On the Subject of Planets

    Valiant70

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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/
     
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    Problem with cube planets is that it isn't original. It would be cool, but eventually you'll just hate the 90° angles. They would be easier to build on, but that massive gravity change would cause some serious problems when you try to build on it.

    BTW: The disorientation is in the works. It has been reported as a bug a while back, but it still needs to be resolved. As for the gravity change: it does already change gravity while you are above a segment.

    I'm also thinking that there could be a physical, but non-block filling between segments to prevent you form falling through and hetting stuck inbetween segments. It would also improve the look of the edges.
     
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    Does anyone care about giving up caves? It have be possible to only generate the surface, and then any block below it are randomly generated as needed. That would help reduce the size of planets. As the non-lag size of planets increases, more segments can be added, until we get shapes that can line up nicely.
     
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    To make cube planets less bad for changing gravity there could be edge segments
     

    Lecic

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    To make cube planets less bad for changing gravity there could be edge segments
    It wouldn't really be a cube anymore then, would it? That'd actually be and 18 sided octadecahedron, which more than the current 12 of a dodecahedron.
     
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    is the planets made of pentagons? I think the planets at the moment is good they just need to be optimized more and be bigger
     

    NeonSturm

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    is the planets made of pentagons? I think the planets at the moment is good they just need to be optimized more and be bigger
    I will delete one planet's terrain except the bottom-most plate.

    Then I will draw a huge line from each corner to the two opposite ones.

    Then I will erase the bottom layer and build a replica of the USA Pentagon in the middle :D

    Don't forget a crashing airplane there :p

    No, I don't, I feel too lazy, but let me make a joke of it ;)[DOUBLEPOST=1411715678,1411714962][/DOUBLEPOST]Caves are awesome, but you shouldn't be able to spy into them without getting close or zooming in and load the blocks there.
    Maye you see a black hole (no, not what you think!)



    If a spaceship is < cube radius above the surface,
    - it could see adjacent cube faces 90° x|z rotated (relative to current surface)
    - and between them two 90° xz + 90° y rotated neighbour diagonally cut.
    = Rotated on touching edge then around orthogonale of 2 touching edges.

    If it goes higher, it could be fold into a cube again - visually.

    Projectiles and objects below this alltitude could wrap physically by flying an arc from a verticale "segment-wall" to another as if both segments were a plane.
     
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    So... NOT a hole so deep that the light gets bounced off of the surface blocks so harshly that you can't see beyond a couple of blocks?
    First of all, black holes aren't holes. They are a lot of mass in one place. Secondly, light doesn't bounce of it, but it rather gets "absorbed" by it (the gravitational force pulls light in).

    The current name is really unrealistic, it would have been better to just call them wormholes. Because that's what they behave like after all.
     
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    First of all, black holes aren't holes. They are a lot of mass in one place. Secondly, light doesn't bounce of it, but it rather gets "absorbed" by it (the gravitational force pulls light in).

    The current name is really unrealistic, it would have been better to just call them wormholes. Because that's what they behave like after all.
    :P
     
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    First of all, black holes aren't holes. They are a lot of mass in one place. Secondly, light doesn't bounce of it, but it rather gets "absorbed" by it (the gravitational force pulls light in).
    Yes, getting near a real black hole would be a terrible idea, unless you like being squashed flat. However there is a theory that going near certain black holes will warp spacetime kind of like a wormhole. But I wouldn't want to try it to find out.
     
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    Yes, getting near a real black hole would be a terrible idea, unless you like being squashed flat.
    Isn't one stretched and ripped apart when getting near a black hole?(great difference in gravitational force at different locations)