Planets oribiting stars?

[Vindictive]

Maybe planets could be made to revolve around their stars, with a speed based on their distance to said stars?

[firecat666]

That sounds like a pain in the ass to program from scratch.

But I think you can make the whole system look as if it was all rotating together at the same speed (like in a spinning table) by just rotating the camera on top of the player. But maybe that would look ugly.

[Vindictive]

Originally Posted by firecat666

That sounds like a pain in the ass to program from scratch.

But I think you can make the whole system look as if it was all rotating together at the same speed (like in a spinning table) by just rotating the camera on top of the player. But maybe that would look ugly.

Yes, the planets would have the same orbital period regardless of distance. That would be unrealistic. But it would be interesting to see planets of enemy empires briefly fight each other between longer periods of respite as the planets moved away from each other, if the speed was different for each planet. In sectors where empires are already established, I find it strange to see two empires with planets literally next to each other at war by default. I'd think the planets would have annihilated each other long before I arrived. There could also be some implications for economy, as the distance of planets to starlanes/wormholes would vary. And, of course, it would be more realistic if the planets actually changed position.

On the other hand, it could mess with some quests like approaching comet/interplanetary locusts/giant pods. For faster orbits, calculation could be needed to account for the speeds of the planet and approaching object so that their positions met on the exact point their paths crossed. Some other quests might also be affected. So yes, this would probably take a lot of work.