Making space-movement truly free?

I think you can do it, by hving massive gravity wells at all planets pretty much.
It would make things very slow without relative physics to speed ships along though.
This kind of physics is no longer in the game?

It was said there was a way to mod in open maps. The game was originally designed without the phase lanes so who knows.

I don't think the code we'd need for that exists anymore. Also, I don't think they ever did it without grav wells (certain engine limits -- like being unable to fire from grav well A to grav well B even though grav wells A and B overlap suggest otherwise), its just that originally you could travel from any grav well, to any grav well.

that kind of physics could never be accurately depicted in a game.

nope, grav wells are considered seperate entities. what you would merely have would be overlapped grav wells

the devs have taken sheers to everything, so I doubt its still part of the code.

And anyone mind answering the second question? (Which file contains the info for the minimum/maximum distance planets can be to each other)

I asked this question bluntly once. They said no .

Actually, its more like they would never be accurately depicted -- no fun, counter-intuitive, and for most people confusing.

I'm in favor of mod-able grav wells. For example a mod that could make each gravity well become a mini solar system, with a star in the center and a few planets. Planets would of course become smaller (Maybe the size of mineral asteroids now). I think this would be possible with a 3d engine. I assume it is possible to make the textures smaller quite easily, since you can zoom in out as is.

Ships could have a very high max speed, but a low acceleration, which would remove much of the time unnecessary to travel between planets.

I'll probably end up just using very big gravity wells, with few planets. Now, I would be able to test this theory out if I could FIND the file that decides the distance between planets :/

Well, if you use a set map you can do that easily enough. Its the (default) random maps that'd be the problem...

no, it cannot be depicted, too much of relativity distorts more than just space. how would you deal with time dialation? curvature of spacetime? its not as simple as throwing in some modifiers here and there.

Thats a good point, and something I didn't think of.

Orbital mechanics would be done easily enough, but relativity... good point. I thought the OP was just asking for orbital mechanics, not relativity

time dilation would appear like 'bullet time' is space combat  :LOL: 

multiplayer would be a bitch though

"hey, why are we desynched????"