Questions about planets

[mmyesrice]

I have a few questions regarding planets. If anyone knows anything please do tell, I would really like to know the answers to these.

 

• Will planets vary in size?
• Will planets have multiple moons? Take Pluto, for example, which has five moons.
• Will planets orbit the Sun? (Silly question I know, probably not, but you never know)
• Will planets have varying rotational periods?
• How far apart will planets be in a single solar system

 

• And one other thing that doesn't really have to do with planets: Will asteroids be able to move? Maybe they could even start off stationary but be able to be hauled?

[Lord_Void]

Wow, you have a lot of questions that's good. Enthusiasm is good. That being said, there are already threads discussing some of your questions, so I'd like to recommend you check those out and read through all the Q&A threads before you keep posting more questions. Or compile them all into a mega thread. 

 

The following is all subject to change I imagine:

 

The planets will vary in size from up to around 100km in radius to something smaller (I don't have a number for that).

Moons will vary from planet to planet, with some having a lot and some having a few (or none).

I can't remember whether planets orbit the sun (I don't think so, due to the issue of collision detection increasing server load) but the planets do rotate on their axis.

The distance between orbital bodies will vary from system to system as the universe is all procedurally generated, but they will be big enough that interplanetary travel will be not something you do all the time somewhere around 15 minutes to a few hours between planets).

 

I believe asteroids can be moved if you attach engines to them, but I'm not sure. There is a thread on that somewhere.

 

I hope that answered some of your questions!

[Lethys]

I can't remember whether planets orbit the sun (I don't think so, due to the issue of collision detection increasing server load) but the planets do rotate on their axis.

 

No they don't. They just rotate because of the exact issues you mentioned. It's in some AMA video i believe

[Limyaael]

Will planets vary in size?

Will planets have multiple moons? Take Pluto, for example, which has five moons.

How far apart will planets be in a single solar system?

These questions right now boil down to "don't know, I hope they do." A few specifics that give us hints though...

 

The planet (Alioth?) that we've seen so far has been approximately 120km in diameter. NQ have said planets in the final release will be larger, although the reddish planet nearby appears to be smaller.

 

NQ have talked about moons a little, but no details.

 

As NQ have mentioned that ships will require FTL drives to get between planets (and that this will take a few minutes between planets) we can guess that they'll be not necessarily real life distances, but very far at least. Don't expect the first spacefaring ship to be able to ever reach another planet, it'll be too slow.

 

Will planets orbit the Sun? (Silly question I know, probably not, but you never know)Will planets have varying rotational periods?

Will asteroids be able to move? Maybe they could even start off stationary but be able to be hauled?

In the current pre-alpha build, the home star is actually moving around the mini-system that's been setup. In the final game planets will rotate (presumably with different rotational speeds) but will not orbit their star; neither will their star move. The reasoning behind this is not just collision detection problems, but because it will make interplanetary travel too, well, realistic. Calculating how much fuel you'll need to get from one planet to another while both planets are moving, at different orbital speeds, is pretty difficult and will make early space travel an even bigger pain than it already is. Orbiting planets would probably be reasonable from a user perspective once everyone has interstellar-type craft, but is probably not the best idea.

 

For similar reasons (asteroids travel really fast and are tiny, you know) I doubt that asteroids will be able to move. Whether they will be moveable, however, I have no clue and don't think NQ have commented on that yet.

[ATMLVE]

I'll answer what has not already been stated; the starting planet, Alioth, has 3 moons. This was mentioned by JC somewhere. He said that they have resources that Alioth does not, better resources. So, the number of moons will almost certainly vary.

 

Also, as asteroids, planets, and constructs are all made out of voxels, the same voxels, it is highly probably that attaching a core unit to an asteroid will allow you to turn it into a ship.

[revofire]

Wow, you have a lot of questions that's good. Enthusiasm is good. That being said, there are already threads discussing some of your questions, so I'd like to recommend you check those out and read through all the Q&A threads before you keep posting more questions. Or compile them all into a mega thread. 

 

The following is all subject to change I imagine:

 

The planets will vary in size from up to around 100km in radius to something smaller (I don't have a number for that).

Moons will vary from planet to planet, with some having a lot and some having a few (or none).

I can't remember whether planets orbit the sun (I don't think so, due to the issue of collision detection increasing server load) but the planets do rotate on their axis.

The distance between orbital bodies will vary from system to system as the universe is all procedurally generated, but they will be big enough that interplanetary travel will be not something you do all the time somewhere around 15 minutes to a few hours between planets).

 

I believe asteroids can be moved if you attach engines to them, but I'm not sure. There is a thread on that somewhere.

 

I hope that answered some of your questions!

 

Question, in an expansion/update the devs mentioned that they will attempt to add the planets rotating on their axis. Do you believe that in a further update that the planets will begin to orbit then as well? I mean, the star orbits the planets right now (funny, I know) but soon will they be able to change that?

[Violet]

I don't rember which video it was in but JC stated that they didn't want to have real orbits as it added too much complexity when navigating between them.