Day night cycles

[cyberwarlord]

Comments appreciated. Edit: Fixed.

I'd like to suggest diversity between planet light/dark cycles. Each planet currently has the same day/night cycle. 600 sec intervals.

Clarification: cycles still last 600 sec for game days. But light levels would change or fluctuate differently to simulate the illusion of orbits or planet spin, distance from a sun, rotation, tilt, radiation, etc.

 

•Planets with constant day or night.

•Frozen eternal dark moons.

•Radioactive surfaces with constant light.

•I imagine having one that slowly increases light and radiation levels over the course of days or weeks and eventually becomes uninhabitable for a long time, or too dangerous for traveling on the surface.

Chronicles of Riddick type scenario. 

(?) If possible, generate heat from sunlight at natural light contact points. Similar to using the sandbox heat gun on a tile.

Edited March 28, 2025 by cyberwarlord

[Slightquills]

I agree, but I can understand why that haven't don't so.
It would definitely increase variability but may require reworking so much of the game's mechanics to accommodate all of these variables. Biomes, for instance, would need to be more or less based on local conditions rather than defined borders, plants might need to be reworked to not require constant lux, the distances between planetoids would be constantly changing too so that would need to be reworked . . . and this also assumes there is a star all of these objects orbit that exists on the starmap as well. 
(... which, if we are going this deep with this then the differences in a star's mass vastly changes how it affects the planets around it.)

Maybe they could simulate some of the effects though. That 'Scorched Surface' trait, for instance, could modify the light levels and temperature/biome at a planetoid's surface. It could still make for additional variety to the current system. A super-hot layer of obsidian or other hard to dig material maybe? Perhaps high lux levels also means the sunburnt debuff could be used again.

That would certainly change things for those of us that play with teleporters and care-packages off....

I am trying to think about the frozen dark moon you were thinking of though. That's a little tricker, because I feel all of the planetoids are in this boat as they have no atmospheres.

[cyberwarlord]

12 hours ago, Slightquills said:

I agree, but I can understand why that haven't don't so.
It would definitely increase variability but may require reworking so much of the game's mechanics to accommodate all of these variables. Biomes, for instance, would need to be more or less based on local conditions rather than defined borders, plants might need to be reworked to not require constant lux, the distances between planetoids would be constantly changing too so that would need to be reworked . . . and this also assumes there is a star all of these objects orbit that exists on the starmap as well. 
(... which, if we are going this deep with this then the differences in a star's mass vastly changes how it affects the planets around it.)

Maybe they could simulate some of the effects though. That 'Scorched Surface' trait, for instance, could modify the light levels and temperature/biome at a planetoid's surface. It could still make for additional variety to the current system. A super-hot layer of obsidian or other hard to dig material maybe? Perhaps high lux levels also means the sunburnt debuff could be used again.

That would certainly change things for those of us that play with teleporters and care-packages off....

I am trying to think about the frozen dark moon you were thinking of though. That's a little tricker, because I feel all of the planetoids are in this boat as they have no atmospheres.

I had to edit the post a bit. Guess I rushed it originally. Mostly just wanted to focus on simulated day/night cycles lasting different lengths of time.

I had also considered a 'atmosphere tile' line.

Or maybe a story trait building that creates layers of atmosphere tiles and natural rain or other elements. 

Could even defend from meteors.

Something only hydrogen gas can naturally cross.

Edited March 28, 2025 by cyberwarlord

[cyberwarlord]

Bump