Read by Council Planet gravity should act from center of dodecahedrons

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    There's been numerous planet overhaul suggestions, this isn't one of those. However, it will the planetary experience a lot more enjoyable.

    Instead of each plate having its own gravity well, there should be one at the center of the planet that acts on all objects equally. When moving from plate to plate, only your orientation would change.

    Why?

    -Primarily, you could achieve a stable orbit above a planet.
    -This means the sector doesn't have to rotate, as we all know this makes irritating problems.
    -The planet could rotate instead
    -Only thing the game needs to change when moving from plate to plate is orientation, nothing else
     
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    The problem I see with this is that when you get close to the edges of a plane you will be walking at a weird angle compared to the ground.

    angles.jpg

    I could see giving the core of the planet a gravitational pull to effect ships in orbit and allow them to rotate around
     
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    We really do need at least a (eventually, at least, point-source [I hope]) form of gravity that follows the laws of gravity (Diminishes by the square of the distance, if I remember correctly; pulls things towards a point or area rather than the gravity we have, which pulls things down regardless of the origin of the gravity) so that planets have proper gravity.

    That way a platform built up from a planet doesn't have full gravity at 2x the planet's radial distance away from the center of the planet itself.


    Anyway, the weird motion would HOPEFULLY not effect anything too badly. But the best way to find out would be to create this sort of gravity.....and see what happens.
     
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    Lecic

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    This will result in weird, walking at angles problems. I actually tried doing this in Space Engineers once with their spherical gravity generator in a dodecahedron, and the results would not be fun in Starmade.

    However, if there was a height limit on how tall you could build on planets (to the edge of the atmosphere), and this spherical gravity only existed outside the edge of the planet's atmosphere, then this would be cool.
     
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    Just a question , is it technically possible to program small gravity to every cube, so the gravity is added to the center and the bigger the object the bigger the gravity? Or is that too difficult to program ?
     
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    Just a question , is it technically possible to program small gravity to every cube, so the gravity is added to the center and the bigger the object the bigger the gravity? Or is that too difficult to program ?
    I imagine that would cause insane lag since it would turn the game into an N-body gravity simulation.
     
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    Just a question , is it technically possible to program small gravity to every cube, so the gravity is added to the center and the bigger the object the bigger the gravity? Or is that too difficult to program ?
    It could be a function of the radius.
     
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    Function of the mass. That's what gravity is anyway: A function of the mass AND radius that is acting upon a body.
     
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    Just a question , is it technically possible to program small gravity to every cube, so the gravity is added to the center and the bigger the object the bigger the gravity? Or is that too difficult to program ?
    I do believe variable gravity is a planned feature, just don't quote me on that.
     
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    Hmmm....random idea, but what if gravity helped limit ships? Large enough objects are naturally compressed into a spherical shape, so perhaps armor and structure HP debuffs (Extreme debuffs) for super-massive vessels, because they're own gravity would fight the shape and structure of the ship.
     
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    Hmmm....random idea, but what if gravity helped limit ships? Large enough objects are naturally compressed into a spherical shape, so perhaps armor and structure HP debuffs (Extreme debuffs) for super-massive vessels, because they're own gravity would fight the shape and structure of the ship.
    Riiight. And nuclear fusion will happen when you add just a few blocks more?
     
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    Hmmm....random idea, but what if gravity helped limit ships? Large enough objects are naturally compressed into a spherical shape, so perhaps armor and structure HP debuffs (Extreme debuffs) for super-massive vessels, because they're own gravity would fight the shape and structure of the ship.
    There are other, more realistic and efficient ways to debuff larger ships. I personally like the idea but it's a bit clunky.
     
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    Hmmm....random idea, but what if gravity helped limit ships? Large enough objects are naturally compressed into a spherical shape, so perhaps armor and structure HP debuffs (Extreme debuffs) for super-massive vessels, because they're own gravity would fight the shape and structure of the ship.
    Artificial Gravity generators are a part of the technology of the game. A ships gravity is whatever we say it is. This is why G forces are a non issue, why your ship can be completely disconnected from sections yet still stay together, and why you don't have to worry about structural integrity of anything, ever. Gravity does what we tell it to do.
     
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    I know it, but it was still a fun random idea to have.

    Oh, and Valck, that's not impossible at SM's scales. Though it requires more energy than a lot of blocks. The assumption about gravity on a ship without control over gravity (No gravity modules) isn't entirely wrong. It would probably, at sufficient density and size, suffer from gravity. However, given the extent of our control over gravity, that'd just be too ridiculous. Fun, but ridiculous.
     
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    Oh, and Valck, that's not impossible at SM's scales.
    Oh, but Madman, that depends on how you look at "SM's scales".

    In my book, a block represents roughly a cubic metre, making stars, planets, and space itself grossly undersize, and even the largest ships won't come close to suffer from their own gravitational pull.
    If on the other hand you take planets as being full scale as would be required for your reasoning, each block would have to represent a volume on the order of cubic kilometres, making even the smallest single core "ship" ridiculously oversized...

    Considering SM is more about depicting fantasy spaceships than it is about correctly representing planetary systems and astronomical phenomena, I prefer to stick to the cubic metre scale ;)
     
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    Yes, but both can coexist if you simply say that SM does NOT obey the basic laws of physics. Both are true, because otherwise your character would be ridiculously oversize or everything else undersized. The simplest solution is to simply accept that in SM, planets and stars form at lower block counts (Volumes) than in real life, perhaps because things are more dense in SM.

    I like the cubic meter scale as well, because nobody, and I mean nobody, uses cubic yards, and nothing else really makes sense.
    Heck, cubic yards don't make much sense either.
     

    Dr. Whammy

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    Personally, I think it would be great if each planet plate allowed you to auto align to it once you're in it's gravity. That would make cars, tanks and light mechs more fun to use in RP ground combat scenarios.

    Meanwhile, a small-ish ship (with stop effect/anti-gravity activated) can hover in place like a helicopter.

    Bigger ships... It's hard to justify having a capital ship that close to a planet unless you're nuking it..