(Proposal) Switch System Designer to Polar Coordinates and Other Ideas

I spent a couple of hours creating a system with the system designer only to have it all be for naught. There are a couple of factors that contributed to this effort being wasted, and here I will propose improvements to the System Designer based on my experiences.

So, what happened to my hard work you ask? I saved the system and went to play it, but some planets that had been orbiting the sun were now orbiting another planet. I believe since the two planets were relatively close together, the game chooses what to orbit "Automatically".

I propose the coordinate system be changed to a polar system. It makes more sense, allows planets to be spaced out azimuthally, and goes a long way to emphasizing orbits that are not perfect circles. Polar coordinates could be implemented along side of the current Cartesian system, or it could be an option.

Planets tend to move when you click on them to select them. This is especially true when zoomed out in the editor. This can cause orbits of moons or nearby planets to change in addition to resetting the orbit of whatever you were trying to select. This is very frustrating and annoying. Please, change the editor so that planets cannot move from the same action that selects them.

A recap of all suggestions , in no particular order.

• Add a field to each planet to select what it orbits to ensure it does not change, "Automatically".
• Switch to a Polar Coordinate System.
• Allow a planet to keep the same velocity vector (if it still results in a valid orbit) when moved.
• Prevent planets from moving on selection.
• Allow the selection and movement of more than one object at a time.
• Add a checkbox for each planet to "Lock" the settings preventing any accidental (or intentional) change while the box is checked.

Thank you for listening.

EDIT: 9-10-14
Additional suggestion:

• Make the center of the polar grid whatever the currently selected planet/moon is orbiting and default to the sun when nothing is selected.

^ I approve this post ^

Thanks!

I think I suggested that long time ago, but nobody really cared
so I made my own Excel program to calculate orbits X, Y, Vx and Vy for many different cases

have fun:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4e6iZ-yBm9FbkI5Vk5Zb0pVZm8/edit?pli=1

You mean things don't work this way already? Polar Co-Ordinates are the original plotting system!

+1 anything ANYTHING to make the system editor better. Right now it is just hard to use. Also as I have said before I wish there was a way we could limit the number of players/teams on a planet.

Another nice feature would be to have a clear way to plan out planet collisions because now it is just guess and check.

What if the planet orbits with a tilted axis?

I mean, I guess no planets do that.

What season is it again btw? I think it's autumn here...

You can plot more than 1 polar axis for 3d space you know...

which axis do you mean? the planet's rotating axis tilt (the four seasons)? or the semi major axis tilt? or a tilted plane which is not parallel to the other plane orbits?

Check the mass value, I noticed that affects orbits. I had the same issue with lots of planets close together with multiple orbits but they all went to orbit one planet when I started the game.