NB Astronomy 401 *SPOILERS*

Ok this is what looks like is going on.. Each planet does seem to have a consistent orbit BUT.. the pattern of dates is reset at the beginning of the year. So the orbits do not continue into the next year. At least this looks like the case for Yellow and Red. I picked these because I confirmed a major alignment on Dec 24 of 479 and then was able to witness the very next orbit of both planets.

Again, the white highlights are dates I have actually witnessed.. or have caught close enough to be certain. While previous orbit durations were based on calculating the time it took for planets to rise and set.. this is based purely on recorded dates. Note in both cases the new patterns both hit Dec 24. Orange is included because it's part of the alignment.

Yellow: 17h
Dec 24 (479)
480
Jan 9 (13h), 26 | Feb 15 | Mar 4, 21 | April 10, 27 | May 16 | Jun 5, 22 | Jul 11, 28 | Aug 17, | Sep 6, 23 | Oct 12 | Nov 1, 18 | Dec 7, 24

Orange: (3h)
Jan. 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26 | Feb. 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28 | Mar. 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27
Apr. 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26 | May. 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28 | Jun. 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27
Jul. 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26 | Aug. 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28 | Sep. 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27
Oct. 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26 | Nov. 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28 | Dec. 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27

Red: (13h)
Feb 4, (469) This was based on a screenshot where it appeared that Red had passed true north. Not sure how to account for the discrepancy.
Apr 14 (476) - Screenshot of actual eclipse
Dec 12, 24 (479)
480
Jan 7, 20 | Feb 5, Feb 18 | Mar 3, 16 | Apr 1, 14, 27 | May 12, 25 | Jun 10, 23 | Jul 8, 21 | Aug 6, 19 | Sep 4, 17 | Oct 2, 15, 28 | Nov 13, 26 | Dec 11, 24

Status of Blue, White and Black I'd like to confirm a few more dates but I expect those orbits reset also. Green almost certainly has the same issue. I just haven't confirmed the first and last orbits of the year visually. It is otherwise holding to the 11 hour pattern.

 

I hope they change so it don't resets at the beginning of a year its so unnatural.

 

I can't decide if this is a bug or intentional.. but if it's intentional I very much agree and not just for that reason.. but also because of the distinct lack of viable events this creates. The longer orbits need more time to be involved in major alignments. It's like the current system is crippled.

I know we're not going for realism here but to have the entire system reset every year on top of all the other problems this sky has? The more I dig into this the worse it gets.

I will keep collecting and verifying data but I hope this doesn't become one great big "I told you so!" down the road.

 

Ok.. the updated numbers are looking good. Planets are hitting their anticipated dates consistently. Pretty sure I got it this time. *knock on wood* The OP has been updated with orbital patterns/predicted dates. Here are all the current planetary alignments and their dates.

Major Alignments:
Yellow + Green + Orange: Nov 1
Blue + Green + Orange: Dec 6
Red + Yellow + Orange: Dec 24 (479)

That's it.. 3 major alignments.. no more.. no less. 3 is the number of the major alignments and the number of major alignments shall be 3. There are no 4+ planetary alignments. Nor shall there ever be unless the devs fix the sky because it resets itself every year!

Minor Alignments
There are so many alignments involving Orange that they're not even worth mentioning. 21 of them actually. Other minor alignments are:

March 16: Red & Green
April 10: Yellow & Green
April 21: Blue & Green
April 27: Red & Yellow
May 15: Green & Black
June 10: Red & Black
June 20: Green & White
June 22: Blue & Yellow
Jul 28: Black & Yellow
August 19: Green & Red
August 23: Black & Blue
September 23: Yellow & White
December 26: Black & White

Not to speak for anyone else but.. kinda disappointed here. Next.. the simulation! The actual 'final' this is the current sky simulation.. and all that's left is to visually verify predicted dates.. I suppose we can think of Dec 26th as a major alignment with Black & White being opposites but it really is no more rare in the current system than any other 2 planet alignment not involving Orange.

Now if Dec 6th & 24th had Purple instead of Orange & Yellow respectively we would have a good major alignments for Truth, Love and Courage.. which may have been the intention but NOPE.. Purple only appears at night.. sorry.

 

I believe we will need to figure out one model that has the desired properties and convince them to use it instead of the current.
In the time when people believed earth was in the middle this is how they pictured it.




When they observed the planets they noted they sometimes seemed to move back for a while and then continue to explain that
they added that the planets moved in a circle around a point that in turn circled around earth.



One problem we has is that planets moves so fast that that alignments can be over very fast.
We can reduce that problem if we instead of circles assumes the planets moves in .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler's_laws_of_planetary_motion
Kepler's second law means that if a planet moves in a ellipse


In this picture assume the yellow sphere is earth. From earth the planet will seems to move faster when nearest (perihelion) and slower when furthest away (Aphelion)

Our fast moving purple planet is moving very fast if we give it a ellipse that bit extreme aphelionerihelion 3:1
It would mean that it moves 3 times slower there.

Now coordinate this so that the fastest will be at maximum possible distance during alignments then the alignment will last 3 times longer (with this example)

Make so all planets moves in ellipses and order so the major axis for each is directed approximate the same direction
Make the fastest planets more extreme ellipses in order for them to slow down a lot at aphelion
Goal is that alignments should appear in the direction where the planets is furthest away and thus moves slower.

 

At least we have dates, but... yeah, disappointed.

 

Whoops.. missed May 12, Red & Blue.

 

Ok so I'm working on the even more updated simulation and it's getting pretty accurate now.. I even found a 4th major alignment by watching it.. wouldn't you figure.. another Orange alignment. It's the Aug 19th alignment.. Green, Red & Orange. Not very exciting.

Sim also showed me an error in one of my dates.. This sim actually shows dates now. Date display still needs tweaking a bit but it works.

 

For completeness sake here is the latest simulation. I posted it in another thread but thought it should be here. Note that dates are now shown and accurate. As the orbits reset every year this sim will remain accurate for any year until the devs fix it.

 

Good news.. repeating orbits every year is definitely a bug. So we at least should be able to get this fixed. But this means we ought to see a full range of alignments at some point.

Bad news.. order or orbital durations is "magic" *eyeroll* and therefore probably will remain weird.

 

This was probably due to the Sun stopping at noon, then moving again afterwords. It generally moves faster than Sacrifice (I believe), and the planet was only overtaking it because the sun had stopped moving. There is no reason for this, other than "we wanted a longer day so people will stop whining about night being so dark", so hopefully that goes away.

 

~Thoughts in Effect~

~Assumptions in the Observation~ (never assume, but let's have a go at it anyway )
I believe it's the Sun that is effecting orbital speeds as it passes them. I assume this because the Orange and the Dumbbell planets are our fastest planets. If a planet were to slow down in such a way as the Sun past it, then the most noticeable effect would be on these faster moving planets.

Or as Browncoat Jayson says below

This could be correct , or not... Our friend Bowen is a very good observer... I would expect that if the planets were slowing down and speeding up, that he would have observed this happening while watching them move through the constellations.

Is the "Noon Effect" to be constant? Has it been recorded many times? always happening at Noon, or is this an assumption or second hand information?
Right now, I only trust my own eyes and those that seem to have made their observations many times personally.
We have no time pieces in the game, other than the Sun in the sky, right? If that is the case, then noon time observations would be "assuming" that it's noon and the only way to see any planet transiting the Sun, would be during the day time.
But I'm assuming your right, yet will be watching and waiting to see some more Sun-Orange or dumbbell transits.
"It's approaching Noon right now, the sun is transiting the orange planet~ It should (in a way) happen again"

"You are correct @Browncoat Jayson ... " It was the Noon Effect...

@Browncoat Jayson I need to observe the Sun the Dumbbell... or the Sun and the Orange again hu?
I reported it to Bowen just after I saw it complete this, which was 12:48 Thailand Time.
The only reason I noticed it, was that I'm watching those planets (Sun and Orange) to see if they're effecting fishing. The effects are suppose to be turned off right now, yet even then, I must establish a normal, before remarking on any effects once they do begin effecting us
~Time Lord~

 

I believe you've read my latest post in General where I actually show a sequence of screenshots showing this. I have observed this many times.

The game says Noon right when the sun hits its high point.. also the time ratio as stated by the devs is 1/24.. and a 1 hour day/night cycle. Noon in-game is always.. and I do mean always on the half hour. Just as midnight in-game is always on the hour. (in most time zones)

 

@Bowen Bloodgood, Would you mind telling me what you use to create those orreries? I like that it simulates light aswell as motion.

 

an older version of 3DS Max.

 

The sun stopping doesn't actually extend the daylight or extend how long Midday lasts. That is already achieved by making the sky brighter longer until Eevning (9pm in-game), and shortening the darkness by making it again bright around late night (3am in-game). 45 mins of brightness and only 15 mins of darkness. Each period of the day is 7.5 minutes long regardless of the sun stopping. And the sun speeds up to catch up where it should be.

I think the real reason for the sun stopping at midday is so that the player can see the eclipses at the same time every day without having to make it any more complex to calculate any other eclipse at any other time of day or night. So even if they can't see the sun due to weather, if they know the date of an eclipse, then they're guaranteed it will always happen at midday.

 

Love this OP. Thank you

 

Well as this is most recent thread I wouldn't have to revive from 20+ pages deep it's as good a place as any to give folks an update.

I'm extremely happy to say that devs are officially going to be looking at the issues that have been brought up so far. Starr said he wanted to get it all in Jira and Attenwood did the write ups this week.

Note that isn't an official promise to anything specific other than make sure it's in Jira for review.

 

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/the-sky-is-failing.46168/

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/nb-astronomy-101-spoilers.36696/

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/nb-astronomy-201-spoilers.41889/

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/nb-astronomy-301-spoilers.42222/

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/nb-astronomy-401-spoilers.44232/

~Tremendous Great Threads All Leading to Unanswerable Questions in Time~
Much within this great work is all about how stable or predictable our planets seem to be. Their associations with different constellations have been pondered as well as times of events, most having to do with planetary alignments.

#1) My concerns are "the beginning of time"...

Some have said that our time began with year and day 1 within our game clock that appears on our gaming screen. It is my understanding that this "in game time" has stopped and restarted (in relation to real world time) many times within our many pre-releases.
Our world soon becoming a never ending time without further interruptions would seem to me another such world beginning event.

#2) My concerns are "what constellations were our planets in when our time began"... (which time our time has or will begin are up to the individual perceiver)

It would seem to me, that having or assigning planetary ruler'ship or home of any particular planet with any particular constellation would or could become pertinent, within any furthering of lore about any of our beginnings.

~To All of the Above~
I feel that we may never know in any exacting way of knowing such information... and maybe it will be revealed within some future installment of our "official lore".
To brush off such a question with such simple sayings as "do the math", I believe to be impossible or improbable to any reliable conclusion.

~Our Missing Degrees~
I could be wrong about all I've said above, yet I do feel I'm correct because we still suffer the lack of precise degree measurement capabilities within our game.

I place this post in challenge to all of those that believe it could be done...
because I have been unable to...
~Time Lord~