I like the idea of populating systems with more stuff; but I\'ve bounced real-life distances around before and it\'d make it so that several things would break.
First, the velocity required to orbit the earth is in the thousands of meters a second. The game\'s current speed limit defaults to 50 meters a second, and can be set up to the low hundreds before things break. There would absolutely need to be some kind of scale applied to things that aren\'t ships to keep a realistic scale while also keeping the game-physics working. However, scaling the universe too much would break immersion; a planet scaled to be orbited in seconds would be the same size as some large ships (as they are now). I\'d like to see planets larger, and speeds higher, and it\'s possible that the planet\'s appearance in space could be broken from it\'s actual size (i.e.: Rendering a planetary sphere in space that, once you enter it\'s \'atmosphere\' loads a larger flat-map planet with the cubes visible).
Next, planets in our system are obscene distances apart from eachother. The moon is 348,000 kilometers (348,000,000 meters) away from earth. At the current speed limit, you\'d take 80.5 days to get there. So the distance between stellar objects would need to be lowered significantly. Or a kind of \'transit mode\' would need to be available in the void between stellar objects where players move much, much faster.
I\'d like to see one of two situations: The first- where planets appear large when orbiting them, it\'s possible (and reasonable; an hour maybe to the absolute edge of the system) to get between planets in a system at STL, but really STL is only for manuvers and combat; while FTL is traditionally used to get between planets and stars. Sectors are similar to what they are now but maybe larger, one might contain a planet, while systems are groupings of many sectors. STL is impossible (you\'d just end up stuck there forever if you were allowed to enter it, you\'d never be able to find your way back and you\'d never encounter another system) between stars, and approaching the last sector in a system rebounds the player along the edge. FTL would be equipped on most ships, though there would be a distinction between drives and some would be better/faster than others (FTL gates might be free for ships to use and able to cross longer distances, while FTL drives cost the ship energy)
The second sounds more exciting - Planets are still fairly large (larger than current planets), but significantly smaller than above, and close together. You can easily fly STL between planets in a system, and use them as cover in combat. They would be more variety in planet size - Gas Giant with near-earth sized moons, starwars-esque asteroid belts, small dwarf planets only just larger than asteroids, etc. A system might be just a few sectors (many planets per sector; alt. sectors are smaller and planets are closer together if the programming requires), and it\'d be possible to fly STL between stars (up to an hour or two between each star system). FTL would be system-system only, and probably through large, strategic, gates. The interstellar medium could be inhabited by players with only semi-rare rogue planets, stations, and loads of asteroids.
