I am really thinking of a feature for client3d here, but I think something should be possible in the 2d client too.

I'm thinking that at night you should be able to look at the sky and see the stars. Twinkle twinkle.

But this wouldn't just be for the sake of prettiness. It would open up possibilities for new skills to do with stars (astrology and astronomy), special events according to heavenly occurrrences, an extra factor in character creation, etc.

Now I know for a fact, though I have no idea how to do it, that you can exploit a random number generator with a known and constant seed to create seemingly enormous persistent maps and databases of things like stars and constellations (eg, Elite did this to squeeze 8 galaxies woth of 100s of named planets into 32k machines, with enough space left over for the rest of the game). So resources shouldn't be an issue.

This would also add to the coherence and believability of the game world, which I'm very keen on.

Discuss.

sounds like a good idea, but it seems to me like there should be some order to it so that constelations could be identified? Using random numbers means random stars... every night? i don't know, perhaps i'm mis interpreting here.

Yes you are. It's to do with the value you chuck into a random number generator to get it going (the seed). If the seed is constant, the 'random' numbers generated will also be constant and (as a result) predictable. You can exploit this to create algorithms to generate huge, always-the-same, on-the-fly 'databases in very small amounts of memory.. Hence you will have the same cosmic map every night, enabling players with appropriate skills to foresee and predict events like planetary alignments, cometary paths, blah blah blah.

Well that's why I was thinking it would be more suited to client3d where (I assume, still haven't convinced ogre3d to compile) the necessary graphical fx are possible/'easier'.

But at any rate (discounting the fancier stuff like meteorite showers and comets) all movement would be really really slow, so maybe visible movement wouldn't be an issue.

It'd be nice if we could see the sky in the main view, but we can't, the camera angle is fixed, so . What I am thinking is there could be a telescope (say an expensive optional feature of apts rather than a portable item) which you could apply and a window would pop up showing your view of the heavens.

OTOH even with no visual representation at all, a consistent map of the stars would still be useful for atrological-type features.

Sounds pretty cool. I like the idea of Astrology/Astronomy skills.

Do we want astrology to be a character skill or a player skill. I would love being able to look at the stars and instead of just knowing what advantages these particular advantages will give, having to figure them out. 1st moon is in the north-western hemisphere, 2nd in the north-eastern. We'll be having good crops.

I like the idea very much i dont think it needs any more adjustments it just needs to be put in the game.


Cheers,
Jakcool :lol:    

Also,what often happens in suggestions threads is people suggest all sorts of wonderful elaborations on the basic idea which, even assuming they're feasible/desirable at all, could only be included slowly, step-by-step as their predecessors mature in the game, problems are found and solved, and developments are made.

My guess is virtually nothing in suggestions will make it into the game until some time after b4 has been released and allowed to settle.

okay... look here now, come up with how everything would work in good detail, then code it all in.... its not *that* hard... people make it seem like they are invalids or something...

The devs could use help, and sugestions aren't just here for them to use, they are also here for people to take initiative.

Smacky, get me a star map of the northern hempishpere, and one of the souther hemiphere, and i'll overlay plots on a time based scale, for things such as moons, planets and and comets.  I'll then set up some sort of zodiac and pattern of visible stars that goes along with, and perhaps even some stories for them.  At that point, i can make some graphics, and the implimentation would either be me learning code, or MT making some small ammount of code to impliment as a small "interesting" side skill.  As not much of the other implimentation could be done yet because crops/plants do not yet grow, seasons do not yet change, nothing that would be affected is yet in place, but it would be kept in mind for these things when finally implimented. (maybe especially item creation?)