Asteroids that move around in an asteroid field, please!

Lucius Confucius · Mar 24, 2019

It would make things far more interesting if asteroids moved around and crashed into each other. We would be have to be far more careful when flying in asteroid fields. Should not apply to all fields though, only some that would be marked as hazardous or something. Imagine being in a res site and fighting some pirates, and one of them is down to 10% hull when an asteroid smashes into him, or you for that matter.

The size of the asteroids would be from large ones that could almost destroy you to small one that would only make a dent on the shield.

Thoughts?

WeComeInPeace · Mar 24, 2019

You don't fly fast enough in the rings, or your shield is too large

Personally I'd rather see rouge black holes. Those are a true challenge.

https://www.sciencealert.com/this-massive-black-hole-just-broke-free-and-is-tearing-through-its-own-galaxy

Zenith · Mar 24, 2019

If they were rouge then they would be a pleasant shade of red.
Now if they were ROGUE black holes, then they would be hazardous.

avow555 · Mar 24, 2019

The asteroids could do with a bit of variety and some additional gameplay.

WeComeInPeace · Mar 24, 2019

Zenith said:
If they were rouge then they would be a pleasant shade of red.
Now if they were ROGUE black holes, then they would be hazardous.

Yeah, but then you try and write something in my native language (Danish)

Seriously though, those things are scary. Also an occasional supernova would make fuel scooping more exciting!

Para Handy · Mar 24, 2019

Lucius Confucius said:
It would make things far more interesting if asteroids moved around and crashed into each other. We would be have to be far more careful when flying in asteroid fields. Should not apply to all fields though, only some that would be marked as hazardous or something. Imagine being in a res site and fighting some pirates, and one of them is down to 10% hull when an asteroid smashes into him, or you for that matter.

The size of the asteroids would be from large ones that could almost destroy you to small one that would only make a dent on the shield.

Thoughts?

If you mean the asteroids in the belts around planets then no there wouldn't be rogue ones colliding and bumping since the belts have settled into a state of equilibrium.

You are more likely to have more "mobile" asteroids in the actual asteroid belts since they have less of a gravitational "shepherding" influence on them.

varonica · Mar 25, 2019

Para Handy said:
You are more likely to have more "mobile" asteroids in the actual asteroid belts since they have less of a gravitational "shepherding" influence on them.

But you probably woouldn't find them because they would be to far apart. The asteroid clusters we see at the moment are at a point of gravitaional equilibrium anyway, so no rushing around and banging together there. I am going to hazard a guess and suggest this is from Star Wars and the "the chances of succesfuly navigating through an asteroid belt" scene. I am afraid life isn't as exciting as a film, in fact natural things portrayed as exciting and dangerous in films are rarely like that, for instance I live in Australia and haven't died a single time yet!

It's the old, do we go for realism or game play conundrum, and while yes sometimes game play needs to take priority, the model of the galaxy is the important thing in my opinion, I am sure there are ways to add excitement without messing with the stellar forge to create "exciting" asteroid fields.

EDanaII · Mar 25, 2019

Para Handy said:
If you mean the asteroids in the belts around planets then no there wouldn't be rogue ones colliding and bumping since the belts have settled into a state of equilibrium.

I'm not an astrophysicists, nor do I play one on TV, but I'd expect there would be some. It's just that it'd be so slow as to not be noticeable most times. That said, whenever we blow one up, that *should* throw the equilibrium out of whack. But, for some odd reason in the Brabenverse, things in space seem to come to a slow gradual stop, as if there's some kind of friction in the void.

varonica · Mar 25, 2019

EDanaII said:
I'm not an astrophysicists, nor do I play one on TV, but I'd expect there would be some. It's just that it'd be so slow as to not be noticeable most times. That said, whenever we blow one up, that *should* throw the equilibrium out of whack. But, for some odd reason in the Brabenverse, things in space seem to come to a slow gradual stop, as if there's some kind of friction in the void.

Vey little in fact, rings around planets are quite stable due to gravitational effects of shepard moons, meaning any astreoids that start to wander out of the rings get gently pushed back by gravitational influence of the moons, and all asteroids on the same circle point all orbit at the exact same speed. However that doesn't mean there isn't movement, scientists have observed changes in ring patterns over a number of years, but collisions above a gentle nudge at best would only happen if an intruder passed through, and even then, since one of our probes of Saturn have passed through the rings without actually hitting anything, odds are it wouldn't do anything.

Actually mentioning friction, the rings of Saturn have their own atmosphere, so yes friction, whether it would work as rapidly as it does in the elite universe is another thing, but then I did mention game play over realism is sometimes necessary.

Lucius Confucius · Mar 25, 2019

I can't remember where I saw it, but it was another game that is yet to be released that inspired this thread. In it they showed how the pilot navigated a red gas cloud where there were tons of asteroids moving around. The graphics were good and it looked so awesome! But I prefer Elite Dangerous because of the "feel".

Gameplay should take precedence here. We do not need to mess with existing fields around planets. We can change some of the asteroid fields that are within systems and make them much larger and with a tighter formation of rocks and have some of them move around. Perhaps add gas clouds to make things look even better. And most importantly, add Resource Extraction Sites there.

It would make things far more interesting!

varonica · Mar 29, 2019

Lucius Confucius said:
Gameplay should take precedence here. We do not need to mess with existing fields around planets. We can change some of the asteroid fields that are within systems and make them much larger and with a tighter formation of rocks and have some of them move around. Perhaps add gas clouds to make things look even better. And most importantly, add Resource Extraction Sites there.

It would make things far more interesting!

There are all generated by the stellar forge, mucking about with these either would requrie that the stellar forge be re-run with a new seed, potentially changing things galaxy wide that may be unrelated to asteroid fields, or have hand crafted asteroid fields inserted in X places by the devs, a time consuming and in the end pointless exercise because what 400b systems, a few hundred or so hand placed asteroid fields?

No, in this case the stellar forge takes precedence over "mucking about with asteroid fields", it should produce the most accurate portrayal of the galaxy as possible, then we insert game play elements around and in that model.

Lestat · Mar 29, 2019

All the facts we are getting from Our solar system. But from other solar systems, it could be different. Depending on Planets/moons and such in that system it should affect Asteroid belts. The problem we have right now is we don't know much about them.

Yes, I am for Asteroid belts that have movement. But I would like to have some facts behind them.

varonica · Mar 30, 2019

Lestat said:
All the facts we are getting from Our solar system. But from other solar systems, it could be different. Depending on Planets/moons and such in that system it should affect Asteroid belts. The problem we have right now is we don't know much about them.

Yes, I am for Asteroid belts that have movement. But I would like to have some facts behind them.

Actually we do know a lot about them, we now have 4k exoplanets found and asteroid belts and the rules of orbital mechanics don't change from system to system and with all that the galaxy out there looks remarkably like the Elite model, although of course it's never going to be perfect and even if we find major differences the elite galaxy can't be updated to reflect that because it would basically wipe it clean and we would all be starting from scratch in a blank galaxy. If there are major changes we may have to wait for Elite the Next Generation before the galaxy gets updated.

Gryphorim · Mar 30, 2019

Even a differential in speed between asteroids orbiting closer to core planet vs those further out. Just a slow drift relative to one another as the inward asteroids orbit slightly faster than those further out. Add the odd rogue asteroid that gets kicked out of a circular orbit that if it connects with another asteroid, explodes as if seismic charges had been used.

STRONTIUM DOG · Mar 30, 2019

I am having visions of Atari asteroids here

varonica · Mar 30, 2019

Gryphorim said:
Even a differential in speed between asteroids orbiting closer to core planet vs those further out. Just a slow drift relative to one another as the inward asteroids orbit slightly faster than those further out. Add the odd rogue asteroid that gets kicked out of a circular orbit that if it connects with another asteroid, explodes as if seismic charges had been used.

The stellar forge models the asteroid fields and rings as a single object, the sheer number of objects in a ring precludes modeling each individual object, this is where the model falls down in reflecting reality. However two different rings around one body, inner and outer, move at vastly different speed if you should try to fly between them in real space. We simply don't have the computing capacity and power to render each individual object. Yes that's a pity, but it's also a reality, we are limited by the technology we have. Because of this the angular velocity of the outer obects of a planetary ring are moving far to rapidly because they are fixed in place relative to the inner objects of the same ring. Oh well.

Gryphorim · Mar 30, 2019

varonica said:
The stellar forge models the asteroid fields and rings as a single object, the sheer number of objects in a ring precludes modeling each individual object, this is where the model falls down in reflecting reality. However two different rings around one body, inner and outer, move at vastly different speed if you should try to fly between them in real space. We simply don't have the computing capacity and power to render each individual object. Yes that's a pity, but it's also a reality, we are limited by the technology we have. Because of this the angular velocity of the outer obects of a planetary ring are moving far to rapidly because they are fixed in place relative to the inner objects of the same ring. Oh well.

Oh, cool analysis. Really logical reason for it to be the way it is. I wonder though, how much the stellar forge can handle there. Does stellar forge apply at the micro scale of near-field objects, in the sub 100 km range, or is it used for defining objects at a macro scale of light seconds on up? After all, there is a noticeable loading pause when dropping from SC. Can the engine be coerced to include some degree of relative motion within the entity, and only noticeable when out of SC, rather than defining each band of rings as separate entities?