Better space travelling system

Tesik

Member
Jul 25, 2015
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When I launched a Tier 1 rocket on Mars, I realized that tier-based travelling system is a complete disaster - it wasn't even possible to go back. I was thinking about a better system of space travelling and got this:
there are some factors, that affect your radius: remaining fuel, rocket tier, boosters and gravity.
The space catalog should make a circle (let's leave squares to keep logic, this time) centered where you launched your rocket and when you select your destination, it should tell you how much fuel is it going to cost you to get there. for example: if you had 600mB of fuel left, your range was 400Mm and moon was 362Mm from you, it would take 543mB of your fuel, since 534mB/600mB=362Mm/400Mm
With this travelling system, planets should be moving far slower to add another aspect to space travelling - timing.
I'm not talking about 1 Earth year to take 5 real life days. That would be realistic, but hardly acceptable for most players. So it should be like 1 earth year = 96 in-game days (like in terrafirmacraft) or even less.
 

InsanityPie

Member
Jun 18, 2014
132
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Im nowhere but also everywhere
That seems like a great tweak to make for the mod... ive always thought the tier system was a bit strange. Using the system you proposed we can have capablities like launching a tier 1 rocket from Mars and being able to travel to and from the martian moons as well as other planets with moons or space stations. It's realistic and fits in a gameplay perspective, not to mention balance isn't a concern since the higher tier rockets hold fuel and certain distances travels need more fuel to reach their targets, if the entity value system I proposed a bit ago is added to the mod then each tier of rocket can even have a 'effective gravity' value so that it's 'more efficent' for traveling from certain worlds.

Say you launch a tier one rocket, that rocket is 'Apollo class' so to speak so it wouldn't cut a long term space voyage but would be perfect for moon travel and escaping the overworlds gravity but has the ideal fuel tank storage for a lunar trip. Now say we upgrade that rocket to a higher tier like tier 2. That tier 2 rocket has more fuel storage then a tier 1 and can escape the overworld with minimal fuel burn due to expanding on the tier 1 design so to speak, allowing it to travel more efficently so it can reach Mars while tier 1 can't.

There shouldn't be 'tier planets' but instead your travel capability solely depends on the rocket you launch and where you launch it from. Say I launch a Mars mission from my moon base, that would honestly be the ideal place to launch from with such a system in place just as it would be in real life if humans had a base on the moon.
 

pra

Member
Mar 7, 2015
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I have thought about that as well. The difficult thing will be to prevent "planet hopping", aka, once you get to mars, what stops you from starting there and going to Jupiter, etc.? The distances between Jupiter and Neptun are a whole different story than Mercury to Mars.
But, I think a Tier 1 rocket should always be only able to reach stuff in the current planet system, aka, a planet, it's moons, and potentially any space station.

For the rest, you could repurpose the planet's tiers, making them an approximation for distance: Mercury: 1, Venus: 2, Earth: 2, Mars: 4, Jupiter: 6, Saturn: 8, Neptune: 10, Uranus: 12. Moons would have the same tier as their parent planet for this purpose.

Now with a Tier 2 rocket, you could go to any planet with a tier +-1 of your own, which would mean Venus, Mars and also Mercury, by stopping on Venus. You couldn't get to Jupiter or further, though, because the tier difference between Mars and Jupiter is 2, which is too high for this rocket.

The Tier 3 now could bring you to any planet with a tier fo +-2, which means you could go from the Earth to Mercury directly, or from Mars to Jupter (or rather his moons, I guess). And after that you should get a rocket which can you bring to any point in the current system, and after that another one which can reach other systems
 

InsanityPie

Member
Jun 18, 2014
132
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Im nowhere but also everywhere
While that is a good idea pra, it is also a bit ocmplicated... im honestly not sure if galacticraft can track all that but if so then it's a great travel system!

On the topic of 'planet hopping' though, maybe we should just do away with tiers all together? Give a bit more freedom so to speak yet still require us to explore dungeons in order for upgrading our rockets to travel farther out. We can use your idea for each planet being assigned a specific distance as well, the higher grade the rocket the larger it's travel radius so we could use a tier 2 for travel between the overworld and mars, venus and the overworld, but not mars and venus as an example.

Tier 3 rockets would allow us to reach jupiters moons from mars while a teir 4 will allow us to get from jupiter to the overworld and so on. There should be ways to collect fuel on certain planets though to prevent from getting stranded indefinatly like what we have for the atmospheric valve.

Basically in the beginning of your space journey you will rely of planet hopping and ideal launch locations for optimal travel but as you progress that becomes less and less of an issue until you are at a tier that can travel almost anywhere(Maybe a wormhole upgrade?). Fuel reserves and safe landings will be true menaces instead of just minor annoyances since becomeing stranded will be a true probelm if your not careful and don't plan ahead. Manned moon missions will be key to reaching mars or venus at first. Probes/rovers will be ideal for scouting a landing area for rockets and finding a safe zone to touch down.

Rovers can even have a 'remote control' feature to allow players to build with it from the safety of the overworld so they can setup the initial base without worries... to control them they need a sattelite in orbit of the planet they are on to allow a connection, just for balance and to make sense how you control them.

Another improvement to rockets will be the ability to select the coords you want to land at on the target planet, while taking fuel costs into effect depending on the difference between the launch coords and target set.
 

pra

Member
Mar 7, 2015
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Overworld
Well, what I meant was basically a simplified distance, because as someone pointed out somewhere else, if you make the distances realistic, you couldn't possibly display it as neatly as it is now. The inner four planets would be basically on top of each other, and about 90% of the screen would be the empty space between the outer four. So what I meant was basically, you have the "distance" as an internal vaule only, which is disregarded for the planet selection screen. And then you have some planets between which there is a distance of 1, others with a distance of 2, others with 3 etc. Then different rockets can cross different distances at once. I think we are basically talking about the same thing here...
 

InsanityPie

Member
Jun 18, 2014
132
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Im nowhere but also everywhere
Uhh, I never said anything about showing distances on the planet selection screen... if there was a misunderstanding then sorry 'bout that.

Basically keep the planet screen as is but give distances better travel values, make more sense?
 

Codym2405

Member
Mar 3, 2015
115
4
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Australia
The position of the planets in the planet selection screen should also determine how easy the launch would be. And maybe you could even guide your space ship when you escape the planet you are on, like the rocket could follow your mouse pointer, and consume fuel as it moves, like a small mini-game, and when you get close to a planet/moon it's gravity can effect you, and if you get to close you will go to said planet/moon you will enter the entry phase galacticraft already has. The higher the tier the faster you go and the less fuel you consume.
 

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