But with the expansion increasing the planet sizes many times over just recently and the resulting positive feedback it has been getting relative to very little negative feedback, I figured it might be time to once again consider changes even further in that direction. But due to how much greater the change would potentially be, it would be good to discuss/review the pros and cons. I'll open with some thoughts, concerns, and comments we've had in the past on the subject, then leave the thread open for replies and comments.Once in a while, I receive feedback from a few people who express interest in having planets increase in size to what would be considered 'realistic' in terms of actual universe scaling. But what most of them fail to do is objectively articulate the gameplay benefit and purposeful relevance to the game (ie existing gameplay options, requirements, and functions). They say they want it, but provide little in terms of explaining why or how it would improve gameplay outside of just a concept of 'feel'. So that's one area I'd like to tackle in this thread, either for or against the idea of fully realistic planet sizes.
For moderately realistic planet spacing and scaling, a planet would likely cover at least several sectors and have to be spaced apart from other planets by at least many dozens of sectors, often many hundreds. So you can imagine the effect this would have on open travel times, descent times, and long (LONG) waits for completing basic tasks in the game. Players would likely be chronically asking for new jump gates to everywhere as open space travel, even with jump drives, would become tedious, long term investments of time and resources. I'll go over possible work-arounds and 'patches' to solve such problems later. But one shift toward realism in this aspect would require other multiple shifts in other areas that many current players would likely not be willing to give up.
For example, try it now. Fly around the game's universe at 50-150 MPS, including planet descents at the required minimum speed to maintain flight. That will give you the sense of a major increase in the relative size of the planets in the game's universe. How did that improve the game for you, specifically? What benefit(s) did you discover by having to contend with the large relative planet sizes? And on the other side, how did this hurt gameplay for you, specifically? What drawbacks did you discover by having to contend with the large relative planet sizes?
If the planet sizes were increased further, consider the volume of players who enjoy the planet sizes the way they are now (which have already been increased many times over) and how they would then be forced to contend with extended descent times and far longer waits. They would (rightly) soon be asking for ways to speed it up. Time warping, faster speeds... you name it. Then if that compromise is implemented, what good was increasing the size of the planets in the first place? Plus, changing speed limits would radically change numerous elements of the -gameplay- in the game (not the least of which being combat dynamics) while time warping isn't feasible with others in the game running at different time rates in multiplayer for obvious reasons.
A point some make is that project A or B is doing something, therefore Evochron should too. However, that carries little weight with me as I don't really care what other games may do in terms of what I want to do with Evochron. My goal is not to imitate or duplicate, but make Evochron the game I enjoy playing and supporting along with others who share the same interests in terms of design and gameplay. So I prefer the discussion to be about what such a change would do to help or harm this game specifically.
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