Map Size Comparison: Planetary Games VS Project Rebearth

Video game maps keep getting bigger every year. I'm guilty of that as well because I am building a game where you play on a planet that is at a 1 to 1 scale with earth. And I share that a lot when making videos. But people often comment like, oh but this game also has planetary scale, oh but don't you know this game, that is way bigger... And my answer to that no. they. are. not...
video sources:
Spore: • Spore: Overview Video
NMS: • No Man's Sky - Gamepla...
Starfield: • Starfield Official Gam...
KSP: • Kerbal Space Program 0...
Star Citizen: • Star Citizen: Procedur...
measurement sources:
Spore: forum.kerbalsp...
Rimworld: ludeon.com/for...
NMS: / the_size_of_planets_in...
Starfield: www.gamesradar...
KSP: wiki.kerbalspa... (turns out kerbin is 4.5m sq. km Eve should be about 6.2m sq. km... story is still the same tho.
Star Citizen: / planet_size

[@l4bells851]

KSP is not made to represent the real solar system, so the comparision is non existant, and theres mods for real solar system, which does make it 1:1

[@ProgramSam]

True! And it's a good thing that it's smaller. exploring the solar system would be a hell of a lot harder with real dimensions!

[@eatafox]

I was really expecting to see elite dangerous in this video. I always assumed those planets were 1:1.

[@ProgramSam]

Oh yeah! I thought it was only a space game, didn't know you could do a lot on the planets as well. How is the gameplay on planets? Seems like a lot of emptyness at first glance

[@alexanderbenkendorf688]

@@ProgramSam There are no earthlike planets, or planets with oceans. So planets are way less detailed or varied than in Star Citizen & based on generation - there are settlements, missions, points of interests, alien bases etc etc. Other than that - this game actually exists (unlike SC) & there is a 1:1 milky way there.

[@1vanmax]

As always, a great video! Quite a weird topic, but the delivery is just incredible

[@ProgramSam]

Haha thanks Ivan! Wanted to do this one for a while now, glad you enjoyed it 😁

[@ymiros0953]

4:55 Quadratic, not exponential, but the numbers you gave were right. Fun video nonetheless

[@ProgramSam]

oh yeah you're right! Exponential is just such a more commonly used word that I must have mixed them up... The formula for surface area of a sphere is 4πr², so that makes it quadratic. Thanks for pointing that out!

[@anordinaryguy3952]

You missed out Elite Dangerous, which has 1:1 planets in a 1:1 Milky Way.

[@ProgramSam]

Oh damn! must have missed that one indeed. i thought it was more a space game. How is planet exploration? What are the things you can do?

[@anordinaryguy3952]

Across most of a planet, there isn't much to do as activities are concentrated at settlements and other surface sites which you navigate to from orbit. Despite that, its still quite fun with nice views and messing around in an SRV.@@ProgramSam

[@anordinaryguy3952]

Forgot to mention, only rocky or icy planets with no or thin atmospheres, so no gas giants, volcanic worlds or earthlike worlds unfortunately.

[@ProgramSam]

I can imagine that's also where you would have the most fun things to do, because they could have interesting locations. Are they planning on adding anything like that? Or have they no plans in that direction?

[@anordinaryguy3952]

No plans that I know of.

[@iceball3xd]

For Rimworld's scale, I wonder if it might be more appropriate to approximate the map scale based on overworld caravan travel times. Namely due to the fact that local maps don't represent the entirety of the hexagonal tile, rather just a "point of interest" sub region within that tile, namely due how little time it takes to cross in local play compared to actual caravan travel. This is most noteworthy in the differences between the time it takes for a pawn on the local map to reach the border, and a caravan of that same pawn crossing over to the next hex over. That's not to say rimworld gets bonus points for detailed-world size, as most of it lives in abstraction (99% of all world tiles aren't even utilized in play aside from their basic attributes for caravan travel), and you only get a little more utilization using a mod like "Set up camp" (which uses especially small throwaway subregions).

[@ProgramSam]

Yeahh but then what's the point of the planet being bigger if you can't play on 90% of it? The areas here are to represent the playable planet size. But indeed using travel time might be a better way to get the hex size, rather than the map size

[@iceball3xd]

@@ProgramSam Hence why i don't give it too much credit 😊. Though there is at least a little bit of value to the space between the points of interest in a narrative sense, I can imagine the planets in spore would feel much less cramped if they had procedural vacant space between points of interest for example. I do think things can get a little fuzzy depending on the levels of abstraction a given game performs as well. For example, the abstractions taken by wargames and 4x games, even when they're confined to a single planet, they might not count very well for this discussion, but something like Rimworld is kind of in this grey area, where you have the higher detail local region maps, but the game does not procedural generate the higher detail local regions until you bring the player's attention directly to them, and as you mentioned the high detail regions aren't directly causally connected with each other.

[@ProgramSam]

Exactly! It's also just a funny little comparison video, because as you say, still having these inaccessible parts of the RimWorld map contribute a lot to the experience of the planet. Gaming experience is soo much more than just the size of your playable area 😊

[@GoomyB]

elite has planet sized planets

[@ProgramSam]

Oh shoot! Guess I overlooked that one. I had it in my head it was more of a space-themed game. How's the whole planet exploration thing? What kinda stuff can you get up to?

[@GoomyB]

The whole Odyssey expansion is pretty divisive among players, but it adds a lot to do on planets. There's a whole FPS element now. A team capture the checkpoint kind of mode, on foot stealth gameplay, exploration, resource gathering, etc. @@ProgramSam

[@SirFloofy001]

KSP has mods that bring the scale up to 1:1

[@ProgramSam]

I've heard! Would love to try them out one day

[@otterseek]

You forgot Minecraft it has one of the largest maps it is about seven times the size of the earth or about 59,999 kilometers or 37,282 miles

[@ProgramSam]

Oh I didn't forget, it is at 5:50 🙃

[@MrSomethingdark]

KSP: RO is exactly the size of our Solar system I suppose

[@ProgramSam]

I've heard indeed! Did you play it? Would love to try the overhaul one day

[@MrSomethingdark]

@@ProgramSam still do. It's almost a one click install these days. And it's a great way of discovering how much you actually don't know about engineering, math and technology

[@ThePrimaFacie]

You missed a game from 2014 called "RODINA" there is a demo. The scale is amazing

[@ProgramSam]

Damn I had never heard of that one before! Surely looks impressive 🔥 Tad bit empty planets at first glance, but does it plan to be multiplayer?

[@ThePrimaFacie]

@@ProgramSam Its one person making it and as the store page says they plan to make it a ""Daggerfall in Space" - a seamless procedurally-generated space RPG on a massive scale". I dont really know about PvP or Co-Op but moving around (near C or FTL) in a scaled solar system I remember that it gave me a new perspective on the size of games. The last News/update they have is from April of last year. Maybe abandon ware IDK

[@ProgramSam]

Impressive 😎 That's one thing I do love about this trend for bigger and bigger game worlds. It lets you as a player experience scales and distances you otherwise would never experience or comprehend

[@T0xicgun]

What about Space Engineers, what size are the planets in this game?

[@ProgramSam]

Someone mentioned it too, about twice the planets of no man's sky I believe was the conclusion 😎

[@GhostofJamesMadison]

Laughs in daggerfall

[@ProgramSam]

A map the size of Great Brittain is indeed very cute 🙃

[@Vengir]

It was humongous for its time, but it's still smaller than Britain. Hardly planetary-scale.

[@peng364]

I wouldve liked seeing space engineers being compared to this. Keep in mind, the whole planets are made up of mineable voxels!

[@ProgramSam]

oh that one I hadn't come across! Did a quick search, planets are about 45.000 sq. km! So almost twice the size of no man's sky. And you can mine each individual voxel? damn!!

[@peng364]

@@ProgramSam yeah. Figured that out bcuz some guy tested out destroying a whole planet with a mod that makes the in game bomb have a much larger radius. The whole planets to the core are voxels! Also some other guy used an automated bomb builder and deployer to dig to china lol

[@LynxUrbain]

Do game designers take into account the densities of planets, and therefore (depending on the radius) also the effects of gravity, on creatures or transport devices?

[@ProgramSam]

Yeah it comes up in a surprising amount of resources! But often you can just play with the density of the planet in the game world to justify a similar gravity.

[@GoomyB]

yes, elite: dangerous does this extremely well. It is incredibly difficult to land on planets that have a gravity of 3x or greater than earth without smashing down on the surface.

[@Growlerrrr]

Beautiful video, Straightforward, informative, and Sam always looks good, amazing job Sam, xoxo flint

[@ProgramSam]

Thanks Flint ❤️

[@atomplus2513]

Такой вопрос, а будет в игре смена времён года? И если да, то будет ли она работать нормально, что на севере зима , а юге лето.

[@fsrk]

amazing video! love it ❤ (its not even out yet)

[@ProgramSam]

Thanks shark! 🤗

[@Makesam77]

minecraft or fligth simulator are the only ones bigger than your game

[@ProgramSam]

Yeahh flight simulator should be the same. And it's not like you can actually go everywhere, or have a reason to do so

[@peng364]

Tbh minecraft is not the earth. Its a flat plane

[@unblockabl]

Nice! really cool!

[@ProgramSam]

Thanks!

[@spesbona4345]

elite dangerous???

[@ProgramSam]

Whoops, my bad! Totally thought it had more of a space vibe. So, what's the deal with exploring planets? Any cool things to do there?

[@mistermysterium9005]

You look a loot like the guy from bibits 🤨

[@ProgramSam]

No idea what that is, but is it a compliment? 🤔

[@erikimre9521]

bro name games maps?

[@im_theodore]

POLAND MENTIONED RAHHHHHHHH 🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱🦅🦅🦅🦅

[@ProgramSam]

🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱

[@peng364]

BOBER KURWAAAAAAA 🦫🦫🦫🦫🦫🦫

[@GhostofJamesMadison]

Winged hussars incomming.

[@adhdegrees]

Minecraft

[@ProgramSam]

true

[@ProgramSam]

Not realllyyy a planet tho

[@adhdegrees]

@@ProgramSam debatable