How many stars?

Elrawkum

E
I apologise if this has already been pointed out (I did a search), but I only just noticed it after telling someone I know that the game will have 4 billion star systems - and posted a quote from the mainsite to illustrate that it wasn't a typo...

Only to have him point out that it actually was...

The offending quote is from the Latest News item on the main website page:
The five Beta Premium star systems are themselves set within 400,000,000 star systems of the Milky Way galaxy
Click to expand...

Obviously that's not 4 billion in either old or new money. 4 billion is 4,000,000,000.

And then... I notice the masthead on the main page says:
It's an awe inspiring, beautiful, vast place; with 400 billion star systems, planets, moons and asteroid fields just waiting to be explored and exploited.
Click to expand...

Now granted, that's vague enough to include all the stars, planets, moons and asteroid fields in that 400 billion figure, but it's still mighty confusing.

We all know what happens to spaceships when we get our measurements wrong :(

So, what is it Frontier Devs? 400 million, 4 billion or 400 billion? :D
 

tooterfish

T
"It's a very silly number" -- David Braben.

The game aims to accurately model the milky way, so 4 billion/400 million is far too few.

I don't think anyone's actually counted the stars on the game's map, but 400 billion is the right ballpark.
 

Lobster

Lobster
The simple answer is that the game is attempting to model the real milky way, which is estimated to contain 400 billion stars. Sometimes the definite specifics of the written number get confused in newsletters and interviews, but you can be sure that the actual game galaxy is based on the real number of stars.

And now for some Carl Sagan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HL0DRMznqI
 
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Kris

K
Elrawkum said:
So, what is it Frontier Devs? 400 million, 4 billion or 400 billion? :D
Click to expand...
It´s easy answer - since they are trying to model it after real Milky Way, correct is 400 billion (best estimate today is that our galaxy contain up to 400 billion stars).
 

Kris

K
And speaking of stars - am i only one who wishes Gaia would have launched 5-6 years ago (so we would have starcatalogue ready today)? :) Can´t have everything i quess.
 

Elrawkum

E
Yeah, but I need to know exactly... so's I know how much time off work I'll need to visit them all. ;)

More importantly, it doesn't create the greatest impression if the makers of a game boldly claiming to have "400 billion stars" on their E3 trailer don't seem to actually know what a billion is when you visit the main portal of their website (I'm sure they actually do, but the 'typo' on the main-site is slightly embarrassing all the same). Doesn't matter if "most" of us don't spot it - my friend spotted it quick enough after all, and I should have too - you can be sure others will too.

I suggest a quick edit of the html code, delete this thread and we'll swear it always said what it was supposed to say all along. :D

Edit: Sorry - the video says 400 billion too (not sure where I got 4 billion from - I got confused!) - so it's just the Latest News item which is slightly misleading.
 
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INaeem

Elite Greeter
INaeem
INaeem said:
New information insistently indicates 400 billion; this could be the updated amount? Old information reflects 100 billion.


Taken from the website landing page:

Head for the stars, take a ship and trade, bounty-hunt, pirate or assassinate your way across the galaxy.
It's an awe inspiring, beautiful, vast place; with 400 billion star systems, planets, moons and asteroid fields just waiting to be explored and exploited.

https://elite.frontier.co.uk/


Taken from pcgamer interview:

“There are over 100 billion star systems,” Elite creator David Braben tells me when I ask if that number could possibly be true. “In fact, it’s closer to 400 billion. It’s a very silly number anyway.”

http://www.pcgamer.com/uk/2014/05/30/david-braben-on-the-ambitious-future-of-elite-dangerous/


Taken from newsletter 21:

Alpha 4 genuinely contains over 400 billion star systems. And they are all moving correctly; spinning, orbiting each other in an incredible astronomical ballet. We are also modelling interstellar molecular clouds, and though some of the detail in these (particularly for nebulae) will come after Alpha 4, wherever you are, the ‘night sky’ is accurate. Beyond our galaxy, perhaps surprisingly we do still have a ‘skydome’ - but it is now a staggering 100,000 light years away, containing all the other galaxies, including the Magellanic Clouds. That’s one heck of a draw distance…

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=cfcdbae60e
Click to expand...

The post above may provide additional credence. Take care and Elite!
 

Elrawkum

E
Stoo said:
Confusion over UK a billions and US billions? And that UK adopted the US billion?
Click to expand...

No, because then the figure would be - in old UK billions - (takes a breath) 400,000,000,000,000. In 'new standard' it's 400,000,000,000 (and I hope to god I put the right number of zeros after all that - someone please double check for me...) The figure shown is 400 million in either language.

The problem is that this is the only place on either video or front page that actually 'defines' billions in numerical characters (i.e. with zeros) - and it's wrong. :yeesh:

It's a bit of a cringe, even if obviously just a typo. :)

Should be fixed really. Just because.
 
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Mark Allen

Programmer- Elite: Dangerous
M
I'll let you in on a secret, none of us know!

Procedural generation is like that, we can ballpark it, we know how much mass there is, how the algorithms work, etc. But the only way to get an exact count is to generate the entire galaxy and count them, which can of course be automated, but isn't a quick task ;).

There's probably tools the stellar forge peeps have that could do this, but every time the rules change a little, that number can change a lot.


There's enough that the exact number isn't particularly meaningful tbh :).
 

Dirtmuncher

D
What we do know:
2001_design.gif
 

Elrawkum

E
Thanks for the reply Mark.

But the issue isn't how many are actually in the game, but the figure shown in the Latest News Premium Beta item on the front page. It says 400 million...

The five Beta Premium star systems are themselves set within 400,000,000 star systems of the Milky Way galaxy
Click to expand...

I understand it's probably just a typo, but considering it's on the front page and a lot more people will be reading it after E3 (hopefully), at least it should look like someone at FD knows how many zeros 400 billion has... so I was just highlighting it so it could be fixed.

I do hope I haven't inadvertently caused a PR disaster though. ;)
 
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