Comments on: Star formation: the game

By: Robert Carnegie

Robert Carnegie — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:16:37 +0000

“The idea of these things is to transform ideas direct from research into meaningfully fun games.” Fun games – your tax dollars at work.

But the wizards’ university in [The Science of Discworld] would have loved this toy. What they couldn’t figure out though was why all the worlds they built came out round, not flat… and why were the suns all way bigger than the real one? To work at all, they’d have to be much further away!

By: «bønez_brigade»

«bønez_brigade» — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:01:10 +0000

As the gas wasn’t technically a star yet, how about:
unknown gases, or gas units, or soon-to-be solar particles…

By: Nick

Nick — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 08:22:27 +0000

Solar Masses?

Chain x42 is my record. I wonder if that means anything?

By: «bønez_brigade»

«bønez_brigade» — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 20:06:14 +0000

BTW, from the screenshot I took (yes, I’m a geek), the remaining mass after the ×67 chain was 74 cloud units. So, whatever that amount could produce would be how many more stars could be added to the chain.
Mewonders if there’s a bonus score for using all of the available gas. I was able to get it down to ~13 cu on another try; but a minute’s worth of clicking in a circle wasn’t enough to compress it further.

By: «bønez_brigade»

«bønez_brigade» — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:45:29 +0000

Using the ring method (spiraling in, of course), I scored ~24,250 on the first level, with a chain reaction of 67. 2 blew prior to the 67, so the cloud wasn’t at full mass of 625 (cloud units?). Some mass (~100 cu) remained. Unfortunately, I thought I had just figured out the “way” and immediately restarted the level (missing a few hundred more points on levels 2 & 3); and I’ve since been unable to top 8500 or 35 chains.

By: One Eyed Jack

One Eyed Jack — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:01:34 +0000

I AM A GOD !!!

Wait. Was that not the point of the game?

By: Bill Glaholt

Bill Glaholt — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:15:46 +0000

Woot! Third!! (Toothy Grin).

By: Henning Rogge

Henning Rogge — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 09:52:51 +0000

1780 (without cheating in the first level)

By: Mount

Mount — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 07:17:40 +0000

Heh, “Suck it, Phil” is in second place with 55646 points, with Stark right behind him.

By: Toby

Toby — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 06:04:20 +0000

I totally saw the Face of Satan in there.

By: Saturday/Sunday Starlinking | Mike Brotherton: SF Writer

Saturday/Sunday Starlinking | Mike Brotherton: SF Writer — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 03:16:25 +0000

[...] Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy writes about Star Formation the Game, commissioned by Discover magazine. If you get the science right in games like this, the learning becomes easy. [...]

By: BMcP

BMcP — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:27:19 +0000

1248.. Not bad for the first time.

By: Romeo Vitelli

Romeo Vitelli — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 18:46:53 +0000

Even God is being bumped off the top ten scorers now. I hope the fundies don’t find out about this.

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 18:09:54 +0000

Ack! Only 1078,,bummer,,,Guess I’m not nearly as GodLike as I’d supposed,,,

GAry 7

By: Menyambal

Menyambal — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:53:05 +0000

T_U_T, you are a cheerless git. Stop complaining and enjoy the way things are. Of course a bunch of nerds are going to figure out how to “game” a game.

The game is FUN. Thanks to Adam Frank and all for making it. And Phil for sharing it.

I like how, when I’m not playing very intelligently, it makes filaments of dust, with clumps and strands, just like the structure of the universe on so many scales.

It’s one of the times when science gives a god’s-eye view of the universe. And god-like powers, too . . . mwha-ha-ha!

By: Rhemdom » Blog Archive » Star Formation Game

Rhemdom » Blog Archive » Star Formation Game — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:51:12 +0000

[...] – via Bad Astronomy Blog [...]

By: ccpetersen

ccpetersen — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:45:03 +0000

How many billions of years have we put into this game ???

By: Grand Lunar

Grand Lunar — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:05:23 +0000

BTW, I can think of a neat upgrade; add another level were you now can wind up creating hypernova, and have a black hole consume the cloud!

By: Grand Lunar

Grand Lunar — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 12:56:49 +0000

Finally broke 1000!

I can’t seem to figure out how to get 5 digit scores.

By: T_U_T

T_U_T — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 10:10:25 +0000

@Eageus :
The other two levels are pretty much useless in terms of score. Surely not the thing the authors intended. I guess the normal score was in order of 1000, but they allowed extra supernovae to make it easier but making them so cheap that they allowed this strategy without any intent

By: Doe mee met het spel van stervormingbijAstroblogs

Doe mee met het spel van stervormingbijAstroblogs — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 06:42:02 +0000

[...] Starformation, the gameSterrenkunde kàn af en toe best wel saai zijn, met name als je dikke tekstboeken door moet worstelen over bijvoorbeeld zonnebevingen. Maar het is in de meeste gevallen helemaal niet saai, zeker niet als een onderwerp op een speelse manier wordt behandeld. Als voorbeeld neem ik maar even het online computerspel Star Formation, dat onlangs door Discover Magazine is uitgebracht. Hardstikke leuk om te doen én zeer leerzaam. Het gaat er in dat spel om dat je probeert een interstellaire gaswolk zo ver moet zien te krijgen dat ‘ie in elkaar klapt en sterren vormt. Maar zoiets gaat niet vanzelf. Zo’n wolk van waterstofatomen zal niet uit zichzelf ineenkrimpen, daar is een bepaalde ‘trigger’ voor nodig, bijvoorbeeld een nabije supernova. De schokgolf van zo’n supernova kan er voor zorgen dat de wolk op sommige plekken wel ineenstort. Maar cruciaal is dan weer wáár die supernova plaatsvind. En dat kan je allemaal zelf bepalen. Hoe meer sterren je weet te scoren met je quanta aan supernova hoe hoger je score. De allereerste keer haalde ik 586 punten. Da’s niks, want de ranglijst wordt aangevoerd door Phil Plaits, hoe kan het ook anders, met 55.646. Ik moet er kennelijk eens een avondje voor gaan zitten om te kijken hoe ik m’n score aan stervorming kan verhogen. Kortom, waag je ook aan Star Formation, The Game! Bron: Bad Astronomy. [...]

By: The bane of creationists everywhere » Doctor Recommended

The bane of creationists everywhere » Doctor Recommended — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 06:19:24 +0000

[...] Via Bad Astronomy [...]

By: PJE

PJE — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 04:04:40 +0000

Nothing came up when I clicked the link, it just says “Second Ave” 100%

Am I missing something?

Pete

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 03:25:05 +0000

Damn you, Plait! All I need is another geek addiction. Thanks a lot.

By: fred edison

fred edison — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 03:06:51 +0000

My God, it’s full of stars. Not mine but maybe yours was. Very cool.