Solar flares

[Arkcon]

Hey everybody. I see from SOHO that our dependable sun is at it again - Biggest solar flare in quite a while {Link}. Now these flares can occasionally cause some minor problems on Earth. But I wonder about other stars and other planets.

I've often thought of making an event - Solar Flare: Production reduced due to major solar activity, yadda yadda. I never did it because, it just didn't seem satisfying as an event.

So, a question, what do you think a good event for major solar activity should be. And don't just limit opinions to what's possible in SE4 -- I'd like SE5 to have a solar event like, for 2 years shields in system are at 50 % or x points of hull damage per month, and so forth.

[ October 28, 2003, 16:16: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

[Baron Munchausen]

Yes, I've requested this myself several times. 'Storms' should not be permanent features of a solar system but developing and changing from turn to turn. Some stars would produce more than others, of course, and they need to change slowly enough that you can stay hidden in them.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

it has the letter's CME directly oposite vertically from where it looks like the CME is being ejected

[se5a]

can you make it so that solar panels on ships give 50% more suplys?

and ships with solar sails get 1 extra normal movement point.

there, those are some good things for a flare

[narf poit chez BOOM]

shouldn't that go in the ability's for objects thread?

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
it has the letter's CME directly oposite vertically from where it looks like the CME is being ejected

The picture you see is looking directly at the sun from here. The CME is not just the mass at the bottom, it's the entire cloudy white area all around the center circle. It makes more sense if you look at the movie they have linked form that page.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

i already looked at the movie. your explanation made sense.

[ October 28, 2003, 21:38: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[oleg]

Originally posted by se5a:
can you make it so that solar panels on ships give 50% more suplys?

and ships with solar sails get 1 extra normal movement point.

there, those are some good things for a flare

Very good ideas. But I don't think it can be easily implemented - extra lines of code with only minor effect on the overall game performance.

[ November 05, 2003, 09:51: Message edited by: oleg ]

[oleg]

Originally posted by Arkcon:
Hey everybody. I see from SOHO that our dependable sun is at it again - Biggest solar flare in quite a while {Link}. Now these flares can occasionally cause some minor problems on Earth. But I wonder about other stars and other planets....

It is getting bigger and bigger !
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3242353.stm

I wonder if our Sun will go Nova soon

[henk brouwer]

The new solar flare will probably be rated X40 or higher (which is HUGE):

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...re_031105.html

It's twice as high as the most powerfull flare ever detected with satellites. It's not directed at earth though.

Last weeks flare was directed at earth, and I got to see the Northern lights for the first time in my life very cool. A very rare event for the netherlands.

[ November 05, 2003, 11:18: Message edited by: henk brouwer ]