NB Astronomy 201 *SPOILERS*

Ugh.. either I'm missing something or.. these numbers give us a 33 year alignment... which is a pretty far cry from 792. I'm getting pretty annoyed.. (partly at myself for not trying harder to figure this out sooner).

One the problems here is that most of the orbital times go evenly into 336.. so all of those orbits will always align at the same time every year. The only numbers that don't are 11 and 18 (at this point Green and Purple respectively if you arrange orbital times as they should be.. Green and Blue as the sky is now). The 18 hour orbit completes its first whole number of orbits per year every 3 years.. and the 11 hour orbit every 11 years.

So logically, those two orbits align every 33 years.. with all the other orbits aligning every year. Which gives us a complete alignment every 33 years. (462 Earth Days or 1 year & 3 1/2 months )

Question: Are we abandoning a longer alignment period in favor of an observable system?

The major issue here I think is the fact that all alignments are whole numbers. It really limits the possibilities but at the same time you kind of need them for the whole system to be consistent and likewise predictable. You also need the smaller numbers for the system to even be observable. The more I think about it the more it seems larger numbers are required to hit the 792 number but then we could end up literally going years (in real time) where some planets are never seen unless you actually simulation planetary rotation.

Question: Is the current system too simplified?

Ok.. going to have to do another sim here.

 

Maybe, it still seems under construction to me. For what I am able to understand, the planets behave as moons, orbiting Novia, instead of the local sun, and the so called alignments are in fact, eclipses.

Perhaps the fascinating thing about the sky is not how far is everything, but it's complexity. A too easy model might downgrade the gaming experience. Or enhance it? I believe it downgrades it. Surely a complex model is just too hard to do, but on the other hand there are many astronomers around that will be glad to help and even do most of the job, while an oversimplified model will need to be done in house at Portalarium, at greater cost in time and will be most likely buggy.

But what are we talking about when looking at a solar system? Most people, IMHO, don't know what really happens out there, they believe the the solar system is



like an old high school pic like the above one, or something close to it. Not quite, this model is just good to explain it to children.

For starting I invite you reader to check the following link:

A boring way to show distances and planet sizes.

to review the size of the real solar system. What that exactly what you expected?

When we look at a planet from earth, it seems to go one direction some time, then it stops, and then it go backward. It's hardly behaving as it were doing a circular orbit. It was really a great discovery that we can think as if the planets were drawing a circle (or a ellipse) around the sun. Yet it is just a mind's construct, no one is able to actually see a planet behaving like that (drawing a circle), but instead we will see, from space, something like that:



More like a swarm of flies following a light source.

But the "planets orbiting the sun" theory is good! It allows us to model the solar system and predict stuff, like eclipses and alignments. We cannot ask more from a theory.

Yet we should note some extra complexities that the Portalarium model seems to ignore (besides confusing between planets and moons).

Orbits aren't circles, but ellipses, the sun resting on one of the focus.



Orbits aren't on the same plane:





Alignments as shown in SotA are almost impossible on our solar system, e.g. Mars, due to its inclination of 1.85 degree to the ecliptic, will go down and up it about 2000 times it's diameter, making it almost impossible to pass over a third planet (transit), like we see in SotA skies.

If I could vote about it, I would do for a more realistic astronomical system.


Disclaimer, I am no astronomer so feel free to correct this post!

 

I hear where you're coming from but...

Have you asked yourself yet if you're dreaming in a dream world or a magical one?
The gamers that will play this game will not be traveling the stars, but they may be traveling to a few of it's moons on special occasions. The sky we have is just so that the gamer can look up into the sky, between the clouds" and maybe begin to understand that that what's visible in the sky will be effecting their lives.
Astronomy it's not, yet also Astrology it's not exactly either. It's a hybrid between the two. Some conjunctions will fall of holidays to celebrate, while others may trigger a world combat or even crafting or gathering event, as well as effecting some magic schools in skills.

It's just simple because it has to be, but the actual effects are still a secret unknown to us other than what I've said here

"It will be something to see"

~Time Lord~

 

Hmm? You should not believe rumors.

Not sure about that and. In fact, I hope we will be able to meet some non-Novians on later Episodes.

 

Apart from a few fixes I would not expect the current system to get any more complicated than it currently is. Richard is apparently not keen on making a lot of changes but rather has taken the "it's magic" approach to at least one issue and perhaps others.. something I personally am quite disappointed about. It was the order or orbit durations in particular.. where planets have shorter orbital times the farther out they are until you get to the last two and those are also backwards in that regard in relation to each other.

The most I dare hope for right now is A: orbits are offset to allow alignments at midnight instead of noon.. and B: the yearly reset is fixed.

 

Well, it is still superior of any other fantasy setting I have heard off. We can only hope.

 

I agree!
As for development, I believe there may be some rifts open up every great while where we will have special access to some quest up there and something to contact with once we are there.
There's just a wide range of things that can be developed over time without ever changing what is now built. It's the search of those possibilities for the future that I tend to ponder on of what is possible given such a gaming tool.

I also believe that there will also be before and after social effects for these triggers in a mass social kind of way that was not intended or expected, just as the Christmas Shoppers are highly predictable just before Xmas...
~Time Lord~

 

Yes, because I know well the idea behind working on a reference frame at a time!

Also, I'd love to add that most satellites would be tiny light specks in the sky, not the huge, madly spinning shapes we see above New Britannia.

Or my personal pet peeve about constellations moving at insane speeds across the sky and keeping their "shapes" intact. I once dared to do the math about the energy needed to keep distant stars in synch AND moving at ludicrous speed (cit. Spaceballs) so we can still see moving drawings in the sky. It was beyond fun.

But, absolutely astrophysics-faithful realism may be a bit off for the purposes of a working sky+magic game system.

 

One thing I have noticed, that I enjoy, is that the skies are always clear on the overland map and do depict the same sky as in any instance or hunting location.
"Want to check the sky out, just take a look on the overland map"
... I like that ... !
~Time Lord~

 

Novia has indeed a nice sky. I enjoy it too. It's perhaps the mechanics behind it, hidden to all, and only partially revealed by the great work of Bowen Bloodgood, that looks like a bit too simple. My hope is to help improve it; sadly it cannot be done by just telling how great is it. We have perhaps still some time, a very short time, to help to introduce improvements on the game, past that we shall wait for the next Episode.

That's awesome! I knew most distances on solar systems representations are messed up, yet the "Tedious Accurate Scale Model of the Solar System" somewhat surprised me.

Frankly the speed of the sky objects doesn't bother me, since the day is very short on this setting I somewhat expect that. I would like, however, to have some astronomical features hidden from plain view, i.e. a telescope would be required to see them.


If I have to compare, using animals, about how real feels the system, to me it's like a barking wolf... not that weird, yet unexpected. At least is not a barking cat!

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highly_composite_number

For those who enjoy jumping into rabbit holes...

 

Every time I see this subject with our Bowen has so well presented I always can't help but believe it's somehow the way our pvp will break out from it's traditional ways and become unique when/if their happenings become linked to it.
"Go Team Bowen Bloodgood!"
@Berek ~Time Lord~

 

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Ye Olde 11/11 eclipse.... I also journaled about it...

 

This is a VAST improvement over a few releases ago when the sun was so overpowering you wouldn't even be able to see Daedelus during this eclipse. Still, you'd think it'd block quite a bit of daylight. Sky has a long way to go yet.

Pretty nice screenshot though.

 

GREAT!!! I'm doing or trying to implement more and more about Moon and Magic and the other celestial bodies to my roleplaying.

and just because of this and my Affiliation to roleplay i buyed one from another player

unfortunateley i cannot understand or invvolve in everything Bowen posts very well,
because english isn't my motherlanguage, but his studies helped my very much to develop
my role as a seer, seidr, astrologist...