We know there will be a world editor, this was confirmed in the campaign, so maybe a physics simulator would be a nice addition to it. Say, put an asteroid at a certain trajectory, so it would make a sort of special explosion. There will already be a layout of the orbits of planets, so the simulator would work through the level editor, and through the orbit layout. You would position premade planets, or planets you have already made for collision paths with one planet. This would be very helpful to server hosts, so that could make objectives for the players; win before a certain time limit, or your planet will be hit by an asteroid! Or on a more micro scale, prepare two AI bases and see wihtch Ai wins. Or use it while your in game, with a sort of god mode enabled where you could launch asteroids at the two AIs and see how they react. These things wouldn't be in a legit campaign, but just something to play around with. I know I've always liked god modes in games. Universe Sandbox illustrates this concept perfectly, so check it out. Or just watch an Lets play.
This sounds less like a simulator than it does a calculator - a ballistic computer of sorts. But you could do that calculation fairly easily yourself; put the planets/asteroids next to each other, then make them fly backwards for the length of time you want. Where they end up is where they should start. If we assume that planets don't interact with each other through gravity (we've seen no evidence that they will, and solving n-body systems usually causes more problems than it solves), then flying backwards and rewinding will be equivalent. That said, what I think you're unconsciously asking for is; a sandbox gamemode.
Universe sandbox was a let down and hasn't updated in over a year. On the point of making a sandbox type simulator It would most likely be developed by the mod community than the developers. It is a good idea, but I would edit your polls and title a bit to better represent what you mean as they are a bit misleading. Try a title like galactic collision simulator.
i like the idea he has a solid point and i would be fun to make two gas gaints crush into each other some point on in the game.
Its meant to be a fun game you can pick up and get playing quickly not a science experiment simulation.
Well I meant for it to be like a game mode you could play after you played a bit and knew the basics of the game.
So the idea is that the system editor lets you can planets and place them in orbits. So I think we are building what you want. So for example setting up a scenario where two planets will crash into each other after some times has passed, etc.
The title is a bit misleading but I think he means a galactic physics simulator with collision effects. Here's a video to get the idea. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7j75lThw-M
@shotogun rofl :lol: over your utube link... though, I would recommend that you put the caffeine down (or whatever your "drug of choice" is)! The "sandbox" software you were demo'ing looks very cool :shock:. Earth as a gas giant 'super' hilarious. Sorry for the off topic, now back to your regularly scheduled thread.
