Universe Sandbox

[J Ryan]

Just found this on the steam home page. It lists itself as:

About the Game

Create and destroy on a scale you’ve never imagined with the ultimate space simulator.

Harness the power to create black holes, collide galaxies, and manipulate gravity with just a few clicks. Inspired by the software astronomers use to unlock the mysteries of our universe, never before has astronomy been so interactive or so much fun.

Spawn a massive moon to tear apart Saturn’s rings or launch a rogue star to rip the planets from their orbits around our sun. After unleashing catastrophic destruction, create your own solar system and share it with friends.

I wonder if anyone has tried this and if it's worth the money?

[Jawawithagun]

Bought it yesterday and am still trying to find my way around it. It's got a few annoying bugs but I find it serious fun. Worth its moyey? I think so. And even if I never get very far with it, the ability to visually make and simulate solar systems and stellar neighbourhoods for SF RPGs is worth the money for me.

[Manus Celer Dei]

Can you create a nebula shaped like a massive dong? This could be an important factor in whether or not I buy this.

[Jawawithagun]

Can you create a nebula shaped like a massive dong? This could be an important factor in whether or not I buy this.

Nope. But you can shoot asteroids at Earth and explode the moon.

[Vanas]

In the first 30 seconds, I accidentally made the Milky Way lose structural integrity and scatter itself over the Local Group from the inside out.

Oops.

It's quite fun watching planetary rings deform. Or, at a larger scale, whacking spiral galaxies into each other.

Soon, I'll try to make a working solar system.

[Dave]

On a similar note, I've been playing with The Powder Toy, a (free) "falling sand" physics simulation. It's mostly been downloading other people's creations and messing with them. And by messing with them, I mean drawing up crude nuclear bombs and detonating them over town mockups.

[Kingmaker]

I am disappoint. My plan was to make a solar system by putting down a sun, placing about a grillion tiny rocks, and letting time do the rest. The simulation crashed.

I also managed to accidentally collapse the Milky Way and Andromeda collapse into a pair of ultradense spheres. I have a feeling that getting the hang of this is going to take some time.

[PeZook]

On a similar note, I've been playing with The Powder Toy, a (free) "falling sand" physics simulation. It's mostly been downloading other people's creations and messing with them. And by messing with them, I mean drawing up crude nuclear bombs and detonating them over town mockups.

I managed to make a crude HEAT shell in that one

Of course powdertoy can't simulate proper physics of that sort of round, so it's not quite the real one, and penetration is patethic,but hey

[Imperial528]

I am disappoint. My plan was to make a solar system by putting down a sun, placing about a grillion tiny rocks, and letting time do the rest. The simulation crashed.

I also managed to accidentally collapse the Milky Way and Andromeda collapse into a pair of ultradense spheres. I have a feeling that getting the hang of this is going to take some time.

I know how you feel. I'm trying to make a 6-star system, and so far they just all clump together, I wish I knew how the system I used as a model (Castor) actually looks IRL, since I probably fucked up the initial positioning and velocities.

[SpaceMarine93]

Too bad you can't actually simulate development of life as well.

[doom3607]

Yeah- I'd like to get a nice system-spanning population of twenty billion or so then ruthlessly exterminate all but a remnant with a vicious comet barrage.

[FaxModem1]

I think that's proof enough that most people shouldn't be gods.

[PeZook]

Yeah- I'd like to get a nice system-spanning population of twenty billion or so then ruthlessly exterminate all but a remnant with a vicious comet barrage.

It would be even cooler if the little guys could shoot the comets down on you

I think that's proof enough that most people shouldn't be gods.

It's also an elegant explanation of why most gods in mythology are such complete assholes.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Ultimate power corrupts ultimately - that's why God's such a wanker.

[doom3607]

This is giving me ideas... if the GalCiv2 LP goes well, would anyone object to either Black & White or Dominions 3 being next? And yes I realize this seems to have wandered way the hell off topic...

[SpaceMarine93]

"Ultimate power corrupts ultimately - that's why God's such a wanker."

Agreed, but not necessarily true - i know from experience. I am fundamentally a good guy, and I know the whole principle of power corrupting absolutely. In some games i am always do my best to actually care for the sims being played with. An example - SPORES - I ran around placing monoliths and meeting minor alien powers. I have the power to overwhelm them, and I COULD destroy them. But instead I choose not to. I nurture the younger races, and make alliances with nearly every other power. (Note: I have been acting like a jerk, though. There had been some scenarios in which I use terraforming tools to exterminate entire species on planets i desperately want to colonize without breaking the Galactic code)

Perhaps the key is, while having powers of a god, to have emotional attachment to the smaller people he/she/it is fooling around with with as well as being genre savvy enough about the power corrupts issue to avoid that trend. If it doesn't stop it outright it could at least delay it. Alternatively you could have some form of checks and balances to your power.

[Eternal_Freedom]

If there are checks and balances it is not ultimate power, but you are right on the rest of it.

Then again, I'm the guy who would build ltos of fnacy towns on SimCity 2000 only to inflict horrendous disasters, fires, floods, meltdowns, alien attacks etc.

In fairness to myself, I would always stop the disaster from destroying everything, and then rebuild. But still

[doom3607]

Meh. In SimCity 4 I'd download other people's nice cities off the web. Then I'd start by igniting the fire stations and assaulting the police stations. Then fun things like tornados started hitting the hospitals, and the aliens slagged the high-density residential areas, and I laughed.

[Eternal_Freedom]

And so it came to pass that the human race fell...and I looked down upon my new dominion, and I thought it good

Hang on, I'm channeling the Master again. Damnit my therapist said to stop doing that...

[SpaceMarine93]

Which brings us to an intersting philosophical dilemma - if a good person is given the power of a god, free to do whatever he want with the universe, with no reprecussions. Now note, he could do practically whatever he want with the snap of his fingers; he could solve all problems that plague the universe and all its life forms - war, diseases, natural disasters, hatred and bigotry, ignorance, and even death and Heat death itself etc. - without even snapping of his fingers. If a good man, by our standards, is granted such opportunity - should he take it?

[SpaceMarine93]

Personally, I won't. I had too many disturbing ideas in my head to begin with