Grappling Hook idea... (maybe ofn?)

If the grappling hook is elastic then your arc radius will continue to dimenish throughout the arc, making it even harder to accuratly put yourself on course when skiing thru the forest at 300 kps. One question I have about the grapple is that what will happen if you are in the woods and the cord crosses another tree or object. Would your radius then be from that object. Also, what happens if the cord crosses a player or a vehicle? Does that make sense, you grapple a stationary object but while swinging in an arc the cord hits another tree?

Oh and I was only giving you Shazbot Validuz!! :roller:

A valid point: I hadn't considered that situation yet...

I'm trying to think of what they taught me in physics last year concerning centripetal forces, but I can't quite remember the relationships.

It might create more tension on the cable with a decreased radius in the arc, but I don't think it would change the speed at all. It would definitely affect the time interval between the starting point and the 90-degree point, but the speed should be the same as before, correct?

The clotheslining of other players, though, that's a different argument altogether: Does it deal damage to the affected person? Does the grapple firer change directions? How much does the target's speed affect the direction change? How fast must the target be going to snap the line?

Can you slingshot people by getting some slack in the grappler cable and boosting away from the center point? :)

[EDIT] That reminds me: can there be slack in the cable at all or does it automatically wind up to the minimum radius? There are more considerations for the grappler's mechanism if there is slack rather than none, such as firing the hook at an angle too parallel to your approach and snapping it when you hit the other end. Without slack, the gun pulls in all that extra rope and then slingshots you on a much smaller radius once you reach the end. It would require more skill with the slack and there would be a lot less sudden stops.

A valid point: I hadn't considered that situation yet...

I'm trying to think of what they taught me in physics last year concerning centripetal forces, but I can't quite remember the relationships.


F(cp) = m*v^2/r


:bigthumb:

Also, just to cover why angle matters:

[physics class]

to keep an object on a circular path, you need to continuously apply force to it. The force that is needed to maintain the path is called centripetal force, and is always provided by other forces: in this case, the force in the grappler's rope. The direction of the centripetal force is radial, which means it is always perpendicular to the direction of the movement.

When grappling onto an object, the centripetal force is provided by the radial component of the force in the rope, which is equal to the total amount of force if the rope (and thereby the force) is radial. Otherwise the total force in the rope (and thus the tension) must be larger than the radial component in order to maintain the circular path.

[/physics class]

:) definitly, but can you hit other trees and people with the line while swinging!!!! And if so what happens?

I thought they said when anything touches the line, it snaps, and you can bend around corners but only slightly. But I love the Clothesline thing, Imo it should be in the game :f

Thank you for the formula. :)

So a decrease in radius does increase the force, and so hitting the tree/person in the middle of a swing creates more centripetal force and thus more tension on the rope, which would eventually cause it snap.

However... the mass is constant, radius is constant for both situations (regular swing and rope hits a tree), and force from inertia is applied once at the beginning of the arc. Thus, to maintain the arc and gain velocity while minimizing the tension on the rope, we'll need to learn the optimal radius for an effective grapple in the game. Too far out, we'll just come to the ground eventually; too close, the stress on the rope is too great and it snaps.

This being for a horizontal grapple on the XY plane, of course: when falling we should be fine so long as the rope is short enough to let us avoid a catastrophic SPLAT! :)

I thought they said when anything touches the line, it snaps, and you can bend around corners but only slightly. But I love the Clothesline thing, Imo it should be in the game :f

It ain't a playground, but come on: the edges of objects can't be that sharp.

What if you just can't clothesline a BE because of all the tips and edges on their armors? :)

Anyways, I was sitting around talking with my nerd t2 buddies and we were discussing the use of the grapple, etc. An idea I came up with (to stop lame 90 degree turns for 300+kph cappers), is to make the grapple line "break" under stress.

For example, when you pull the grappling hook out, you get a little "stress meter". Let's say you're traveling at 250kph and you want to grapple onto a tree off to your side to change directions... as you grapple onto it, the stress of the bar flies up, and if it gets too high, the line breaks.

Basically (my theory), is that the "better players" will be able to get better at it, then the newbies... giving it somewhat of a learning curve. So if the line breaks, you don't get the "full turn" like you wanted... just get throw off course. In other words, you can't just go 300+ in one direction and WHAM, change directions with it... because it'll break with the stress of your momentum.

What'd you all think?

Wow, this is a horrible idea considering we haven't even played yet.

Since we don't know a lot about the grappler yet (at least I don't) can we really assume what the line will be made from? I mean after all even a thin cable can hold quite a large amount of weight and be very difficult to sever which would mean it could wrap around a building or person just fine.

:grimreape I could cut it!!

Use Teh Energy Blade!!@1

It's not a question of what the cable is made from, it's a question of the rules of the game.

If the devs want it to snap when it hits something, it will snap regardless of the laws of physics. :)