I wrote a light guide on this, but there's more information to be had, and I'm certainly not going to be the one to find it all. If you know something about the designer, list it. I'm going to be editing the OP often to get a bunch of numbers stockpiled for later use. While PA is in the Gamma phase, the system designer won't be on high-throttle for quite some time. However, it's boring and inefficient to wait for an update, so I'm going to get all the information I can on this thread to help those who're designing systems for ranked or unranked games. Numbers are subject to change. System Designer Checklist How long do you want your games to be? It's good to keep a wide array of systems on hand. You can use longer or shorter systems depending on the time available to you and your players. How much power do you want to give your players? This affects game progression. Some players may be uncomfortable with slower or faster progression; however, this is not a bad thing in some cases. How much do you want to reward your players for capturing planets or territories? This affects how easy it is for one team or player to snowball. How much do you want to handicap players who spawn alone on a planet or in a territory? In some games, a player may spawn isolated from the other players. This can lead to them having a massive resource advantage over the other players. How much ground room do you want to give your planets? Bots and vehicles are more common in largely continental planets. How much naval room do you want to give your planets? Ships are more common in largely oceanic planets. How much orbital room do you want to give your planets? This is dependent on the radius of the planet, and has a flat increase. There is a surprisingly amount of orbital room available on a small planet, whereas a large planet will get cramped faster than you would think. How easy is it to halley your planets? This determines how much your players are willing to invest into halleys over nukes late game. How many planets are there? An even number of planets usually results in a draw or game wipe, where all opposing sides are forced to start from the beginning again with just their commanders. An odd number usually leads to a game-ending war on one planet. What are the masses of your planets? This determines which planets can be halley'd and which ones can't. How many players does your system support? This can be estimated by the radius of your planets, the land and sea composition, the number of starting planets available, and the geographic features, such as fissures or mountains. Does your system support teams? Multiple teams can lead to more interesting games, which will result in larger lobbies and player counts. Are you planning to edit your system further? If you are, ask for feedback, and pay attention to certain strategies that are more dominant in your system than others. Tasty Numbers Please note that you can go above or below the minimum/maximum values by typing in numbers directly rather than using the slider. Some numbers may be reverted. The minimum mass for any planet is 2736. The maximum mass for any planet is 33333. A planet can have any mass, as long as it's orbiting another planet. (Bug) A planet can have any velocity, as long as it's orbiting another planet. (Bug) A planet with an invalid velocity will spawn inside the sun. (Bug) The minimum distance a maximum mass planet must be from the sun is 13436.The maximum distance a maximum mass planet must be from the sun is 37500. The minimum distance a minimum mass planet must be from the sun is 33795. The maximum distance a minimum mass planet must be from the sun is 37500. The minimum radius a planet must have in the editor is 27. The minimum radius a planet must have in game is 100. The maximum radius a planet must have is entirely dependent on your hardware. Tips Don't make your planets clip into each other, or, if they do, keep it so that you can move the camera around freely without the other planet interfering. If you want a lot of small planets, use moons. If you want a few large planets, use anything else. Moons aren't very resource intensive and can easily achieve a nice asteroid-belt feel if spaced out correctly.
Most importantly: don't make the planets clip into each other. Also: I think the mass (as a editable slider) should be deleted. It's just confusing. Basically, radius is there to represent the mass (bigger radius = more mass), so we really don't need to alter the mass, right?
Not always, For the same radius, a carbon rich planet will have less mass than an iron rich planet for example.
Actually, in order to make some fancier systems, we need control of the mass. Besides, what if I want a bigger planet orbiting a smaller one? The mass of the smaller one has to be greater so it doesn't orbit the larger one. It is helpful, even if many people may not use it.
