Supernova

Outlaw39lima75

Outlaw39lima75
So I was thinking...

When exploring deep space, there should be a chance of entering a star system where the primary was about to go nova. Now granted, this would require the algorithm to take into account the star’s age and size, but how epically awful would that be?

“Captains log... supplemental. I have been exploring the far reaches of the milky way for two months now. I am entering system... HOLY CRAP!!! THE STAR IS ABOUT TO G GO NOVA!!! FSD TO FULL!!! FSD TO FULL!!!”

And of course there could be a “Death Star” achievement for being blown up by a star going nova.

Or the mother of all bad luck. Reaching Beagle Point only to have the closest star for you to jump back to go nova and now you have made it all the way there only to get stuck by some craptasticly twist of fate that would make Shyamalan's early movies look like a Dr. Seuss book. Or using the Drake Equation to give intrepid deep space explorers a chance to find the ruins of an alien civilization that is not the Thargoids.

And then fresh novas could wreck all kids of havoc on astronavigation, not to mention the possibility of a once friendly star becoming a black hole.

Also, black holes that suck you in and destroy you instead of just looking pretty. “Doo da doo... imma just go over here to Sagittarius A and look around... OMG I CAN’T GET AWAY!!! WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!!!” Spaghettification.
 

MBaldelli

MBaldelli
No thank you... As a Deep Space Explorer any Nova/Supernova/System Cataclysm is something that would be occurring over millions of to billions of years. This game is played in real time. While it might be possible to come across one, anything more than that would require injecting more RNG into a game that already has way too much RNG.

This comes up routinely because some brash Explorer Pilot wants to see a living Universe. They often forget how much time needs to pass for an event like the Crab Nebula to happen and better still how long it'll take before it's seen.

Have we had a recent supernova event occur in our life time? Near to Earth?* And better still where are we seeing them? Remember how much time those events in the past occurred for us to see it now.

* On January 22, 2014, students at the University of London Observatory spotted an exploding star SN 2014J in the nearby galaxy M82 (the Cigar Galaxy). At a distance of around 12 million light years, the supernova is one of the nearest to be observed in recent decades. That occurred 12 million years ago.
 
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Alexandr

A
It could be something like in-game sensation if there is supernova appear somewhere in galaxy and players could find in first in news then in the space. Someone maybe would fly closer to site with being able to observe all the effects.
 
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HailVectron

HailVectron
The actual explosion doesn't take long - and it could be done so far away from the bubble so as to be just eye candy for a few weeks. The system could be permit locked for 'safety' while its happening and afterwards, it just becomes a neutron star or something...
 

MBaldelli

MBaldelli
Shadowman said:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1987A

That was a bit closer and more recent :)

I've thought this would be cool as well and would generate a lot of player visits, not to mention potential BGS activity.
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Yep... And it's still 168,000 years ago.

HailVectron said:
The actual explosion doesn't take long - and it could be done so far away from the bubble so as to be just eye candy for a few weeks. The system could be permit locked for 'safety' while its happening and afterwards, it just becomes a neutron star or something...
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I don't think I can stress to you folk that the issue with this -- barring my natural disdain for the amount of RNG that is going on within this game currently -- is that the awesome amount of time necessary for a Supernova or even Nova to be detected, let alone occur. We Commanders are capable of surpassing the speed of light because we have the technology to do so. The Galaxy (and the sandbox) that we're playing in does not have that luxury. It still has to travel at the speed of light regardless of us flipping a magical button and going 20 LY (or more) in less than a minute.

To have a nova or supernova to happen, it would have to happen within the Bubble because anything just outside of it is going to take anywhere from 20 - 500 years to be detected. This game has been projected to last 10 years; if that. And given this game is played in real-time... the likelihood of a well planned event such as a stellar catastrophe won't be happening anywhere other than where we currently are.

Try putting that nova and supernova in some obscure part of the Milky Way and you're going to be dealing with 10,000 or more years and running into the problems of needle in a haystack/a tree falling in the forest.

The sad fact is that while the universe is a massive, wonderful and awe-inspiring place the human lifespan lacks the longevity to see those sort of things close up to our position in the universe. Until such time as humanity works on either an anti-agapic, Boosterspice or something along the lines -- the universe like the game's sandbox is going to be a bland and boring place where everything exciting and natural for the universe-scape is going to be happening everywhere else far, far away from where we are.

You want to see this sort of thing? My suggestion is make friends with astronomers. Get up away from your desks, leave your house/apartment/wherever-you-call-home and go visit an observatory. I happen to have done this before computers were commonplace in the household and went to the one in my state. Even made friends with the Horologist and the local astronomers there. Also had a wonderful time learning of the pastimes of a rather eccentric writer that used to do the same thing I did.

But from my standpoint, asking for stellar events in this game is like people playing WoW or Rift and asking for Earthquakes, Tsunamis or Volcanoes suddenly popping up on the landscape. There are far more important things that need to be addressed and pointed at.
 
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Edith_The_Hutt

Edith_The_Hutt
While a Supernova might be too much effort for a one-off event, more common Nova events and variable stars would be cool, making certain stars dangerous to be around every so often.
 

MBaldelli

MBaldelli
Outlaw39lima75 said:
So then what about adding the possibility of encountering alien species that are not the Thargoids?
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That was brought up in several threads over the last six weeks with various responses of "no", "That's not Hard Sci-Fi" to more "no"...


Basically when you read up on Clarke's Rule and the Fermi Paradox, you'll understand why we've only found the Guardians and the Thargoids.
 

Nevian0225

N
See, now that's an intelligent response. Respect.
The last bit I was considering was the 'probability' of finding the ruins of a pre interstellar civilization in old red dwarf or brown dwarf systems on cold dead planets that might have once been in the life zone when the star was young.
Given Drake's equation and the overall age of this galaxy, it might be 'possible' for the Detail or the infinite range scanners to ping out an * ANOMALY * alert.. but that would be coding and story plot that might give a little enhanced explorer experience.

< shrug > I'm still having internal amusement with the idea of finding old space probes or Von Neumann machines from those dead civilizations and considered writing a bit about finding a slow moving old mining machine churning away somewhere.

Regards,
Nevian





MBaldelli said:
That was brought up in several threads over the last six weeks with various responses of "no", "That's not Hard Sci-Fi" to more "no"...


Basically when you read up on Clarke's Rule and the Fermi Paradox, you'll understand why we've only found the Guardians and the Thargoids.
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Outlaw39lima75

Outlaw39lima75
Then if we are going to talk about the theoretical and the death of much older civilizations that have died out, what about the discovery of a Dyson Sphere left by some long dead advanced culture?
 

Nevian0225

N
I was hoping there would be a mega structure after this article
https://www.space.com/33813-alien-megastructure-mystery-tabbys-star.html Or http://www.businessinsider.com/new-alien-megastructure-star-discovered-epic204278916-2016-9.

These I imagine would take a good chunk of coding to be playable landings. The special anomalies maybe less?



Outlaw39lima75 said:
Then if we are going to talk about the theoretical and the death of much older civilizations that have died out, what about the discovery of a Dyson Sphere left by some long dead advanced culture?
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Outlaw39lima75

Outlaw39lima75
Even if we throw out all the craziness of what I have previously suggested, we can all agree that the “sand box” in which we play on Elite is massive. And it is true that right now everyone is focused on the Thargoids. Their technology is completely alien to us, as it should be, but I can’t help to wonder about the “what if”.

As someone that loves seeing what is around the next star over, I honestly feel that there should be more incentive for deep space exploration. Right now our commanders get a monetary reward and our gamer tag is permanently attached to virgin systems. And this is great, don’t get me wrong. I remember the thrill I got from discovering my first Earth type. And the heightened thrill when there was a second Earth type in the same system. But what then?

Oh, sure, we can set goals and fly to definable points on the map, but with the myriad of theoretical astrophysics to draw from I guess I can’t help but yearn for running into something while out here in the black. Star systems with exoplanets starts to get repetitive, lending to more “honk and go” exploration. The writer in me wants to see the discovery of a naturally occurring Einstein-Rosenburg Bridge (a worm hole), Or a star that has drifted too close to a black hole and is being slowly devoured.

We live in a very dynamic galaxy. And while coding for such events could be a massive undertaking, things of this nature would make me more willing to head out of the Bubble and explore more. Even a smaller benefit of being able to locate a star system and set it up for colonization and getting to “purchase” the system would be a nice perk.

But hey, I have 77 jumps to go to reach my birthday goal. Time for more Honk and Go.
 

MBaldelli

MBaldelli
Outlaw39lima75 said:
As someone that loves seeing what is around the next star over, I honestly feel that there should be more incentive for deep space exploration. Right now our commanders get a monetary reward and our gamer tag is permanently attached to virgin systems. And this is great, don’t get me wrong. I remember the thrill I got from discovering my first Earth type. And the heightened thrill when there was a second Earth type in the same system. But what then?
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I agree. Until such time as actually landing on atmospheric worlds, there is little that we can do with the current models other than speculate mathematics involved in creating a system. Trying to add Novae/Supernovae to the mix in order to make the universe seem "alive" isn't the way to go at the present time however, especially when you consider not only what I said, but this point that I didn't:

To have a Nova/Supernova occur in the system, given the way the Thargoids are currently playing out in the game -- the event would have to be repeating in order for all the players wanting to see the event to go and see the event.

...

That's right. It would be a repeating event in the sandbox because... Yep, you wouldn't want that many stars exploding for the spectacle within the sandbox, would you?

Outlaw39lima75 said:
We live in a very dynamic galaxy...
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Please see what I said about here:

MBaldelli said:
The sad fact is that while the universe is a massive, wonderful and awe-inspiring place the human lifespan lacks the longevity to see those sort of things close up to our position in the universe. Until such time as humanity works on either an anti-agapic, Boosterspice or something along the lines -- the universe like the game's sandbox is going to be a bland and boring place where everything exciting and natural for the universe-scape is going to be happening everywhere else far, far away from where we are.
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And with that.. Happy Birthday.
 
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Nevian0225

N
I'll agree that that if a supernova is coded it should be a singular occurrence, probably having happened in a small nebula a few thousand years ago and the debris still expanding ( hence a small nebula )...



MBaldelli said:
I agree. Until such time as actually landing on atmospheric worlds, there is little that we can do with the current models other than speculate mathematics involved in creating a system. Trying to add Novae/Supernovae to the mix in order to make the universe seem "alive" isn't the way to go at the present time however, especially when you consider not only what I said, but this point that I didn't:

To have a Nova/Supernova occur in the system, given the way the Thargoids are currently playing out in the game -- the event would have to be repeating in order for all the players wanting to see the event to go and see the event.

...

That's right. It would be a repeating event in the sandbox because... Yep, you wouldn't want that many stars exploding for the spectacle within the sandbox, would you?



Please see what I said about here:



And with that.. Happy Birthday.
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damon8r351

damon8r351
Apparently Eta Carinae is theoretically about to go supernova "any day now" on the cosmic scale, yet has held together for as long as we've been able to observe it, and is still holding together 1286 years later with no signs of change. Which should give people an idea of a time scale. Supernovae inside the Milky Way aren't just BOOM SURPRISE.
 
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PiggyPiggyPig

PiggyPiggyPig
Supernovas are a one in a billion year event. Although we do regularly detect them here on Earth, several hundred per year! This is because of the billions of galaxies in our observable universe.
 
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MBaldelli

MBaldelli
damon8r351 said:
Apparently Eta Carinae is theoretically about to go supernova "any day now" on the cosmic scale, yet has held together for as long as we've been able to observe it, and is still holding together 1286 years later with no signs of change. Which should give people an idea of a time scale. Supernovae inside the Milky Way aren't just BOOM SURPRISE.
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Even if Eta Carinae were to explode now -- today -- we wouldn't be able to register it as happening until 7,500 years from now. Which means Earthlings won't be seeing that explosion until November 13, 9517.

This would create a hell of a paradox in the game.
 
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