It could be, Wacky... The file is "Base_Planet_5_1". That means it's a texture for a main planet, with an economy of 5 (Rich Agricultural), and it's the first of five possible textures for that type.
As for time - Don't ask. It was the first one I started, and to a certain degree I'm still working on it. But like anything, the earliest ones take the longest because you're learning.... (Least that's what I'm telling myself. )
I'd guess no. The script I'm using to determine what texture to use is making a pseudo-random selection from among 5 choices. This is determined and applied after the system is actual created, from what I understand.
Also, there's no way to communicate where a landmass on the map is to the planetfall script. I'm not sure there's even a mechanism to to determine "what part" of the texture you're over.
But - I'm also a novice OXP creator. Who knows... (shrug)
Would it be possible to make the planetfall "stations" visible? Like little docking platforms parallel to the surface, so you had to fly near the ground then land in a hangar? That would be cool.
I shot him back first. That is to say, I read his mind and fired before he would have fired on me. No, sir, he wasn't a fugitive.
IIRC the idea behind Planetfall is not that of station-like structures on the planet, but more like grounding. But I could be wrong.
I think there are two technical/visual problems involved: (1) to place the station/structure in a way that it looks convincing (not too far off the ground, bat also not colliding with the surface), and (2) the problem mentioned above: with textured planets the structures would sometimes appear on "land", and sometimes in "water", which probably would look silly.
Correct, the ethos behind planetfall is that you actually make, umm, planetfall - ie you actually land.
OK so it is done by a little trick of making a temporary station appear just above the planet surface when you get close enough to almost crash (think of it like an airbag ), but as McLane says, they're not designed to be visible.
We (especially Eric) did have a play with that kind of scenario, but it looks very weird, as the planet rotates underneath the station (which of course stays still), and you end up in most cases being able to either see under or in some cases even fly under the station. They can't be too close to the surface or else they themselves crash, or the game does occasionally if you end up trying to spawn the station inside the planet.
For me my current way of doing it works well enough, and the 600+ downloads of it seem to agree with me
I like it too, and I do use it. I was just wondering if it'd be possible. I don't suppose it'd be possible to have a collision box smaller than the model, would it? You'd still have the planet turning under the station but it'd be interesting... And somebody around here was talking about a cloud city OXP which would be easy to implement, right? Might try doing something like that, unless the person who was talking about it (i forget who it was ATM) is already planning to work on it or isn't OK with me poaching their idea...
I shot him back first. That is to say, I read his mind and fired before he would have fired on me. No, sir, he wasn't a fugitive.
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), but as McLane says, they're not designed to be visible.