RL facts about the Sirius System.....

Sun Jul 27, 2003 2:08 pm by freelancer3475

Was reading a few posts were people are trying to tie information about freelancer together and it got me thinking.... Is there really a Sirius System?

The answer is yes. It is a binary star system 8.6 LY from Earth (Sol). Therefore it would be plausible that the 'Sirius Sector' is named after after the target star, Sirius.

Though it does raise a few questions that the game to me doesn't quite answer:

- How big is the game in LY? Can't be that big or they would be running back into Sol.
- Why did they choose Sirius to begin with? Did they launch probes to verify that there were planets there?
- If they did launch probes, why haven't the coalition figured out where they went and blasted them into star-dust?
- Is it really the Sirius Sector, or do they think it is? Refer to my first point. In addition, they could have hit a space anamoly and gone further out than they thought, or were 'sleeping' longer than they thought....

Just something to toss out there...

Freelancer3475

"Run away to live to fight another day..." -Anonymous Freighter Captian

"I'll stay in the rear with the gear" - Liberty Navy Motto

Sun Jul 27, 2003 2:16 pm by Sybot

The general consensous here is that the 'sirius sector' was a codename designed to confuse the coalition in case they tried to follow.

"I'm not a Corsair, I just spend my time taking work from them"
Child of the Hispania- http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1404122

Sun Jul 27, 2003 4:50 pm by Chandrasekhar Limit

Nope.. There's a lot of debate on that one, and sirius as a "codename" is definitely not the general consensus.

The other common view is that Digital Anvil screwed up-- They could have picked some other location much further away than Sirius (which is a mere 8.6 light years from Sol-- our second closest stellar neighbor). Plenty of candidates out there with plenty of star clusters and nebulae, such as the Eagle's Nebula, the nebula in Orion, the North American Nebula (heh), etc.

Sun Jul 27, 2003 5:14 pm by Nukenin

The designation "Sirius Sector" need have nothing to do with any of the actual stars found therein. DA did not place the game in a "real world" location, period ("Crow Nebula", anyone?). They'd get even more grief from armchair astronomists had they tried to do so. If you want realism in your space sims, try the old Microsoft Space Simulator or its freely available and comprehensive contemporary, Orbiter (apparently someone has done a replacement solar system for the latter based around the real Sirius).

As for the scope of the game area, the description for Freeport 9 alone says it's the only civilization for hundreds of light years.

FL is a fun and completely unrealistic depiction of space flight/combat. Don't expect reality.

--/\/

Sun Jul 27, 2003 5:39 pm by Heltak

I wonder why they didn't hit Alpha Centauri, since most scientests think thats where were gonna go next or something :/

-~-~-~-~
There is no Silicon Heaven[! But where do all the calculators go ?

You could no more evade my wrath... than you could your own shadow[!

Sun Jul 27, 2003 6:42 pm by Chandrasekhar Limit

They'd get even more grief from armchair astronomists had they tried to do so.

And DA could have just as easily picked some other name to avoid grief altogether from astronomists, armchair or professional.

Bottom line is, the plot writer could have researched things a bit more. And for those who find these space games fascinating, you can reasonably expect a LOT of them will be armchair astronomists.

Sun Jul 27, 2003 6:43 pm by Whasp Commander

Because there's nothing at alpha centauri to go to.

Also, I read (in the game) somewhere that early jump gates had a limited range of 4 light years. I think that means that the distance between most of the civilized systems is 4ly or less.

Also, we're kinda assuming that there even is a scale. Omicron Theta doesn't look like hundreds of lightyears away from Gamma, even though it looks like it's only thrice the distance from OG than NY-Colorado. (Which are not 30 ly away.)

So, I don't think there is a scale in the navmap, or if there is, it's horribly implemented.

Sun Jul 27, 2003 6:52 pm by Chandrasekhar Limit

Here's the REAL Sirius Sector (looks like a screen capture from Starry Nights Pro).

The resemblance looks more than incidental..

Sun Jul 27, 2003 6:53 pm by ejlott007

i don't think that DA or MS ever intended for any one to get this indepth about it but why would any millitery faction spend the resorces to chase down 5 ships that are going a long long way away to aplace where there are no jump gates too (took the sleeper ships 50 years to get there) when they are in a war they are just barely winning??

Sun Jul 27, 2003 9:09 pm by Nickless V2

Wow, it's really all there? I thought they made it up. cool
So where's New York in all of this (and don't say "on Earth" )

Edit: So the litle beehive is the Nomads homesystem

Edited by - Nickless on 27-07-2003 22:10:34

Edited by - Nickless on 27-07-2003 22:11:03

Mon Jul 28, 2003 10:44 am by Nukenin

M41 ("Little Beehive" ) is appr. 2,100 light years from Earth, with 80 stars across 24 light years. Sirius (Alpha Canis Majoris) is 8.6 light years from Earth. Wesen/Wezen (Delta Canis Majoris) is 1,800 light years from Earth. The two Omicrons are appr. 2,000 light years from Earth. Tau Canis Majoris is 4,800 light years from Earth (and is a multiple star with at least five stars).

Don't forget the third dimension.

Stars are usually identified by the constellation or region of the Earth's sky they appear in, and thus stars in the same constellation can vary greatly in their distance from Earth.

It is fairly obvious from the picture though that Canis Major was very likely the source of the nomenclature used for the "Sirius Sector" in FL, at least in the general orientation and naming of the border world systems.

Edited by - Nukenin on 28-07-2003 11:46:20

Important Message

You are browsing the archived Lancers Reactor forums. You cannot register or login.
The content may be outdated and links may not be functional.

To get the latest in Freelancer news, mods, modding and downloads, go to
The-Starport