Tech to change star type?

For what's not in 'Top Priority Game Design'. Post your ideas, visions, suggestions for the game, rules, modifications, etc.

Moderator: Oberlus

Message
Author
Jaumito
Space Kraken
Posts: 189
Joined: Tue May 16, 2017 3:42 am
Location: Catalonia, France, Europe, Earth, Sol, Orion Arm, Milky Way, Virgo Cluster

Re: Tech to change star type?

#16 Post by Jaumito »

Geoff the Medio wrote:
Jaumito wrote:Of course there are exceptions to this rule (e.g., evolved stars like super/hypergiants or stellar remnants), but for main-sequence stars at least (i.e., the "normal" ones), there's a pretty direct relation between mass and "color", as seen in the chart below.
Considering the entire Hertzsprung–Russell diagram shows less clear correlation, however...
Guess there's a reason why I wrote "for main-sequence stars". White dwarfs (below) are stellar remnants, giants (above) are evolved, soon-to-be stellar remnants, and both fit in my "exceptions" clause. So no real disagreement here.

Besides, the HR diagram plots surface temperature against luminosity with no mention of stellar mass, so one might conclude that it's not really relevant to the point at hand. That would be wrong: as I alluded to earlier, there's indeed a relation between mass and luminosity, ...BUT it includes a variable exponent and an empirically determined factor, which may make deducing the mass of a non-main-sequence star from the HR diagram only (especially in the upper-right corner, due to the rarity of samples in that area) a bit tricky...

User avatar
Oberlus
Cosmic Dragon
Posts: 5715
Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2017 4:25 pm

Re: Tech to change star type?

#17 Post by Oberlus »

Well, then, I wouldn't mind changing red to blue start requirement for the artificial blackhole :)

Jaumito
Space Kraken
Posts: 189
Joined: Tue May 16, 2017 3:42 am
Location: Catalonia, France, Europe, Earth, Sol, Orion Arm, Milky Way, Virgo Cluster

Re: Tech to change star type?

#18 Post by Jaumito »

Oberlus wrote:Well, then, I wouldn't mind changing red to blue start requirement for the artificial blackhole :)
Ah, but as MatGB pointed out, that would make blue stars far too valuable. OTOH, if the process was cataclysmic enough (like, wiping the system planets clean of pop, infrastructure and specials, or even removing them entirely - or a random mix of both), then I wouldn't mind a change.

LGM-Doyle
Programmer
Posts: 219
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 8:37 pm

Re: Tech to change star type?

#19 Post by LGM-Doyle »

I imagined the rational was, a red star was the largest star that could be safely (non-cataclysmically) transformed into a black hole. It is just coincidence that it has convenient game balancing properties.

User avatar
Krikkitone
Creative Contributor
Posts: 1559
Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2003 6:52 pm

Re: Tech to change star type?

#20 Post by Krikkitone »

LGM-Doyle wrote:I imagined the rational was, a red star was the largest star that could be safely (non-cataclysmically) transformed into a black hole. It is just coincidence that it has convenient game balancing properties.

That makes sense as a 'realism/technobabble' description... large stars are best for making a natural black hole....but small red dwarf stars are the best for making an artificial one (without blowing up everything in the system)

Atarlost
Space Floater
Posts: 24
Joined: Sat Oct 24, 2015 1:58 am

Re: Tech to change star type?

#21 Post by Atarlost »

Jaumito wrote:
Oberlus wrote:Well, then, I wouldn't mind changing red to blue start requirement for the artificial blackhole :)
Ah, but as MatGB pointed out, that would make blue stars far too valuable.
But all the value of a blue star is lost by turning it into a black hole. It stops benefiting phototropes, can no longer run your stellar generator (which I'm pretty sure would have stacked with the black hole generator), and while they retain the ability to build energy hulls the value added there is smaller than the value added to a red star.

User avatar
MatGB
Creative Contributor
Posts: 3310
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2013 11:45 pm

Re: Tech to change star type?

#22 Post by MatGB »

Atarlost wrote: But all the value of a blue star is lost by turning it into a black hole. It stops benefiting phototropes, can no longer run your stellar generator (which I'm pretty sure would have stacked with the black hole generator), and while they retain the ability to build energy hulls the value added there is smaller than the value added to a red star.
Well, you obviously don't collapse a sun where phototrophes live, and you can have solar generators elsewhere, bright stars aren't that rare, habitable black holes deliberately are. Currently Solar generator and Black Hole generator stack, that might change, we're working up to a balance pass on production modifiers soon.

Currently, the Solar Hull is nerfed with a lot of slots commented out, that will be changing, it remains the single most powerful hull in the game. Making the energy line (which is the most powerful brute force line) even easier to use would make the solar hull more powerful, given that it's overpowered that's not going to happen.

Seriously, I'd be up for red, orange and yellow stars being collapsible if there's a strong argument, but I won't currently consider blue or white being collapsible, the ship hull balance is fragile enough as it is and putting in lots of extra work there isn't something I want right now.

Personally I'm happy with it just being red, it works for me in game and I'm not seeing a game balance/strategy reason for it to change, it's not meant to be an easy option.

And we don't do realism, we justify our decisions with plausible nonsense as necessary for the game.
Mat Bowles

Any code or patches in anything posted here is released under the CC and GPL licences in use for the FO project.

Jaumito
Space Kraken
Posts: 189
Joined: Tue May 16, 2017 3:42 am
Location: Catalonia, France, Europe, Earth, Sol, Orion Arm, Milky Way, Virgo Cluster

Re: Tech to change star type?

#23 Post by Jaumito »

MatGB wrote:Personally I'm happy with it just being red, it works for me in game and I'm not seeing a game balance/strategy reason for it to change
More, I definitely see a reason for it to NOT change: would you play a phototrophic species in a multiplayer game where most (or all) stars could be collapsed?

Atarlost
Space Floater
Posts: 24
Joined: Sat Oct 24, 2015 1:58 am

Re: Tech to change star type?

#24 Post by Atarlost »

MatGB wrote:
Atarlost wrote: But all the value of a blue star is lost by turning it into a black hole. It stops benefiting phototropes, can no longer run your stellar generator (which I'm pretty sure would have stacked with the black hole generator), and while they retain the ability to build energy hulls the value added there is smaller than the value added to a red star.
Well, you obviously don't collapse a sun where phototrophes live, and you can have solar generators elsewhere, bright stars aren't that rare, habitable black holes deliberately are. Currently Solar generator and Black Hole generator stack, that might change, we're working up to a balance pass on production modifiers soon.
It's not obvious. If you had to sacrifice a blue star for a black hole rather than being able to use a worthless red star and you were playing Chato or Laenfa you would either collapse a star where phototropes lived or deliberately go out of your way to colonize a blue star with non-phototropes in expectation that you would later collapse it.
Currently, the Solar Hull is nerfed with a lot of slots commented out, that will be changing, it remains the single most powerful hull in the game. Making the energy line (which is the most powerful brute force line) even easier to use would make the solar hull more powerful, given that it's overpowered that's not going to happen.
But changing which star is used doesn't change how easy it is to get Solar Hulls unless the stars have different rarities because the Energy Compressor and Solar Containment Unit can be built at the same time. I'm pretty sure blue stars are not more common than red stars, and I think they might be rarer.

Post Reply