Rarely does a game truly take into account the fact that satellites spin, the worlds spin, the stars spin, the systems spin, galaxies spin... Everything is moving.



As these celestial bodies float, drift and spin about the universe, they will not be in the same spot tomorrow as they were yesterday... There are seasons, days, equinoxes, meteor showers, comets... A world will not stay the same for even a century unattended, it will grow.



How far is too far to take these kinds of things?



If my colony ship can move at only a slow speed of say, 2.5 c, in the real universe, I would take into account where my target will be, head in that direction, and meet with it at the point where both of our paths cross. If I have two targets which are at the time of my decision making both moving roughly in the same direction, and one is roughly ahead of me, and the other roughly behind in the galactic rotation, it'll be a faster trip to move against the rotation of the galaxy to hit target B. Target B will be headed toward my colony ship, while target A will be headed away from it - making orbits a vital piece of colonizing and warfare.



Such things are not in place in games like Galactic Civilizations 2, they simplify it down to static locations - I think that is too simple.



I really want the galaxy to breath, if the game is to be turn based, that's fine, have each turn take up a preset amount of time in the universe and have the starts and planets and all the cosmos rearrange to where they should be after that set window of time.

Yeah! Spinning planets would look nice, though it wouldn't really bother me if they didn't. The odd comet, asteroid and solar flare would be pretty cool too.

But as for systems moving, I don't think so. I mean think about it, the moon take 's something like 23.6 hrs to orbit the earth. and 24hrs for the earth to make 1 turn, 1 year to orbit the sun and how long does the sun take to orbit the Galaxy? Unknown, but a very 100000000000000000000000ng time for sure. Its pointless trying to replicate this. The cost in memory usage for what you get is just not worth it IMHO.

You could just make them spin really slowly but with no in-game effects, ya know? Just for show. Also, making asteroid belts spin would be a bit easier, I guess.

Well, as long as the stellar movement is implemented in the engine, there would be the possibility of using long range stellar mapping to give us the projected orbits of stars and planets - from there maybe holding shift would show you known orbits.



By selecting your ship, saying, "plot course," and then clicking on a body that you've mapped with your great sensors, the engine should handle the math of where that body will be when the ship gets in range of it.

If we would talk about living universe, I would prefer something like things that were done in Elemental: Fallen Enchantress and the other title, were monsters in ruins/dungeons for exploration evolve as well.

It his theme it could be something like minor species evolving but this would be probably little different from other computer played races. What I would like to see is events visible on map, or just map types, like:

1.) Blackhole consuming slowly galaxy

2) a supernova wave going through the map creating havoc in destruction in it's wake.

3) A traveling space entities. (monsters, free merchants or a lost Endless)

4) A very strong pulsar star having effects on certain parts of map.



things like that.



I would not really care for galaxy spin , anyway how much did the galaxy turned in human civilization history ?

Danne wrote:
If i wanted dumbed down, i'd play Halo or COD. I don't want my STRATEGY game to be so simple my dog can play it. And the rotating is not just for the pleasure of it rotating, it has practical uses and drawbacks, giving more a sense of immersion.

What practical uses? In gameplay terms I mean. If the whole mechanics of the game are not designed from ground up to make use of that potential, then it's pointless eye-candy. Nice to look at, but a waste of time and resources.

Also, it cna get tedious if not done properly.



SOTS2 does that IIRC, position of planets having some effeect in system battles. But in general, given the speed of ship, the effect is - and will be- generally minimal.



A clean, simple interface is more important than eye candy IMHO:

maceman wrote:
which would allow for 'hidden' or 'lost' planets that you would need to find the coordinates for or they would be forever lost in the vastness of space...

LOST planets?

Dude, you can't loose a planet. It goes on a predicatable path and is easily detectable.

If you think this is eye candy, you grossly underestimate the potential implications of everything moving like this - it would effect everything about the game's strategy in terms of resource gathering, colonization and warfare.



This isn't a matter of making something pretty, this could have a massive effect on how you view war - if you know that your enemy's one colony is headed roughly toward you, you can place a mine field in it's path - so long as nothing runs through it first, a sudden bombardment of mines on a planet could devastate the population of the planet and make it an easy conquest.

Well this is the sci-fi base game, there is as much science as fiction, so let's assume the ships travel at warp 9.99 .

Otherwise we would have to span single turn over 100s if not 1000s of years , which makes all other things like building/reaserach etc unrealistic.

a 5 turn build order would never finished, there would not be such government type that could hold on for that long to single project , etc

I'd wager you're wrong, I heard of this one country, they call it China.

China is one empire out of how many on this little planet to last as long as it has....and even then it had it's own periods of occupation by other forces. It's not like it was always what it is today.



The rotation of the galaxy is an interesting idea, to be sure. I'm not sure how it would actually work within gameplay, but sounds like it could be needlessly complicated if not interfaced well.

But assume it would be well interfaced.

Danne wrote:
But assume it would be well interfaced.

If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride