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Thread: A study on the TRUE size of sectors
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ComCypher
Sun Dec 19, 2004 9:11 am
#1
I'm sure we've all noticed by now that the planets don't grow, shrink, or move depending on where we are in the sector. I've made some simple measurements and a graphic to show why. In the following image I've superimposed the "space cube" over a circle representing the planet Naboo. For simplicity's sake I've assumed the diameter of Naboo to be approximately the same as Earth.
When you look at the little cube keep in mind that everything that is placed within a sector (space stations, nebulae, star destroyers) are all crammed inside that thing. You should now know why the planets are always fixed in the background.
For my own personal opinion I find this very disappointing and just plain silly. I would be interested in hearing a dev's take on how the space sectors we have now can be expected to be suitable for exploration and travel when you literally could walk your character from one edge to the other.
Com Cypher
Dakin
Sun Dec 19, 2004 9:41 am
#2
Your analysis is good, but I would make one observation. Even in the opening scroll text of EP1, it calls Naboo a small planet. Perhaps its much smaller than earth.
tsxx1
Sun Dec 19, 2004 9:55 am
#3
That isn't likely. We know from Ep1 that Naboo is a hollow-core planet, which means that in order for it to have roughly the same level of gravity as Earth (assuming that most of the planets we see in SW all have approximately the same gravity), it would either have to be composed of much denser materials than Earth, or have a much larger diameter than Earth. But that's being over-analytical.
Regardless of the size of the planets in question, a 16x16x16 km cube (4096 km^3) is rediculously small for an area of space, especially considering the space shuttle orbits Earth at roughly 17,000 mph, or 27,200 kph; the space shuttle would go from one side of that area to the other in 0.000588 seconds. But then,a 16x16 km (256 km^2) planet is also rediculously small, so I guess you can't really complain.
Naplam
Sun Dec 19, 2004 10:21 am
#4
I think if the sectors where much bigger it wouldn't make a difference because it would leave large empty unused space, unless they want to add something huge and interactive or add player stations it would be a bit useless to make them bigger.
Geral_Corasjo
Sun Dec 19, 2004 11:28 am
#5
Naplam wrote:
I think if the sectors where much bigger it wouldn't make a difference because it would leave large empty unused space, unless they want to add something huge and interactive or add player stations it would be a bit useless to make them bigger.
I agree, or they would have to add all the planets to 1 sector to take up space. Plus, they would have to merge players or something to get more people or else it will be rare to see another player in space.
ComCypher
Sun Dec 19, 2004 9:38 pm
#7
I realize now that my post may have sounded like I was suggesting increasing the size of the space sectors to envelop the enormous planet, but this is not entirely the case.
What I'm thinking is more along the lines of increasing the space sectors to about10 times their size, then decreasing the planet sizes dramatically. This would resolve the issues of having too much empty space as indicated by a poster above, but would also serve to make exploration more interesting since the planets would now be "visitable". I don't think scaling down the planetsby such a large amountwould hurt immersion either, since the ground game does this and it works well.
Com Cypher
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