People have suggested moving asteroids, etc. In a true star system, everything is in orbit. Everything is moving in relation to something else. I'm not suggesting creating a true orbital system. I'm suggesting creating the illusion of motion. The way it is now, all the asteroids appear to be stationary, because there is no point of comparision. I suggesting adding a solar wind, to create the feel that you are traveling through space in an orbit. People would feel like the asteroids are moving, when the actual effect would be a solar wind effect moving past them. The solar wind would follow the lighting effects (be sourced from the brightest object). The effect would be visual only. It can be safely assumed that any push by the solar wind would be a natural balance to the sector's stable orbit, resulting in a net zero force. With a solar wind constantly passing by you, even as you sit still in an inactive sector, you would get a feel that the system is alive and dynamic. You would feel like time is flowing and the universe is going forward with or without you. You would feel motion.

You would feel like your space junk was all out of whack?

Space junk may still have a place as is. It could be assumed that space junk is dense enough to maintain a stable orbit in the presence of a solar wind.

Also, I think they should make the space junk an extra, (so it isn't linked to ionstorms) and then this would be awesomeee!

TRS, you've got a great scientifical mind :D

The space junk will be separated from the fog. They were linked by accident (damned old code - that's why they're rewriting it).

Solar wind would be pretty, but if the devs are worried about the processing hit from having fog vary in different parts of a sector, then they'll certainly have problems with varying amounts of moving particles. Lighted ones at that. I don't think it can be done on an MMO at this point in time. Maybe it could be done on a videogame platform-only MMO if the consoles were all optimized to handle particles in this way.

Now the (simplified) science:

Solar wind is quite sparse and can really only be seen with the naked eye in places where it is concentrated by and interacting with magnetic fields - like planetary poles.

Solar wind provides far less "push" than sunlight does. The effect would be miniscule.

Well, not as an actual pressure, but as a visual effect, this might be neat. And this is a lot less complex than the fog we have now.

You can even have the fog remove the wind effects, for an extra degree of disorientation.

Strictly speaking, while seeing the wind of particles is a bit unrealistic, given that we don't have any cockpits, and are viewing all of this either through direct jack-in to the sensors or a sort-of "sixth sense", its not out of the question that we might be able to percieve these winds.

Or, you could just limit it to certain systems, like Helios, with its enormous star.

How about when you get REALLY close to stars you notice the wind effect? That would be kinda neat, a stream of very transparent "fog" headed away from the star in a continuous stream.

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/comets/tail.html&edu=high

There may be more than one way of producing a visual effect indicating motion. The point is to create the feeling in the observer. The asteroids don't have to actually move, they just have to look like they are moving in relation to something else. Human's complex sensory systems detect many subtle clues about the environment. We see shadows due to light sources and displacements of nearby objects across their backgrounds. When a system is completely static, we detect it, we feel it. It would be nice if the sectors felt more dynamic. It needs a pulse, a beat, a sense of time and motion.