I just want to ask you a question that is important to my game.
( Think like a player not a developer )
Just think of game like “EVE Online” or “X3 Reunion”
Now the question.
Planets in the system you prefer them…
a) Static they dont move at all around the sun only them self rotation.
b) They move around the sun like in real space
Remember if you choose B its more realistick but its very paintfull to get sometimes to them.
And of course if its possible tell me why you prefer a or b.
I prefer if the planets move and rotate like they do in real, according to a few astronomical rules. Depending on your timescale you might want to translate the whole solarsystem(s) as well.
If it’s painful getting to orbing planets more depends on the technology the player can utalise. What kind of navigation/docking system do you offer? How is the ship powered? How much do you take the relevant physics into account? The whole pack must fit together, instead of looking at an isolated aspect.
I’m for C: That it makes sense in the context and scale and is reasonable.
For example in EVE you wouldn’t get anything from them moving. also by normal astronomical rules you would have to set several years in the same solar system to see any reasonable moving …
if you have a game that simulates space trades, a master of orient alike thing and alike and is rather action oriented and arcady, having moving planets etc can make a lot of sense to add another aspect to the game.
But if your game is about traveling from solar system to solar system or even less fine grained, it makes no sense at all
nor does it make sense if you sit on a planets surface most of the time aside for the “suns” and “moons”
I prefer a real galaxy but with some hokey physics to make combat more interesting and fun in combat. My favorite games of all time have to be the Elite and Frontier games. Frontier took things a bit too far and compromised what made the original Elite fun in combat. But I loved being able to go to planets and land on surfaces. Only not when gravity was so strong that once you landed you couldn’t take off again lol. (That happened to me a couple of times in frontier and was very frustrating)
Definitely have the planets orbit. Keep in mind that in real life planets orbit the sun very slowly, Earth moves approximately 1 degree per day for example. You will want to speed it up a bit to make it noticeable. Also, if you want super realism you might want to take a look at Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, although that’s probably overkill.
