Four bands, a 2.5 km/s drop, no fuel: why heights work as they do
Published
Near the ground, orders stay on a flat plane and height is one of four bands. Here is why each number is what it is. How it plays: Height bands and Hot drops and tactical burns.
Bands, not free height
Why: “precise enough for terrain masking and threat ceilings”, with no extra lift step on every order. Space keeps one flat plane.
Decided 2026-10-22; built 2026-10-24 · scripts/bands.gd
Four bands: Top 25 km, High 15 km, Med 5 km, Low
Why: the owner kept all four. Each step down trades safety for being close: the lower the band, the more kinds of fire from the ground can reach it. Low is close support. The reach of ground fire by height is not built yet; it is the intent behind the heights.
Decided 2026-10-24 · scripts/bands.gd OFFSET = {top: 0, high: -10000, med: -20000} below the 25 km plane
Top at 25 km
Why: the design treats 25 km as roughly where jet engines stop working, so it is where jets take over from spaceflight: the top of the surface-action zone.
Decided 2026-10-22 · scripts/main.gd SURFACE_ZONE_TOP := 25000.0
Low: 300 m over the ground
Why: not yet recorded. Low took over the job of the old “Low (safe)” place, which held 300 m above the highest ground so the carrier never met a mountain. Low looks up to 6 seconds ahead and climbs early for ridges.
Built 2026-10-24 · scripts/bands.gd LOW_CLEARANCE := 300.0, LOOK_AHEAD up to 6 s
A band change is an order
Why: “A band change is a movement order, a commitment.” Hold takes the ship back to the band it last held; a group climbs at its slowest member’s rate.
Decided 2026-10-24 · scripts/ship.gd band_from
Climbing shares the 10 g budget
Why: the owner: for climbing and diving, “it limit to this too”. For fighters and scouts, climbing comes out of the same budget as speeding up, braking and turning, and counts against top speed. The slow band change runs at half top speed: a Mk3 fighter goes Top to Low in about 100 seconds.
Built 2026-10-26 · scripts/ship.gd _climb(), g_budget(); climb_rate = max_speed × 0.5
Hot drop: 2.5 km/s
Why: a ship with a jump drive can change band fast: “the bold play is hot drop in, launch, hot ascend away”. At 2.5 km/s the hull glows with the heat of the air. Top to Low takes about 10 seconds plus the spool, against minutes the slow way.
Built 2026-10-24 · scripts/ship.gd HOT_SPEED := 2500.0
Why not always hot drop
Why: “the escort can’t come (fighters have no drive: a hot drop arrives alone); a hot drop is a straight, committed fall that can’t fight back; the streak tells every player looking at that sky exactly where and when you came down”.
Decided 2026-10-24 · ship_spec.md, Commanding: 2D plane
Nose-over by class: fighters 78°, carriers 18°
Why: “a huge hull on end would look like a dropped toy”. The ship noses over gradually as it spools, not at the last moment.
Built 2026-10-24 · scripts/ship_catalog.gd HULLS[class].hot_pitch
Tactical burn: no bull-rushing, not at Low
Why: “No bull-rushing”: enemy ships and our big ships block the path, and a ship stops 300 m short of anything that moves into it. Not at Low: “a straight line at 2.5 km/s just over the terrain would hit the hills”. A ship must be within 2° of its line before it goes.
Built 2026-10-24 · scripts/main.gd can_burn(), BURN_STOP_SHORT := 300.0; ship.gd BURN_ALIGN = 2°
No fuel for hot drops and burns
Why: “nobody should waste time saving slivers of fuel”. Jumps cost fuel; these don’t.
Decided 2026-10-25 · scripts/warp_fuel.gd (header)
Arriving and leaving in the air
Why: a jump into a planet’s air comes out about 1 km over Top and settles onto it. The way out is only from Top: “going down to the surface is a commitment”.
Built 2026-10-24 · scripts/main.gd ARRIVAL_ABOVE_TOP := 1000.0