various orbits for planets ?

[flap (OP)]

Hello !

A shameless question suggestion for the game (shameless because, as noted before I won't be able to play before 2 more month...)

Is there different possible orbits when going near to a planer ? I have always been wanting to play a game with that type of feature. I see various which could be usefull in term of gameplay :
- Heliostationary : the object orbitig is always at the same position compared to the sun. 2 could be usefull : One where you see all the time the lit face of the planet. Good for observation. A good point is that you can be right on the axis of the planet and the sun. So people from the planet could have difficulties spotting you (you would be right in the middle of the big blob that is a sun in the sky)
The other usefull Heliostationary is the one behind the planet. You would stay right in the shadow of the planet, and this could be hidden from all sensors using light in the system.
- Geostationary : You keep flying over the same point of the planet. Good to chek what is happening at a specific point, or allways be at the best position to send reinforcement or collect people from task force on the planet.
- Low orbit : usefull to quickly scan with high precision lots of land. But might be shot by some planet bound weapons, and probably very easy to spot. could also be used if suplly is required at different points at the same time on the planet surface.

Well, that's it.

Cheers lad !

[mrwigggles]

Stellar Orbit are model in a sixteenth century kind of way. Axis rotation is not. Or if it is, I cant tell. 8/ So, geo and helio orbits can be role played, but have no mechanical effect on the game.

Stellar bodies do not block sensors from what I've seen, so you can't stay on the far side of a planet or a star and hide from an enemy with active sensors.

Though since a more hide and seek game seems to be evolving with sensor, I'm hopeful that such bodies will have affects on sensor in the future.

[flap (OP)]

Well, for the shadow part, if ever people (and steve) ever think that it would be a usefull addition, it does not has to be coded with fully implemented physics... It could be a type of a flag and a location given to a ship telling "ok, I am hidden from the light of that sun behind the planet"

Hidding from the sensors of an other ship behind a planet is an other story which requires quite a bit of computing (I have done it for a previous programm with stars emiting solar wind, planets and and some sailing space ships). Though, maybe a Database powered software such as Aurora would be efficient at it... I have no idea...

[Father Tim]

Currently you can 'enter orbit' of a system body, rather than 'move to' it.  You can set your orbital distance at anything up to 200,000 km (maybe more), but it has no special effects such as you are describing, other than to change your range from any planet-based weapons or sensors.  Still, you could fake geo-stationary by calculating the correct height yourself, and entering it into the box.