NMS Theory About Distances

[damon8r351]

Someone's proven something about distances in No Man's Sky: https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/739857-no-mans-sky/74196391. There's some interesting info in there if you're into large scale astronomy, but the gist is that it seems distances between stars and distance to the center is calculated at a 4:1 ratio. In other words, if you're traveled a distance of 10000ly from star to star, even if you've pointed your nose directly at the center each time, you'll notice you've only gotten roughly 2500ly closer to the center.

 

Perfect example in my own case: after finishing the Atlas Path, I went through a black hole that deposited my ship 170000ly from the center at a rough 3 o'clock position in the galaxy according to the Pilgrim Path tool. I built a base on the nearest planet that I named Beta Hydri, set a waypoint to it for future reference, then pointed my nose to the galactic center and began warping 2300ly at a time. A few days later, I notice I'm about 162000ly from center. I look back at my base waypoint and notice Beta Hydri is roughly 32000ly away. Again, a 4:1 ratio.

 

It's currently unknown if this is a glitch or working as intended. People are defaulting to "Hello screwed up again!" My personal thought is that this is intended: when you pick out a star 2000ly away to fly to on your Theta-class warp core, you're not flying directly to it. You'll notice that each star on the map is connected by translucent lines. You actually have to follow these lines to each star one by one if you're using a baseline hyperdrive. I've come to think of these lines as "roads" or "shipping lanes". So my personal theory is when you warp to a new star, even if it's 2000ly away, your ship is actually strictly following these shipping lanes, and you're flying by each star on the lanes between your last location and your destination, unseen by your POV. Sort of like how if you set a waypoint, you'll notice the route is never in a straight line, it zigzags between stars. That's how I think your warp core ranges are calculated, while distance to center is calculated in a straight, as the crow flies line outside the "shipping lanes". You're not actually flying 180000ly to the center of the galaxy, you're actually flying 720000ly to get to the center.

 

Another example: the Chesapeake Bay. Say you need to get from Tappahannock, Virginia, to the dangly bit of Virginia on the other side of the bay, called the Eastern Shore, in a car. Shortest distance would be a straight line, but you're in a car and you have to follow the roads. So you either drive south to Virginia Beach and cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, or head north to Annapolis and cross at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. There's plenty of precedent in science fiction already for this: starships need to warp to a different system, have to physically move themselves to a warp point, then warp system by system until they reach their destination. Elizabeth Moon definitely does it like this, and I think Jerry Pournelle does too. David Weber managed to make it so ships in his books have to catch the right "wind" to reach their destination. Rebel Galaxy had you enter the right contraption floating in space to get to your destination.

Personally, it would make more sense if distance to center was displayed using the route you actually have to take, star by star, instead of the distance as the crow flies, but nevertheless. So here's the theoretical Why you're not getting to the center as fast as you think you should.

Edited May 25, 2017 by damon8r351