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Planets are too small
ammonitida
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
Ever notice how small and unrealistic the planets and moons are? Our moon for example is just a little bigger than my Atrox (and too close to earth). That's ridiculous. Only the planet in "Khitomer Vortex" has a somewhat realistic size to it. More planets need that type of scale. Or make it so that you can't get too close to them. Like have them in the unreachable distance (as in BSG Online). A big offender is the Andoria System. As soon as you warp there, you're faced with a ridiculously small "moon". It's jarring. And gas giants, as a rule, should be noticeably bigger than the size of the current Earth (they're failed "stars" after all), but that's not the case with the Andorian gas giant. It's smaller than Earth.
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It would have been awesome to have maps where a planet was needed, if it was like KA Space. The entire bottom of the map a planet below you.
Or have DS9 where an Intrepid didn't fit on a Runabout landing pad.
K-7 where a Nebula didn't fit in the shuttle dock.
ESD interior map where the circumference you run around wasn't smaller than a Constitution Class saucer, being portrayed as the waist of a station thats circumference is actually larger than two Sovereigns end-to-end (that's just over 1km, for you curious folk).
Unfortunately it's probably at the point where they've expanded on the problem so much over the years by adding to it, that it's now too unrealistic to be able to put in the time to change it all.
The ESD interior is easy to reconcile. You don't run around the entire circumference, only one of the top most levels. The lover levels are used for industrial stuff like the spaceyard.
My character Tsin'xing
I prefer when in other games (example) they just add a huge high res texture at a non reachable bottom, that give you a real feeling of orbital situation... Also this method grants a more realistic effect, visually speaking.
In other situations, like 'aid planet' or 'approach planet to beam down' missions, I do understand using 3d planets, but I guess they could x100 the size, but then textures on those planet would look awful...
Ok I think I remember having reading that thread, I'll re-check it again cause it's a very interesting topic for me.
http://voy.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/Main%20Title%20Sequence/ZDVD_067.jpg
Yeah that's kinda weird too, always bugged me watching the series but... Can be explained with that planet having a very thin disc unlike our solar planets.
My character Tsin'xing
We should be thankful that we are finally getting supersized gas giant maps like Jupiter (Foundry) and the map KDF: Alpha.
OMG at the ESD interior. You just made me notice that. Now it annoys me. I'm afraid to read the rest of the responses.
Another thing that bothers me is sector space. Those small planets and stars you pass or enter are really silly looking. I realize a lot of work has been put into it, but I feel it should be scrapped entirely. Make a travel mechanic like in Battlestar Galactica online, where you jump from system to system. We already have a limited version of it in place, if you grind the diplomacy duty officer missions (gives you transwarp to several systems). Why not go all the way?
For now, I try to block out sector space in my mind.
I find it rather soothing.
Sector space is a tactical view, astrometic map behind you with lines and such should give you that clue... We're talking about planets inside the maps, the real thing. Battlesar Galactica Online have the same problem, planets are ridiculous small, take a look at Delta Canopis or some other system with planets and you'll see the planets is barely 100 times your ship...
What are skyfile planets? Is there an example in Star Trek Online now?
Skyfile = Backgrounds
Best example of these is Quadtra Sigma (Khitomer Space) KDF Alpha, and Foundry missions with Jupiter.
Oh yeah, khitomer space is a great example here ingame, I forgot. I wish they could do the same in Qo'Nos and ESD :rolleyes:
I support the OP.
I mentioned Khitomer space in my first post. That planet is huge, and I really like the lightening storm you encounter if you try to reach the surface. A nice touch. If that's a "skyfile" planet, then I don't see how the complaint of it not having 3d depth is valid. It looked like it had depth to me. Nothing about it stood out as "flat".
Not sure myself neither if that's a skyfile or what, but certainly it looks how ESD and other examples should look, definetively. I'd support using the same techique for everything.
Left is a skyfile, right is a regular map object.
But yeah, Skyfile objects are always things so far away they never move in relation to the player. Another good example is to beam to Starfleet academy and look at San Francisco. they didn't model the town. :P
My character Tsin'xing
Which phase of beta? At the very start, sector space didn't have star system representations at all, each 'system was a big (for the old paint box style sector space at that time) planet graphic displaying the name of the main 'visitable' planet in the system. The beta testers at that phase (myself included) asked they to a mock star system (with a star at the center); rather then a huge planet.
The planet graphics in the playable maps player character ships zone into haven't changed in size since 2009 closed beta.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
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system Lord Baal is dead
They could make sector transitions smoother too, if they really wanted to.
The problem comes from trying to mash a 25th century universe into an engine designed to represent a medieval universe. They've done fairly well in doing so, but doing so was a bad decision.
The real question is; how long before they dump the current engine for something that is not already obsolete?
Problem is with that explanation, when you watch the Voyager intro, you can clearly see it casting a gargantuan reflection on the rings as it moves.
http://youtu.be/7HNtfu_QurU?t=1m18s
best intro of them all if you ask me
system Lord Baal is dead
Assuming that these rings are anything like the rings of Saturn or Uranus, a lot. That looks like a gas giant that the rings are orbiting. Looking at Wikipedia, real quick to make sure on my numbers, Saturn's rings alone are hundreds of thousands of kilometers thick. Uranus' are tens of thousands thick. So the estimate brings us that either we have a tiny gas giant with tiny rings, or we have a massive starship Voyager.