[TL;DR] IFCS 2.0 (flight model revamp)

[Napper198]

original article
 
The Old:
General fight was a feedback system which felt sloppy because it tended to overshoot. Ship profiles are a fixed part of the game and cannot be adjusted by adding different parts to your ship. No other flight mode available, acceleration is always perfect, afterburner only boosts acceleration and maneuvering thrusters (mavs) work fine even without the main engine.

 

 

 

 

The New:

First there are now 4 flight modes. Precision, Space Combat Maneuvering (SCM), Cruise and Quantum Drive
 
Precision is a bit like landing mode now as it's drastically reducing your max speed and acceleration to provide maximum control over your craft while in tight situations (landing, asteroids, salvaging)

 

Space Combat Maneuvering is the one you're used to with the exception that underneath the old feedback system now lies a 3rd order flight model which pre-determinds where your ship will be as a feed-forward system to reduce overshoot and the old feedback system only acts as an error corrector. Your max speed is determined by ship mass (including cargo and loadout) and thruster force and you'll now be able to decide weather you want to use the afterburner for additional acceleration or increased speed.

 

Cruise mode will let you fly 4-5 times faster than SCM would allow but it takes 15-20s to reach terminal velocity and you'll be limited to minor course changes (think forced comstab) You'll still be able to decouple and then turn around freely but be aware of your direction as reengaging coupled mode in a wrong direction will crush you with G-forces.

 

Quantum Drive is what will get you across large distances in a short period of time with speeds up to 0.2c depending on size, mass and equipment. And before some smart ass uses a calculator and realizes that it would take 175 minutes to get from Earth to Jupiter (ideally): if they stick to this speed solar systems will probably not be to scale.

 

 

 

Overall flight got some more changes. Your main engine now produces thrust that gets transported to your mavs through pipes. If your main thruster gets shot up you're limited to emergency systems that give you only bare minimum functionality. Damaged mavs or pipes can leak thrust thus reducing your overall available thrust and cause unwanted motion. On top of that thrusters in general now have an error rate that your flight computer has to calculate against. Speaking about the computer, this will now be a physical module on your ship which will carry your ships specific flight profile and can be upgraded and tuned to your hearts contend (within limits of course) but also damaged and destroyed. To round this up the whole system now not only consumes power but also generates heat so even if you can fit larger thursters or that additional fuel tank you'll also need to check if your cooler is up to the task.

 

[rucdoc]

Gonna add a bit of info that's mostly cobbled together, btw nice tldr. This whole change also ties in with the system components changes.

 

So instead of having a size 4 powerplant you will now have 2 or 3 or 4 small power plants. these all feed into the pipes, which transfer power, heat, and thrust to various components your thrusters will be rated for an amount of thrust, which can be overclocked at other expenses. if your powerplant can't supply enough thrust to all thrusters, they will not operate at 100% more than likely no ship will produce enough thruster to max all thrusters at the same time.

 

This provides benefits, such as overclocking your power plants to produce more thrust, thus enabling more thrusters to operate at a higher percentage at the same time. however this means as power plants go you will lose manuverability and speed. it also means that pipe damage will cause many issues, from thruster failure, to maybe, possibly venting thrust into ship interiors and cooking your crew.

 

This system also includes your ships mass, cargo placement, and loadout into the mix as far as how fast and manuverale your ship will be.

 

enjoy

[Napper198]

Some more information from the latest 10ftc: Quantum Drive is in fact a module that can be upgraded and not every ship will travel at 0.2c. Some non UEE modules may be able to be faster than that.