So after a quick search of google and the forum search, I am here to suggest the idea of complex air mechanics. Space is a big big place with almost no air (just a tinsy tiny bit) and if you ever look at how much money NASA is spending to keep their air where they want it, then for a space/sci-fi game it should be implemented. My idea is to use complex air mechanics to add more depth to the game. Planets should have a variety of atmospheres, and if the environment is too extreme it will harm (or kill) the creature in it. The two main properties of air should be pressure, and composition. Pressure should be contained by every "pressure zone". A pressure zone is an area cut off from all other pressure zones, thus it retains it's own pressure. When you merge two zones they will equalize with some equation like this - ((Pressure of zone A/Size of zone A)+(Pressure of zone B/Size of zone )/2 When the pressure of a planet is too high or too low, your character will take damage (similar to the bends). The pressure of a planet will increase or decrease depending on how the player shapes it. If you say, on a low pressure planet open up a huge high pressure cavern, the planet's overall pressure will increase based on the size of the cavern. Composition would be that air would consist of probably double the amount of compounds than species, so that there will be enough compounds to make certain species breath the same air, some unaffected by certain compositions, while having other compounds poisonous. There would be no way to tell what the air is made up of (without equipment to do so). If possible, air would be made up of a % of all the compounds, so certain species would have a certain tolerance to every %. Plant life native to one planet could be used to change the overall composition of another, however a large amount of those plants would be needed, and the first ones would have to be bread in a bio dome that can support the needs of the plant. Although a mechanic like this would be nice, if not completely feesable it would still be nice to have just an overall pressure of a planet that could be changed through machinery or some other means.
It's just that air is not tangible, and would be made up of multiple compounds. Also, it doesn't have to flow, or level off, or affect the character in any way other than harm them if the conditions are not right. Other than that it's exactly like water.
wayyy lighter then... like water as in enough of it pushes you and it can be compressed becuase it would be easier to reuse the water mechanic
Has anyone here played the powder toy? It has an awesome air simulation system based in pressure AND air temperature and in my shitty computer it makes no lag. To eliminate the lag in-game maybe you could just simulate a dome around the player instead of an entire world?
*shakes head* too laggy and too complex, it would make the game way harder than it would already be... just use terraforming?
gases are too complex in this game, the most they can do is make the atmosphere more/less friction, burning, and breathability I think
