Outpost Solar System

[dm-horus]

Outpost 1
I dont know much about this game, so I put it to the forumites. Are there any details in Outpost 1 given about the structure/layout of the solar system gameplay takes place in? If so, give me details. If not, can anything from the story or cutscenes reveal more?

Outpost 2
All I can be sure of in OP2 is that New Terra is barren and cold. Most likely a moderate distance from its sun in a similar fashion to Earth or Mars. The solar system has a sun which we can only assume is main sequence yellow dwarf like ours. I cannot tell much else from cutscenes or story details (unless Im forgetting something).

Outpost Sequels
Have you thought of an interesting idea for a solar system in regard to another chapter of Outpost? Is there something youd like to see in an Outpost sequel? Aside from Genesis, what other ideas do people have?

[CK9]

(MUAHAHAHAHA!!!  my termonology is spreading!)

I think it would be cool to have a binary (two star) system

[Freeza-CII]

A pulsar star would be interesting to. because you could have a disaster based on the pulsing star.  Like a Ionizaion effect that shuts off the minimap or makes a fog of war.  Maybe even cut power in half.

Perhaps even a Quasar, Nuetron star, Red giant, possibly in a nebula.

[CK9]

don't forget the red giant, either!

[Freeza-CII]

Perhaps even a Quasar, Nuetron star, Red giant, possibly in a nebula.

Already covered that lol

[Sirbomber]

Outpost 1 has multiple solar systems you can choose from, each with their own probability of survival/success (hint: don't choose the ones with a 0% chance). So if you want to know more, you'll have to play it and look at them all.

As for Outpost 2, all I know is there is a gas giant somewhere that they used to fuel the starship.

[Betaray]

a pulsar is a regular nutron star that emits radio waves and rotates very fast, so that the beam swings by earth every second or so, so it appears to pulse

and most of those stars wouldnt heat the planet up enough for a mars like world, and if the planet was close enough to a very low outpout star, like a class M, it would be titaly locked, like our moon is, so one side would get perpetual day and would be boiling, and the other side would be perpetual night, and would be freezing

what I think would be intresting would be to have a mars sized moon orbating another planet about 6 times or so the size of earth, the star would be very small, and the planet would be close to it, the big planet would be titally locked, but the moon would be habitable, and it would have intresting day night effects

[TRIX Rabbit]

Astronomers accually found 3 near-earth sized planets orbiting a puslar. they theroize that because the supernova would have obliterated them, they must have formed from the remains of the supernova particles. the plantes are as warm as earth (they lie in the path of the radio-sweep) but are so radioactive (because of the radio-sweep) that they are unlikely to even have hopes of sustaining life. Besides, they would be perpetually dark \

[dm-horus]

yes, pulsars and the like effectively have death-rays shooting from their poles and anything in their path is irradiated. these beams can extend far outside the solar system and can affect neighboring systems.

i used to be interested in pulsars and ive got some sound bytes of pulsars that spin so fast the "click" made by the pole swinging past earth that it becomes a single tone. i had heard that a planet was found around a double pulsar star system and nobody is quite sure as to how it got there. im thinking a captured planetoid of some sort as the system is far too violent to sustain planetary formation and any past novas from the stars would obliterate anything in orbit.

ive done simulations and from what i can tell, a co-orbital stellar/planetary system is impossible. stars are many orders of magnitude larger than any planet and if a planet were even 'close' to being on par with the mass of a star, it is likely that the planet would ignite and would effectively BE a star. also, from what i can tell it is impossible for a planet of such high mass to be close enough to a star to be co-orbiatl. its like if you tied a dumbell to a rope, held the end of the rope and started spinning on your center, the dumbell wants to go out as far as it can, not the opposite. the heavier the object, the farther out in the system it is likely to be. keep in mind, there is a barrier at which gravity becomes weak enough that mass and rotation win over and the planet is cast out of the system. there is effectively a "band" in which massive-scale planets can orbit safely. that band is far outside the boundary at which a system can be considered co-orbital. also be aware that even if there are only 2 bodies in the system (star and massive planet) it is still not considered co-orbital unless the center of rotation is outside of the surface of either body. if this confuses people, ive already got animation prepared.

[Betaray]

yea, I dont think we should colonize any of those lol

[dm-horus]

what about colonizing a planet that has been thrown out of a star system? i dont know how probable that would be, but i know its never been done.

[Betaray]

well it would have no atmosphere, its tempreture would be close to absolute zero, no obvious energy sources, any minerals would be heterogenous with the rock due to the lack of magma, so mineing would be very diffucult

just seems like a gloomy place to live

not to mention, it would be almost impossible to grow crops

[CK9]

What if an artificial star could be created for the outcast planet?

[Betaray]

a bit too high tech for the outpost universe dont you think?

[CK9]

you never know, I mean, with an OP3, it could take place any number of years after the end of OP2, or be an entirely new game

[Betaray]

makeing a star out of nothing

humerous idea, but even a fully developed civalazation would take hundreads, probly thousands of years to invent that technology, let alone a coloney that spent most of its last time doing a crash space program and fighting to survive

[CK9]

nonononono, you miss what I'm saying.  You don't make it out of nothing, you use what resources are available.  Here's the full thought process I had:

Hmmmm...planet with no star...how could it be colonized?   Make a star!  Let's see, New Terra survivors land on a different planet, become super-advanced over a long period of time...then screw up again, 'cause time travels in a spiral...but what about inconsistancies?  Ah skrew it!  Those will show up...let's see...a sun is basically a nuclear reactor...so an artificial star would just be a really advanced research combining space and nuke technologies!

um, yeah, it went something like that...

[Betaray]

well yea, its sci fi, so you can do anything

im just saying on a liniar time scale, right after eden (or ply) launched from op2, they would not have the technology to make a star

[CK9]

beta, history repeats itself, thus time is not linear.  However, the repeats are not the same distance, thus time is not circular.  Hence, time goes in a spiral

[Betaray]

what the hell are you talking about?

[CK9]

it's in responce to your "linear time" thing

[Freeza-CII]

I think OP3:Genesis is running paralle to the op2 story i think youll have to ask leeor.

You would need alot of Alpha Hydrogen to make a star. and then a means of compressing it to make the fusion happen.

A Rouge planet would be no more usefull then a Asteroid.

In a binary star system s*** would just fly all crazy like in there obital paths lol.

I think a planet in a Nebula would be the best.

[CK9]

but then you have to ask: how'd the planet get there?  Nebulas are another result of supernovas

[Freeza-CII]

Not all nebulas are the reminats of a star.  And as far as the hubble telescope is concerned there are planets and stars in some nebulas.

[CK9]

hold on, let me find that thing again...

"After a star with an initial mass of less than about eight solar masses has completed its core hydrogen burning it becomes a red giant:

Helium is now burning in the core, producing carbon and oxygen, while hydrogen burns in a thin shell surrounding it.


The star brightens by a factor of between 1,000 and 10,000.


The outer, hydrogen-rich envelope swells to enormous size. It may become as large as the orbit of the Earth, or even Mars.


The surface temperature of this extended envelope drops to about 5,000 to 6,500 degrees Fahrenheit, which is rather cool for stars, and makes the star appear red.


A strong wind begins to blow from the star's surface (akin to the Sun's solar wind, but much stronger), and, in the course of the star's red giant life, carries away most of the hydrogen envelope surrounding the star's central core.


During the final shedding of its envelope, when the mass loss is the greatest, the star pulsates -- the surface layers expand and then contract in repeating cycles -- with periods from several months to more than a year. Such pulsating stars are called long-period variables.


The envelope material ejected by the star forms an expanding shell of gas that is known as a planetary nebula.

Planetary nebulae typically have masses of about two-tenths that of the Sun, although some are considerably more massive. They expand at the "modest" speed of about 10 to 20 miles/second (about 35,000 to 70,000 miles/hour) and plow into the surrounding interstellar medium.

Planetary nebulae are illuminated by their central stars and display a variety of often beautiful structures. Some are spherical or helical, others have bipolar shapes, and still others are rather irregularly shaped. In a matter of a few tens of thousands of years, they intermingle with the interstellar medium and disperse.

On average, one planetary nebula comes into existence each year in our galaxy, the Milky Way. About 1,500 have been identified"

from http://observe.arc.nasa.gov/nasa/space/ste...ardeath_2a.html