Planets!

[StormWing0]

cubetom is deprecated so ignore it.

 

[Master1398]

What are you guys opinions about flat planets that have two sides? At least as server option for servers/players without top hardware.

Planet parts:
Atmosphere, Plate, Core, Plate

Basically this:

Spoiler

Made with blender:

Spoiler

* Of course the core shouldn't be exposed.

Two simple plates would allow large (and i mean large) planets with differing landscapes. Not that intensive for servers and with better chunk rendering it may be not a huge problem for clients.

 

[Billazilla]

I'm fond of the idea of "impossible" geometric planets. In fact, I'd like an assortment! Disc worlds, tetrahedrons, regular dodecs, cubes, octahedrons... I think it would be fun to have sectors have a randomized array of different shapes as well as biome types. Also, I'm okay with the weird angles. Figuring out how to navigate a tetra world's edges would just be a hazard of exploration.

I recall reading a wierd webcomic some years ago about a fractal universe with triangular 'world plates' that were gravitationally held in place in a Sierpinski triangle arrangement, and if you weren't careful, you could fall off the world...

Edit: Actually, wouldn't worlds with fewer faces reduce some of the lag?

 

[PIE_OF_DOOM]

It looks like we are dealing with a problem of scale when it comes to planets. Maybe if the scale space is in the game was increased we could have planets that are almost life sized. The full planet would not be loaded all the time and would be almost flat at surface due to its size.

 

[robertkor]

this makes the following 2 words completely pointless.

ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT.

 

[thereaverofdarkness]

I think planets could stay as dodecahedrons and be made bigger without causing lag. The whole thing doesn't need to be loaded at once.

 

[Ithirahad]

this makes the following 2 words completely pointless.

ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT.

That should be a goal. For the record, there is literally no practical way to scale finitely-sized planets' defenses against being bulldozed by arbitrarily-large weapons... It might sound like a hell of a lot of fun for the bombard-er, but for the bombard-ee it's complete bullshit that cannot be countered, cannot be defended against (Except by having another equally large ship... But AI can't handle those and shouldn't have to, and players can only be on sometimes.), and cannot be waited out or outshielded.

 

[robertkor]

planetary defence stations, and turrets can be usefull in preventing small scale bombardment

 

[Ithirahad]

planetary defence stations, and turrets can be usefull in preventing small scale bombardment

Yes, but there is no restriction to scale in StarMade. I'd rather disable it altogether and force people to use atmospheric fighters and ground forces, than try to make the system balanced WITH bombardment...

 

[robertkor]

dont get me wrong, i would defiantly prefer to have ground based tanks, and mech's/mobile suits. but when dealing with an enemy you actually want to crush beyond redemption *Cough Cough deathcube builders* planetary bombardment is just too much fun to pass up on :D

 

[Ithirahad]

Yeah, and having pulse waves the size of a planet that obliterate enemy doomcube fleets is a ton of fun too... Doesn't mean that it's practical balance-wise, or a good idea to implement.