Let's consider the possibility of making space truly open and endless...
The way that most space games handle different star systems is to essentially contain those systems in different scenes. To travel between them you use gates (EVE: Online) or jump to the known system (Elite: Dangerous, No Man's Sky, Endless Sky). To my knowledge, none let you fly slowly between distant systems...
For good reason, mind you; there's just no point. The space between stars is largely empty; what's the gameplay value?
Ignoring that question for now, I'm just curious about whether it is even feasible. We could conceivably slice the universe into an enormous grid and use some rules to determine whether there is a system at points (X,Y) on that grid. As you, the player, fly out of one system on the grid, you would be seamlessly loaded into the next tile (think similar to chunks in Minecraft and other procedurally generated games).
I have a concern about the scale of this and the precision of floating point numbers as a result. I anticipate needing to mitigate this by having several overlaying coordinate systems:
Galactic grid coordinates
Per-tile coordinates for individual systems
Planets, as I presently imagine them, have a similar idea: They would be independent coordinate systems too, and might need multiple of different scales - this is something I've already been giving thought to.
Potential deep space gameplay:
Ship wrecks (lost generational ships)
Outcast and pirate networks off the main navigational grid
Deep space baddies (living ships?)
That last one is a question of tone: Should we have space whales? It leaves the realm of serious science fiction and enters the realm of sci-fi fantasy. So what kind of lore do we want? Should it be wild and fantastical, or more grounded? Should we have space whales?
Let's consider the possibility of making space truly open and endless...
The way that most space games handle different star systems is to essentially contain those systems in different scenes. To travel between them you use gates (EVE: Online) or jump to the known system (Elite: Dangerous, No Man's Sky, Endless Sky). To my knowledge, none let you fly slowly between distant systems...
For good reason, mind you; there's just no point. The space between stars is largely empty; what's the gameplay value?
Ignoring that question for now, I'm just curious about whether it is even feasible. We could conceivably slice the universe into an enormous grid and use some rules to determine whether there is a system at points (X,Y) on that grid. As you, the player, fly out of one system on the grid, you would be seamlessly loaded into the next tile (think similar to chunks in Minecraft and other procedurally generated games).
I have a concern about the scale of this and the precision of floating point numbers as a result. I anticipate needing to mitigate this by having several overlaying coordinate systems:
Planets, as I presently imagine them, have a similar idea: They would be independent coordinate systems too, and might need multiple of different scales - this is something I've already been giving thought to.
Potential deep space gameplay:
That last one is a question of tone: Should we have space whales? It leaves the realm of serious science fiction and enters the realm of sci-fi fantasy. So what kind of lore do we want? Should it be wild and fantastical, or more grounded? Should we have space whales?