Oolite Bulletins

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Wed Jul 30, 2025 3:00 pm

I haven't tried working out if Oolite's planetary orbits are randomly oriented in space, or if they adhere (more or less) to a "fundamental plane" - which in the Solar system is the plane of Jupiter's orbit. Earth's orbit is 3° off that plane, and all of the planets are within 10° of it - except poor banished Pluto out at 17°. More highly inclined orbits are more common in small bodies (asteroids, asteroid families, Rock Hermits, giving the Trader looking for cheap PGEs, olivine (gems) and under-the-counter weapons a reason to stray from the main space "(p)lanes".

We have two Expansions Manager suites of OXZs organising Solar Systems (and three others ones).


1) I'm quite sure that Stranger would have introduced a vaguely realistic ecliptic into his OXP suite:

 Habitable Main Planets redefines planets' radii to realistic values for advanced eco-systems and colonisation
 Moons simulates psuedo-dynamic moon configurations
 Planetary Systems simulates psuedo-dynamic solar system configurations for terrestial planets & gas giants
 Sun Gear creates more realistic solar systems with solar winds and with main planets in habitable zones. Requires Habitable Main Planets.oxp
And there are another 8 texture packs for the planets/moons, and then OXZs for stations, activities around them, etc.



2) Spara/Redspear's  Additional Planets suite has static non-moving planets which are positioned to look good from the witchpoint.



The rest) Don't know about  Orbits. Or  Deep Horizon. Or  FarPlanets (selected systems only, unfinished).



There is also  SOTL Exploration - cim's scenario. Since it has Lagrange points, I presume that it also has an ecliptic.

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Wed Jul 30, 2025 3:00 pm

Bi-lobe bodies raise the interesting concept of two Rock Hermits in one body, both resenting being forced to share a spin axis. That could make for some really tricky docking ...

Many moons ago Eric (IIRC) shared some ideas about planet-scraping moons, which I thought was a cool idea. But a model of a dumbbell-shaped asteroid with two docks would be cool, too.

Wildeblood wrote: ↑Wed Jul 30, 2025 4:31 pm

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Wed Jul 30, 2025 3:00 pm

Bi-lobe bodies raise the interesting concept of two Rock Hermits in one body, both resenting being forced to share a spin axis. That could make for some really tricky docking ...

Many moons ago Eric (IIRC) shared some ideas about planet-scraping moons, which I thought was a cool idea. But a model of a dumbbell-shaped asteroid with two docks would be cool, too.

And the two docks either fighting for the "rotation axis = my dock" prize ; or bug- (customer?) splatting
Or, for that matter changing axes on an external clock (hmmm, thinks : several off-axis flywheels ; that's not physically impossible) which would make docking ... "interesting".