Orbit command: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 00:54, 13 October 2026

The ORBIT command places a ship in stationary orbit around a numbered planet in its current sector. It does not navigate to that planet automatically.

Syntax

ORBIT planet-number

The number is the planet's entry in the current sector's object list, not a galaxy-wide identifier. Use SCAN SECTOR to find local numbers and SCAN PLANET number to check a planet's bearing and distance. Wormholes may also appear in the numbered list, but they cannot be orbited.

Requirements and result

ORBIT requires a valid planet in the current sector, a ship outside hyperspace and not already in orbit, and an approach to within about 250 distance units. A ship can be stopped or traveling at impulse speed; it does not have to reach a dead stop first. The command refuses a wormhole or a ship still in hyperspace.

On success, ORBIT reports the planet number and, if present, its name. It records that planet as the ship's current location state and sets both current and requested speed to zero immediately. It does not change the ship's coordinates or heading, expend a flux pod, or make the ship safe from attack. For a moving ship, this is an immediate stop rather than an ordinary deceleration to IMPULSE 0.

The 250-unit orbit check and gravity warnings are separate mechanics: the warnings begin when a moving ship gets closer than 250 units; the orbit command accepts the ship when its measured distance is no more than 250. The dangerous inner approach and collision thresholds are explained at Orbit.

Using and leaving orbit

Planetary commands use the current orbit as their context. Depending on the game version and planet, these include ADMIN, ATTACK, BUY, PRICE, TRANSFER, SPY, and MAINTENANCE. Orbit only supplies the location; it does not grant ownership, stock, money, or permission for every action. Zygor-specific business still requires orbit around Zygor.

A valid IMPULSE or WARP command breaks orbit before its engine action, even with a requested speed of zero. Any maintenance in progress is canceled. ge-next's STOP does not break orbit, and neither does ROTATE.

Classic GE and ge-next

Classic and ge-next enforce the same basic player-facing orbit rules. ge-next improves the confirmation for an unnamed planet, verifies backing planet records in related operations, and sends enhanced-lock observers an orbit-entry or departure notice. When a ship is in a nebula, a planet beyond the local sensor limit is treated as obscured; because successful orbit already requires a much shorter approach, the nebula does not extend or reduce the 250-unit orbit window.

The classic shared planet-cache defect could disrupt another player's gravity or planetary proximity checks after a sector scan. ge-next fixed that in 0.2.5; see Classic bug: Cross-user planet cache corruption. In ge-next, orbiting an unowned planet also reveals its exact stock on SCAN PLANET, whereas classic reserves exact quantities for the owner.

During a ge-arena match, ORBIT still selects a nearby planet with the same rules. The main reasons to orbit are to collect its available supplies and power-ups with TRA UP or to use a maintenance depot. The command is not available in the arena lobby or while awaiting a ship selection or respawn.

Sysop command

ge-next separately provides SYS ORBIT planet-number for testing. It can place the ship in orbit around an existing local planet without the usual 250-unit proximity requirement and displays the planet timestamp. That privileged command is not representative of normal ORBIT behavior.