more realistic lunations

ecgwine

By ecgwine
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ecgwine Wolfbait

ecgwine

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This is my first post, so first let me thank the developers for this great game. I've only played it for a few days now, and I find it deeply absorbing.

So -- the Moon appears to rise and set opposite the Sun regardless of phase. I find this quite jarring for navigation purposes (in reality a sickle moon rising in the east means it is morning, not evening, and a sickle moon setting in the west means it is evening, not morning -- and a "dark" moon high in the night sky means ... either there is an eclipse, or it's a death star...)

Just moving the Moon to its proper position relative to the Sun depending on phase seems like a minor change that could be implemented without too much hassle or impact on gameplay.

(I have seen this thread, but it is about ambient lighting)

By the way, I am glad for the "moving stars" added recently, it does add a sense of time passing during the night, but of course what anyone would do in the wilderness at night is try to locate the polar star and navigate by it.

I understand "real stars" cannot be easily implemented in the game without major changes to gameplay, so I am not going to submit this as a "wish" -- adding the polar star (along with real constellations) would mean committing to a geographical latitude, and the sun and moon would need to stick to the ecliptic, and then it would become inescapable to commit to the "fact" that "Northern Canada" is really on the equator, with constant 12-hour daylight cycles... Or else short winter days would need to be implemented, which would mess considerably with gameplay --- though I will humbly submit that I can see an attraction in such a feature, say the game starts around autumn equinox (12 hours of daylight) and then days will get increasingly shorter, leading to a natural progression of game difficulty (plus adding a long-term tactical aspect of storing supplies for deep winter, the aim of the sandbox game could be "survive until spring"). But I can see this would be a quite different game, I am just noting this along the way, my "feature request" here is just having the Moon move relative to the Sun as its phases change.

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Patrick Carlson Pathfinder

Patrick Carlson

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This is my first post, so first let me thank the developers for this great game. I've only played it for a few days now, and I find it deeply absorbing.

So -- the Moon appears to rise and set opposite the Sun regardless of phase. I find this quite jarring for navigation purposes (in reality a sickle moon rising in the east means it is morning, not evening, and a sickle moon setting in the west means it is evening, not morning -- and a "dark" moon high in the night sky means ... either there is an eclipse, or it's a death star...)

Just moving the Moon to its proper position relative to the Sun depending on phase seems like a minor change that could be implemented without too much hassle or impact on gameplay.

(I have seen this thread, but it is about ambient lighting)

By the way, I am glad for the "moving stars" added recently, it does add a sense of time passing during the night, but of course what anyone would do in the wilderness at night is try to locate the polar star and navigate by it.

I understand "real stars" cannot be easily implemented in the game without major changes to gameplay, so I am not going to submit this as a "wish" -- adding the polar star (along with real constellations) would mean committing to a geographical latitude, and the sun and moon would need to stick to the ecliptic, and then it would become inescapable to commit to the "fact" that "Northern Canada" is really on the equator, with constant 12-hour daylight cycles... Or else short winter days would need to be implemented, which would mess considerably with gameplay --- though I will humbly submit that I can see an attraction in such a feature, say the game starts around autumn equinox (12 hours of daylight) and then days will get increasingly shorter, leading to a natural progression of game difficulty (plus adding a long-term tactical aspect of storing supplies for deep winter, the aim of the sandbox game could be "survive until spring"). But I can see this would be a quite different game, I am just noting this along the way, my "feature request" here is just having the Moon move relative to the Sun as its phases change.

Thanks for this detailed outline of suggestions, ecgwine. And welcome to the forums as well.

I can't say right now what some of the implications would be if these changes were implemented, but I will for sure pass them on. I do know that star navigation is on the team's mind.

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Sly Pathfinder

Sly

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I can't say right now what some of the implications would be if these changes were implemented, but I will for sure pass them on. I do know that star navigation is on the team's mind.

Please, please, please add the polar star and basic constellations! For the stars! For the navigation!

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M.Godfrey Survivor

M.Godfrey

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On 30 October 2015 at 10:22 PM, Patrick Carlson said:

Thanks for this detailed outline of suggestions, ecgwine. And welcome to the forums as well.

I can't say right now what some of the implications would be if these changes were implemented, but I will for sure pass them on. I do know that star navigation is on the team's mind.

 Horray! 

A massive Plus one to this thread,  +1

 

I've considered this a few times myself, but have no idea on how hard it would be to program/impliment, but navigation is one area that needs to be improved. I struggle still to not use the maps I've found online all the time, although have left some areas unexplored so i have the thrill of getting lost again!

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Sly Pathfinder

Sly

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On 7/15/2016 at 5:28 AM, M.Godfrey said:

I've considered this a few times myself, but have no idea on how hard it would be to program/impliment, but navigation is one area that needs to be improved. I struggle still to not use the maps I've found online all the time, although have left some areas unexplored so i have the thrill of getting lost again!

Yes. Same for me. 

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terryt3535 Prepper

terryt3535

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On 7/11/2016 at 8:21 AM, Sly said:

Realistic night sky not implemented still. But the sun is rising on the East and setting on the West! It is very good.

I don't believe this is the case. I read that someone discussed this before but I could not find the topic. In the PV Farmstead house, go out the door by the refrigerator at sunrise. The sun is right in front of you. According to the Great Bear Island map, the sun is rising in the Southwest.

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Sly Pathfinder

Sly

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On 8/1/2016 at 9:17 PM, terryt3535 said:

I don't believe this is the case. I read that someone discussed this before but I could not find the topic. In the PV Farmstead house, go out the door by the refrigerator at sunrise. The sun is right in front of you. According to the Great Bear Island map, the sun is rising in the Southwest.

Probably you are right. But still, the sun do rise and set, that is good.

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M.Godfrey Survivor

M.Godfrey

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Has anyone noticed that since Resolute Outfitter update on the xbox one, you can see the stars as they appear in constellations. I have checked this constantly, as I now don't use the maps, and am vowing to not use one for when I hit up Forlorn Muskeg. On mystery lake, the plow can be seen in the sky towards the lakeside cabins, from there I can find the pole star, always keep this on my left hand side when returning to the Camp Office, it appears in the same place every night so is a useful reference point, even if it just to remember your orientation when walking.

 

Have yet to confirm this works on other maps though. If noticed that most of the player created defence maps (whiteberry etc) don't appear to have north at the top of the map, which may be confusing unless you take note of the compass rose on them.

 

Any thoughts?

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