Talk:Solar System

I was thinking of cobbling together a Navigation tool for the planets of the Terran Solar System, similar to the ones that list all the Ultima games and Reagents. I know it only really applies to Ultima II, but it would be really handy while jumping back and forth between planets. Or maybe even a new category...? --Polygoncount 20:27, March 30, 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I think a navigation bar would be nice. I imagine it to be like the one for Reagents.--Tribun 20:30, March 30, 2010 (UTC)

Exactly what I was thinking of! I'll give it a whirl, then. --Polygoncount 20:32, March 30, 2010 (UTC)

Done! I like it so much, I may do one for the time-zones, too. :) --Polygoncount 21:10, March 30, 2010 (UTC)

Looks good! Simple nav-bars make the wiki a lot friendlier. (Dungy 21:18, March 30, 2010 (UTC))

Isn't "Terran" a redundancy?

Is there a solar system that isn't Terran? Has this name got something to do w/the the time lines? The Ultra-Mind (talk) 18:07, 9 March 2020 (UTC)

It's because we also have an Article about the Britannian Solar System, so we need to keep them apart with clear titles.--Tribun (talk) 19:00, 9 March 2020 (UTC)

Oh yeah. Easy to forget, since Britannia can't be solar. Which begs the question... The Ultra-Mind (talk) 19:39, 9 March 2020 (UTC)

I agree with Ultra-Mind. Let us be precise:

• The Solar system is the system with the Sun (capitalized) and its planets.
• A planetary system is any system with planets orbiting around a star (their own sun, not capitalized).
• A star system is a system of more stars bound together.

---Abacos (talk) 20:08, 9 March 2020 (UTC)

Still according to Wikipedia, it looks like "terran" is a word used in science-fiction only. The technical word should be "terrestrial". Well, we all agree that Ultima is fiction. --Abacos (talk) 20:49, 9 March 2020 (UTC)

Btw., when I created these articles, there indeed was a language thing going on. In German "Sonnensystem" is used four our planetary system, and all others without difference. That's why I used the titles in question.--Tribun (talk) 20:52, 9 March 2020 (UTC)

If a name change should be made, I propose: Minax Ahistorical Solar System for this page and Britannian Planetary System for the other one. --Abacos (talk) 21:01, 9 March 2020 (UTC)

@Tribun: or maybe you were confused by NASA's own article on it, of all places, where they talking about the "solar system" like there is more than one, then explicitly state that there is only one "solar system"!

So w/this confusion, in and out of the English-speaking world, I think we at least need a disambiguation page. Furthermore, assuming that Origin itself does not imply Britannia is solar, I think we should have a simpler naming convention:

• Remove "Terran" from here
• Remove "Solar" from Britannian Solar System (I think "planetary" makes a good replacement)
• Create a disambiguation

The Ultra-Mind (talk)

The disambiguation could be just an italic line at the beginning of the page, e.g. This page is about the space around planet Earth. If you are looking for the space around planet Sosaria/Britannia, click on [[Britannian Planetary System]]. --Abacos (talk) 21:14, 9 March 2020 (UTC)

So I've thought a bit more about it and I think my preference is a simple one: "Solar System" and "Britannian planetary system", except... I didn't consider how this might touch on Martian Dreams. I never bothered much w/WoU, so I'm relying on someone else to say. I can't remember how it would affect U1 either. I don't think it would, since I don't think planets were an issue then. If the U2 Solar System is different from that in other games, then convention would have us just putting "U2" at the end of it, so, "Solar System (U2)". The Ultra-Mind (talk) 16:15, 12 March 2020 (UTC)

Me too, I still have to play Martian Dreams once. As far as I am concerned, Minax's Ahistorical Solar System is different from the Stranger's Solar System (our world), and the former was accessible in Ultima 2 only. Ultima 1 has nothing to do with it, it featured the space around Sosaria/Britannia. --Abacos (talk) 00:22, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

So you're saying there's nothing about this Solar System that is inconsistent w/another other Ultima (w/the possible exception of MD)? My concern is that we depict the Solar System as always being as it was in U2 when there are clear differences in other games. If not, then I don't see why we'd want to bring Minax into it. The Ultra-Mind (talk) 18:19, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

No, quite the opposite, in fact. I think this Ahistorical Solar System could be accessed in Ultima 2 only, and it is sort of a "parallel dimension" with respect to the Stranger/Avatar's homeworld. --Abacos (talk)

But how do we know this? The Solar System might be exactly the same in all other games, even if not accessible. The Ultra-Mind (talk) 16:02, 14 March 2020 (UTC)

Throwing in my late two cents with the disclaimer that I haven't played MD either.

"Solar System" and "Britannian planetary system" seem agreeable to me. I also agree we shouldn't be making claims about the nature of the Solar System outside of U2. Planet X is an example that springs to mind: while we can certainly mention that it's encountered only in U2's timeline, we shouldn't assert its existence or non-existence in the historical timeline. --Terilem (talk) 08:52, 28 July 2020 (UTC)

Ok, I think we've been gunshy on the Martian Dreams issue long enough, so...

I also opened a similar issue on Talk:Terran Sun. The Ultra-Mind (talk) 14:33, 28 July 2020 (UTC)