RELATIVITY

Doesn't it seem weird that ships face drag in outer space? And aren't these planets weirdly close together? This mod fixes that, by making the planetary distances realistic and increasing the speed of ships to compensate. Relativity now comes into play, and acceleration is appropriately adjusted to account for special relativity, so that you can asymptotically approach, but never reach, the speed of light. Travel time between planets is measured in minutes, just as it would be for a relativistic spacecraft.

Main features

• Distances between planets have been increased to realistic values, if you pretend "km" says "Mm" wherever it appears.
• The TIME it takes to travel between planets has been increased to a more realistic level---minutes, not seconds.
• Acceleration is now determined by special relativity instead of the default drag-based equation.
• Due to how Factorio handles velocity, you still need some thrust to maintain speed, but you should need very little, allowing something close to a cruising flight with the right setup. However, your ship will rapidly slow down if thrust goes to zero (so that it can stop when arriving at a planet).

Compatibility and Recommended Mods

The following mods are known to work well with this mod.

Requires Space Age

My own mods

• Realistic Logistics (https://mods.factorio.com/mod/realistic-logistics/downloads)
• Deuterium-Tritium Fusion (https://mods.factorio.com/mod/deuterium-tritium-fusion)
• Hydrolox (https://mods.factorio.com/mod/hydrolox)
• Engines Need Lube (https://mods.factorio.com/mod/engine-lube)

Incompatible with any other mods that change distances in space

• Including my own mod Adjusted Space Map (https://mods.factorio.com/mod/adjusted-space-map)

Known Issues

• Everything is off by a factor of 1000, with distances listed in kilometers when they really should be megameters; this is to prevent asteroids from destroying your ship when you collide with them at extreme velocities. Just imagine that you are seeing everything in a scale view, and shooting down asteroids while they are thousands of kilometers away from you.
• The asymptotic velocity is not exactly 299.792458 as it should be, and I honestly can't figure out why. The equations in the code all use a parameter of 299.792458. It's still about 300, though.