Astronomy (The new sky)

Sadly, your are correct. Though it at least sets up the possibility for some epic hand waving. Magic in the trapping of science tickles me.

 

As a gamer, the influence of stars on the game fascinates me.

As a scholar, such twisting of physics (astrophysics in this case) disturbs me.

Besides the correct observations on moons/satellites and NB "sun", what irks me the most are constellations.

Do you have any slight hint of an idea how much energy is needed to move what appear to be distant stars TOGETHER, as single entities, in a wildly fast dance across the sky?

I'd love for some handwavium to be generously used on them, and put them in the same place as other moons: local, tiny, very close objects ("nets of sky wisps"?) rotating around the NB planet.

 

We can see the milkyway. that night sky has to start rotating eventually. Maybe it'll be in the next pass.

 

I did some poking around and the skybox is actually 4096 x 2048 or something. The problem is the projection and how zoomed in it is.

It actually already does. Do a long enough time lapse and you will see it rotate. I'd love to do a timelapse of an entire year in New Britannia, but the game would just idle out and log you off.

 

I have a time lapse here, it is average length over several SotA days.


Working on a longer one, now that I have a 2nd PC able to run the game(Thermo's test PC!) and some advice on open source cam capture I can try I'll set up soon and take a very long one. Problem is now that I just can't let my PC record for more than 8 hours. Need to work

 

Speaking of Astronomy, as good as a place to post as any. Pluto in just over 7 hours, very cool stuff!

App:
http://eyes.jpl.nasa.gov/eyes-on-pluto.html


Twitter:
https://twitter.com/NASANewHorizons


NASA LiveStream:
http://t.co/2b2GRvAcIX

 

Yeah, you'll notice in your timelapse that the milky way (skybox) moves in a downward motion relative to the screen, while the moons/planets move in a generally upward diagonal motion. That's what I saw in my timelapse as well, although mine was done with a horizontal direction..

 

Oh, I have missed yours then. Can you like me in here with that also?

 

Do these heavenly bodies have names yet?

 

Not yet revealed. So far, Darkstarr's post for R18 (which I quoted earlier in the thread) is the only hints at naming.

• A constellation called "Chaos"
• A planet called "Deceit"

My current assumption would be that the planets/satellites will have the names of the anti-Virtue dungeons from Ultima (although line up with the Virtue planet colors/designs), with Humility being missing. This would also align with the seven colors on the Avatar Symbol, shown on the cover of Blade of the Avatar. Not sure what all of the constellations will be, although it seems that you can pick out some already (three concentric rings/Virtue, an Ankh, a Chaos burst, etc).

 

Yeah, so far I think I've spotted:

Spoiler

- three concentric rings / Virtues / three principles
- chaos
- ankh (spirituality)
- sword (valor)
- staff (humility)
- scales (justice)
- heart (compassion)
- chalice (honor)
- tear (sacrifice)

...so far, haven't been able to make out any "open hand" for honesty.

 

They do.

A dev, whose name will be kept shrouded in mystery, confirmed in IRC that the indeed have names already. Alas, the same dev said that the names wouldn't be disclosed at that time, and they'd be public once they will be announced officially.

So, everything you hear/read/see until then, it's speculation, even if the sharp minds in our community may come close to the real data. Once they'll publish this info, I'm pretty sure we will all know the details.

 

I can't make head or tail of anything to do with the sky. I'm not sure if we're supposed to yet - I only bring it up because we're talking about it.

 

I'll be hosting an astronomy event during R20 is anyone's interested. Maybe we can figure out some of the constellations.

 

Count me in.

 

Cool! Will you be doing this over two weeks (i.e. one Novia year)? That's how long it will take for you to see the entire night sky.

 

Interesting idea but no.. this will be part of the events I'm trying to organize for R20 on August 22 but it would be interesting to try to spark from interest in forming a in-game group of astronomers who can track everything over a 2 week period.

 

Unless the names have changed, the planets were originally named after the virtues (U5).. is they are now the anti-virtues the names will be easy to guess as they would be the same names as the Ultima dungeons as they related to the virtues. Deceit, Covetous, Wrong, Hythloth, Despise, Abyss?. Shame and Destard.

 

That is my assumption, so it may be incorrect. Also, there are only 7 planets/colors on the Avatar symbol, so I'm also assuming they dropped Humility/black/Stygian Abyss. That would leave Deceit, Covetous, Wrong, Hythloth, Despise, Shame and Destard.

I do hope that there is some in-game lore regarding the Stygian Abyss, and possibly the Rune Gate the dark elves passed through to reach it (for Underworld Ascendant). The Abyss was always an important place, so having it missing hurts (of course, I say the same thing about Skara Brae...).