Dodecahedron Planets, easy implimentation.

[spoonikle]

People often complain that the planets in this game are "not round". I hear it all the time " why cant they be round, make them round, I made a sphere in minecraft"

These people are annoying and often very dumb. There are plenty of good reasons why flat planets are best for the game.

Yet still, I wondered what It would take to make a useable "round" planet, or at least one with more than one side.

At first I thought a cube world would be nice, but the transitional boundys would be execptionaly steep. Then I had an idea.

Create 12 planetary segments, and parent them together ( like docking ) at angles to form a Dodecahedron.

Each single planet would be comprised of 12 pentagon shaped entitys, forming a soccer ball/foot ball shape.

 

[bonerdagon]

^

 

[Hierarch]

We need to chat, PM me when you see this.

 

[Planr]

Interesting idea, but the issue of gravity is still a problematic one.

 

[Krazykat]

just have the gravity change direction when changing the face you are on

 

[Planr]

Can you explain how it\'s supposed to treat your player when he falls into the center of the planet?

 

[MikeV37]

The player dies from high pressure/molten iron

If you want it to be less hardcore, each of the 12 reverse Pyramid sides has an indestructible Core which doesn\'t let you pass.

If you don\'t like that option because it takes away the ability to kill worlds, Have a small, roughly spherical space in the center of the planet where there is no gravity. As in, the sides gravities don\'t extend all the way down, but only 3/4 of the way.

 

[TangentialThreat]

If you weld different faces together to make a dodecahedron then you have intersecting voxels on the corners and funny things may happen when you build from one face to the other. It\'s better thought out than most of the make-planets-round posts but nah.



You might be able to make cube planets work if you blur the gravity a bit, but my suspension of disbelief is unbreakable. Christopher Columbus was wrong in this universe. He sailed over the edge and into the stars and the Spanish were very disappointed in him.



Speaking of silly things, there is an element named orangutanium. Every time I see it I twitch. This would seem to imply that it was either discovered by orangutans, or is somehow made of/extracted from orangutans and I don\'t like any of those possibilities.

 

[Planr]

So what\'s the solution to the gravity problem, rather than a way around it?

 

[blokPhoenix]

the gravity pulls less/more for which face you are closer to, 100 for your face and 0 for the other faces at the center, and down to 50/50 at the corner so you are pulled at the corner (about towards the center). not sure if the gravity system in place alows for this, but hey thats not my problem



edit: would prolly get quirky if you were on a corner of 4, gravity pulling 25/25/25/25, you may start to slide in one direction unless they add some psuedo-friction when you\'re standing still



edit 2 (sorry): and the overall number decreases as you get lower into the planet, down to a spherical dead zone with 0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0(/0?)

 

[MikeV37]

It\'s how most problems are solved.

Also, I\'m pretty sure there\'s never an area where four plates collide on a dodecahedron.

And what\'s wrong with a the center of the dodecahedron killing the player/being indestructible/having no gravity? It certainly makes more sense than arbitrarily being pulled in a random direction whenever your near a planet, because that planet\'s downside is different from the universes. It makes FAR more sense than flat worlds.

In fact, I could call the entire flat world process a \"way around the problem\"



Anyway, flat worlds were done to death, they\'re the easy answer. This thing^ hasn\'t been attemted yet, and would make the game stand apart.

There is however, a larger issue, that of intercecting blocks. This one could be a deal breaker. I\'m not sure how to fix it except for giant ravines to the center of the earth, which is kind of a cop out. Of course these ravines could be hidden by being of irregular shape, but it\'s still far less than ideal.

We could equally say screw it (assuming the engine could handle this) and turn off collision detection for the edge blocks, effectively having two blocks in one space. That is itself is kind of a cop out.

I don\'t see a good solution to this problem except for irregular shaped blocks, which seems very difficult to me.

 

[Charlie_]

That\'s the precise problem schema gave as reason for the current planets (which I\'m fine with).

Though if the problem was really players being suspended in a gravitational vortex at the center of the planet, a simple (and realistic) dead-before-reaching approach could work.

I\'m not aware of it but, if a planet is 100% removed (no more blocks) does it still has a gravity?

Woud it be possible to make, like for ship core in build mode, that some blocks cannot be removed unless rest of planet\'s blocks are gone?

I\'d have a lava core, perhaps with a valuable center block, and this lava core, although not too huge, couldn\'t be removed unless the rest of the planet was stripped.. As if the planet\'s crust acted as a huge collective faction module.

This would effectively kill adventurers falling too deep into the planet, without making those into invincible gravitational death-traps.

Switching \"faces\" of the planet is still going to remain one of the big issues though, since when you start digging wide holes towards the center, it\'ll start getting really annoying to manage code-side.

 

[Vii]

Really going to the center of the planet should be very hard, and dangerous, probably filled with molten lava and stuff.

 

[spoonikle]

I was thinking of having the very edges not colide. I mean all it would be is a small overlap at the boundries. a few blocks here and there, not a lot.

In real life plates shift and colide and make faults, having cracks under the coliding layers would not be without its charm.

I did overlook the issue of coliding, on purpose. you could easily make the endges of worlds angle blocks ocupying the same space, you could work around the issue.

For gravity, it would be the same as it is now, all segments with their own gravity. Combined with a molten core that is unbreakable.

you can destroy a planet and leave nothing but a molten rock... pretty cool sounding. Instead of a disk with holes in it.

 

[TangentialThreat]

You know, after fiddling with gravity a bit (living on the underside of a planet, making space docks, buying gravity blocks for my ships) the Schine engine handles abrupt gravity transitions really well. Cube planets might be perfectly practical and they would have none of the unfortunate features of dodecahedrons.

 

[Winterhome]

Easy solution: Core of the planet is a boring old ball of lava.

 

[ante185]

The furthuer into a planet you go the less gravity will you experiances as the mass below you get equled out with the mass above you. so in theoy the only place where zero gravity is inside a planet (No, in the middle of the universe would most likely be more correct but thats beside the point)

And if the connection between the scetions are at 30 or less degreeds then it wouldnt be awkward to walk across

 

[Charlie_]

..lava is destructable/removable/salvageable. So you effectively use a beam and drill to the core and remove it, while 90% of the planet is still there. Back to initial problem.

 

[WarmasterRaptor]

Could the shape be more like this? : http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/polyhedron-models.html?m=Great%20Rhombicuboctahedron

I mean, I like the idea of having something else than \"flat planets\" because, well, they are kind of \"flat\" and feel more like a spatial platform than a natural formation... I\'m just throwing an idea here, I\'m still new to this game (which I enjoy a lot) and I\'m discovering slowly but steadily I still don\'t know much about the engine possibilities and such...

 

[MikeV37]

Now I\'m thinking of making one of these (since the economy is so whacked anyway)



And just rolling around the galaxy in the one round planet.