....
Can't agree... solar systems invariably are along a single uniform plane.... I'd rather see moons and comets....
Comets, yes!
One should have the ability to research the ability to make your fleet land upon a comet to enter the enemies solar system without being noticed.
Badass!
commet would be kinda cool
I don't think a comet is big enough to generate its own gravity well, but moons definitely yes, I'd love to see that.
While solar systems are a uniform plane, stars themselves wouldn't necessarily share a plane at all. The problem is that gravity wells in game are implemented as cylinders, so the illusion of a spherical gravity well would be broken if they weren't roughly aligned on the Z-axis.
Darvin we already have space rocks plenty in the game. Now space ice chunks, that would be new and interesting! Liek an asteroid with 2 crystal extractors or somehting.
the moon premise has been well discussed, but here comes another post on it...
have the moon outside the grav well of the planet, but not connected with a phase lane. so the fleet has to move under regular power to the moon. mmmm
I also agree that a fully 3d system would not be either realistic or good for gameplay. It would be too easy when twisting and turning in 3d to have planets overlap each other. When all the gravwells are laid out on a plane it's much easier to visually navigate at the galactic view level.
all the major gravitational bodies in any rotating system will eventually align along a central axis due to centrifugal forces. this is equally true of solar systems with planets and spiral galaxies with stars. it makes perfect sense, from a physical perspective, for all the grav wells to be in the same plane.
the other issue is simply one of usability and presentation to the human player. if the objects had greater z axis separation in would be harder to keep track of things. in my opinion that would be a bad outcome and would lead to a more confusing game without much of a gain in visual attractiveness.
some of the maps actually do have some variation in the z-placement between stars and planets. like aeorlian sector or whatever its called. Don't think they vary by more than 30 degrees though.
it is true that the planets should all be on the same plane to make it realistic and gameplay simple, but theirs no reasons why the stars should...
and the comets seems kinda cool. and maybe the planets should slowly orbit their stars, at different rates, of course, would be cool to have changing space lanes.
maybe space lanes that "come into season"
changing when planets move closer/further??
Ps: idk if this is wht u ment^^
Not really, it depends on how the planets orbit that solar system and where they are in the system at that given time.
mabey a lilore of a cgi skybox with moving features and changen colours but thats just visual stuff rather see more game content personaly
I am no developer, okie? So my comments may be off, but to my way of thinking, the slight rotation already in game for the planets could be used, without any calculations of any kind to the solar system. Have the solar system as a whole simply rotate using the same algorithm that the planet uses. The calculation is static, the movement extremely slow, but also perceptible. That to me would allow for singular maps to rotate about the axis of the skybox, which with a small introduction of some location specific anomolies, a bright three point star in one direction, the cloud layers in another, a blackened field of space devoid of stars in another. All these could be minor drawings added to the skybox, and the movement of the system about them small, but again perceptible by the player.
We dont have to have dozens or hundreds of calculations added, and we dont have to have to continually re-calculate. Each piece could be set to move on its own, this would be for multiple star maps. Or even the same for planets in a star system. Each moving about the core of the star.
Each piece then, planets about the star, the system rotation, and multiple star rotations could add only a handful of embedded and static code for them to follow.
This means visually the system becomes more interesting, more interactive, if phase lanes change according to what planet is nearest, it also means more fun, more strategy and not necessarily more code-crunching and memory eating threads to calculate. As i said i am no coder, but it would probably eat more memory to start another browser window than to set up the spin mechanisms for the game.
If this is not the case, then please explain how it will in fact make the game unplayable.
Just my two cents, not flaming, simply trying to express that i think this is possible without taking the game out of the low hardware threshold. Anyway, take care and keep modding!!
-Teal
Well true 3d map is hard to navigate for humans. You can try out a game called Sword of the Stars. Some of the true 3d maps are very difficult to master.
Ah, but the difficulty of mastering is the entire appeal of a game...
i have the solution for planet revolving around the star. anyone can do it. no mods to install.
zoom out
double click the star
right click on the star and hold down the mouse button
slowly move the mouse in a circle around the star.
revolving planets.
thank you thank you
i accept paypal, money orders and of course cash
im here til thursday, try the crab cakes.
I think the reason they don’t have comets moons ect. Is because they would need a better physics engine and it probably would not help the frame rate on older computers. Also planets/star are sometimes on different planes (at least in version 1.00). also I do not think changing phase lanes would be a good idea because say the only reason my empire can cling to existence is due to a choke point, then poof the choke point no longer exists and my home world is open to enemy attack? I would like to see space stations/asteroids orbit planets instead of standing still.
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