Nebulas

[shbunie]

Add nubulas to the game.

For those who don't know a nebula is essencialy a huge cloud of gas left over from a supernova. In game these can have lots of potential effects (other than looking pritty google nebula or click here if lazy) for example:

• Radar block in nebulas as well as visability reduction making nebulas strong defensive possitions when running away from a fight or good starting points for ambushes
• Slow damage in some nebulas that can/must look distinct and different from normal ones, the gases are likely hot, or perhaps theres static electricity or strong radiation in there (see next point) so you best only venture in if you have a shield that can recharge faster then the damage rate. These kinds of nebulas would be good to hide deralict ships packed full of goodies in.
• Special shield requirements, energy shields might not act at the apropriate frequency to stop all kinds of radiation, perhaps some nebulas will damage the pilot unless special radiation shield/shield modulator blocks are present. Maby have colour coded shield types that you can switch between to stop different kinds of radiation.
• Regeneration and buffs, magneticaly charged metal particles in the cloud can stick to your hull fixing cracks and maby giving a temporary/perminent armour buff, maby energy in the cloud can be tapped by a special block or regular blocks to supliment energy production, maby the energy can power up shots fired through it.
• Hiding loot, as mentioned above, all your radar will show is a nebula, not the loot. Also maby more resourse rich asteroids?
• Speed reduction and other de-buffs, maby the cloud drainds your energy, adds drag to space, or seeps the fource out of your shots.

These can vary heavily in size and apearance and will be a massive pain to code and implament but i think it'd be well worth it.

Also if collition damage was ever add to the game there'd be an even greater risk in entering a nebula.

 

[DoomsWrath]

Well uh... all i can say is why hasn\'t this already been implemented, i know its in alpha but this idea is simply marvelous!

 

[LETHALVIP3RZZ]

If a nebula turned in a neutron star and you hit it xD if you didnt know a nebula turning into a neutron star is one of the possibilities that can happen after a star dies

 

[Volkon]

Eh... nebulae don\'t turn into neutron stars. Massive stars may, when they die violently, leave behind a neutron star and slough off nebulous materials, but to go from a nebula to a neutron star directly would require the full stellar life cycle.

 

[shbunie]

Here we go: (also potentialy add star life cycles?)





Image taken from: http://www.cmso.info/lifecycst

 

[shadowcrusnik]

This, is, awe, some.

 

[BeefBacon]

Some should be small, maybe the size of a planet, but many others (especially the dangerous ones) should be massive, stretching across several sectors. Pilots can either invest in protective blocks, go all the way around or risk death when flying straight through. Maybe.

 

[shbunie]

Size:

As with actual nebulas the size can vary hugely, from small strands of faint mist that\'d be little more then intresting scenery to, like you say, huge sector spanning dense masses (density can also vary) that are suddenly huge obsticals and/or points of major tactical intrest.

Type:

Like I said before you could have multiple types defined by varying colour or other features (lightning/ lots of small rocks/cloud shape) or we could stick to the two main types IRL, planetary nebula with lots of mineable rocks and star-forming nebula that would be much larger then the planetary one.

There would idealy be varyations in appearance between nebula of the same type to keep them intresting.

 

[Damiann47]

Heh, you would have to play for a very long time, stars don\'t die too quickly. Still it could be neat, forcing a mass exodus out of a system, where players have to find a new home.

 

[Subtrance]

Having them as far-off scenery and nearby enviromental threats is welcomed by me. Should make space more deadly and more interesting to those trying to show off with bigger ships. Hide a few pirate stations within them for the hell of it.

 

[MrNo]

If you could shield a station indefintely against a damaging nebula... Hehehe, COME AND GET ME.

This sounds extremely cool, and I may have to add it to a list of general additions to the universe that I\'d like to see. A free radar block for the hell of it, why not?

Reduced visibility might be a bit hard to do... Would you just have it limit the draw distance? Some computers already run draw distance unplayably low, just so their computer can run the game. Or perhaps apply a filter to the screen, which covers some parts at random?

 

[shbunie]

I was thinking a simple/smokey filter that slowely thickens as you go deeper, but you could combine a filter and altering render distance to get a good effect. I guess if dropping the draw distance makes the game run faster it\'d make a defensive nebula even better if your lagging due to a large fleet battle.

 

[Sio]

I like the idea of nebulars a lot and i hope the dev implement this :DDD

But i wouldent implement the life cycle of stars cause its just senseless cause it took too mutch time to complet a cycle. I think just the stages of stars would be enough.

 

[BeefBacon]

Nebulas could be foggy. Many games render fog by having it thin near the player and thicker as it goes out. Once the fog is at its thickest point, objects are no longer rendered because there\'s no possible way that the player could see it. a fog distance of, say, 600 meters (0 meters no fog. 600 meters full fog) would mean that in nebulas, players would never be able to see beyond 600 meters no matter what their view distance is set at.

I don\'t imagine that a system like this would be overly difficult to implement from an engine standpoint (though what do I know?).

 

[shbunie]

Visibility:

Thats just what I was thinking. As for implimenting I cant see it being to hard to code the actual machanics of it, the issue will be making them look cloudy and fluid as aposed to static areas of fog. So idealy have the rate of fog thickening almost an expinential increase so very slow at the edges then thickens much faster as you head inward?

Lifecycle:

Also by lifecyle i ment more just having the diferent stages in game, however a very very very rate supernova might be intresting, instant death to anyone nearby and leaving a nebula?

lootable core:

Maby have a proton star or dwarf star in the centure that can be mined for some reasource to make an extra dense hull a teir above dense hull that can only be crafted?