that can only be built with like 1500 elerium (and remove the spacecraft ability from normal avenger)
so you have to collect a long time until you get enough fuel to get a craft to mars in short amount of time (faster travel = getting detected is less likely)
according to lore cydonia is a surprise attack you cant do it twice.. so a fast ship would make sense

This is an excellent idea. A ship that does poorly in dogfights, whose only purpose is to take you to Mars... And I like the 1500 Elerium idea, though I think it should be more like 5000.

Maybe the supply ship ought to be revised to contain different amounts of Elerium, weapons, alien food...  stuff like cloning chambers and chryssalid nesting material.

I've always wanted to see the "random treasure" mechanic in X-Com (you have a "container" which has random stuff from a list; perhaps various types of containers with separate lists). It would also make Piratez a lot easier to develop, and with more fun features.

[darkestaxe]

The avenger is capable of maintaining extreme speeds (mach ~26 is it?) while inside an atmosphere, and it does this using drive technology designed for long-distance space travel. Furthermore, neither the avenger nor any UFOs are built in a way resembling aerodynamics. As near as I can tell the attitude is "Turbulence? Hit the elerium and push through it!"

Depending on the relative positions of mars and earth and assuming no space-time warp factor or anything like that, the team should be able to make the trip in somewhere from 3 hours to a couple days. The problem is that a spatula and wire-brush will be required to clean the remnants of your team off the bulkheads.

Alternatively the avengers pilot might limit herself to something like 200g acceleration or less to avoid liquifying organic tissues, like your meat-bag crew.

Assuming somebody thought to bring crackers and a water bottle, you could always just take an extra day or two. Of course maybe all that anti-grav tech can actually reduce the Gs felt by your passengers. That would explain why there are still living aliens inside those UFOs too.

[Solarius Scorch]

The avenger is capable of maintaining extreme speeds (mach ~26 is it?) while inside an atmosphere, and it does this using drive technology designed for long-distance space travel. Furthermore, neither the avenger nor any UFOs are built in a way resembling aerodynamics. As near as I can tell the attitude is "Turbulence? Hit the elerium and push through it!"

I'm fairly sure the Avenger travels in low orbit, where the atmosphere is very thin. Even if pushing through stratosphere would be possible at Mach 26, it would be horribly ineffective.

Alternatively the avengers pilot might limit herself to something like 200g acceleration or less to avoid liquifying organic tissues, like your meat-bag crew.

Wait, what do you mean 200 g? I don't know what technology you assume, but I don't think even your anti-acceleration chambers filled with miracle fluids would allow a human to survive more that 40 g. With no special equipment, a person loses consciousness after a few seconds of 6 g, you know (it's not precise data, but something along these magnitudes). And something like 40 g with no special sci-fi equipment would instantly kill anyone.

Assuming somebody thought to bring crackers and a water bottle, you could always just take an extra day or two. Of course maybe all that anti-grav tech can actually reduce the Gs felt by your passengers.

And here's your solution! Yes, internal gravity wave emitters would secure both the crew and the equipment against acceleration. Of course, if it's powerful enough.

[moriarty]

And here's your solution! Yes, internal gravity wave emitters would secure both the crew and the equipment against acceleration. Of course, if it's powerful enough.

this. of course the UFO Power Source - engines simply accelerate everything within their sphere of influence at the same rate. no more "engine pushes craft, craft pushes cargo". everything is simply "falling" toward the target/destination with the desired acceleration. that does not eliminate friction, of course, but high-altitude (thin atmosphere) flight and alien alloy hulls should deal with that.