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<blockquote data-quote="Sir Brennen" data-source="post: 3463192" data-attributes="member: 553"><s>Thanks. The planets were created with <a href="http://www.flamingpear.com/lunarcell.html" target="_blank">LunarCell</a>, a nifty plugin for Photoshop. The map view... umm... I forgot the program for that. The planets-and-nebula background image was generated with <a href="http://www.povray.org/" target="_blank">POV-Ray</a>, a neat free-ware ray-tracing program.</s><s></s><s>Assume the astronomers in the setting have taken measurements of 100 specific star systems in their neck of the galaxy, and are using that as their standard. An SP (&quot;Standard Planet&quot;) is the average of the diameters, masses, densities and gravities of all the planets in these systems which lie within the bio-zone. An SP just happens to be equal to Earth, for player's reference, if not character's. An AU (Astronomical Unit) is vague name enough that it could be assumed to be the average orbital distance of those same planets, and again, just happens to be equal to Earth's distance from our sun.</s><s></s><s>Errr... those are the formulas used to arrive at the planets' gravity and masses. The final numbers may not be exact if you use what's shown on the screen, but certainly close enough for game play. I chalk it up to rounding errors - the program was working with much more precise values for all the variables. Here's a comparison using the formulas you mention and the values documented on the web pages:</s><s></s><s>[code][B]Planet&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Diam&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Density&nbsp;&nbsp; Grav&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Grav&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Mass&nbsp; &nbsp; Mass</s><s>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; (miles)&nbsp; &nbsp; (g/cc)&nbsp; (Calc)&nbsp;&nbsp; (Doc)&nbsp; &nbsp; (Calc)&nbsp; &nbsp; (Doc)&nbsp; &nbsp; [/B]</s><s>Earth&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 7926&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 5.5&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 1&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 1</s><s>Forboldn&nbsp; &nbsp; 8080&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 5.6&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 1.04&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 1.03&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 1.08&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 1.07</s><s>Knorbes&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 7955&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 6.3&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 1.15&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 1.13&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 1.16&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 1.14</s><s>Ruie&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 7457&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 5.1&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 0.87&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 0.87&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 0.77&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 0.77</s><s>Uakye&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 3667&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 5.8&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 0.49&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 0.48&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 0.1&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 0.1[/code]Only a hundredth or two off in most cases, and right on the money for Ruie. Like I said, close enough for game play. Also, I could have had all the values out to five or more places, but it just wouldn't look as nice <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></s></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Sir Brennen, post: 3463192, member: 553"] [s]Thanks. The planets were created with [url=http://www.flamingpear.com/lunarcell.html][b]LunarCell[/b][/url], a nifty plugin for Photoshop. The map view... umm... I forgot the program for that. The planets-and-nebula background image was generated with [url=http://www.povray.org/][B]POV-Ray[/B][/url], a neat free-ware ray-tracing program. Assume the astronomers in the setting have taken measurements of 100 specific star systems in their neck of the galaxy, and are using that as their standard. An SP ("Standard Planet") is the average of the diameters, masses, densities and gravities of all the planets in these systems which lie within the bio-zone. An SP just happens to be equal to Earth, for player's reference, if not character's. An AU (Astronomical Unit) is vague name enough that it could be assumed to be the average orbital distance of those same planets, and again, just happens to be equal to Earth's distance from our sun. Errr... those are the formulas used to arrive at the planets' gravity and masses. The final numbers may not be [i]exact[/i] if you use what's shown on the screen, but certainly close enough for game play. I chalk it up to rounding errors - the program was working with much more precise values for all the variables. Here's a comparison using the formulas you mention and the values documented on the web pages: [code][B]Planet Diam Density Grav Grav Mass Mass (miles) (g/cc) (Calc) (Doc) (Calc) (Doc) [/B] Earth 7926 5.5 1 1 1 1 Forboldn 8080 5.6 1.04 1.03 1.08 1.07 Knorbes 7955 6.3 1.15 1.13 1.16 1.14 Ruie 7457 5.1 0.87 0.87 0.77 0.77 Uakye 3667 5.8 0.49 0.48 0.1 0.1[/code]Only a hundredth or two off in most cases, and right on the money for Ruie. Like I said, close enough for game play. Also, I could have had all the values out to five or more places, but it just wouldn't look as nice ;)[/s] [/QUOTE]

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