Planet Shape

[MissValeska]

Planets should be larger, And spherical, Such as http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LWPk5zlKAEM/0.jpg but actually large enough to have significant flat areas. If the size of these planets are prohibitive, I have another idea, Which could both be implimented. You could chose the planet type prior the universe generation. http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/article/121/1213830/minecraft_blogroll_1321645668_1322849620.jpg

This would be my other idea, To be large and circular as they are now. Although, They should be much larger, And thicker. The gravity should extend upon all sides of the planet, So you could walk along the sides, And the bottom. Which would have vegitation as well.

 

[Archer6621]

Spherical planets would be terribly impractical in a game about blocks.. Maybe some sort of shader could be used instead to give the illusion that the planet is round.

 

[Sublbc]

You could just form the bottom half of the planet like a circle instead of the whole planet. As a block game can be tricky :P

 

[kalidroms]

Just cut in half? Look at a planet right now from afar, and from a birds-eye view. Top and bottom, they are already spherical, just cut in half. I would like to see spherical planets myself, and they will still be made out of blocks, so to say that would be terribly impractical is a terribly misguided opinion. It\'s still made of blocks, nothing about that would change, the plantes would just be a giant circle made out of squares.

There is already a shader that gives the illusion of it being round from far away as well. I\'m assuming you haven\'t noticed yet? (No ill meaning behind that statement either, just curious)

Besides we already have shops and astroids that have spherical features to them, adding more to the planets aesthetics is a good thing.

 

[Archer6621]

@kalidroms

That is not what I meant with a shader that makes them look spherical... I mean the planet itself, not the atmosphere... I meant a shader that would actually bend the surrounding area when walking on the planet, if you ever saw some of the GLSL shaders made for Minecraft you\'d know exactly what I mean, I\'m referring to the curvature shader.

This dude uses it in his vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZTzrv2kx6Q

You can see it really clearly @ 1:20.



Also, the planets are not spherical at all, they are cylindrical. If they would be spherical or based on any parts coming from a sphere, the bottom would not be flat (though this can be possible), neither would the sides be straight. Not sure where you got the \"technically spherical\" from, because the way you put it down it was not technical at all, but simply invalid.

And it would certainly be impractical to build on a planet that is spherical and composed out of blocks like the picture in the first post... How many sides does a cube have? That would be 6. So there are just 6 areas on the planet where you could build straight structures, anywhere else it\'d look silly, and diagonal buildings are just hard to work with.

Not to mention how the gravity system would work, it would have to be radial right? It can\'t simply point to one direction on a sphere like it does now on the cylindrical planets, so basically after a while of walking you\'d be walking over blocks with a tilted surface because of the central gravity point.



There, I defined \"impractical\" for you.

Did I make myself clear now?



I\'d love more aesthetics for the planets, but they should remain practical, because the fact that this game is practical is why it is so much fun to play.

 

[Hippieman20]

Or, instead of having it be spherical, you could have it have gravity on both sides and have a coin effect. with the sides flat, but the top and underneath both have generated terrain.

 

[Archer6621]

Yeah that\'d be awesome, even if you dig to the middle there won\'t be too many problems as you can place blocks and climb up to the other side, would be kinda cool.

 

[Arg0n]

How about cube planets with gravity on all 6 sides? It fits the aesthetic more than spheres but provides more space than the cylinders as well as being somewhat more realistic. Also, planets could have a lava core. Perhaps each face could have different biomes within a set of parameters. This way, some planets could have arctic poles and more temperate regions on the other faces. It\'d make each planet more interesting and varied, so you could justify spending a bit more time exploring each one rather than just doing little bunny hops across the system.

 

[Subtrance]

Larger & double-sided seems to be the way to go at this point.

I\'d pick cubes seeing as how round planets are out of the question, as said from the guy making the game. I mean, we can have round planets but then the features we currently have would lag the game to hell with the coding to make the planets round.

 

[Arg0n]

Well I would definatly support larger planets in any case, but that would most likely mean that the planets would be farther apart. That could get tedious for travel unless there was a jump drive of some sort, or something interesting to do while you\'re in transit. As far as that goes, more realistic and varied systems would be a good thing. I can imagine planets with moons, multiple star systems, nebulae, comets, black holes, and so on. Just as long as you can interact with them in some meaningful way, even if it\'s just something as simple as avoiding a hazard.

 

[Man_Pidgeon]

make planets bigger keep them flat. add a effect to make them look sphirical i.e galaxy55 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5hpxst-MMk (note:this game is down.)

 

[ZeePal]

this is not easy to program nor worth the effort to make \"blocky round\" (copyright that!).

Simply code it for Schema and give him the code under the public domain license and he can then clam it as his own to add to the game :D

The only change to the planets I would like to see which is harder than now but I think doable is double sided. Add trees etc to the \"bottom\" of the current planets to prevent very easy mineral grabbing and gives a more planet feel as u have to go \"round\" the planet to the other size (issue being gravity but Schema is a smart guy I know he can do it :D)

 

[Man_Pidgeon]

i know its a tough script but i was just making a suggetion also didnt say steal the script, galaxy55 is not the first game that used this\"blocky round\" type of style... now i do agree with the \"double side\" planets, that will make planet exploration more fun.

 

[Cpt. Lemon]

I think this was given some serious consideration by Schema regarding Oreo shaped planets:

http://star-made.org/content/donuts-suggestion-thread-holograms-planets-lots-more

 

[Arg0n]

This is pretty cool stuff. It seems there is definately some attention being given to making planets more interesting so that\'s good. Can\'t wait to see what they do with it.

 

[OnyxStone]

Why not have it simply render a planet randomly as a flat terrain, up to a certain size, which then loops back around on itself? Not sure how hard that would be but I\'m sure it\'s possible. Now, if he really wanted to get fancy he could calculate the position of the player\'s entry into the spherical shape of the planet model and then translate that position to an x/y coordinate of the flat terrain model thereby rendering the terrain below the player centered on that coordinate. This is the only most realistic way I can see planets being a more solid feature in this game, because as of right now I honestly think them a tad lame... Sorry schema. :3

 

[OtioseNexus]

Even though I\'m sure someones already suggestted it, personally I want to see cube planets, it might be a bit harder to program the gravity in on 6 sides though. Still, the asthetics of it will be really fitting, and would make each planet more substantial. Then objects like moons and rings wouldn\'t look as odd floating around a disc.

http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/blogs/6a00d8341bf67c53ef014e8c284c18970d-800wi.jpg

http://cdn2.planetminecraft.com/files/resource_media/screenshot/1152/2011-12-26_121735_1087768.jpg

http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/taoty/taoty1106/taoty110600087/9898889-the-cube-world-in-the-isolation.jpg

Its that or every planet sits on the back of four elephants that stand on the back of a turtle.

 

[Dunamis]

But at the very least they need to be bigger by far.

 

[MrNo]

I agree with them being larger, but last I checked Schema was leaning towards the \"Oreo\" idea (God, someone is getting sued by Kraft Foods). I like the idea, looks like it should be a lot of fun. But yes, especially with the better performance Schema uploaded a screenshot of (here), I\'d like to see planets be significantly bigger, and possibly variable in size.

 

[Criss]

The game developer already stated that any planet design that has gravity affecting all sides is not an option. Its probably impossible in terms of coding it without breaking the game and its a lot easier to just use the system we have now. Larger planets I would like to see however.