' Wrote:Erm, ever think that the Trade Lanes would orbit...With the planets? Though, I haven't studied orbital physics, no, I have studied physics, yes. Now, then, we are given these game physics. We can make physics work for those, or we can make up a new game. Pick one...
Yes ... they would orbit as well ... and they would NOT remain in a straight line as a result. Planets orbit around the sun at different velocities (unless they were in the same orbital plane ... which is extremely improbable. There are NO such models in existence (with the exception of planets with moons orbiting them). Bottom line ... the trade lanes would NOT remain aligned ... thus ... no possible way for them to be useful. The planets orbit the sun ... the lanes would orbit the planets at their ends. And the planets are not always aligned. The Earth takes 365.25 days to orbit the sun. Mars take 687 days (nearly twice as long to orbit the sun). So a trade lane between Earth and Mars would be stretched to the point that the middle lane gates would drift away from both planets and likely end up all over the place. Not to mention that each lane gate would be in its own orbit. Bottom line ... in reality ... won't work.
And thank you for admitting our problem. We have "game physics" (another name for "game mechanics"). We've gotta deal with the programmer's limitation. You want reality ... then docking rings and mooring stations don't exist (in role play) ... they're just there because its a game limitation. If you wanna accept that these things exist in real life ... then don't talk to me about reality.
