That pesky moon...

[Made in-Human]

I absolutely love this game and the feeling of dread it constantly makes me feel by playing into my fear of the deep ocean, but it is actually something OUTSIDE of the water that bugs me the most, because that giant red moon in the sky makes absolutely ZERO SENSE!

At first I was loving the view, but after briefly observing the orbital pattern of the red moon (the other seemingly tidally locked and geostationary) I realized that such an orbit is just impossible; the moon shouldn't be able to stay in view literally 100% of the time in such a low angle and spinning that fast WITHOUT falling into the planet below. Simply trying to visualize it is revealing enough that the moon is doing this super ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up orbit from North to East, then South to West, all the while facing the same hemishphere... wut...
So either the moon in Subnautica is on a very fast, very sure, path of collision (unlikely given the lore), the planet is actually flat (lol), or the devs forgot very basic concepts of physics and astronomy because 'eye-candy'...

Now don't loose your cool, I know I'm nitpicking and Subnautica is still overall an amazing game and I still love playing it, but seeing how many people remark on things that break immersion for them in this game well, this is mine. Luckily I don't get to spend much time above water.
Anyway just wanted to share it with you guys, if anyone can come up with a logical explanation to this I'd be happy to hear it.

[captclaw]

It's a huge picture of the aliens home planet, thats why it never moves..

[cwsumner]

That is not a moon. Contrary to popular opinion, we are not the center of the universe! 8-)

(That is to say, there are orbital arrangements where that could happen... I think.)

[worstcase11]

It could be a smaller sister planet with the two planets rotating around a shared center of gravity.

[darkdisciple1313]

You're inside a snow globe, and that's a poster on an alien teenage girl's wall.

Seriously, there is the slight possibility of orbital mechanics that allows for a satellite to always appear in the same spot in the sky, but it would require some serious coincidental positioning for that to occur.

Given that most of the game is supposed to take place underwater, I just look up and say, "Meh."

Could be worse: it might be a space station...

[Xilo The Odd]

what about the rotation of the planet your on being messed up somehow? maybe the moon is orbiting normally.

[miklkit]

A moon that big that close to a planet would:
1. Strip away most of the atmosphere.
2. Cause miles high tides.
3. When their magnetic fields start interacting they would create huge lightning bolts going back and forth between them.

Since none of that is happening methinks the devs put it there because they think it looks cool.

[cwsumner]

You are missing the point, that is Not a moon. -You- are on the moon! Think about it...

By the way, your axis is tilted.

[MARTFONGER]

Originally posted by cwsumner:

You are missing the point, that is Not a moon. -You- are on the moon! Think about it...

By the way, your axis is tilted.

right yeah this, you are on a moon orbiting another body, so if you are geo-locked like our moon is then the body you are orbiting would always appear in the same place in the sky and you would always see the same side of it, just like our moon, and if they both rotate you would see the body you are orbiting appear at various positions in the sky, or rise and set, depending on where you are on the orbiting body and what the rotations are.

if both bodies are rotating with the moon orbiting, the path of the sun the planet is orbiting as seen in the sky from the moon could seem very strange

when the planet you are orbiting is between the sun and the moon you are on there is an eclipse, and this occurs quite often as one would expect if the orbit of the moon is very shallow

it should be entirely possible to derive a basic model of that solar system from observations made from the moon, I hope someone that knows the math will try

[Made in-Human]

Originally posted by cwsumner:

You are missing the point, that is Not a moon. -You- are on the moon! Think about it...

By the way, your axis is tilted.

I actually considered this but it didn't add up either, because if that where the case the SECOND MOON would NOT be geostationary or tidally locked in relation to the game map, as it is shown. That second moon would also be orbiting the red moon and not the game map, tilted axis or not, so had to discard that scenario too...

Despite the joke about it being a space station I actually was kinda hoping the lore would reveal something along those lines, given the ominous presence of that moon in the sky alone, but no luck there either :/

Originally posted by UNDERHILL:

it should be entirely possible to derive a basic model of that solar system from observations made from the moon, I hope someone that knows the math will try

I'm hoping for this too, but damn that's gotta be one crazy orbital system! I'm still thinking devs just said 'eff it' and didn't know/forget how all that works.

Sorry for late reply btw, coming down with the flu... again... fml...

[Homelander]

What if it is just big giant prescuron core planet we see in the distance

[cwsumner]

Ok, how about this: The Precursors constructed the entire solar system as a test area for the disease. There are machines in the "planets" holding them in place with (magic) ! 8-)

By the way, I think the other "moon" could be orbiting the game planet even if they are both orbiting the "primary". I would expect them to be in a related orbit, though. Have you noticed if they are orbiting 2:1 or 4:1 with the primary? I don't think 3:1 would be stable, but it depends how far we are from it.

[darkdisciple1313]

While we can science it all we want, I think what it comes down to is that the developers needed some pretties up in the sky, so they plastered some satellites up there to keep it from being nothing but blank sky with some clouds floating through. I don't recall reading any lore-based information as to why the moon is where it is, so anything we come up with is pure conjecture.

In the end, I don't think it really matters all that much, since the majority of the game is supposed to take place underwater, where we can't see the moon at all. I think it just comes down to the developers thinking, "Well, we have to have a moon up there, don't we? *plop* DE MOOOOOOOON! *think Gru in Despicable Me voice*"

Anything beyond that is just overthinking things, and I do too much of that already. That way madness lies.

[Bab Peeg]

We already had this once.

[Eventide]

It's quirky but fun, I like the "daily" eclipse ;)

[cwsumner]

Originally posted by darkdisciple1313:

... Anything beyond that is just overthinking things, and I do too much of that already. That way madness lies.

Madness was a long time ago... Or maybe it's all those other people that are the mad ones?
8-}