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Moons and space stations

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Moons and space stations

from Sins Forums
I have seen other posts about this but i thought i would make another one.


As far as i know there are no moons currently implemented but i think that there should be some. In RL most planets with any significant gravity have moons, our solar system alone has more than 40. In Sins you should be able to colonize moons with civilian, commercial, military, research, mining etc.. imagine having a moon with a giant gauss gun or an array of sensors or something of the sort. Or simply a colony of civilians who have made their home there. And what about planets with more than 1 moon? they could a sort of orbiting fortress or space station, Moons would add an awsome gameplay dynamic and add to realism aswell. I think that moons would be an excellent thing to implement.

And what about space stations? In Gal Civ 2 you could build tonnes of space stations anywhere you wanted. In Sins maybe a player could build (or they could have already been built and are a left over of some ancient civilization) around a planet or they could even have their own grav well. Or what about building a space station AROUND a moon?


What about space anomalies like huge clouds of gas? these gas clouds could block vision (maybe an ancient space station is concealed in it), block sensors and disrupt certain ships. Imagine your fleet just arrived at a small asteroid belt to see a huge cloud of gas which is seemingly harmless, but as you aproach it your fleet becomes under attack and an enemy armada bursts out from the cloud of gas unseen by your fleets sensors.

And just a question, what happens if your fleet is traveling in a phase lane and an enemy fleet is coming in the oppisite direction? Or do you travel through phase lanes instantly?

What does everyone think about these ideas? or other things like commits, space radiation, or huge mobile ships like the deathstar in starwars?
strategy
22,802 views 46 replies
Reply #27 from Sins Forums Top
As far as i know there are no moons currently implemented but i think that there should be some. In RL most planets with any significant gravity have moons, our solar system alone has more than 40.
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and ALL of them except ~6 (including our own) might as well be astroids. thats what moons normally are. Look at Mars, 2 moons, both astroids. Ours moon is EXTREAMLY odd, it was formed by a collision between two planets. Im an Astrophysics major at UCIrvine and there as deffinitly been talk over the last decade or so (though it will probably never happen) of reclasifying the Earth/Moon system as a binary planet system because it is just soo unlike any other natural satalite we know of. The ONLY other moons that are at all similar to our moon 4 around Jupiter and a few around Saturn. (forget the actual numbers for Saturn). The point is that habitable (smaller) planets just dont have the gravity to form moons the way Earth's is. So if anything id LOVE to see some habitable moons around gas giants. But as for the other planets, THEY ALREADY HAVE MOONS!!! and they ARE minable!! they are just more realistic then a big earth type moon.

But all that said... i wouldnt mind seeing all the things youve talked about in the game from full lunar colnization to moon killers... Just wanted to let you know the Devs have been realistic with the system they put in place.
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #29 from Sins Forums Top
Good points there from a realistic standpoint. I was going to bring up the asteroid point as well, since they essentially are moons in each planet's gravity well.

That being said, I don't think it's necessary for the devs to stay too realistic... I mean, if it happened once with Earth's moon, it could happen again, right?

If not, then what about the idea of putting a colonizable moon around the Gas Giant planets that are currently not colonizable? Maybe not even colonizable, but defensable... like say you can build some sort of base or something that allows you 10-15 slots for turrents, repair stations etc.

And it's good to see a UCI student here... I graduated in 05 myself. I had a roommate who was majoring in Astrophysics, but he was a legitimate idiot.
Reply #30 from Sins Forums Top
In beta, the back grav well from your homeworld was always an asteroid, so it was like a de facto moon!
Reply #31 from Sins Forums Top
Just picked up the game yesterday, im very excited about it.

Perhaps moons could be modded in such as they formed mini-star-systems, each moon having their own small grav well, and requiring minijumps to bounce from one to another. This would open things up like creating specialized economic areas around each one. Using a gas giant as an example, jupiter could control a large, central location-- but rather boring, and you would jump from there to the next planet-- or you could jump around among its moon network.

Driving an opponent out of a region like that would take some twisting, and would make the gas giant a difficult region of space to choke off.

Around rocky planets, it would provide a nice... kind of... closet... for a planet.
Reply #32 from Sins Forums Top
Good points there from a realistic standpoint. I was going to bring up the asteroid point as well, since they essentially are moons in each planet's gravity well.

That being said, I don't think it's necessary for the devs to stay too realistic... I mean, if it happened once with Earth's moon, it could happen again, right?

If not, then what about the idea of putting a colonizable moon around the Gas Giant planets that are currently not colonizable? Maybe not even colonizable, but defensable... like say you can build some sort of base or something that allows you 10-15 slots for turrents, repair stations etc.

And it's good to see a UCI student here... I graduated in 05 myself. I had a roommate who was majoring in Astrophysics, but he was a legitimate idiot.
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gas giants can be harvestable for thier resources. however i still feel that, since moons are so abundant in the universe(by physical processes in general), that they should be abundant in this game.

Reply #33 from Sins Forums Top
I would love to have Space Stations in the game. In particular, Space Stations that can go in a Wormhole's gravity well. Currently a Wormhole is a big fat gaping hole in any defense, and there are only a few ways to deal with it: Stick a big fat frontline fleet there, all alone with no support despite being surrounded by friendly planets, fortify the surrounding planets and divide your fleet, hoping to "close the trap" and bring your ships in behind them in time when the enemy attacks, or go through the wormhole and begin expanding in the middle of hostile enemy space, which opens you up for attack from any direction. None of these are really ideal choices. It just seems kind of silly that there can be nothing but friendly planets for 4 jumps and yet noone can mobilize any real support equipment for this large, permanent presence. Maybe if for about the price of a Cap ship you could deploy (with a long build time) a station that is fairly weak HP wise, but at least gives you the ability to construct a repair building or throw up a handful of defense hangars/turrets as support for your ships in the same way that any frontline planet would.
Reply #34 from Sins Forums Top
And it's good to see a UCI student here... I graduated in 05 myself. I had a roommate who was majoring in Astrophysics, but he was a legitimate idiot.
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Zot Zot Zot...

If not, then what about the idea of putting a colonizable moon around the Gas Giant planets that are currently not colonizable? Maybe not even colonizable, but defensable... like say you can build some sort of base or something that allows you 10-15 slots for turrents, repair stations etc.
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We can already mine a moon around a gas giant. But i do like the idea of putting a "dead astoid" around a gas giant. No logistics slots, only tactical ones.

OR

Perhaps moons could be modded in such as they formed mini-star-systems, each moon having their own small grav well, and requiring minijumps to bounce from one to another. This would open things up like creating specialized economic areas around each one. Using a gas giant as an example, jupiter could control a large, central location-- but rather boring, and you would jump from there to the next planet-- or you could jump around among its moon network.
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Excelent idea, i would love to see this incorporated.
Reply #35 from Sins Forums Top
each moon with it's own sub-mini-economic, and social infrastructure.

same with massive space stations.
Reply #36 from Sins Forums Top
yes... i know thats what you want. go do a search of the forums. that idea is neither new nor likely to happen. The plea for colonizable moons has been around for a long time and some very good arguments against such things have also been around for a long time. do some research then bring something new to the table. I do like moons and id like to see them happen but rehashing the same old discusion wont make it happen. come up with something that will make the devs think, remember it is their job to try to think up all the coolest stuff that could possibly go into this game. If its not in the game, chances are its not because they didnt think about it (at least with obvious stuff like this). Dont mean to be harsh, just being realistic. I just dont like mindless repitition, its gets us no closer having colonizable moons or massive space stations.
Reply #37 from Sins Forums Top
Thetraviler:
I wasn't around during pre-launch workup. And, I've only played a couple campaigns on single star maps. So please forgive a lot of folks for moon discussion. At current build, no, moons arent necessary-- of course, I still feel wierd that a star can have multiple terran worlds, but I live with it, because its a strat game, not an astronomy sim.

Heres my thoughts for moons, though-- you liked my minisystem thought so ive been running with that.

--Financially lossy. Too small to generate taxes. Their function should be lossy enough that you'd really have to make that guns and butter choice-- do i build that base, or do I get my popcaps up? Kind of like taking over a pirate base; zero pop, tactical only, but I was thinking logistic only. For an IRL example, if the good ol' u s of A lands on the moon-- its not going to make us a dime for a long, long time. But going there would accomplish goals. Land on a moon and expect to pay for that real estate.

--Provides "something" you need. Take Europa. If humans went to europa, we would spend most of our time carving chunks off it and shipping them to various other places around the solar system. A moon base would provide some sort of bonus. GalCiv expansions brought a LOT to GalCiv... i fully expect the same to happen here. We'll see a lot of new gameplay come up in the next year.

--only on gas giants, turning gasgiants into minisystems in a system. Basically, I'd like them to turn into a strategic nightmare-- you better get a presense on every moon-- or own the next jump point in the system, because otherwise, your enemies will be able to jump all over the place and just throw you for a loop.
Reply #38 from Sins Forums Top
Thetraviler:
I wasn't around during pre-launch workup. And, I've only played a couple campaigns on single star maps. So please forgive a lot of folks for moon discussion. At current build, no, moons arent necessary-- of course, I still feel wierd that a star can have multiple terran worlds, but I live with it, because its a strat game, not an astronomy sim.

Heres my thoughts for moons, though-- you liked my minisystem thought so ive been running with that.

--Financially lossy. Too small to generate taxes. Their function should be lossy enough that you'd really have to make that guns and butter choice-- do i build that base, or do I get my popcaps up? Kind of like taking over a pirate base; zero pop, tactical only, but I was thinking logistic only. For an IRL example, if the good ol' u s of A lands on the moon-- its not going to make us a dime for a long, long time. But going there would accomplish goals. Land on a moon and expect to pay for that real estate.

--Provides "something" you need. Take Europa. If humans went to europa, we would spend most of our time carving chunks off it and shipping them to various other places around the solar system. A moon base would provide some sort of bonus. GalCiv expansions brought a LOT to GalCiv... i fully expect the same to happen here. We'll see a lot of new gameplay come up in the next year.

--only on gas giants, turning gasgiants into minisystems in a system. Basically, I'd like them to turn into a strategic nightmare-- you better get a presense on every moon-- or own the next jump point in the system, because otherwise, your enemies will be able to jump all over the place and just throw you for a loop.
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brilliant ideas man.  :CONGRAT:  especially the gas giants. having several moon bases on moons around it would be a mini game in it's own. this would not only create an entire sub-economics portion of the game, but create DEEP sub-strategy from a combat standpoint.

Reply #40 from Sins Forums Top
Agree with the moon idea would love to have those floating around.
Reply #41 from Sins Forums Top
I agree that having moons would be a neat gameplay feature.

The way I envision it is that a planet's moons are in the same gravity well as the planet, so there is a little change in pace because you can have two bases in the same gravity well. It would be interesting to have situations where two enemies have bases close to each other without a phase lane in between.
Reply #42 from Sins Forums Top
How about moons having double an asteroids resources, and being something you can build a signifigant defense on. However not as common as asteroids.

Speeking of which, it would be nifty if instead of building a mining base on asteroids, you could choose to build a defense base on one. You wouldn't get the resources, but it woudl be a tough part of that gravity wells defenses-the equivalent of a capital ship perhaps. (maybe even able to gain levels :) )
Reply #43 from Sins Forums Top
TTaargus' comment of planetary/satellite orbit was kind of glossed over but I wanted to say something about it. Currently in the game I can "hide" behind a side of a star and know which phase lanes to cover. Add rotation and if I take an inside orbit planet it will shoot me around the sun into enemy phase-lane territory. This would mean phase-lanes phase in and out; causing a need for greater trade planning and strategy in general. If this is a true RTS and if you left the game running for 80d-200 years; may you actually see this?
Reply #44 from Sins Forums Top
Gas giants could have like 3 or 4 moons and become relevant in the game.
Alas this is probably going to be saved for the imminent expansion.
Reply #45 from Sins Forums Top
I jsut wanted to put this outhere. We need to make this the greatest most expansive 4X RTS space game EVER made. I mean like seriously. Incorporate everything possible. Deep space stations, moons, megaships, dip vic, player chosen defense locals, phase lane shifting would be awesome. Just imagine... we could play this game forever!!!!! Just constantly releases updates and expansions... oh my god I wish I had studied Computer Science Engineering
Reply #46 from Sins Forums Top
We need moons. And beer! And hookers! In fact, forget the moons.