Planet Sizes

[Ornj]

There have been many games with inconstant planet sizes/distances, and I don't want this one to be one of them. From what the screenshots show, planets are way too close to each other.

I would want the spaces between planets to be realistically sized, and be able to traverse said distance in real time. That's what Warp 0.60/2.00 is for! It's a next gen game, you can afford to to need a prossessor with over 2ghz of ram.

[Anichent]

There have been many games with inconstant planet sizes/distances, and I don't want this one to be one of them. From what the screenshots show, planets are way too close to each other.

I would want the spaces between planets to be realistically sized, and be able to traverse said distance in real time. That's what Warp 0.60/2.00 is for! It's a next gen game, you can afford to to need a prossessor with over 2ghz of ram.

Agreed, especially Star Trek Legacy and SFC were disapointments with this. Extremely large planets with huge distances between them makes sense. And to have even moons and stations fairly distant from planets would make the most sense because we all know that to get to Luna from Earth or DS9 from Bajor, it requires a ship because transporting is much much too far.

I would hate to see a Station right above a planet because realistically it is fairly distant even though in ordbit of the planet, and I would also be disappointed in a Galaxy class starship or Starbase the size of a moon or half a planet.

[OrabIbo]

hmmm I know planets are just spheres and all. But to realistically render a planet in realtime in it's RL entirety may be a bit much for a PC. And for a console? hmmm I don't think it has the processing power for that.

Granted a good game shouldn't render stuff that is off screen. So maybe it won't be an issue. As the closer you get you should onl ybe rendering 1/3,000th of the planets actual size! (made up fraction but you get the point)

but you also suggest that distances should be shown realistically. This will make warp travel between some planets take hours! And while I didn't mind this in EvE, because it really made the space environment feel big. (just went insane with the constant Warpgate sounds :P) It made it very hard for ppl to get together for a mission if they were on the other side of the galaxy for one reason or another.

I don't think that would be pratical for a MMO if it were to take hours to get hours to days to get anywhere.

I'm afraid you may be disappointed a bit with your simulation expectations.

While I hope they perserve some things simulation like to keep it feeling like Sci-fi. at the same time I hope they filter out the stuff that makes RL such a pain and unfun.

[Ornj]

hmmm I know planets are just spheres and all. But to realistically render a planet in realtime in it's RL entirety may be a bit much for a PC. And for a console? hmmm I don't think it has the processing power for that.

Granted a good game shouldn't render stuff that is off screen. So maybe it won't be an issue. As the closer you get you should onl ybe rendering 1/3,000th of the planets actual size! (made up fraction but you get the point)

but you also suggest that distances should be shown realistically. This will make warp travel between some planets take hours! And while I didn't mind this in EvE, because it really made the space environment feel big. (just went insane with the constant Warpgate sounds :P) It made it very hard for ppl to get together for a mission if they were on the other side of the galaxy for one reason or another.

I don't think that would be pratical for a MMO if it were to take hours to get hours to days to get anywhere.

I'm afraid you may be disappointed a bit with your simulation expectations.

While I hope they perserve some things simulation like to keep it feeling like Sci-fi. at the same time I hope they filter out the stuff that makes RL such a pain and unfun.

I meant with just one solar system at a time. If you get near the edge of the solar system it would warn you and take you to an interstellar map or something.

[Anichent]

hmmm I know planets are just spheres and all. But to realistically render a planet in realtime in it's RL entirety may be a bit much for a PC. And for a console? hmmm I don't think it has the processing power for that.

Granted a good game shouldn't render stuff that is off screen. So maybe it won't be an issue. As the closer you get you should onl ybe rendering 1/3,000th of the planets actual size! (made up fraction but you get the point)

but you also suggest that distances should be shown realistically. This will make warp travel between some planets take hours! And while I didn't mind this in EvE, because it really made the space environment feel big. (just went insane with the constant Warpgate sounds :P) It made it very hard for ppl to get together for a mission if they were on the other side of the galaxy for one reason or another.

I don't think that would be pratical for a MMO if it were to take hours to get hours to days to get anywhere.

I'm afraid you may be disappointed a bit with your simulation expectations.

While I hope they perserve some things simulation like to keep it feeling like Sci-fi. at the same time I hope they filter out the stuff that makes RL such a pain and unfun.


It would not take hours to travel, in system it would take mere minutes or even seconds while representing true distance because other planets would not be close at impulse, while between system travel may take a while....but they are planning on using transwarp drive I think (or something similar) to get rid of the time problem.

[ParkerHayden]

Look at the screenshots. The sizing is fine.

[OrabIbo]

oh, my bad. I thought you was talking about the galaxy as a whole not individual solar systems.

If that is the way, you would like to see scale. Then yeah thats great! They can accelerate longer distances and go to a Stallar map or stellar cartography type room.

[OrabIbo]

Look at the screenshots. The sizing is fine.

well I'd be curious, if what appears to be atmosphere is actually interactable. And the game would prevent your from getting to close to the planet. In order to prevent it from crashing. And from you actually touching the planet itself.

Most of alll I'd like to use the planets atmosphere strategically, and see it light up the shields when you fly through it. slowly reducing their power. But thats a different thread.

But the scale of atmosphere I'd like to see represented too. As well as gas giants.

And Suns should always be bigger than planets. And you should be able to reach the suns outter edge as well, not always remain just out of reach, like in EvE! They can always make it so that your shields vaporaize as well as the ship if you get to close! lol

[ParkerHayden]

well I'd be curious, if what appears to be atmosphere is actually interactable. And the game would prevent your from getting to close to the planet. In order to prevent it from crashing. And from you actually touching the planet itself.

Most of alll I'd like to use the planets atmosphere strategically, and see it light up the shields when you fly through it. slowly reducing their power. But thats a different thread.

But the scale of atmosphere I'd like to see represented too. As well as gas giants.

And Suns should always be bigger than planets. And you should be able to reach the suns outter edge as well, not always remain just out of reach, like in EvE! They can always make it so that your shields vaporaize as well as the ship if you get to close! lol
Why?......

[Anichent]

Why?......

Because it is more fun.

[ParkerHayden]

Because it is more fun.
To be killed easier?

[wingnutf22]

that's something that always bugged me in some fighter combat games, you come down along the deck and realize holy cow I'm as big as a battle ship. I really do hope they get the sizing right. That is just irritating.

[OrabIbo]

Mainly because it would be more interactive. I mean how much fun is it to go to each and every planet just to go into orbit?

Maybe they can make missions where you retrieve satellites before they burn up in the atmosphere. Do battles, in the photosphere of the sun, taking the calculated risk on who will run out of shields first and destroy them after the shields go down before yours do, or you lose all your crew to radiation poisoning and heat!

And like Anichent said, It's more fun. Or I interpret risk and danger in the game as more fun. While it is not very federation like in nature. How many Captains that we have seen from the show didn't do some sort of risky manuver in order to even out the odds when they were fighting a losing battle? On the show they always won. In the game you might lose. But you gotta hold on to that hope.

And, again I'm off topic :P Truely sorry.

Representing scale for the atmosphere to give us something to interact with before you just go splat into the planet. Is far better. Though I think the game will take over the ship before they let you get that far. Such as, they can make it so you incur so much damage when you get to close to the planet that you can't possibly crash into the planet physically. As you shouldn't be doing that anyway, but you can still have some fun in the atmosphere of it.

This is all stemmed from my time playing Klingon Academy. And while that game did have it's flaws. It let my imagination soar when I could interact with various stellar objects in space. It's far better than it just being there like a piece of artwork to admire. This is GAME! Let us touch it!

[RAFTERMAN]

As a long time eve player I have to say I hate jump gates spcae travek should be open ended not funneled through jump gates (those of you who do not play eve are in for an ass spanking good time when the gangs of gankers get together to camp jump gates). As a true fan of space games traveling through space is part of the fun. Like I said im a long time eve player im rather looking forward to getting lost in space so to speak and go exploring hopefully without running into 300 other people. STO has the great hope of being a higher level space exploration game with combat mixed in.

RAFTERMAN

[Mattastic]

To a point, I agree. No-one likes seeing planets merely twice the size of your ship or anything. Certainly there should be a sense of realistic scale here. However, it doesn't really bother me that much. I see the scale in space as more of a representation of the thing, rather than the thing itself. Much like numbers and names above people's heads, it's a compromise in order to make gameplay smoother and more entertaining. At a truly realistic scale, solar systems are almost entirely empty, and navitaging them by sight is absolutely impossible. The only way to navigate to a planet would be to select it from a map and then have the planet appear on the screen due to the very brief travel time. I don't think that would make solar systems look that interesting, to be honest.

[k.mpok]

Not only am I hoping for realistic sized (within reason of course :) ) and realistic distance but I hope you don't go bumping into them as you get near them either.

I would hope that as you approach a planet it becomes larger. After you reach a point where it would fill the screen then all you would see is some general orbital view (landmass) shots of the planet to simulate an orbit in the upper atmosphere.

And if you can (by all that is good and holy) if we do go bumping into planets then PLEASE lets see some kind of simirealistic damage for such bump.

[OrabIbo]

And if you can (by all that is good and holy) if we do go bumping into planets then PLEASE lets see some kind of simirealistic damage for such bump.

Semi realistic damage eh? I would say a complete explosion would cover that quite nicely. I really don't see such an incident coming out with a minor scratch or chunk taken out of the hull. :)

I'd rather they have an atmosphere on the planet that causes the shields to glow a blazing red until they are depleted. Then you start taking hull damage. The ship will of course be destroyed before it even reaches the planet.

[k.mpok]

Semi realistic damage eh? I would say a complete explosion would cover that quite nicely. I really don't see such an incident coming out with a minor scratch or chunk taken out of the hull. :)

I'd rather they have an atmosphere on the planet that causes the shields to glow a blazing red until they are depleted. Then you start taking hull damage. The ship will of course be destroyed before it even reaches the planet.

As would I, but that may be to harsh for some of the newer WoW generation players.

[Lord_Xomic]

Why are we rendering these planets at all? unless they're going to let us crash into them, they may as well be just, you know, backgrounds, painted onto the skybox of the local area.

[Deadly_Assassin]

There have been many games with inconstant planet sizes/distances, and I don't want this one to be one of them. From what the screenshots show, planets are way too close to each other.

I would want the spaces between planets to be realistically sized, and be able to traverse said distance in real time. That's what Warp 0.60/2.00 is for! It's a next gen game, you can afford to to need a prossessor with over 2ghz of ram.

I can't afford a 2ghz prosseser, not even with my tax refund. So diffrent settings would be nice.

[Xbox360_Raven_247666]

I can't afford a 2ghz prosseser, not even with my tax refund. So diffrent settings would be nice.

DO I KNOW YOU? XBOX LIVE?

[OrabIbo]

Why are we rendering these planets at all? unless they're going to let us crash into them, they may as well be just, you know, backgrounds, painted onto the skybox of the local area.

I can see them using backgrounds for planets far out in the distance. It can be a level of detail tactic. Then as you get closer the background object fades and in fades in the 3D planet.

Why render planets? to make them intereactive, and not look fake when you go into orbit of a planet. I don't know about you but I would like the planet to appear like it's spinning at least and not permanently sitting in the same position the entire time.

Not only that but being a background in 3D space means you never have the option to go to the far side or dark side of the planet. Visit the poles etc... I suppose they can make it so you visit a location and you actually go there with your away team. But I would like some sort of preview of glimpse before heading down there and risking my crew.

[Michell]

Size doesn't matter....it's whats on the planet that counts! lol funny part is the earth is a really small planet compared to the others. so how does it feel to be the joke of the universe.....every human cries a little at night lol. but for real the devs have been working on this problem and have even posted that they are trying to make space feel vast without it feeling too vast....making sense? and they also want the size to reflect properly as well.

[kawaylon]

suicide runs at the sun! wow that would look cool on main viewer lol till you melt of course.