Visual sphere of influence boundaries for planets/moons based on orbital position

[ToneStack]

I remember orbiter had dashed lines around where the sphere of influence of individual planets/moons changed; having these listed as well as allowing them to change within the confines of their orbit around the parent body could have cool effects.

 

1. It can make getting encounters with eccentric moons/planets far more likely to happen; these bodies spend a majority of time on the far side of their orbits.

2. Getting orbits within the closest sphere of influence would remain stable using the same patched conics we have now

3. Orbits between the closest and farthest sphere of influence would change to the Major soi at an easily predicted time

4. Sphere of Influence would remain bound between lowest and highest values Indefinatly

[KerikBalm]

so the suggestion is a variable SOI size based on distance, not SMA? And then a visualization of it?

[Red Iron Crown]

23 minutes ago, KerikBalm said:

so the suggestion is a variable SOI size based on distance, not SMA? And then a visualization of it?

SoI is calculated using the two body masses and the distance between them, SMA is not really relevant. I am not sure that SoIs change size as the distance between the two bodies changes or if they are fixed upon system generation.

[KerikBalm]

Ah, I thought that since the SOI didn't change (or at least one can define a single SOI with kopernicus, and I only ever see a single SOI listed, and the game can automatically calculate SOI if you don't define it and Kittopia can export this as a single value), that distance was calculated using the SMA as the distance to the parent body.

SMA is apparently what is used for the IR telescopes to decide what the body for which that they are tracking asteroids that cross its orbit. (based on other testing)

I suppose some testing could help figure this out by making modded planets that have really elliptical orbits, but start either really close or really far away.