Valiant70
That crazy cyborg
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2013
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I would also be quite happy with planets that are solid, seamless cubes. I smell potential problems if they include curves/block distortion though. Remember that everything you build would also be distorted, and space ships wouldn't line up well.
The problem with cube planets is gravity. There needs to be a good way to distinguish whether the player should be standing on positive z or negative y side of the planet when near the edge. Without this, all manner of wonkiness can happen. What I would suggest is having the sides segmented, but having them touch seamlessly instead of overlapping. In other words, while the blocks would be in different entities, they would not block each other and would appear (when not in build mode) to be part of the same object. Special measures must be taken to ensure players can place blocks on the edges without issues.
Now, for gravity transitions.
1. Fix the disorientation. When I switch gravity, I have no idea which way I'm facing for a second or two afterward. It's irritating! So when the player switches gravity, instead of snapping to the new orientation, I suggest "rolling" the character into the position. Not too fast, please. I'm not fond of motion sickness.
2. Instead of entering gravity when touching a planet segment, enter it when above a block of that segment. How far above would be determined by the size of the planet. This could still be overridden by a gravity module, of course.
3. When a player steps on a wedge near the edge of a segment ("near" scales to the size of the planet), align the character's gravity to the face of that wedge. This allows for further smoothing when walking over the planet's edges.
Some players may consider cube-shaped planets ugly, or so I hear. That doesn't really make sense, though. This is a block-based game, after all. They do not break immersion. You just have to accept that the world you're in is made of cuboids.
Dodecahedrons are cool, but the edges are unnatural on a block-based game, and they interrupt coherent construction a lot more than a cube edge would. On a cube, you can continue your city's street over the edge to the next segment, no sweat. The only thing interrupted would be a traditional building, and I can think of some creative ways to make a building span both segments if there isn't a "position blocked by another segment" glitch. On a dodecahedron, things just get WEIRD when you try to build across multiple segments. It isn't impossible, but it's so wonky that it might as well be.
If we're going to have segmented, non-spherical planets, they should be cubes because cubes work in a voxel game.
On a side note, dodecahedrons, cubes, and space cookie planets should all be configurable options. There are players who would like or hate any of the three.[DOUBLEPOST=1411657710,1411654522][/DOUBLEPOST]Cube planets seemed like such a good idea that I made a whole new thread about them:
http://starmadedock.net/threads/cube-planets.3354/
The problem with cube planets is gravity. There needs to be a good way to distinguish whether the player should be standing on positive z or negative y side of the planet when near the edge. Without this, all manner of wonkiness can happen. What I would suggest is having the sides segmented, but having them touch seamlessly instead of overlapping. In other words, while the blocks would be in different entities, they would not block each other and would appear (when not in build mode) to be part of the same object. Special measures must be taken to ensure players can place blocks on the edges without issues.
Now, for gravity transitions.
1. Fix the disorientation. When I switch gravity, I have no idea which way I'm facing for a second or two afterward. It's irritating! So when the player switches gravity, instead of snapping to the new orientation, I suggest "rolling" the character into the position. Not too fast, please. I'm not fond of motion sickness.
2. Instead of entering gravity when touching a planet segment, enter it when above a block of that segment. How far above would be determined by the size of the planet. This could still be overridden by a gravity module, of course.
3. When a player steps on a wedge near the edge of a segment ("near" scales to the size of the planet), align the character's gravity to the face of that wedge. This allows for further smoothing when walking over the planet's edges.
Some players may consider cube-shaped planets ugly, or so I hear. That doesn't really make sense, though. This is a block-based game, after all. They do not break immersion. You just have to accept that the world you're in is made of cuboids.
Dodecahedrons are cool, but the edges are unnatural on a block-based game, and they interrupt coherent construction a lot more than a cube edge would. On a cube, you can continue your city's street over the edge to the next segment, no sweat. The only thing interrupted would be a traditional building, and I can think of some creative ways to make a building span both segments if there isn't a "position blocked by another segment" glitch. On a dodecahedron, things just get WEIRD when you try to build across multiple segments. It isn't impossible, but it's so wonky that it might as well be.
If we're going to have segmented, non-spherical planets, they should be cubes because cubes work in a voxel game.
On a side note, dodecahedrons, cubes, and space cookie planets should all be configurable options. There are players who would like or hate any of the three.[DOUBLEPOST=1411657710,1411654522][/DOUBLEPOST]Cube planets seemed like such a good idea that I made a whole new thread about them:
http://starmadedock.net/threads/cube-planets.3354/
