Stars/Suns are supposed to be 100's/1000's times the size of planets, but the game makes it "feel" like they are much smaller. You seem to be able to whizz around stars fuel scooping and easily get round the back of them, no so much with planets... Just seems like they are the wrong size - far far too small...
Stars look too small
- Thread starter Zangief
- Start date
- Status
target the star and see just how far you are away from them. Brings it into perspective.
Harbinger
Volunteer Moderator
It's gotta be done:
[video=youtube;dS12p0Zqlt0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS12p0Zqlt0[/video]
But in all seriousness, it's the speed at which you can travel around stars versus the speed you can travel around planets which skews your feeling of size. When you're extremely close to a planet you're limited to 100 km/s, the speed limitation in close proximity to a star is nowhere near as harsh.
[video=youtube;dS12p0Zqlt0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS12p0Zqlt0[/video]
But in all seriousness, it's the speed at which you can travel around stars versus the speed you can travel around planets which skews your feeling of size. When you're extremely close to a planet you're limited to 100 km/s, the speed limitation in close proximity to a star is nowhere near as harsh.
Last edited:
It's a scale thing- as mentioned, you can only get so close to the stars while you can get much closer to planets.
He distance you get to the star (when you see it's size) is the closest up can get safely without burning up. They are massive, you just can't get any closer.
That said... There are a few supergiants out there... You want to see a big star go visit one!
He distance you get to the star (when you see it's size) is the closest up can get safely without burning up. They are massive, you just can't get any closer.
That said... There are a few supergiants out there... You want to see a big star go visit one!
Can I point out that you are in SC when scooping, and therefore travelling quite quickly (relatively speaking)!
If you are in SC near a planet you zip past in nothing flat, unless you're right near them, when you are speed limited.
Planets feel big when you are in normal space near them, but that's because they ARE big
For scale, drop into normal space near a star, then see how long it takes you to orbit it
If you are in SC near a planet you zip past in nothing flat, unless you're right near them, when you are speed limited.
Planets feel big when you are in normal space near them, but that's because they ARE big
For scale, drop into normal space near a star, then see how long it takes you to orbit it
What FD should do to make stars looks as big as they get:
1. Remove the "safety" net around stars and planets. The yellow circle indicator stays, but you are no longer dropped out of SC. You can slam into planets and stars now. Or burn up really quickly. Boom.
2. Lower the maximum fuel scoop altitude so much that you have to fly much closer to the star's surface, but get a lot more fuel for it. Flying through coronal ejections throws fuel scooping into overdrive. More shaking. Chance to lose control of the ship if you overdo it.
3. Allow shield reconfiguration settings in the right hand panel. You can set shields to "Multirole" (as they are now), "Energy Deflection" (protects you against heat and lasers much better, but you might as well not have them if someone hits you with a projectile) and "Mass Deflection" (the opposite)
#1 would serve to allow people to dive really close to the surface of the star, but at their own peril. For those who want to see how big stars can get, you can't do much better than that.
#2 would give incentive to do so. And come on, refuelling at stars should be dangerous! By the way, when are we getting gas giant refuelling, eh FD?
#3 because more options are fun. And because you'd be turned into a crisp otherwise.
1. Remove the "safety" net around stars and planets. The yellow circle indicator stays, but you are no longer dropped out of SC. You can slam into planets and stars now. Or burn up really quickly. Boom.
2. Lower the maximum fuel scoop altitude so much that you have to fly much closer to the star's surface, but get a lot more fuel for it. Flying through coronal ejections throws fuel scooping into overdrive. More shaking. Chance to lose control of the ship if you overdo it.
3. Allow shield reconfiguration settings in the right hand panel. You can set shields to "Multirole" (as they are now), "Energy Deflection" (protects you against heat and lasers much better, but you might as well not have them if someone hits you with a projectile) and "Mass Deflection" (the opposite)
#1 would serve to allow people to dive really close to the surface of the star, but at their own peril. For those who want to see how big stars can get, you can't do much better than that.
#2 would give incentive to do so. And come on, refuelling at stars should be dangerous! By the way, when are we getting gas giant refuelling, eh FD?
#3 because more options are fun. And because you'd be turned into a crisp otherwise.
My question on star size is from a different perspective - working on the idea that earth is approx 8 light minutes from Sol if a planet is 4800 light seconds from its star (which is a G class) the star should look something like the sun does from earth. However it seems quite often at that sort of distance the star is tiny and visibly a star not "a sun" as it were. Obviously brown dwarfs etc would look a bit different but surely they would still look larger than they do?
Lens effect of the atmosphere maybe? Not a scientist.
We have pictures of Sol taken from the space station - still looks like sun not a star.
Depends on the FOV.
What FD should do to make stars looks as big as they get:
1. Remove the "safety" net around stars and planets. The yellow circle indicator stays, but you are no longer dropped out of SC. You can slam into planets and stars now. Or burn up really quickly. Boom.
2. Lower the maximum fuel scoop altitude so much that you have to fly much closer to the star's surface, but get a lot more fuel for it. Flying through coronal ejections throws fuel scooping into overdrive. More shaking. Chance to lose control of the ship if you overdo it.
3. Allow shield reconfiguration settings in the right hand panel. You can set shields to "Multirole" (as they are now), "Energy Deflection" (protects you against heat and lasers much better, but you might as well not have them if someone hits you with a projectile) and "Mass Deflection" (the opposite)
#1 would serve to allow people to dive really close to the surface of the star, but at their own peril. For those who want to see how big stars can get, you can't do much better than that.
#2 would give incentive to do so. And come on, refuelling at stars should be dangerous! By the way, when are we getting gas giant refuelling, eh FD?
#3 because more options are fun. And because you'd be turned into a crisp otherwise.
This. Sounds more like the original, where the stars felt the right size.
Visit any star in the DK2 and you will appreciate the size of those beasts. Especially when you realize you are still a huge distance from the surface.
I visited Betelgeuse a few weeks back, couldn't get anywhere near the orbiting planet dispite being 4 times the distance from the earth to the sun, in the rift it feels insanely huge.
I visited Betelgeuse a few weeks back, couldn't get anywhere near the orbiting planet dispite being 4 times the distance from the earth to the sun, in the rift it feels insanely huge.
yes, but that distance is just some number thought out by FD.
i have to agree, generally the huge differences in size are not properly reflected.
only if you look at the numbers you get a feeling for it.
Methinks you need to have a look at your calculations..unless there are now 600 seconds in a minute?
You should try it at about 500ls and see what it's like..
You need to see the numbers because there's nothing to compare it to. You jump into a system with a bog standard main sequence star about the size of our sun and hit X you're usually 2-3ls away when you come to a (near) stop with the star pretty much filling your field of view.
It's best part of a million kilometres away and it's filling your field of view. It's two or three times as far away as the moon is when you look at it in the sky and it's filling your field of view.
That's pretty damn big.
Harbinger
Volunteer Moderator
4800Ls seems alot
That's because it's incorrect 8 light minutes * 60 seconds = 480 LS.
The distance from Sol to Earth is marginally above 8 light minutes, it's ~499 LS.
Distance in kilometres from Sol to Earth: 149,597,870.7
Kilometres per light second: 299,792.458
149,597,870.7 / 299,792.458 = 499.00478 LS (to 5 d.p.)
Last edited:
- Status