Moon

Overview

Moons are destructible voxel objects with their Gravity field, atmosphere, possible vegetation, and hostile life. They are similar to Asteroids in that they’re fully destructible voxels, and have randomly generated Ores but that’s where their similarities end. Moons range in size from 19km to 38km, however, they can be Planet sized 120km in diameter (only if spawned in manually). By default, each moon is accompanied by a Planet, unless manually spawned by a player. Moons and planets are the same objects technically and are very similar in practice, with a few key differences being: Moons are much smaller often only 38 km in diameter, and possess much weaker gravitational fields – down to 0.25 g.

Much like Asteroids they are completely immobile and never will move no matter how much force is applied, and are themselves not in any way affected by gravity. If two planets were spawned very close to each other inside both of their gravitational fields, neither of them would ever fall into each other and meet. Although objects would experience some very strange gravitational effects from both of them.

Surface Generation

While their surface appears randomly generated, they’re pre-loaded voxel models. There is no procedural generation with Moons or planets. When the size of the Moon is increased, it stretches the models to accommodate the new size. The textures and vegetation aren’t stretched, only the surface model is. Each Moon type Earth-Like Moon, Europa, and Titan will spawn the appropriate models and surface textures associated with them. The same properties are applied even when it is spawned in manually by the player via (default) – SHIFT+F10 in Creative Mode.

Ore Generation

Cobalt Ore	Gold Ore	Ice	Iron Ore	Magnesium Ore	Nickel Ore	Platinum Ore	Silicon Ore	Silver Ore	Stone	Uranium Ore
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

Surface

(~15 to ~50 Meters): Large horizontal veins of Ores with a thickness of a few meters. Each ore patch usually contains 1-4 ores. Different ores of the same patch can be found at different height levels. The surface above the ore patches is slightly darker and a brownish color, so they can be easily spotted from a higher position. All ice lakes on the surface of a Moon contain Ice ores.

Boulders

Ore is hidden inside stone rocks that are spread randomly over the surface. Boulders are all about the same size, they contain about ~20,000 of rare ores up to ~100,000 of iron ore. Under certain conditions, the positions of non-drilled boulders are reset completely, so GPS-Markers on these rocks become void. The rocks are also voxel entities that are separate from the Moons voxels. They do overlap the moon in the way that station blocks do.

Atmosphere

Different moons have different atmosphere densities, some with none at all. All thrusters behave differently in a moon’s atmosphere. Moons with less dense atmospheres the less effective Ion Thrusters for example are and they operate with higher output. Atmospheric Thrusters on the other hand increase in effectiveness the dense the atmosphere is. <A general explanation of how a moon’s atmospheres and its effects work.>

Ion Thrusters

Ion Thrusters (Large Thruster), vary linearly in effectiveness from a minimum of 30% near the surface of a moon with a thick atmosphere to full 100% effectiveness out of it. Planets or Moons entirely without atmospheres will have Ion Thrusters operate at full effectiveness.

e = effectiveness of Ion Thruster as a percentage

r = current altitude/distance from the core of the planet in meters

R = radius of the moon in meters A = ‘LimitAltitude’ effectively defining the height of the atmosphere.

H = The ‘Hills’ Parameter – it’s found in the planet’s sbc file, it loosely correlates to the maximum height of any mountain/hill as a ratio. Typically this is exactly ‘0.12’.

e = [(r – R) / (R x H x A) ] x 0.7 + 0.3

Atmospheric Thrusters

Atmospheric Thrusters act almost inversely with Ion Thrusters, while thick atmospheres are disadvantageous to Ion Thrusters – advantageous to Atmospheric Thrusters. They operate anywhere from 100% at the moon’s radius or ‘the surface’ to 0% effectiveness (providing no lift or propulsion) when they leave the atmosphere of the moon. They require an atmosphere to operate, whether breathable or not.

e = effectiveness of Atmospheric Thruster as a percentage

r = current altitude/distance from the core of the moon in meters

R = radius of the moon in meters

A = ‘LimitAltitude’ effectively defining the height of the atmosphere, typically 2.0

H = The ‘Hills’ Parameter – it’s found in the moon’s sbc file, it loosely correlates to the maximum height of any mountain/hill as a ratio. Typically this is exactly ‘0.12’.

e = 1 – [(r – R) / (R x 0.7 x H x A)]

Gravitational Field

g = the current acceleration due to gravity felt at r (the current altitude away from the core) in m/s^2 (on the surface it should be 9.81 m/s^2 or 1 G)

r = current altitude/distance from the moon ‘center’ or core in meters.

R = the predefined Radius of the moon [Typically 60 km] in meters.

H = The ‘Hills’ Parameter – it’s found in the moon’s sbc file, it loosely correlates to the maximum height of any mountain/hill as a ratio. Typically this is exactly ‘0.12’.

if r > R x (1+H) g = 9.81 x(R x (1+H)/r )^7 [Gravity after the “hills” parameter attitude decreases exponentially]

if R <= r <= R x (1+H) g = 9.81 [Gravity remains 1 G until your attitude is greater than the Hills Parameter attitude]

if r < R g = 9.81 x ( 1 – r/R ) [Under the ‘surface’/radius of the moon]

Once the gravity of the planet or moon (in units of G), reaches 0.05 G or gravitational acceleration is less than 0.5 m/s^2 anything beyond this range is no longer affected by the moon’s gravity and has completely escaped its gravitational influence. This distance is much shorter than in reality for actual planets & moons, making actual high-altitude low-speed orbits impossible – although it is possible to park a station in place at this point to act as if it were in Geosynchronous orbit.

Gravity Generators (Gravity Generator, Spherical Gravity Generator) and Jump drives are negatively affected by the presence of natural gravity from planets and moons, which for Jump Drives renders them completely inoperable – the presence of any Natural Gravity that is sufficiently detectable (greater than 0.05 G) cannot be ‘jumped’ into or out of. Gravity Generators will still operate in natural gravity but at increasingly reduced effectiveness the stronger the natural gravity becomes.

<A general explanation of how planet/moon gravity and its effects work. Heavily detailed information about natural gravity should go into the link below>

• Mechanics – Natural Gravity Explained

Hazards

Pirate Bases

Currently only present on:

• Easy Start Earth
• Easy Start Moon
• Easy Start Mars
• Easy Start Alien

Pirate Bases are hostile structures under the Ownership of the Pirate faction. They will periodically spawn hostile ships to attack the player(s) at any given location and will keep doing so until they or the player is destroyed.

The pirate bases are not randomly generated, but instead were placed manually into the world. Each Moon has a set number of these bases, and on its accompanied Planet for the player(s) to add more challenge/difficulty.

NPCs

Moons are home to NPCs, making a building or operating on a Moon much more challenging or interesting. Their aggressiveness, spawn timers, and numbers range differ from each other. The engineer’s location does not matter, they will spawn in any environment on the Moon’s surface. Listed below are the NPCs in the game:

NPC	Location	State	Drops Items?	Spawn Radius	Spawn Conditions	Frequency
Sabiroid	Alien (Planet) Titan (Moon)	Hostile	Yes	3-10m	None	15-45 Minutes
Cyberhound	Earth (Planet)	Hostile	Yes	500-1000m	Night	15-45 Minutes

Moon Variants

There are currently three different types of moons: Earth-like, Europa, and Titan.

Earth-Like Moon

Earth-Like Moon is a uniquely scaled representation of the real-life moon orbiting Earth. It has a weak gravitational field and no atmosphere.

• Earth-Like Moon

Europa

Europa is a uniquely scaled representation of the real-life moon orbiting Jupiter. It has a weak gravitational field and a dense but thin atmosphere.

• Europa

Titan

Titan is a uniquely scaled representation of the real-life moon orbiting Saturn. It has a weak gravitational field, and barely an atmosphere.

• Titan