What will be added in the Universe Update?

[Dark Pip]

Title. Anyone know what the will be added in the Universe Update?

 

[Dire Venom]

Not super up to date, but a good place to start:
Trello

Optimized and improved planets, nebula, Sector/system wide effects, Greater variation, Bringing back Space whales (hopefully!) and other interesting critters as well as a far more developed and interesting universe to explore.

Still nothing's definite and we can only hope and be optimistic XD

 

[Briaireous]

Maybe it's time to make a series called "space whale Moby dick"

 

[Edymnion]

The dev Q&A also mentioned something along the lines of "resource points of interest" other than planets and asteroids.

 

[MacThule]

The dev Q&A also mentioned something along the lines of "resource points of interest" other than planets and asteroids.

Bets they mean the derelicts?

 

[Edymnion]

Bets they mean the derelicts?

Dunno.

We've been asking for "gas giants" as a generic catch all for low output sustainable resource generators (as in, you slowly harvest resources over time from a gas giant that never runs out). Those would be EXCELLENT points for legit PvP and turf wars to control as long as they don't pop up in every system.

Hoping for something like that.

 

[EricBlank]

The problem with gas giants is that, irl, theyre pretty damn common. Most of the exoplanets weve found are gas giants, last i heard. So it would make sense for many or most systems with planets to have one or two.

Maybe something like black hole harvesting? Never know what you could yank out of a black hole, right? Not easy to find, either, if they arent currently pulling anything in

 

[Byamarro]

The problem with gas giants is that, irl, theyre pretty damn common. Most of the exoplanets weve found are gas giants, last i heard. So it would make sense for many or most systems with planets to have one or two.

Maybe something like black hole harvesting? Never know what you could yank out of a black hole, right? Not easy to find, either, if they arent currently pulling anything in

Well, gas giants would be cheap in terms of computational power, so why not. They can provide some basic resource, that won't be expensive.

 

[Alphajim]

Maybe some ressources like in Shores of Hazeron. Some are found exclusively in gas giants / moons / stars.

 

[Edymnion]

The problem with gas giants is that, irl, theyre pretty damn common. Most of the exoplanets weve found are gas giants, last i heard.

Tangent Time:

That has more to do with how limited our ability to find exoplanets is.

The first major technique we developed was basically gravitational based. A large planet orbiting a star would pull the barycenter (the fixed point around which both objects orbited) out away from the center of the star, which makes the star appear to "wobble" as it basically spun off-center. Only really big planets, aka gas giants, made a strong enough wobble to be readily observable.

The transient method (where we notice a star's light dim as a planet passes between us and the star) also is more pronounced with larger planets, aka gas giants, and hence easier to notice.

So its not necessarily that gas giants are more common, its just that they're easier to spot. Kind of like if you look in your backyard through the window, you're going to see a deer standing there, but probably won't see the dozen rabbits hiding in the grass. Doesn't mean the deer outnumber the rabbits, just that you can't easily see the rabbits.

 

[EricBlank]

Yeah, im aware of the new technology actually, kepler last year finding what was it, seven almost earth sized presumably rocky planets around a single red dwarf star, among hundreds of others. But still, gas giants arent at all "rare", it frankly would make more sense if they had similar frequency to show up as rocky worlds. Theyd both have some unique properties. Maybe you could extract metallic hydrogen from gas giants, dunno what youd do with it. Use it as a superconducting fluid?

Ice giants, like uranus or neptune, like 5-10 earth-masses, shouldnt be forgotten either. Those planets contain significant percentages of water, in the form of ice, in the outer fringes of a solar system. Theyd have both a solid surface, liquid core, and extreme atmospheric pressure and surface gravity. Which is neat shit. Id want to explore minerals on worlds like those.