Can we get some how-to's on the system creator here? I know it's really basic at this point, but lots of things remain unclear. I'm going to start asking a bunch of questions, some of which may be stupid. Here goes: 1. MOONS. How do I make them? How do I get bodies to orbit each other? There doesn't appear to be a button dedicated to this. How many moons can I have around a planet? Can I have moons for my moons( silly question ? I can make moons with any biome I want, right? And they can be any size? 2. ASTEROIDS. Non-planets that aren't orbiting a planet, correct? I've heard of sizes in the range of 50-250, but the slider for radius doesn't go below 200, so how do I make these tiny planetoids? 3. MASS. Seriously, what does this slider mean? Why doesn't it go below 1000? Does it affect gameplay at all? Changing the radius of the planet affects the size, obviously, but this doesn't seem to do anything. Does it? 4. ORBITS. I've noticed you can make oblong/ elliptical orbits. How does this affect gameplay, if at all? Relating back to moons, when I tried to make a moon by arbitrarily placing a wee planet close to a bigger one, then hit 'simulate,' eventually the two bodies collided. What happens if I run such a system in a game? Does it not work at all if one of your orbits collides with the Sun? 5. SIZING. What's the biggest planet I can make? What's the biggest planet I SHOULD make? How many bodies can I have in a system? How many SHOULD I have in a system? That's it. Hopefully that covers a whole bunch of pertinent (or not-so-pertinent) questions one may have on the system creator. Thanks.
1. I don't have an idea 2. you can modify the numbers manualy don't use the sliders just type the number in you can go over the limits 3. When I increase the mass it seams there is more ground and less water ( I don't know whats the difference between this and the water slider lol ) 4. no idea 5. biggest ? no limit manualy modify the numbers BUT don't go over 2000 I tried once to previev a 9001 planet named it Over 9000 ! sadly after 30 min of waiting to load it I gived up lol
The game doesn't really make a distinction between moons and asteroids, so the difference is really just whatever you decide it is in your own head. Planet mass determines which planets can orbit which other ones. For a mon to orbit a planet, its mass must be lower than the first one. Currently, when planets collide in the game nothing happens. They have said that they would like scenarios where players start on two planets that eventually collide, so I assume this means there will eventually be collision detection.
MOONS and MASS: Lower mass planets will orbit higher mass planets. The more mass a planet has, the larger the radius that another planet can orbit it from. ASTEROIDS: No such thing. You can enter a small radius manually (click the numbers yourself), and with enough height range the planet will appear like an asteroid, but that's about it. ELLIPTICAL ORBITS and SIMULATE: These are only in the system editor. In a match, all orbits are reverted to circular and there's no gravitational simulation. PLANETS and SIZE: A Size 1 planet goes up to 282 radius, a Size 2 planet goes up to than 690 radius, a Size 3 planet goes up to 977 radius, a Size 4 planet goes up to 1196 radius and a Size 5 planet goes up to 1545 radius. You can make any size planet you like, provided you have the RAM to generate it. The max number of planets in a system is 16.
So I just have to do as I first tried to do and place my moons for a planet close to it in order for them to orbit it, despite the fact that the simulate button doesn't reflect this? You're saying if I try to run it, the moons won't collide, speed ahead, or fall behind the orbit of the host planet and instead orbit it? Is the simulation just faulty then? Pardon my rampant inquisitiveness. I'm just trying to sort out how to make moons, after all, and none of my attempts seem to work OR it could be that the 'simulate' function in the system creator is dumb.
In-game planet orbits (usually) work just like in the system builder. In order to get a planet to orbit another, the central planet needs to have a higher mass than the one that will orbit around it. After you set that, just drag the second planet close enough to the first one and you should see the orbital line snap into a circle around the first planet.
OOOOOOHHHHHHH Now I get it. I have to adjust the mass slider for smaller bodies lower and for my planets larger so they will orbit. Thanks so much and for clearing up other things like size, elliptical orbits and all that. I can't wait to create my own system now
In the majority of cases, it would make sense if the client automatically set the mass to be the same as the radius. We should be able to override that if we wanted to, but it would probably be simplest if the game assumed every planet had the same density unless told otherwise. Hopefully uber will make this more intuitive once they have some free time.
Just a quick note: I've noticed when trying to set radii in particular, while in the planet editor you have to click "preview" to get a lot of the changes to stick. There have been times when I've tried to make moons etc of varying sizes to determine how many halley's are needed for various sizes and the default values would reappear after I exited the planet editor even though I furiously clicked the save button upwards of one hundred times.
