southwestforests wrote:Q: How many planets per system do you really need?
That is an extremely subjective question abd highly dependent upon your objectives. How realistic do you want to be? If the answer is “who cares about realism?”, then you only NEED one planet.
If you want realism, then building a full system matters. For example, a number of things in SSF depend upon other things in the system: planet types and WP types depend upon the star type, stellar and lunar tidelocks, asteroid belts created by gas giants, anomalies and terrain can change everything... even the type of system determines if there is one star, two stars, three stars... or none at all. Simpler systems will have less interactions and some players find that boring.
But this can all be flipped on its head. Procyon’s family “Nemesis” campaign in the fiction section only had 1 star system! It was a realistic representation of the Solar System and it have been boring and impossible with a much more limited design.
A1: How many does it take to advance the plot?
Looking at it from an author’s perspective, this is the same basic point I’m making.
A2: How many does it take to do that and have stunning visuals?
