First i KNOW this is BETA and the solar system is really under developed, but I only want to draw attention to this. The sun is really too small and they could make it maybe 3 times bigger. I know this wouldn't effect the play very much, but in my opinion this would be way more realistic and so on. And maybe they could add some more sun systems, like blue or red stars, and imagine you see a two sun solar system! Really epic!
A larger sun would just make navigating the solar system more annoying, it would be irritatingly overpowering the camera all the time, etc.
Agreed, the sun is fine as it is and shouldn't be made larger. Suns in another colour could be fun though.
Real solar scales are ABSURD. It is so absurd that we can only describe it with numbers, because a human mind is too small to comprehend the distances and sizes involved. You don't want real solar scales in your game.
I haven't say real size, god no! But when it's a bit bigger it would be more realistic and gives us a better playing ( and I know realism is not a high priority in PA development)
It wouldn't give you "a better playing". A larger sun would require planets to orbit at a further distance. More distant planets take more time to travel to, are harder to find on the system layer and are harder to select.
You don't want real solar scales in your game. In fact, what everyone said is true. You don't really want what you are asking for at all. For same reasons too. They did a good job avoiding making the sun seem "too small" while minimizing the annoying effects of it (brightness, distance from it, distraction, shading, shadowing, trying to keep it the **** out of your vision) However, your point gave me a good idea. Why wouldn't it be possible to modify the scale of the sun? You can already do that with the planets, make them tiny or giant. Why couldn't you make your sun small or giant?
Also bigger numbers means bigger math, longer calculation times and less precision. It's better to keep everything small.
WUT. Are you for real? A CPU calculates all its bits at the same time, regardless of how many you choose to not use. That's how an instruction cycle (the thing that gives you GHz) works. A 64-bit integer is enough to measure every single point from the Sun to Pluto in MICROMETERS. A 64-bit float loses this level of precision before it leaves the sun's corona.
Well it's bigger than the sun is my point. Might be 3500 or something, but with 40 player games you're gonna want planets that big and even if we don't want a realistic solar scale, having earth-type planets larger than stars is a bit TOO much of an immersion breaker if you ask me.
Having the glare of the sun take up 2 minutes straight of my ability to effectively play because half my screen is brighter than bajebus, is also an immersion breaker. I wouldn't mind it being customizable. Otherwise we can just figure that it wont be too bad. I also figure the sun is probably what orbital travel depends on, and if it was always giant for even small planets, then I am sure I would hate to even use orbital. What if it was customizable, and by default scaled with the "largest planet" you generate?
Yep, good points all. I'm not all that bothered either way, it's hardly a game changer. Could just have the sun scale to the largest planet in the system.
Maybe a good solution to the immersion issue is to have the sun scale with the size of the largest planet. So it has to be at least 1.2 times its size. or something.
Maybe a good solution is to let the map designer CHOOSE their sun size, and let the community decide what maps are fun to play and which ones have gigantic suns blocking their way.
If everything has to slingshot the sun then I'm not sure changing its size is a good idea. While I like options, I also don't want to have hundreds of lobbies with incredibly shitty custom options.