New TC: Solar System

I am really impressed at how this has popped up in the span of a week... I wish that I had the time on my hands to pull this kind of stuff off!

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Drinking causes hangovers.
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Shemsu Hor.

Hey guys, i got us a fourm at (url="http://"http://eternallightstudios.com/ELSForums/index.php?showforum=28")the Eternal Light Studios(/url) fourms. Sign up for the fourms and tell me your username there. Ill add you to the forums read/post list.

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(This message has been edited by The Cheat (edited 06-27-2004).)

he, he he he, you want a beta version? It's been a week since we've officially started it, and there's still only 3 people working on it! I'll be surprised if we have an alpha version by the end of the summer. But thanks for the optimizm(sp?), its nice to know somebody actually wants to play this. Check the sitr, as we'll vbe posting our updates there.

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http://
www.freewebs.com/septcanmat/index.htm

http://solarsystemforevn.cjb.net/

actually, if you really want, i'll send you what i've got of the plug as it currently is. its kinda screwed up though, and its not really playable

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http://
www.freewebs.com/septcanmat/index.htm

(url="http://"http://solarsystemforevn.cjb.net")Solar System for EVN(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Septcanmat:
**he, he he he, you want a beta version? It's been a week since we've officially started it, and there's still only 3 people working on it! I'll be surprised if we have an alpha version by the end of the summer. But thanks for the optimizm(sp?),
**

Well, I didn't mean right now, but it would be nice 🙂

Quote

Originally posted by Septcanmat:
It's nice to know somebody actually wants to play this

Quote

finnish first!

I think not ;).

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NOTE: We will not be using this topic anymore as we have our own forums. Heres the public one: (url="http://"http://eternallightstudios.com/ELSForums/index.php?showforum=29")Public Forums(/url)

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(quote)Originally posted by UE_Research & Development:
**I think not;) 😉

actually, there is not one of Ap>3's progects I'm not axios too see. In fact, I didn't know about most of them untill today. But there doesn't seem to be much progress on any but one. And it's not Days of Glory, which is the only TC with a website anyway!

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Cmon people, the (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number;=20&SUBMIT;=Go")Chronicles(/url) are worth looking at.
I love Frigates, as is easily seen:(url="http://"http://www.dabie.k-ow.net/~glasskids/EV_Frigates_page.html")EV Frigates(/url).
**

Quote

Originally posted by Masamune:
**First post in a long time...

Just a warning to a fellow solar-system builder- don't waste your time trying to make the planets/moons/etc rotate. There are about 3 ways to do it "reasonably" and all of them have major, unacceptable flaws. Just a word to the wise from someone who's been there, done that.

Good luck!

EDIT: I wouldn't mind being proven wrong, though! But it would have to be something beyond Azratax, Jonathan Boyd or my abilities, and it's darn near impossible to stump all three of us... 🙂

**

I've done it.

As it happens, it's only really worth doing on space stations or something incredibly tiny, because a real planet would rotate so slowly that it wouldn't be worth doing. On a space station it's a cool effect, though.

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Just a guess, I think Masamune meant 'revolve' rather than 'rotate'. But, I've been wrong before...

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Ah. A different problem. Actually, two different problems:

Planets revolving round their sun. I've done this one, though it's not a 'watch and wait' effect, because that would be utterly, utterly unrealistic. Nonetheless, without wishing to give anything away, it makes for a very interesting set of missions when the planet is on a long ellipse. I've only implemented it for one system -- it would be tedious for my purposes to have every planet wandering around.

Moons revolving around a planet — this isn't a particularly difficult problem for Jovian moons which spin rapidly and close to the planet. Clearly there's a cut off point between realism and file size. For landing, you would have to select the entire system and a message would come up "You have attempted to land on Massivo. The planet's gravitation is beyond the tolerances of your craft. Override systems have diverted you to a small moon called Lucky Escape."

Actually I am giving too much away now, as this is germane to something I may or may not be releasing in the near or distant future.

EDIT:
The solution is much simpler if you are going to separate every planet by a hyper-link, as per the map provided above. Again, there's a cut-off point between realism and playability. If you really wanted to you could construct a simple planetarium with visbits triggered by crons, as there's no requirement for a system to be in the same place as the one it's replacing. However, the beauty of the creation of it might be lost on the player unless there was some compelling game-play reason why all the alignments of everything would be different everytime you jumped and arrived anywhere.
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(This message has been edited by Martin Turner (edited 06-28-2004).)

It would be interesting if, for example, you could only launch yourself on an earth-mars trip every two years or so, while the planets were at opposition. Obviously in such a universe, your adventures would be primarily restricted to the viscinity of the planet you were in, including any cities there and orbiting satellites.

I had an idea recently for a scenario set approx. 7 billion years in the future, with the sun swollen up to the size of a red giant. Earth would be a charred wasteland and Mars a dying, arabian Barsoom. Jupiter's icy moons, however, would have thawed, and could be hosting intelligent life descended from human probes in the present time. The problem with space exploration in the real world was always that basically, there was no where to go - but a race that evolved on Europa might have serious colonial interests in Callisto and Ganymede. Meanwhile, who knows the hell is going on under the thick skies of Titan.

Also, the image of a gigantic, swollen red sun filling half the sky is just kind of cool.

-reg

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"As a rule we believe as much as we can. We would believe everything if only we could."
~ William James

Quote

Originally posted by Martin Turner:
Moons revolving around a planet — this isn't a particularly difficult problem for Jovian moons which spin rapidly and close to the planet. Clearly there's a cut off point between realism and file size. For landing, you would have to select the entire system and a message would come up "You have attempted to land on Massivo. The planet's gravitation is beyond the tolerances of your craft. Override systems have diverted you to a small moon called Lucky Escape."

Nice solution. Never occurred to me. I think you could still have the planet and its satellites separate though. Place the planet in the system, then create a planet sprite that's blank in the middle and has the orbiting satellite at the edge. Have the position of the satellite further ot than the edge of the planet being orbited. For the satellite sprite, make the mask clear in the centre and overlay it on top of the planet being orbited. I think that should make the two of them separately selectable and could be extended for additional rings of orbiting satellites.

The planetarium solution sadly causes unpleasant side-effects if every system is in motion. A lot of missions break down. Very pretty, but very non-functional.

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(url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/jonathanboyd/evn/index.html")Classic4Nova plug-in(/url)

Off-topic:

Just noticed your location.

Jonathan, are you studying in Oxford? If so, which college and what subject?

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Quote

Originally posted by Martin Turner:
**Off-topic:

Just noticed your location.

Jonathan, are you studying in Oxford? If so, which college and what subject?**

Just finished a BA in Physics at Keble college. Was originally going to be doing a masters, but I'm going to be working in the church for the foreseeable future, so I decided the extra time and debt wasn't worth it. Would be nice to have another year in the city though. Spent the last couple of months doing a project and sitting my finals, which is why I vanished from the boards. Should probably change my location to London since I'll be living there next year. <shuder>Surrounded by the English</shudder> 😉

Do you have a connection with Oxford?

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Still Off Topic:

Hertford, 1985-88, English (Course II). Also OUDS, OICCU, some other stuff.

BTW, unless they've changed the rules they will convert your BA into an MA in the course of time.

Good to know that there are other Oxonians on the board.

BTBTW if you've played my plugin, you should have recognised the Ashmolean Museum and Library on Beaumont Street, which is just along the ways from the Institute of Archaeology. Ah, happy memories.

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On topic:

This may or may not be of any use, but when I flirted with the idea of doing a TC, I used a 4th method of travel between systems. There was the usual hyperspace, hypergate, wormhole stuff, but I also used a couple of missions to move the player between different solar systems, for a not so small fee and with a time lapse of a few years, representing the ship being carried on a sublight interstellar transport vessel.

Off topic:

Quote

Originally posted by Martin Turner:
**Still Off Topic:

Hertford, 1985-88, English (Course II).**

Can't think of any feuds Keble has developed against Hertford, do I approve :^)

Quote

Also OUDS,

DS as in Dance Sport or DS as in Diplomacy Society? I only waltzed in cuppers (got to semifinals) for Kebl, but got very litle sleep thanks to all night sessions at DipSoc.

Quote

OICCU,

Keble own the OICCU Exec these days :^) I was prayer sec for Keble CU for a couple of years. You weren't at the 125th were you? Packer spoke well. Don't suppose you were an Ebbe's boy? Or were you with our brothers in Aldates/OCC/Woody Road?

Quote

**some other stuff.

BTW, unless they've changed the rules they will convert your BA into an MA in the course of time.**

I'm counting down the years.

Quote

**Good to know that there are other Oxonians on the board.

BTBTW if you've played my plugin, you should have recognised the Ashmolean Museum and Library on Beaumont Street, which is just along the ways from the Institute of Archaeology. Ah, happy memories.**

It's been a while since I played them. I'd mumble something about a port to Nova, but I'm sure you've had quite enough requests for that and have other things to get on with.

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Quote

Originally posted by Jonathan Boyd:
OUDS

The University of Michigan Undergrad asks if OUDS stands for the Oxford University Dramatic Society? (It came up first when I Googled OUDS Oxford.)

Lit Nerd

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For Books are not absolutely dead things, but doe contain a potencie of life in them to be as active as that soule was whose progeny they are; nay they do preserve as in a violl the purest efficacie and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. John Milton, (url="http://"http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/areopagitica/index.shtml")"Areopagitica"(/url).

(This message has been edited by Lit Nerd (edited 07-01-2004).)

Still off topic:

OUDS is indeed the Oxford University Dramatic Society.

Wasn't at 125, but I've heard Jim Packer speak before.

On topic:

How about an Ursula Le Guin style plugin where all interstellar travel took years?

Ports:
Yes, I've ported it, but I'm not finished yet.

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Quote

Originally posted by Martin Turner:
**Ah. A different problem. Actually, two different problems:

Planets revolving round their sun. I've done this one, though it's not a 'watch and wait' effect, because that would be utterly, utterly unrealistic. Nonetheless, without wishing to give anything away, it makes for a very interesting set of missions when the planet is on a long ellipse. I've only implemented it for one system -- it would be tedious for my purposes to have every planet wandering around.

Moons revolving around a planet — this isn't a particularly difficult problem for Jovian moons which spin rapidly and close to the planet. Clearly there's a cut off point between realism and file size. For landing, you would have to select the entire system and a message would come up "You have attempted to land on Massivo. The planet's gravitation is beyond the tolerances of your craft. Override systems have diverted you to a small moon called Lucky Escape."

Actually I am giving too much away now, as this is germane to something I may or may not be releasing in the near or distant future.

EDIT:
The solution is much simpler if you are going to separate every planet by a hyper-link, as per the map provided above. Again, there's a cut-off point between realism and playability. If you really wanted to you could construct a simple planetarium with visbits triggered by crons, as there's no requirement for a system to be in the same place as the one it's replacing. However, the beauty of the creation of it might be lost on the player unless there was some compelling game-play reason why all the alignments of everything would be different everytime you jumped and arrived anywhere.**

On the cron'd visbit solution- there is one major, major flaw with this system (it's what I had originally done). Nova isn't smart about the restart condition. Say you have a planet that moves between two systems, A (syst 128) and B (syst 129). Easy- two crons and it moves. The problem is not obvious. Say you land on the planet while it is at B, and then quit the game. When you restart, you always start in A, system 128 (the first system that contains a reference to the planet in question). Always. the planet is still in the correct spot (🆒, but you aren't, which can be debilitating. Otherwise, I think I'll have to do some experimentation with what I think you talking about (yeah vagueness).

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~Charlie
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