Why are asteroids stationary?

[Zplintz]

Whilst it would be nice if the bodies in a roid field collided with each other (sometimes) and could be moved by player actions, I think it is unrealistic to expect them to do so in ED.

 

[Helvellyn]

I was at a ringed planet last night and I 'parked' in the gap between two ring systems,

I noticed a couple of interesting things.

1) that the asteroids do indeed orbit the planet
2) they orbit at differentts speeds.
3) In this particular case the two rings orbited in different directions, im not sure how common that is.

The closer to the planet the faster the orbit, so if you're parked in between them and also in a circular orbit then anything closer will seem to be overtaking you, and you'll be overtaking anything further away, so from your frame of reference they'll seem to be going in opposite directions.

 

[Hydrino]

Whilst it would be nice if the bodies in a roid field collided with each other (sometimes) and could be moved by player actions, I think it is unrealistic to expect them to do so in ED.

The answer to the OP is that over many years , to say the least, the asteroids have stopped colliding and settled into stable orbits (absent gravitational effects of moons and passing comets, as pointed out by another poster). So we would not expect them to move relative to each other. This is clearly articulated in another poster's article linked earlier (dang I should have used multi-quote tool). Nasa estimate odds of one of their probes suffering a collision when going through the asteroid belt to be 1:1 billion.

I think it would be cool if player ships could park on a roid and cause them to alter this stable trajectory by applying thrust, or snag them with an anchor bolt and cable - while dangerous it might be fun to watch the results. But probably we will never see this due to the data transmissions required to syncing up the ring state of millions of objects with other players.

Destructible asteroids would be another dream item. Wonder if there is a way FD could do it?

 

[Lobstris]

If it works in the real world it's perfectly fine in a game, don't you think?

So, about that missing, fully Newtonian flight model? And how's your Alcubierre Drive coming along?

 

[Rall]

One of the immersion breaking mechanics in the game. Before release, and it might still be seen in todays version, the asteroid rings would orbit at different speeds within the entire ring around the planet. As in the original versions of Elite you would have had to match the speed of the orbit, but in this version it is automatic. You'd think once you matched that speed you would follow the orbit around and come out on the other side when leaving the RES area, but again the immersion is broken and you exit where you entered. At least FD tried to simulate it. Has nothing to do with the power of todays PC, but with the choices that were made for ease of development.

That and making a game more accessable, gravity manoeuvres and gravity captures are not the easiest thing to get your head around.

The average gamer just wants to jump into a spaceship and tool around, they don't want to have to spend two days learning about retrograde burns and how to enter orbit around a stellar body.

And to be perfectly honest, I don't want to be either in ED. I found that a massive pain in Frontier, and it lmiited the fun for me. I backed ED when they stated the full newtonian model was out, and it's as it should be if you want a straight up gun game. Michael Brookes has alraedy stated gameplay will always trump realism in the design - and I like it that way.

I'll fire up KSP of I want to add moore boosters, which reminds me Jeb is still stuck on Jool.

 

[Rall]

Destructible asteroids would be another dream item. Wonder if there is a way FD could do it?

It would be pretty cool if the belts became depleted over time, the rings getting thinner and patchy as they slowly get mined out. There isn't actaully a lot a material in a plantery ring (About as much as a small body like Ceres). A galactic Civ could quite easily strip mine a ring in a few years.

 

[rootsrat]

Speed is always relative to your location (frame of reference).

You think you are sitting still right now? That is only true in relation to Earths frame of reference.

The Earth is actually travelling around the Sun at 30,000 m/s.

And the Solar System is at the same time travelling around the Galaxy at 250,000 m/s.

If it works in the real world it's perfectly fine in a game, don't you think?

That's an interesting point. Are the solar systems in game also travelling?

 

[scorpyon]

Worth bearing in mind that 0 speed means 0 relative to the local frame of reference which is a point in orbit around the planet, the same orbit the asteroids around you are taking. Thus you won't see any motion as you're all travelling in orbit around the planet at the same speed.

I was going to suggest this.
Beaten to the punch!

 

[Tinman]

That's an interesting point. Are the solar systems in game also travelling?

This was asked before and the answer was no. The time it takes for anyone to even notice that happening in a game that runs in realtime would make that movement undetectable, even with timelapse videos. It would be a complete waste of resources since noone would notice it anyway even if it was happening. We're talking hundreds/thousands of years here.

 

[rootsrat]

This was asked before and the answer was no. The time it takes for anyone to even notice that happening in a game that runs in realtime would make that movement undetectable, even with timelapse videos. It would be a complete waste of resources since noone would notice it anyway even if it was happening. We're talking hundreds/thousands of years here.

Thanks for clarifying, it makes sense.

 

[Insomnia]

Worth bearing in mind that 0 speed means 0 relative to the local frame of reference which is a point in orbit around the planet, the same orbit the asteroids around you are taking. Thus you won't see any motion as you're all travelling in orbit around the planet at the same speed.

+1
Are the inner and outer rings spinning in different speeds?

Fun fact: Saturn's ring system can produce new moons due to the boulders slamming into eachother forming a gravitational pull which collects more and more boulders, and eventually this new moon will get kicked out in space and voila Saturn has a new moon. Well... This is if you believe How The Universe Works on Discovery.

 

[Crank Larson]

Fun fact: Saturn's ring system can produce new moons due to the boulders slamming into eachother forming a gravitational pull which collects more and more boulders, and eventually this new moon will get kicked out in space and voila Saturn has a new moon.

This. I want to see this.

Please, FD... Can you put it on your list of things to do? I'm sure there isn't much else on the list...