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Show HN: Super Planet Crash
- ch4s3 13y agodumping a bunch of super-earths into the same orbit around a dwarf star seems to work well. 125.8 years http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2906533 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2906533
- pikipupiba 13y agoYea, but what you have to do is drop them at just the right distance to evenly space 9 of them while only placing one at the same orbital alignment of the two central stars so they all follow the same orbit. http://www.stefanom.org/spc/index.php?view=4994899 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/index.php?view=4994899
- oldmanjoe 13y agoNice. Unfortunately my solar system was stable for about 40 years and then descended into a nightmarish world of Earth bouncing around the solar system in what would have been a horrific experience for the citizens of the planet. On the plus side the visuals from the multiple planets veering close to destroying it would have been a sight to remember. Well, remember for the short while that remained before the atmosphere either froze, was burned away by the sun or stripped by the gravitational field of a giant planet.
- higherpurpose 13y agoI put a dwarf star in the middle of the Sun (it placed it right next to it), and while it does destabilize the sun a bit, the rapid rotation of the dwarf star stabilizes it overall. The planet doesn't rotate in an uniform way around the two stars either, but it also seems stable overall, thus breaking the 500 year limit, at least: http://postimg.org/image/jepystvbz/ http://postimg.org/image/jepystvbz/
- PavlovsCat 13y agoI'm surprised I made it to 500 years ^^ http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2870842 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2870842
- simonhorlick 13y agoSurprisingly addictive.. http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2821551 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2821551
- pvirgiliu 13y agohttp://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2825379 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2825379
- thix0tr0pic 13y ago5 bodies, anyone have more? http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2825038 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2825038
- furyg3 13y agoTwelve. seems pretty easy if you only use earth-sized objects... http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2831699 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2831699
- vladtaltos 13y agojust placing them all in the same orbit works ;) Congrats! You reached 500 years without going unstable! 120,047 points over 500.1 years!
- vladtaltos 13y agohttp://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2833251 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2833251
- todayiamme 13y agoI am usually quite resistant to games - even 2048 bounced off of me with little affect - but something about the idea of creating solar systems and playing around with nature's laws is deeply appealing and I just spent 15 minutes figuring out how to construct a system which can get as many points as possible without imploding. (hint: large multipliers. Here's an initial attempt that I intend to refine once I'm done with work; http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2823906 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2823906 )
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- Pxtl 13y ago... is your Planet 2 something that's even possible in real life? I'd think a large body so close to a star would get destroyed by tidal effects and converted into a ring.
- pavel_lishin 13y agoThat link doesn't seem to work for me; I only see one planet.
- greyskull 13y agoIt's a recording of his session. You can speed it up the using the controls on the left to see stuff happen faster.
- bradleysmith 13y agoGot you beat[0] just barely, with only the addition of a dwarf star. The speed multiplier is certainly the key. It also seems your initial planet placement is random, so it's getting something that allows use of the dwarf star. [0] - http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2974678 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2974678
- sejje 13y agohttp://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=3030063 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=3030063 Same thing, but I scored higher, unsure why.
- FrejNorling 13y agoGot 7 bodies and 500 points... =) http://screenpresso.com/=XTGMc http://screenpresso.com/=XTGMc
- golergka 13y agoI've managed to do that with a system that I was trying to create to break it: http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2830379 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2830379
- bagels 13y agoIf you don't want to kill your site, you should make it possible to start a new game without reloading the whole page.
- stefanom 13y agoGood catch. I did not expect the game to become this popular, so I took what I considered to be an easy shortcut.
- clarkmoody 13y agoWhat sort of initialization are you doing that requires a full-page refresh?
- srg0 13y agoIt seems that running on the fastest possible setting helps to avoid (skip) most collisions by making them near-collisions. P.S. Got to 430 years.
- claudius 13y agoHm, I got to ~100 years with twelve small-ish bodies and it looks as if integrating in shorter steps helps avoid the buildup of instabilities?
- nmeofthestate 13y agoDifferent playback speeds can even make planets spin out while replaying high-scoring systems. Bit disappointing!
- PhasmaFelis 13y agoYou should email the author directly (stefano.meschiari@gmail.com, according to the site) if you have a reproduceable case. The simulation timestep isn't supposed to change, only the display timestep.
- Shivetya 13y agolooking at the high scores they all seem to be just exploiting the rules or a bug. Can those types of attempts be filtered?
- nmeofthestate 13y agoSeems like you need to create a binary and then fire a bunch of earths into the habitable zone. I've done this but can't seem to get the crowdedness bonus up to the levels of winning systems.
- Wohui 13y agoWhat do you call exploiting?
- stefanom 13y agoHi Shivetya, Admittedly, the point system could have been better designed. However, for this first attempt, I could not come up with a better alternative. "Exploiting" the point system within the game is not that easy, so the people that achieved the high-scores must have played tens, if not hundreds or more, of games before finding the right timing and initial condition. Those are all imaginary internet points anyway :)
- wintersFright 13y agodoes this imply that most solar system arrangements are unstable and we are lucky in ours?
- fractalsea 13y agoOff the top of my head, I would assume that it's because in nature solar systems form by dust gradually accumulating into planets. This is different to just plonking a brown dwarf right into the fully formed system. I also think that the solar system isn't entirely stable. The orbits of the planets do influence one another in a way that isn't in equilibrium. It just happens very slowly.
- ris 13y agoWell no - this shows a lack of understanding of emergent properties. There are clearly billions upon billions of "solar systems" that get created but not surviving for over 500 years never really get considered to be "solar systems", certainly don't have a chance to develop life in that time and don't have inhabitants to say "aren't we unlucky we live on an unstable system?".
- exDM69 13y ago> does this imply that most solar system arrangements are unstable and we are lucky in ours? No, not really. Even without knowing the masses of the planets and the sun here, the scale of this game is tiny compared to the real solar system. In realistic scales, it is a lot easier to come up with stable configurations. Planetary systems form slowly from a gas and dust disk surrounding a new born star. The early protoplanets will collide with each other and form bigger bodies and the system will slowly reach a stable configuration. Planets may be thrown out of the system or flung into the star too. The best current understanding of exoplanet systems is that there are planetary systems orbiting the majority of stars out there. Our solar system is neither an extremely lucky coincidence or a rarity among other stars.
- scott_s 13y agoThis explanation is the value I see in games like this, even though they are contrived situations: it causes people to ask, what is the real science behind this? If this game is not how it actually happens, how does it happen?
- z3phyr 13y agoI always get carried away, and disrupt the equilibrium of earth like planets in the habitable zone with a brown dwarf :(
- guard-of-terra 13y agoStart with an accreation disk, it will evolve into a stable system in a few My.
- phaemon 13y agoMy best after a few attempts is: 500 Years, Score: 33,445,876, 7/12 bodies See http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2850139 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2850139
- Wohui 13y ago165 million http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2893119 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2893119
- kylec 13y agoWeird, I replayed your simulation and you lose a planet at 336 years (89m score). I wonder if the game was subtly tweaked since you played it, or maybe your browser produced slightly different results than mine.
- Wohui 13y agoApparently these systems (dwarf-n-habitables) are hard to record correctly: http://www.stefanom.org/2000000-systems-played http://www.stefanom.org/2000000-systems-played I just observed the same result (89m 336y).
- NicoJuicy 13y ago91 million: http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=3074137 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=3074137
- m_mueller 13y agoI always wanted to know how it's possible to have a dual star system with planets in between the stars. It's easier than I thought[1]. I guess the heavier the second star, the further it must be from the inner planets. [1] http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2843935 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2843935
- PhasmaFelis 13y agoIIRC, those are now believed to be extremely common--one primary with nearby planets, a secondary so far out that it's barely brighter than the background stars. Of course "far out" is the key there. I'm pretty a real planet stuck between two stars with <2AU separation would be deeply, deeply fucked. o.O
- m_mueller 13y agoWell, as my link shows, if the second star is a dwarf of any sort and the planet is close to the 'main' star, it should be fine. Of course, habitability is another question entirely.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- lmm 13y agoIs there any way to delete the first planet? It seems like there's a motivation to keep refreshing until it spawns somewhere convenient.
- devinmontgomery 13y agoSo I used this to answer the obvious question: life would suck on Tatooine, with an earth-sized planet shooting in and out of the habitable zone. Then I found this: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23051-only-the-toughest-would-survive-on-tatooine-worlds.html http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23051-only-the-toughes....
- munchor 13y agoThis needs a few "overflow-x/y: hidden", but other than that it's a great game.
- jpasden 13y agoSo in "Super Planet Crash" the planets can't actually collide? I pumped 11 super-Earths into essentially the same orbit (in the habitable zone), and they seemed to just overlap and do just fine. When I lose, it's always because a planet flies off.
- stefanom 13y agoI am the developer of the game (StefanoM). I'm glad people are enjoying the game, and I'm sorry for the downtime -- I did not expect it to become this popular. If you have any improvements or suggestions (especially on the programming side!), please email me directly. Update: As an astronomer (and not a professional programmer), being on HN makes me super proud. Thank you!
- nkuttler 13y agoYou should probably stop reloading the page for new games. Seems like it should be possible to run the game and restart it client-side only?
- stefanom 13y agoI definitely took a shortcut there. I'm not a professional programmer, and any time I dedicate to this I tend to consider as "stealing" my attention from my actual job as an astrophysicist... I'll do a bit of testing and see what I can come up with.
- soneca 13y agoI could use some astronomy tips. It is fun, but sadly I am not learning anything with this. For example, someone here commented about two stars systems, and if the planets are between them, they should closer to the center one as possible. This kind of thing I can test, see how it works and learn a little. So a few tips as why another star in the center transform a planet's path from circular to an elliptic one, could help.
- rajahafify 13y ago2 suggestion. 1) Make the new game not a full page refresh. 2) Remove the first planet.
- stefanom 13y agoI'll see what I can do over the next couple weeks.
- tjosten 13y agoCongrats! You reached 500 years without going unstable! - http://goo.gl/ZNMsyK http://goo.gl/ZNMsyK
- metaphorm 13y agoLOVE THIS. still trying to do 2 dwarf stars. is it even possible?
- ch4s3 13y agoI did, but it only lasted like 50 yrs.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- Kiro 13y ago137,479 points over 500.2 years by just clicking out 12 earths randomly in the habitable zone and then set speed to max. Not sure I understand this.
- andypants 13y agoUse the other planetary bodies for more points. 100k in 500 years is nothing!
- 300bps 13y agoThe high score was over 390 million when I checked earlier this morning. I was able to get 65 million fairly easily but have not been able to beat it yet.
- pikipupiba 13y agoyea, my score of 286,394,094 is about to be pushed off the board by hackers :(
- ycui1986 13y agohttp://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2923344 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2923344 500 years, 42million
- NicoJuicy 13y agoJust wondering, wouldn't anything create a solar system? Just throw dust everywhere. planets will absorb materials, will become bigger. Some smaller planets could crash against others (bigger ones) and could create a mini planet orbiting the other (moon-earth).
- NicoJuicy 13y agoI tried it. Create 12 planets as fast as you can, watch the sun in the middle. After some time watching and focusing, change tabs... "Real life image burn" :)
- Crito 13y agoWhat physics model is being used for this? I can't seem to get tidal acceleration to work properly (it seems to for the first orbit, then it doesn't change.)
- rootlocus 13y agoAccording to Kepler's law of planetary motion, the orbit of a planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci. Although circles are ellipses, having the planets start with a circular motion makes the system simpler but somewhat unrealistic.
- easy_rider 13y agoOmg this is so awesome, and framestyle style website with retro coloring <3
- stefanom 13y agoThank you! The palette is the awesome base16 by Chris Kempson.
- owenversteeg 13y agoI put 11 Earths in a row in very similar orbits. For some strange reason, some of them went out after ~100 years and made new, stable orbits. http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2980198 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2980198
- piyush_soni 13y agoHas someone created a mirror of the site yet which works? It's not opening up for me as usual, the HN effect.
- kylec 13y ago3 bodies, 94.9 million, 500 years: http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2987733 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=2987733 Surprisingly stable, given the Earth-sized planet's erratic orbit.
- Solarsail 13y agoLooks kinda like you reached a 3:1 resonance between the small planet and the mini star. I wonder if it's actually dynamically stable, in that the mini-star is actually pushing the earth-sized planet towards that stable orbit.
- TwoBit 13y agoIt doesn't work for me with the latest FireFox. The interface won't let me do anything. Maybe the server is simply overloaded, because it's almost unresponsive and takes minutes to load the "high scores." It seems to work under Internet Explorer though.
- dpeck 13y agoLooks like something that would translate over to ipad/iphone really well.
- jgeorge 13y agoThis is great, fantastic work stefanom! I'm already addicted to it.
- personjerry 13y agoI have found that starting a new game takes a significant amount of time due to load. One way to remedy this is by enabling Work Offline on your browser and simply refreshing the cached version.
- guybrushT 13y ago137 million fake points, 500 years, 1 addictive game. http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=3032407 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=3032407 A very simple and elegant idea. Well done.
- kylec 13y agoInteresting, rerunning your simulation you lose a planet at 140.9 years (44m score). I wonder if there have been some subtle code changes that affected the results.
- ch4s3 13y agoand we broke it
- cos2pi 13y agoI get NaNs when I put a Dwarf star as close as I can to the parent star. Perhaps a black hole is generated? :) http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=3069947 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=3069947
- wallzz 13y agoOr it got eaten by a big "Bug"
- reshambabble 13y agoThis is great, but I'd suggest having an instructional module as soon as a user signs on with more details about the different planet sizes, what they mean, and what the "actual" distance would be between the center and the 2AU barrier.
- stefanom 13y agoI am applying for funding to develop a more comprehensive educational application. Hopefully the success of the game will give my application some extra clout.
- gojomo 13y agoCan't load but the mere chance it's anything like either the ancient coin-op arcade game, 'Mad Planets', or the recent Flappy Bird variant, 'Flappy Space Program', makes me like it already.
- honksillet 13y agoDoesn't seem to be working on any of the browsers on my mac
- notduncansmith 13y agoI found a bug: http://puu.sh/8arsr.png http://puu.sh/8arsr.png The very first planet started on the absolute edge, then when I added a Dwarf Star pretty close to the Sun, it altered the orbit such that the planet went out of bounds but it didn't kill me.
- morganherlocker 13y agoGot to 1.2 billion 500 years, but it took forever. Next challenge: fastest possible completion with the highest score possible.
- kylec 13y agoLink? The high scores on the page top out around 400m.
- supahfly_remix 13y agoLooks cool. How does the program keep errors from numerical approximations to the inverse square gravity law from blowing up?
- brownbat 13y agoNot sure how much of an achievement this is, but I was a little proud of my co-orbital pair, introduced at around 37 years: http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=5188442 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/?view=5188442
- pikipupiba 13y agoI wonder if there is a way to perpetuate the "Star-Switching" feature of this one http://www.stefanom.org/spc/index.php?view=4994899 http://www.stefanom.org/spc/index.php?view=4994899