Pioneer is a space simulator game, aiming for a certain degree of realism. But it's still science fiction, and a game, not a hard simulator, so artistic license is taken here and there. Some things are ignored or tweaked for the sake of interesting game-play and visuals, but not overly so. The aim is to do that in a self-consistent way. And to provide an interesting galaxy to be in, and to accentuate the vastness of it.
The technological background of the universe is decidedly low-key, with as little handwavium and technobabble as we can manage. The largest exception of course is the presence of FTL travel via the hyperdrive, which is a hard thing to avoid in a space opera. It doesn't trivialize the travel between the systems though. Travel is measured in days if not weeks for long distances.
Engines are quite efficient and powerful without explaining them too much, mainly for gameplay reasons. They are also relatively large compared to the size of the ships. Thrust and deltaV work as they are expected.
Ships are subject to the newtonian laws of movement and momentum. No arbitrary speed limits except for the ships deltaV capacity. Things orbit planetary bodies.
Visible and working RCS thrusters are there and utilized heavily.
The issue of thermodynamics are quite muted, or waved away to allow for a more space-opera aesthetics, sans huge and flimsy radiator fins. But ships still have heat radiators of good sizes.
There are some tropes and other commonly expected technologies that are missing, either for gameplay, or backdrop reasons.
There are no sentient strong AIs because humans behind the wheels are more interesting.
Time acceleration is a UI feature, not present at all in the universe. It's only for the comfort of the player, there's no stasis or any other explanation for it. This means that travel times are what the clock says, so design the habitat sections accordingly.
There are no replicator nano-assemblers and such. They would make trade pretty much irrelevant and the game isn't an exploration on the post-scarcity, post-singularity society either.
There is no FTL communication apart courier ships and similar jump and broadcast unmanned drones.
In-sys comms and detection are instantaneous, and there's no simulation of light speed in the game. But that's a limitation of the engine, and would actually be interesting to have light lag in the game.
There aren't any artifical gravity, or any kind of gravity manipulation technology. Gravity can be simulated using the Coriolis effect, aka spin gravity, or by thrust.
In general, one of the main points is that technological and scientific progress slowed, as the things to learn got more minutae and diverse. Progress plateaued practically, The main point is to explore a universe, where there's no infinite room for progress, where the apes and angels concept is biased towards the apes, because there's an upper limit to what you can do. There aren't any superinteligent species, no magitech and such. The great filter is a real thing. Humanity is more of an exception to that rule as it was able to crawl up to the other side of it. To explore a galaxy that's rather empty in terms of intelligent life.
Visuals
OPLI
OPLI-Barnard's ships are inspired mostly by '80s-'90s vehicles.
Engine placement:
On couriers and other ships, engines are close together at the rear
Brief overview
Pioneer is a space simulator game, aiming for a certain degree of realism. But it's still science fiction, and a game, not a hard simulator, so artistic license is taken here and there. Some things are ignored or tweaked for the sake of interesting game-play and visuals, but not overly so. The aim is to do that in a self-consistent way. And to provide an interesting galaxy to be in, and to accentuate the vastness of it.
The technological background of the universe is decidedly low-key, with as little handwavium and technobabble as we can manage. The largest exception of course is the presence of FTL travel via the hyperdrive, which is a hard thing to avoid in a space opera. It doesn't trivialize the travel between the systems though. Travel is measured in days if not weeks for long distances.
There are some tropes and other commonly expected technologies that are missing, either for gameplay, or backdrop reasons.
In general, one of the main points is that technological and scientific progress slowed, as the things to learn got more minutae and diverse. Progress plateaued practically, The main point is to explore a universe, where there's no infinite room for progress, where the apes and angels concept is biased towards the apes, because there's an upper limit to what you can do. There aren't any superinteligent species, no magitech and such. The great filter is a real thing. Humanity is more of an exception to that rule as it was able to crawl up to the other side of it. To explore a galaxy that's rather empty in terms of intelligent life.
Visuals
OPLI
OPLI-Barnard's ships are inspired mostly by '80s-'90s vehicles.