Celestia Forums

Hi folks...

I've started a reconstruction of my Alpha Centauri A add-on, the original of which can be found here. The system, over all, won't be changed that much, although new tweaks and additions might be added as I go. However, here are my plans thus far:

The first planet, Asbolos, is [/url=http://j.dollan.home.bresnan.net/ARCPCLhermian01.html] Hermian [/url] in nature, although there is extensive rifting in one hemisphere.

The secons world, Polyphonte, is Cytherean, but at a much higher level than Venus. There are vast regions of basaltic sand "seas" on the surface, as well as semi-molten expanses, and numerous other forms of actively volcanic regions. The planet has two moons.

The third world is the [/url=http://j.dollan.home.bresnan.net/ARCPCLgaian01.html] Gaian [/url] planet of Ghellhonus. For plot and planet building reasons, its geological make up is meant to be very similar to Earth. It has a simgle moon.

The fourth and final planet is the Arean world of Teleboas. It is fairly similar to Mars, although perhaps there are less exposed ancient cratered highlands.

There will, of course, be a system around Alpha Centauri B (well, there already *is*, but I'll be upgrading it as well when I'm done with this project), and I also plan to have at least one planet orbiting both components of the Alpha Centauri system, since there are apparently stable orbital zones beyond 70 AU.

At any rate, thoughts and comments are always welcome, as are calls for more detailed descriptions. I'll post screenshots in THIS thread when I have them. I'm still learning how to do good textures, of course, and so my work probably isn't up to specs for most people's tastes. But I'm working on it!

...John...[/url]

Sounds great. I think your textures are good, and only recently have I been able to reach the same standard with my own. Keep it up!

Michael Kilderry

Thanks for the compliment, though I don't think mine are *that* great. At this moment I'm actually working on Polyphonte, as well as its night texture. Of course, this is all kind of nit-picky on my part, since the planet will be covered by a thick deck of clouds anyway. To see any of this stuff, you'd have to turn off the clouds!

I'll try to post some images tonight or tomorrow.

...John...

Okay, here are some shots of where I am so far:

((Images removed to save space and loading time -- besides, they are being removed from their hosting server anyway))

Alright, I'm off to bed.

...John...

The two planets are looking good so far. The varied hemispheres on Asbolos make a otherwise blandish planet look good. It's great that you are doing the surface under the clouds of Polyphonte. Don't worry, on cloudy planets, people do check to see if there's a surface underneath, well, I do anyway.

Michael Kilderry

Well, I tend to be anal when it comes to surface maps and cloud maps. Besides, I think it is fascinating to see what lay below the clouds of some of these planets.

Today I'll be working on the two moons of Polyphonte. I'll likely "cheat", though, since I have a couple of Lunar textures that look quite good but which are, as far as I can tell, in the free domain. Once I dig them up and get them installed, I'll post pics, and maybe someone can tell me if they are actually free or not.

One of the greatest problems with this sort of a project is that planetary maps tend to be spread all over the 'Net, and true ownership is often next to impossible to determine!

...John...

Okay, I have the two moons of Polyphonte completed, as well as the global map of Ghellhonus -- the primary planet of interest -- updated. If anyone is interested, the original version of it is here. Not too much is different, save for a different surface look to the small green continents to the east of the large main northern one. Right now I'm fiddling a little more with Ghellhonus' single moon, Amycos, not being too happy with the way that it turned out this afternoon.

I, unfortunately, do not have any screenshots at this time, as my Celestia computer is otherwise being occupied tonight. Hopefully, if I have the energy, I'll post some when I get home at 4am (gotta love those night shifts). otherwise, you'll have to wait until tomorrow afternoon .

Questions? There *will* be a test.

...John...

Okay, here are those images I was promising!

((Images removed to save space and loading time -- besides, they are being removed from their hosting server anyway))

I left out orbital shots, not knowing if anyone were interested in seeing a schematic of planetary orbits or not.

...John...

That mountain belt region on Ghelllonius looks a bit too sharply defined to me... is that deliberate? There's no border between that and the green regions to the north and south.

The dark patch on Amycos seems a bit odd too. It looks like it formed as a result of the crater impact in the middle of it, but then if that's impact melt then (a) that's an awful lot of it for such a small crater and (b) the ejecta (rays) were emplaced immediately after the melt was, which means it all melted REALLY quickly before the debris from the impact fell to the ground?? Or is it just a coincidence that the crater is smack bang in the middle of a previously resurfaced 'maria' patch?

Hmmm... Good points.

The central mountains on ghellhonus were the result of a plate collision, possibly between several microcontinents, but perhaps that might not be too realistic if they are going up the entire length of the continent. Perhaps I should do something a bit similar to the Rocky Mountains, and locate the chain more towards one of the coasts.

As for Amycos... you're right. I should go and redo that section. My original thought was to have a relatively dark moon, with one hemisphere dominated by a single, brightly rayed crater. In fact, what I might do, just because it is different, is to make it a fairly substantial crater that induced some local faulting or rifting.

...John...

Hi folks...

Just a brief word; I haven't dropped this, but I've suddenly been busy with real world items, something I'm sure that all of you are quite familiar with!

I do have some thoughts, however, on this add-on. I've done a bit of reconstruction on the system layout recently, and I've been doing some quick and dirty remodelling on ALL ArcBuilder systems. That is also a big part of the delay.

Here's a major question, though. Considering the mountains that EDG remarked on a post or two earlier, and how they might be too shaprly defined... would this sharp definition be possible on an Earth-sized world, or would I be better off completely re-doing this portion of the planetary map? If I do use a lower-relief method, would there still be a need to show some sort of transitional state between these central mountains and the green lowlands?

Please keep in mind that, because of my own system restrictions, I am forced to keep the textures at a 2k resolution *maximum*. I could make them larger, but if I can't view them on my own computer (and these add-ons are, in the end, primarily for use on my system as I put together my ArcBuilder setting), then what would be the point?

Anyway, thoughts are always welcome. But I will try to get the lead out and get this add-on finished pronto. I need to finalize Ghellhonus' map, and then put together the final planet.

...John...

Hi folks...

The add-on for the Alpha Centauri A system is online (and has been for a while now; I just forgot to mention it here) and available at the Motherlode. Click here and look for "The Alpha Centauri System". If you click on the detail icon, you will see screen shots of several of the planets.

Ignore the screen shot that shows an overview of the whole system. I didn't make it, but whomever did used the old version of the add-on, so it is pretty innacurate as to what you will find.

Thanks for your interest!

...John...[/url]