Noctis
Encyclopedia
Noctis is an open source
computer space flight simulator
featuring first-person visual exploration of an imaginary galaxy
The player is manifested in Noctis as a physical intelligent being in charge of a fantastic spacecraft
called a Stardrifter, capable of instantaneous interstellar travel. This allows travelling between star
s, refuelling the Stardrifter from Lithium
ion-ejecting stars, approaching planet
s in star system
s and their moon
s, and even landing where it is physically possible. Many planets feature atmospheres and weather effects. Some harbour plants and animals, or even mysterious ruins. No goal or measure of success is imposed by the game: it simply allows to catalogue and annotate the player's discoveries in a common database
of stellar bodies called the GUIDE, which is to be synchronised over the author's Internet server. The player can explore the Stardrifter and even walk on its roof.
In the game's sci-fi
setting, a fleet of Stardrifters was left behind by a race of sentient cats known as Felysians who abandoned their home world (planet
Felysia, star system
Balastrackonastreya) long ago for unknown reasons. The Felysians were the only sentient beings
in the Noctis galaxy, so there are none to find in the Noctis game.
and Assembly
, but Alex is currently writing a new version (to be released as Noctis V) in his original low-level programming language
, called Linoleum
.
and uses a fixed display resolution of 320 x 200, and an upper limit imposed on the walking distance from a planetary landing site. (This does not restrict your ability to explore the planet, because you can freely take off and land on a different part of the planet.) These limitations do not apply to the Noctis galaxy because it contains over 78 billion stars, most of which host many planets and moons orbiting them.
The current version of the game is called Noctis IV. In the release of Noctis IV, Alex included a facility to have planet names and notes sent back to him and then compiled into a central database of information called the GUIDE. People playing the simulator (also called Stardrifters) could then share their findings with others, and a community of explorers soon developed (on the Noctis forums) around that, vying for a wide range of discoveries
, such as the planetary system
with the most planet
s or the biggest tree in the Noctis universe
. This is currently the only way to interact with other players, since Noctis, being a single-player game (not including other Stardrifters summoned in the game, which are NPC
s), has a protagonist who does not speak.
For some time Alex regularly compiled a new GUIDE based on emailed submissions of players of their "Outbox" and allowed the compilation to be downloaded as an "Inbox"; the GUIDE has not been updated for several years since 2005, but since December 2008 the service has been restored again. A more automatic system of "massively single-player" content sharing is used in 2008's Spore
.
The game gained popularity in early 2000 after receiving a very favourable review in Home of the Underdogs
's list of worthwhile free games. Noctis earned a score of 9.43 out of 10 as well as the site's "Top Dog" award. The reviewer noted amongst other things the magnitude of the galaxy to explore and the total size of the simulator, which weighs in at under one megabyte
.
The source code
for Noctis IV was released to the public in 2003, which has led to the creation of a fan-made "mod" to Noctis called Noctis IV CE (commonly abbreviated NICE). NICE includes bug
fixes and additional features which increase the playability compared to Noctis IV. The terrain generation code has also been altered in the NICE version, which means that remarks made in the Noctis IV GUIDE are largely invalid for NICE.
(which Ghignola has developed himself), a low-level programming language
that is currently being shaped to better suit Noctis. (However, this also results in a slowdown of the program's development.) To paraphrase the official Noctis webpage: Linoleum and Noctis have evolved together
.
Not much is known for sure about Noctis V, but much of what is known about Noctis V is based on screenshots and details that Alex has revealed. (Such information is collected here.) It is known for sure that the rendering engine has been completely redone from scratch. (Alex first attempted to simply translate the Noctis IV engine into Linoleum, but gave up and rewrote it.) Alex has also mentioned experimenting with weather and particle effects (possibly things like snow and dust storm
s).
There is no set release date for Noctis V, but Alex has repeatedly assured the Noctis community that he has not given up on the Noctis project, and has no intention of doing so. The most recent assurance was posted on 2 July 2009 http://anywherebb.com/message/102714.
Development of the project began on 11 October 2001 http://www.anywherebb.com/postline/posts.php?t=409&p=3.
s in radius, approximately double the radius of the Milky Way Galaxy. With the exception of landing on some world types (being gas giant
s, Substellar Objects, and—although these have been made landable in NICE—unstable worlds), this galaxy is entirely open to be explored. Billions of worlds can be explored despite the program
's relatively small size, due to its content being generated on the fly
. The Noctis universe contains several types of planets and 12 types of stars, noted in-game with an S in front of the number of the star.
Gas giants
: Giant planets that consist of gas and can harbor many moons, similar to Saturn
and Jupiter
.
Quartz
worlds: Worlds that, as the name would suggest, have a surface consisting mainly of quartz. They are medium-sized and carry a pure oxygen
atmosphere. No world like this is present in our solar system
.
Thick atmosphere
worlds: Medium-sized planets that have a rocky surface and an extraordinarily thick atmosphere in the tens of Felysian Atmospheres. Temperature
s can vary widely from planet to planet of this type. Two examples of this type of world would be Venus
and Titan
.
Felysian worlds: Medium-sized planets that are suitable for, and in many cases contain, life. These are usually found orbiting S00 stars but can also be found around S03 stars and others depending on which version/mod of Noctis you may be using. These planets are similar to Earth.
Thin Atmosphere worlds: Worlds that are about medium sized, rocky, and have a much less prominent atmosphere, such as Mars
.
Dusty, no-atmosphere worlds: These are worlds that are small, rocky, and lack any significant atmosphere, such as Earth's Moon
.
Craterized, no-atmosphere worlds: Worlds that lack a significant atmosphere and are also marked with numerous impact craters, such as Mercury
.
Unstable worlds: Internally hot, volcanically
active worlds. These worlds are unlandable in the standard versions of Noctis, but in certain versions of NICE, landings for these worlds are being implemented. These worlds are similar to Io
, one of the moon
s of Jupiter
.
The Noctis universe notably lacks black hole
s since it is based on the Wave Theory of Field, a model of physics that doesn't provide for the existence of such entities. This model is also the basis of the stardrifter's faster-than-light
drive. It is a drive fueled with lithium
ions predominantly harvested by "scooping" for lithium while orbiting S06 stars, using a device that seems to work like a Bussard Ramscoop, and operates by creating a maximass (another feature of the Wave Theory of Field) that expands space near the stardrifer, creating a wave for the drifter to "ride" upon. The drive is operated by selecting a target, and either engaging the drive, or in the case of a planet, beginning a fine approach. Manual control is not available in Noctis IV, but is planned for Noctis V. The stardrifter itself has a hull made out of quartz
, which can be made opaque by polarizing it, or left to be transparent (or rendered entirely invisible if NICE is being used). The hull needs no maintenance from the player, and it is assumed that the landing pod gathers resources for maintenance while landed on a planet, and that maintenance operations are done automatically with no involvement from the player. The stardrifter can store 120 grams of lithium
fuel, which is sufficient for journeys totalling several thousand light-years.
used in the game are Felysian units, not Human units. One Felysian gravity unit is slightly less than 1 g
. One Felysian astronomical unit, called a Dyam, is about 0.64 AU
. The Felysians use a galactic coordinate system known as the Parsis system, where one parsis unit corresponds to about 0.000045 light-years. Parsis coordinates can be entered manually into the drive system to designate a target point in outer space
, especially useful for very long distance jumps.
Time is measured in a relatively simple manner. There are 5 units in time, 4 of which are commonly used in clock
s, Triads Dexter, the same length as one Second
, Triads Medii, which is 1000 Triads Dexter, Triads Sinister, which is 1000 Triads Medii, and Epocs, which are 1000 Triads Sinister, for a total of about 31.5 Human Years per Epoc. The fifth unit of time is the Sithra, which is 50 seconds in length, and is used to measure heart rate
as Pulses per Sithra.
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
computer space flight simulator
Space flight simulator game
A space flight simulator game is a genre of simulation video games that lets players experience space flight. Highly realistic examples lacking any sort of combat include Orbiter and Microsoft Space Simulator...
featuring first-person visual exploration of an imaginary galaxy
The player is manifested in Noctis as a physical intelligent being in charge of a fantastic spacecraft
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
called a Stardrifter, capable of instantaneous interstellar travel. This allows travelling between star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
s, refuelling the Stardrifter from Lithium
Lithium
Lithium is a soft, silver-white metal that belongs to the alkali metal group of chemical elements. It is represented by the symbol Li, and it has the atomic number 3. Under standard conditions it is the lightest metal and the least dense solid element. Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly...
ion-ejecting stars, approaching planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
s in star system
Star system
A star system or stellar system is a small number of stars which orbit each other, bound by gravitational attraction. A large number of stars bound by gravitation is generally called a star cluster or galaxy, although, broadly speaking, they are also star systems.-Binary star systems:A stellar...
s and their moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
s, and even landing where it is physically possible. Many planets feature atmospheres and weather effects. Some harbour plants and animals, or even mysterious ruins. No goal or measure of success is imposed by the game: it simply allows to catalogue and annotate the player's discoveries in a common database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
of stellar bodies called the GUIDE, which is to be synchronised over the author's Internet server. The player can explore the Stardrifter and even walk on its roof.
In the game's sci-fi
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
setting, a fleet of Stardrifters was left behind by a race of sentient cats known as Felysians who abandoned their home world (planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
Felysia, star system
Star system
A star system or stellar system is a small number of stars which orbit each other, bound by gravitational attraction. A large number of stars bound by gravitation is generally called a star cluster or galaxy, although, broadly speaking, they are also star systems.-Binary star systems:A stellar...
Balastrackonastreya) long ago for unknown reasons. The Felysians were the only sentient beings
Sentience
Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive or be conscious, or to have subjective experiences. Eighteenth century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think from the ability to feel . In modern western philosophy, sentience is the ability to have sensations or experiences...
in the Noctis galaxy, so there are none to find in the Noctis game.
History of Noctis
The Italian programmer Alessandro Ghignola (better known simply as Alex) began creating Noctis in 1996, and is still working on the program's fifth incarnation. Noctis versions I-IV were written in CC (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
and Assembly
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
, but Alex is currently writing a new version (to be released as Noctis V) in his original low-level programming language
Low-level programming language
In computer science, a low-level programming language is a programming language that provides little or no abstraction from a computer's instruction set architecture. Generally this refers to either machine code or assembly language...
, called Linoleum
Linoleum (programming language)
The L.in.oleum is an unstructured, untyped, procedural programming language and a cross-platform assembler developed by Italian programmer Alessandro Ghignola beginning in 2001. The initials stand for Low-level INterfaced OverLanguage for Extremely Universal Machine-coding...
.
Past versions (Noctis I-III)
Noctis I through III are still available on the AnywhereBB website, and in some cases contain features that were abandoned with later releases, the most famous of which was the Fationic Cannon, present in Noctis II and capable of destroying worlds, and was abandoned as this misrepresented the Felysians' peaceful society. Noctis II also featured an experiment in the use of sound, but this didn't function at a high enough quality and was too disruptive to the normally silent ambience to be included in later versions. Noctis III was the only version to have a target preview screen, and carried the first implementation of The Guide, which was refined and implemented into the current-day Noctis IV.Current versions (Noctis IV, NICE)
Noctis was originally based on DOSDOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
and uses a fixed display resolution of 320 x 200, and an upper limit imposed on the walking distance from a planetary landing site. (This does not restrict your ability to explore the planet, because you can freely take off and land on a different part of the planet.) These limitations do not apply to the Noctis galaxy because it contains over 78 billion stars, most of which host many planets and moons orbiting them.
The current version of the game is called Noctis IV. In the release of Noctis IV, Alex included a facility to have planet names and notes sent back to him and then compiled into a central database of information called the GUIDE. People playing the simulator (also called Stardrifters) could then share their findings with others, and a community of explorers soon developed (on the Noctis forums) around that, vying for a wide range of discoveries
Discovery (observation)
Discovery is the act of detecting something new, or something "old" that had been unknown. With reference to science and academic disciplines, discovery is the observation of new phenomena, new actions, or new events and providing new reasoning to explain the knowledge gathered through such...
, such as the planetary system
Planetary system
A planetary system consists of the various non-stellar objects orbiting a star such as planets, dwarf planets , asteroids, meteoroids, comets, and cosmic dust...
with the most planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
s or the biggest tree in the Noctis universe
Universe
The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
. This is currently the only way to interact with other players, since Noctis, being a single-player game (not including other Stardrifters summoned in the game, which are NPC
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
s), has a protagonist who does not speak.
For some time Alex regularly compiled a new GUIDE based on emailed submissions of players of their "Outbox" and allowed the compilation to be downloaded as an "Inbox"; the GUIDE has not been updated for several years since 2005, but since December 2008 the service has been restored again. A more automatic system of "massively single-player" content sharing is used in 2008's Spore
Spore (2008 video game)
Spore is a multi-genre single-player god game developed by Maxis and designed by Will Wright. The game was released for the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh operating systems in September 2008 as Spore...
.
The game gained popularity in early 2000 after receiving a very favourable review in Home of the Underdogs
Home of the Underdogs
Home of the Underdogs was an abandonware archive founded by Thai Sarinee Achavanuntakul , aka: Underdogs or Fringer on her own blog, in September 1998, and grew to be one of the most significant abandonware websites on the Internet, despite losing its domains to cybersquatters and then briefly...
's list of worthwhile free games. Noctis earned a score of 9.43 out of 10 as well as the site's "Top Dog" award. The reviewer noted amongst other things the magnitude of the galaxy to explore and the total size of the simulator, which weighs in at under one megabyte
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
.
The source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
for Noctis IV was released to the public in 2003, which has led to the creation of a fan-made "mod" to Noctis called Noctis IV CE (commonly abbreviated NICE). NICE includes bug
Software bug
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...
fixes and additional features which increase the playability compared to Noctis IV. The terrain generation code has also been altered in the NICE version, which means that remarks made in the Noctis IV GUIDE are largely invalid for NICE.
Future version (Noctis V)
A future version of Noctis (tentatively named Noctis V or Noctis NoVa) is currently under development. Noctis V (sometimes abbreviated as NoVa) promises to relieve the restrictions of the current Noctis platform, as described above. This is because the new version of Noctis is being developed in LinoleumLinoleum (programming language)
The L.in.oleum is an unstructured, untyped, procedural programming language and a cross-platform assembler developed by Italian programmer Alessandro Ghignola beginning in 2001. The initials stand for Low-level INterfaced OverLanguage for Extremely Universal Machine-coding...
(which Ghignola has developed himself), a low-level programming language
Low-level programming language
In computer science, a low-level programming language is a programming language that provides little or no abstraction from a computer's instruction set architecture. Generally this refers to either machine code or assembly language...
that is currently being shaped to better suit Noctis. (However, this also results in a slowdown of the program's development.) To paraphrase the official Noctis webpage: Linoleum and Noctis have evolved together
Co-evolution
In biology, coevolution is "the change of a biological object triggered by the change of a related object." Coevolution can occur at many biological levels: it can be as microscopic as correlated mutations between amino acids in a protein, or as macroscopic as covarying traits between different...
.
Not much is known for sure about Noctis V, but much of what is known about Noctis V is based on screenshots and details that Alex has revealed. (Such information is collected here.) It is known for sure that the rendering engine has been completely redone from scratch. (Alex first attempted to simply translate the Noctis IV engine into Linoleum, but gave up and rewrote it.) Alex has also mentioned experimenting with weather and particle effects (possibly things like snow and dust storm
Dust storm
A dust / sand storm is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Particles are transported by saltation and suspension, causing soil to move from one place and deposition...
s).
There is no set release date for Noctis V, but Alex has repeatedly assured the Noctis community that he has not given up on the Noctis project, and has no intention of doing so. The most recent assurance was posted on 2 July 2009 http://anywherebb.com/message/102714.
Development of the project began on 11 October 2001 http://www.anywherebb.com/postline/posts.php?t=409&p=3.
Gameplay
The Noctis galaxy, Feltyrion, is approximately 90 thousand light-yearLight-year
A light-year, also light year or lightyear is a unit of length, equal to just under 10 trillion kilometres...
s in radius, approximately double the radius of the Milky Way Galaxy. With the exception of landing on some world types (being gas giant
Gas giant
A gas giant is a large planet that is not primarily composed of rock or other solid matter. There are four gas giants in the Solar System: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune...
s, Substellar Objects, and—although these have been made landable in NICE—unstable worlds), this galaxy is entirely open to be explored. Billions of worlds can be explored despite the program
Computer program
A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...
's relatively small size, due to its content being generated on the fly
Procedural generation
Procedural generation is a widely used term in the production of media; it refers to content generated algorithmically rather than manually. Often, this means creating content on the fly rather than prior to distribution...
. The Noctis universe contains several types of planets and 12 types of stars, noted in-game with an S in front of the number of the star.
Types of stars in Noctis
- S00: A yellow starStellar classificationIn astronomy, stellar classification is a classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics. The spectral class of a star is a designated class of a star describing the ionization of its chromosphere, what atomic excitations are most prominent in the light, giving an objective measure...
that is suitable for life, such as Earth's Sun. - S01: A blue giantBlue giantIn astronomy, a blue giant is a star with a spectral type of O or B and a luminosity class of III...
star. - S02: A white dwarfWhite dwarfA white dwarf, also called a degenerate dwarf, is a small star composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. They are very dense; a white dwarf's mass is comparable to that of the Sun and its volume is comparable to that of the Earth. Its faint luminosity comes from the emission of stored...
star. - S03: A red giantRed giantA red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass in a late phase of stellar evolution. The outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius immense and the surface temperature low, somewhere from 5,000 K and lower...
star. - S04: An orange giant star such as PolluxPollux (star)Pollux is an orange giant star approximately 34 light-years from the Earth in the constellation of Gemini . Pollux is the brightest star in the constellation, brighter than Castor...
. - S05: A brown dwarfBrown dwarfBrown dwarfs are sub-stellar objects which are too low in mass to sustain hydrogen-1 fusion reactions in their cores, which is characteristic of stars on the main sequence. Brown dwarfs have fully convective surfaces and interiors, with no chemical differentiation by depth...
, not really a star but more of a Substellar object. - S06: A grey giant star, no real-life examples are known of this type of star yet, but along with some S05 "stars", may provide lithiumLithiumLithium is a soft, silver-white metal that belongs to the alkali metal group of chemical elements. It is represented by the symbol Li, and it has the atomic number 3. Under standard conditions it is the lightest metal and the least dense solid element. Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly...
ions that your stardrifter uses as fuelFuelFuel is any material that stores energy that can later be extracted to perform mechanical work in a controlled manner. Most fuels used by humans undergo combustion, a redox reaction in which a combustible substance releases energy after it ignites and reacts with the oxygen in the air...
. - S07: A blue dwarf star, similar to a neutron starNeutron starA neutron star is a type of stellar remnant that can result from the gravitational collapse of a massive star during a Type II, Type Ib or Type Ic supernova event. Such stars are composed almost entirely of neutrons, which are subatomic particles without electrical charge and with a slightly larger...
. - S08: A star systemStar systemA star system or stellar system is a small number of stars which orbit each other, bound by gravitational attraction. A large number of stars bound by gravitation is generally called a star cluster or galaxy, although, broadly speaking, they are also star systems.-Binary star systems:A stellar...
, not particularly common in Feltyrion but quite common in the Milky WayMilky WayThe Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...
. - S09: A young star that is still a system in formation, similar to VegaVegaVega is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, the fifth brightest star in the night sky and the second brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere, after Arcturus...
. - S10: A runaway star that has escaped the gravitationGravitationGravitation, or gravity, is a natural phenomenon by which physical bodies attract with a force proportional to their mass. Gravitation is most familiar as the agent that gives weight to objects with mass and causes them to fall to the ground when dropped...
al pull of Feltyrion, usually ancient and similar to S03 stars (red giantRed giantA red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass in a late phase of stellar evolution. The outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius immense and the surface temperature low, somewhere from 5,000 K and lower...
s) except usually lacking planetPlanetA planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
s. - S11: These are pulsarPulsarA pulsar is a highly magnetized, rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation. The radiation can only be observed when the beam of emission is pointing towards the Earth. This is called the lighthouse effect and gives rise to the pulsed nature that gives pulsars their name...
s.
Types of planets in Noctis
Substellar objects: giant worlds, larger than gas giants, that emit heat and are sometimes failed stars similar to S05 systems.Gas giants
Gas Giants
Gas Giants were a pop rock band from Tempe, Arizona, formed as a successor project to the Gin Blossoms. The group was known as The Pharaohs when they formed in 1997, but changed their name after their label, A&M Records, merged with Universal Records and the band changed hands, re-signing with...
: Giant planets that consist of gas and can harbor many moons, similar to Saturn
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
and Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
.
Quartz
Quartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
worlds: Worlds that, as the name would suggest, have a surface consisting mainly of quartz. They are medium-sized and carry a pure oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
atmosphere. No world like this is present in our solar system
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
.
Thick atmosphere
Atmosphere
An atmosphere is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, and that is held in place by the gravity of the body. An atmosphere may be retained for a longer duration, if the gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low...
worlds: Medium-sized planets that have a rocky surface and an extraordinarily thick atmosphere in the tens of Felysian Atmospheres. Temperature
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...
s can vary widely from planet to planet of this type. Two examples of this type of world would be Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
and Titan
Titan (moon)
Titan , or Saturn VI, is the largest moon of Saturn, the only natural satellite known to have a dense atmosphere, and the only object other than Earth for which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found....
.
Felysian worlds: Medium-sized planets that are suitable for, and in many cases contain, life. These are usually found orbiting S00 stars but can also be found around S03 stars and others depending on which version/mod of Noctis you may be using. These planets are similar to Earth.
Thin Atmosphere worlds: Worlds that are about medium sized, rocky, and have a much less prominent atmosphere, such as Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
.
Dusty, no-atmosphere worlds: These are worlds that are small, rocky, and lack any significant atmosphere, such as Earth's Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
.
Craterized, no-atmosphere worlds: Worlds that lack a significant atmosphere and are also marked with numerous impact craters, such as Mercury
Mercury (planet)
Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...
.
Unstable worlds: Internally hot, volcanically
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
active worlds. These worlds are unlandable in the standard versions of Noctis, but in certain versions of NICE, landings for these worlds are being implemented. These worlds are similar to Io
Io (moon)
Io ) is the innermost of the four Galilean moons of the planet Jupiter and, with a diameter of , the fourth-largest moon in the Solar System. It was named after the mythological character of Io, a priestess of Hera who became one of the lovers of Zeus....
, one of the moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
s of Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
.
The Noctis universe notably lacks black hole
Black hole
A black hole is a region of spacetime from which nothing, not even light, can escape. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform spacetime to form a black hole. Around a black hole there is a mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that...
s since it is based on the Wave Theory of Field, a model of physics that doesn't provide for the existence of such entities. This model is also the basis of the stardrifter's faster-than-light
Faster-than-light
Faster-than-light communications and travel refer to the propagation of information or matter faster than the speed of light....
drive. It is a drive fueled with lithium
Lithium
Lithium is a soft, silver-white metal that belongs to the alkali metal group of chemical elements. It is represented by the symbol Li, and it has the atomic number 3. Under standard conditions it is the lightest metal and the least dense solid element. Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly...
ions predominantly harvested by "scooping" for lithium while orbiting S06 stars, using a device that seems to work like a Bussard Ramscoop, and operates by creating a maximass (another feature of the Wave Theory of Field) that expands space near the stardrifer, creating a wave for the drifter to "ride" upon. The drive is operated by selecting a target, and either engaging the drive, or in the case of a planet, beginning a fine approach. Manual control is not available in Noctis IV, but is planned for Noctis V. The stardrifter itself has a hull made out of quartz
Quartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
, which can be made opaque by polarizing it, or left to be transparent (or rendered entirely invisible if NICE is being used). The hull needs no maintenance from the player, and it is assumed that the landing pod gathers resources for maintenance while landed on a planet, and that maintenance operations are done automatically with no involvement from the player. The stardrifter can store 120 grams of lithium
Lithium
Lithium is a soft, silver-white metal that belongs to the alkali metal group of chemical elements. It is represented by the symbol Li, and it has the atomic number 3. Under standard conditions it is the lightest metal and the least dense solid element. Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly...
fuel, which is sufficient for journeys totalling several thousand light-years.
Measurement
The units of measurementUnits of measurement
A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a physical quantity, defined and adopted by convention and/or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same physical quantity. Any other value of the physical quantity can be expressed as a simple multiple of the unit of...
used in the game are Felysian units, not Human units. One Felysian gravity unit is slightly less than 1 g
Earth's gravity
The gravity of Earth, denoted g, refers to the acceleration that the Earth imparts to objects on or near its surface. In SI units this acceleration is measured in metres per second per second or equivalently in newtons per kilogram...
. One Felysian astronomical unit, called a Dyam, is about 0.64 AU
Astronomical unit
An astronomical unit is a unit of length equal to about or approximately the mean Earth–Sun distance....
. The Felysians use a galactic coordinate system known as the Parsis system, where one parsis unit corresponds to about 0.000045 light-years. Parsis coordinates can be entered manually into the drive system to designate a target point in outer space
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
, especially useful for very long distance jumps.
Time is measured in a relatively simple manner. There are 5 units in time, 4 of which are commonly used in clock
Clock
A clock is an instrument used to indicate, keep, and co-ordinate time. The word clock is derived ultimately from the Celtic words clagan and clocca meaning "bell". A silent instrument missing such a mechanism has traditionally been known as a timepiece...
s, Triads Dexter, the same length as one Second
Second
The second is a unit of measurement of time, and is the International System of Units base unit of time. It may be measured using a clock....
, Triads Medii, which is 1000 Triads Dexter, Triads Sinister, which is 1000 Triads Medii, and Epocs, which are 1000 Triads Sinister, for a total of about 31.5 Human Years per Epoc. The fifth unit of time is the Sithra, which is 50 seconds in length, and is used to measure heart rate
Heart rate
Heart rate is the number of heartbeats per unit of time, typically expressed as beats per minute . Heart rate can vary as the body's need to absorb oxygen and excrete carbon dioxide changes, such as during exercise or sleep....
as Pulses per Sithra.
See also
- CelestiaCelestiaCelestia is a 3D astronomy program created by Chris Laurel. The program is based on the Hipparcos Catalogue and allows users to travel through an extensive universe, modeled after reality, at any speed, in any direction and at any time in history...
— a free simulator of the Milky WayMilky WayThe Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...
galaxy - Procedural generationProcedural generationProcedural generation is a widely used term in the production of media; it refers to content generated algorithmically rather than manually. Often, this means creating content on the fly rather than prior to distribution...