As always I am open to being proved wrong, but I think the max size of a system is the Navmap scale 0, this is the New York System size about 280,000 x 280,000. It can be made smaller but not larger.

Sorry, nice idea.

Edited by - LV38 Eagle on 11-09-2003 16:00:49

I keep thinking that there is a way to scale up the planets. Look at the Dyson Sphere system! There has to be a way....

To get near the right sizes you could have each "system" in the game be just one planet and its moons, and instead of jumping from system to system, you're jumping from planet to planet in one system.

A possibility?

Spectre

I hope so, because this would scale the universe AND the planets and moons. Think of the possibilites: Multiple docking rings for different parts of the world (I don't know if this is possible, actually, but it would be cool), multiple stations positioned around the planet and it's moons, the fact that there ARE moons (I noticed a surprising lack of them in the game), and a realistic looking planet! Holy crap that would be cool. A few issues might arise, however. The texture for the planet would have to be upped somehow, or have multiple textures applied to it to cover it's arse, and I'm not sure how this would effect some people's machines (mine could handle it). I've heard, and seen, the effects of what happens when you up the size of a planet. It, for some reason or another, tends to crumple in on itself. Now, HOPEFULLY, this problem can be solved and someone is up to solving it. If it's a problem with the game engine, we're screwed.
I'm going to go explore the dyson system a bit and see whats up with all that. I mean, that thing is HUGE, and if that can fit in the game, then I suppose a planet near that size could too.

I haven't come across any issues with creating larger planets yet (aside from texture issues), but I haven't made them very large, either. Not large enough to see any real ill effects, anyway.

The real problem comes with spacing everything far apart. First and formost, large, important objects, such as planets and stellar atmospheres (corona, photosphere, chromosophere, etc) all disappear at roughly the 250K mark. It's a huge pain in the ass to see a large planet just randomly appear, or to see a star blink rapidly, and then appear to be MUCH farther away in a matter of seconds.

Stellar atmospheres, I've noticed, cannot extend beyond a radius of 14K. I assume planetary atmospheres have similar restrictions.

Worst of all, once you've ventured some distance away from the origin, your ship will begin to shake like a 90 year old popping caffeine pills and drinking espresso by the litre, whether you're on the navmap or not. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Its a bit unreal that you can fly around planets in seconds and you start burning in stars when your only 2.5 km out. Really it would be gradual, You would take damage from far away (1 000 000 km) and when you got to about 500 000 km away you incinerate. Back to planets, the infocards say that it is 26 000 km across, so why is it only 5 km across. If anyone made a mod that fixed this, they would be amazing.