Scale Questions (Split from Screenshots)

[Kuikka]

Very nice looking models indeed!

For some reason I can't seem to find topic where I could find answer to few questions: what is the unit scale for this mod (Vanilla or modified)? When I started to play sins I found Infinite Space mod with nice scale (big planets) and very nice looking planets ( skyboxes + rendering (?) as there's heavy contrast between light and darkness on planets) https://i.imgur.com/nKA5ayh.jpg https://i.imgur.com/PwpKkl0.jpg ...

[Corey]

Units in the mod are slightly smaller than their vanilla counterparts on average, and are properly scaled against each other canonically (with some exceptions like the Altor, which was scaled down because of its role). As for whether we'll be scaling planets and gravity wells differently, we don't know yet. We want to avoid issues with the planet textures being too grainy, or having to be so high res that they take up the limited amount of ram we have to work with.

[Kuikka]

Thanks for the reply (I should have made a new topic to this to begin with)!

I understand the scale issues, not to mention how some people find it difficult to follow ships and "enjoy watching the combat" if the scale is too big. I personally like more "realistic" approach. In SW Requiem the scale was pretty much vanilla, and Executor filled the entire gravity well, and battles were also pretty "cramped" (executor blocked other ships and it was a nightmare to control it as it didnt find space to turn etc) http://i.imgur.com/HPGvUQN.jpg

[Corey]

Yeah - really, our first concern is functionality, then it's a mix of visual and realism considerations. Battles are certainly more spaced out for us than Requiem (though, to be entirely honest, I was never really able to get into Requiem so I can't say much); there are still several ships which function best when put directly into the middle of a fight. As far as planets go, there are issues with making planets too big that require the gravity well to be absolutely enormous, or else the "tactical ring" around the planet becomes pretty small and it has a negative impact on fleet spacing and game pace, although alternatively when planets are too small (like the dwarf planets in vanilla) it just looks stupid. I'm honestly pretty comfortable making planets a little bigger than the typical ones (Terran, Volcanic, etc) in vanilla, but not quite massive.

[Kuikka]

Good points. One thing is also defence - big scale "might" require bigger "fighting distances" for ships and for turrets/stations. In SoGe there are cases where building a classical hedgehog defence is impossible (in good and bad) thanks to massive planet + gravity well which leaves huge caps to zones of Golan's and turret's area of effect. This is especially true for AI which cant really build good defences, yet AI manages to smell even the smalles gaps in player's defences, ignoring battle stations (argh, those sneaky siege frigates)... Second thing is that battles might take a while if there's a huge system one needs to go through (on the other hand that allows the strategic usage of faster ships versus slow capitals...).

I agree, a compromise between "visually nice" and functional system would be the best solution.

[ngforever1989]

I was curious also, after playing SOGE. Their scaling and ship speed ruins the mod. It doesn't feel like star wars when you have to zoom in stupidly close just to see a star destroyer. I know space and a really big dam place, but for funs sake i'd like to see the battle. And hear it as well, you also have to zoom in to hear as well as see. They released an optional patch that reduces weapons ranges (gotta all get closer to fight). But it doesn't realy make up for it at all. Armada 3's scaling is rather comfortable and pleasing for star trek. Id like to have the same for your mod, comfortable and fun scaling for giant star wars ships l

Found this thread after getting fed up with SOGE and jumpin in thrawns revenge for a more star warsy time. At least my star destroyers aren't tiny and can't zip around planets with ICW.

[Rovert10]

Oh boy this again with SOGE...

[ngforever1989]

actually, my post is out of order for some reason. idk, but im new around so "again" isn't applying to my experiance.