Did you also notice that, if you sit long enough, the planets don't move or rotate? It's best not to think of such things. Suspension of disbelief. Though objects do tend to align themselves according to magnetics and such, which could explain the spire-like asteroids in the nebula...

.....this is a game still right? if it isnt i think i need to put on my helmet.....*grabs a shotgun slowly*

-I trade for a living, rouges piss me off, come get me, catch me if you can, i will leave you in the dust, or you'll die trying, take your pick.- #Part of the traders protection pact# @Heretic Inc. We trade because we own.@

oh well, no rotation is better than I-War 2's planets that had a day pass every 3 seconds

heretic: yes, it is still a game, you can take off your helmet. I was just wondering if this design style continued throughout the game.

Edited by - radioactiveyeti on 03-03-2003 02:37:35

While it seems like a poor design choice to exclude placing planets on different axi, it is for the better. Finding your way through space on a single plane is hard enough, not to mention the areas like Sigma19 that are covered with gas stuff making visibility etremely poor. Of course, the auto-waypoint feature is extremely useful and solves this problem. But I think that placing things at different elevations would just make it more difficult to navigate.

And actually its not too much of a suspension of disbelief since most solar systems have all objects placed on an ecliptic plane.

Any sun will also be rotating, and as such it too will have a plane of more intense gravity. All objects in orbit around them will tend to line themselves up on that plane, thus the reason why our solar system is very much one plane including the asteroid belt.

There are exceptions of course, like comets and outer planets, but even so most of these objects don't angle too far off the ecliptic plane.

Guess thats just the way space is built

"If this is what you want to do, you'll do it, no matter how long it takes..........and usually the longer it takes the more fun you've had!"

For me, I miss the radar screen from the WC/Privateer games as well as the ole flight stick (don't zap me for mentioning the un-mentionalbe - <as he waits for a bolt of lightning from above>. There you had some since what was up and down (Z-axis). Unless you are close to a planet or space station, it is real hard to know your z-ecliptic relation within the system.

Merlin
DRUID'S MYSTIQUE
"...I'm only in it for the money..."

If you're in space and look down on Earth, you dont see it rotate...It looks silly in games where you see them rotating way too quickly... it was cool in Starlancer though..