Astrometrics

I’ve been thinking (uh-oh)…

 

Oxford Dictionary definition: the measurement of the positions, motions, and magnitudes of stars

Eve Definition: prerequisite for some skills, adds one probe per level, and sod all else

Sci-fi (implied) definition: area of a spaceship that includes all scientific disciplines to do with spectrometry, radiation, gravitation, particle physics, etc etc. Often tees into navigation as well.

 

In Eve, it’s pretty much one of those throwaway skills. Unless you’re either mining or using scan probes it isn’t really used at all.  Even now we can measure variance in gravity down to some fairly small units of measurement.

We can tell what stage a star is at in its lifespan, it’s chemical make up, whether it will gutter out and spend it’s dying days as a brown dwarf, or grow massively before shedding most of its outer layers in supernova explosion.

We can even tell if there are planets in orbit around distant stars light years from us, and likely if they’re in the habitable zone and of the right size.  We can even create new exotic matter of which the properties are not well understood. Super cold, super fluidity, fourth and potentially fifth states of matter. This is not science fiction. This is now.

 

In EvE, we have… probes. Which are fine for the micro level. There are no tools currently that work at a macro level.

No way of picking up an anomaly, such as a star wobbling minutely on it’s axis due to a massive super station in orbit one AU away. We have no way of picking up unusual particle emissions or radiation spikes from a mining colony abandoned thousands of year previously. We have no way of following the trail of an unheard of spaceship type and class, propelled by a drive system never seen before.

And we, the insatiably curious explorer types, SHOULD be able to do this.

 

And astrometics might well be the key skill for this, coupled with a specific on board ship scanner (an expanded D-scan?). Alternatively, there could be an entire subset of skills that equate to the current probe skills for speed, range, alleviating deviation etc etc. Depends really how complicated you want to get. You could also look at each different discipline as well as mentioned above (spectrography etc) as another way of doing it.

 

This is not so much about being able to find exactly where an anomaly is, but being able to analyze the area for one and being able to identify a region to then place the probes to track it down. This becomes especially important when we are talking about extra solar distances. You just can’t use probes to scan a cubic area of space thousands of AU or more across.

 

Now…. I’d just like to mention planetary interaction… there is scope to use a new skill in that group for anomalies found on or in a planetary surface… or potentially to use DUST514 players to go investigate on your behalf. Make sure they aren’t wearing red… 🙂

 

So, astrometics. What is it good for? Not alot. Not yet, anyways…

 

FS

 

H