2712: Gravity

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Gravity

Title text: It's a long way down.

• To experience the interactivity, visit the original comic.

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by THE UNIVERSE FROM A PIECE OF FAIRY CAKE- Please continue expanding and describing the various bodies. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

In this interactive comic, the viewer pilots a small spaceship throughout a vast area in space. The viewer is capable of exploring various bodies and planets within the play area, many containing easter eggs alluding to the book What If? 2 and previous xkcd comics. The flight mechanics are largely, if not entirely, Newtonian, so the vessel is capable of using the gravity of planets to alter its trajectory or even enter orbit. The spaceship has indicator circles around it which appear when a gravitational body comes into range, showing the direction towards their center of gravity and the size of the body. A circle also appears around the spaceship whenever it collides with a gravitational body, acting as a shield. The shield remains until the player orients the spaceship upright so its landing gear can deploy.

With a keyboard the arrow keys rotate the spaceship and accelerate it forward and backward. You can also use the standard first person shooter keys 'w', 'a', 's' and 'd', and the standard vi text editor navigation keys 'h', 'j', 'k', and 'l' to control the spaceship. Despite some ships having no unique backward texture, all ships can reverse. On mobile the comic will full screen, pressing either side of the center rotates the spaceship, and pressing in the center accelerates it forward.

It is fairly easy to fly between planets as long as you pay attention to orbital mechanics; don't just floor the accelerator. The background stars show your velocity and orientation relative to the nearest gravity well. If you are having difficulties navigating space, point towards a gravity orb and accelerate for only a few seconds. Wait until the background stars spin wildly, and then reduce your velocity to 0 before gently accelerating towards the object.

Playing on mobile: Various additional glitches may occur. Having a starting position slightly below the take-off pad means you're already 'glitched' inside the planet from the off. Escaping the planet may need inverted 'accelerating' (turning perpendicular to the local vertical, and thrusting backwards until you can glitch back out into more open space. You may also be trapped within the cannonball 'orbit', with seemingly inconsistent collision-detection, such that you can be sat with landing gear extended upon features (projectile tracks, etc) that seem not to count as solid for most other purposes.

There is no "universal" point of view — the bottom of the window, "down", is oriented towards the object exerting the most gravity upon the player. Multiple things found in this comic draw attention to this, such as how on Earth Ponytail says to White Hat, "I checked downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it says just me", and he replies "Yeah, I guess down isn't down for everyone."

Throughout the play area are coins that change the spaceship into different rockets and non-space based vehicles, including humans.

The comic promotes Randall's new book What If? 2, which was released in September and is available for purchase. Many of the planets contain references to various What If? articles.

The comic is similar to 1608: Hoverboard, which celebrated Thing Explainer instead.

Celestial Bodies

The following is an incomplete table of features:

				References
ID	Description	Transcript	Tiles (X, Y)	What If	XKCD	Movies	Other	Explanation
origin	Starting planet	Cueball: "To celebrate the world of What If? 2, here is your very own tiny planet to explore! Megan: "Welcome!" Ground caption: "Give someone the science question-and-answer book What If? 2 for the Holidays: xkcd.com/whatif2" Cueball feeding T-Rex: "Burger?" Isaac Newton: "Robert Hooke must be down there somewhere!" Megan to Cueball: "If you ever get lost in space, just fly down. That's where the ground is." Beret Guy to squirrel: "Hi!"	(0, 0)	Y			Y	The starting planet. The player begins on the launch pad in a landed position. Collecting the orbiting cannonball will transform you into a different rocket, although it does not improve your abilities. Cueball feeding the T-Rex is possibly a reference to What If #78: T-rex Calories. Isaac Newton is referencing the Newton's cannonball thought experiment, where a cannon is fired at greater and greater speeds until the cannonball goes into orbit. Newton's comment suggests that instead of demonstrating orbits, he is firing repeatedly to hit his rival, Robert Hooke.
earth	Earth	"How am I supposed to cause the extinction of the dinosaurs if they keep moving out from under my comet?" "Unusually high-speed squirrels." "Jump in! The water's fine!" "Ugh, the frame rate is really bad out today." "I don't know why people complain about going down rabbit holes. These lil guys are adorable!" "Ahh, the mysterious natural wonders of sailing stones" "I'm Bananas Georg. Every year our company publishes global per capita banana consumption numbers, so to make the printing easier, I eat enough bananas of December 31st to make sure it's a round number." "Weird, I feel heavier." "Hey" "I checked downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it says just me" "Yeah, I guess down isn't down for everyone"	(27867,-35648)	Y	Y		Y	A planet with among other things: A crane dropping a comet onto a dinosaur Unusually high speed squirrels (creating a sonic boom). Reference to What If? 2 Chapter 56: Walking Backward in Time, where these squirrels are surprisingly present in the past Megan inviting Cueball into a pool A region where the frame rate is intentionally limited. Reference to Chapter 56 again, where the weather and sun cycle fast enough to cause similar strange visual effects A flagpole A literal rabbithole referencing the figuratively speaking rabbit hole Someone aiming at a satellite with an arrow A lake with an eel The earth-moon firepole A "doot cone," a reference to Volcano Types Two figures being attacked by a third with a sword Two kids playing soccer (Catching the ball will turn the ship into a soccer ball) A farmer on a tractor being stuck in gooey candy. Reference to What If? 2 Chapter 64: Lemon Drops and Gumdrops, where it rains candy A nearby hummingbird excited by all the sugar Cueball attempting to eat the falling candy, but having it hit his teeth painfully A banana pile being consumed by "Bananas Georg" to make the per capita annual banana count round, referencing the "Spiders Georg" meme as well as What If? 2 Chapter 11: Banana Church, where he also makes an appearance Megan and Cueball digging a hole (in the center of this planet is the "earth's core", referenced below) The Niagara Falls water being redirected into the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) Japan leaving earth. Reference to What If? 2 Chapter 50: Japan Runs an Errand A tube to the bottom of the ocean. Reference to What If? 2 Chapter 30: Mariana Trench Tube Ponytail and White Hat making a reference to downforeveryoneorjustme.com Two mini asteroid moons: A tiny version of B612 with Little Prince and the rose, plus one with just Cueball standing on it. They can be found by flying straight up from the Super Mario flagpole.
	Earth's core		(28850, -28570)					Cueball and Megan floating in a small space in the center of the planet in inverted rotations. Can be legally accessed using a high velocity collision onto the surface of the planet, although requires tapping the up arrow afterwards many, many times.
europa	Europa		(13180, -2540)	Y			Y	Europa, one of Jupiter's many moons (in real life). A broken, icy crust has a single path into its core.
	Europa's crust	"It's so unfair we don't get to compete in EuroVision." "The region of the solar system where liquid water can exist on the surface is the habitable zone, and the region where it can exist beneath the surface of moons is the Eurozone." "WHIRRRR"		Y				Europa's crust, with a single entrance into the core demarcated by an octopus leaving a hole. EuroVision is a European song competition that includes many European countries, and it's not too much of a leap to claim that "Euro" includes Europa Cueball states that Europa, with liquid underneath its surface, is in the Eurozone, a pun on the other Eurozone. A roomba whirs across the icy crust. Cueball has a hairdryer and is melting the surface of the crust. A direct reference to What If's Hairdryer.
	Europa's core	"We've always used neutrinos for astronomy, but if we place my 'optical telescope' in orbit above the kryosphere, we could potentially observe the universe using electromagnetic waves. Who knows what else there is out there besides stars! There could be other worlds!" "Hi, I'm Annie. Welcome to the depths of Europa. There's some weird stuff down here." "We were caught in a powerful November gale on the Great Lakes outside Whitefish Bay. Our ship foundered and sank here." "This is Jupiter's moon Europa." "It was a REALLY powerful gale." "Does our book club really need this much secrecy?" "That sounds like a question a SPY would ask."				Y		A watery ocean with octopi looking out into the great unknown using telescopes. This is a reference to octopus's intelligence here on earth! It may also be a reference to (Spoilers!) a certain 2013 science-fiction film featuring Europa, if not a 1987 book. There's also a secret path leading to a book club, through the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The woman presenting herself as Annie is a reference to Annie Rauwerda, the creator of the popular social media accounts Depths of Wikipedia.
b612	B-612	Probe: "Asteroid deflection mission to earth. The package is delivered. Commencing planetary threat neutralization." Sign: "Welcome to B-612"	(2610,3700)	Y	Y		Y	A reference to Asteroid. In a tragic turn of events, the Earth-bound asteroid being blown up is the home of the little prince.
dogplanet	Dog park planet	[Dog Park] "I want more dogs!" "Ball! Again!" "I hope it lands soon." "English adjective order means that you're "Clifford the Big Red Dog" but not "Clifford the Red Big Dog"" "You can't have too many dogs!"	(1240, 11230)	Y				A planet covered in dogs, along with dog walkers, some fences, and a sign that reads "Dog Park". Two dogs watch a ball which is traveling in what appears to be a circular orbit around the planet. One dog is much larger than anything else on the planet. A hole is being dug by two dogs. Visible at the bottom, there is an empty space in the center of the planet in the shape of a dog bone. Ponytail's explanation of adjective order was originally miswritten, saying "Clifford the Red Big Dog" twice. The two Cueballs excited by all the dogs reference What If? 2 Chapter 60: Dog Overload.
goodhart	What If? 2 scenario planet	Cueball to White Hat: "The tower over there is the Vehicle Assembly Building, and then behind it is the Vehicle Disassembly Building." Ponytail to Cueball: "You know how tires pollute the environment with rubber particles? Well, I've developed a solution." "MMM SPIDERS HOMF HOMF" Shooting star caption: "THE MORE YOU KNOW" Sauropod: "Oh no!" Person on uncontrolled helicopter: "AAAAAA" Geyser: "Fwoosh!" Cueball and Megan: "Oooh!" Giant phone crushing city: "ALERT" "Giant phone crushing city" "Dismiss" "More" Cueball with jetpack: "Wheeeee!" Cueball to Megan: "Do you ever look up at the night sky and think, "Wow, I bet those little white dots taste delicious!" Neighbor: "Why is my house on fire again?!" Cueball: "Dunno" Laser captioned: "Laser" Person with Washington Monument: "Okay, let it drop!"	(-13300,-3260)	Y	Y		Y	In aerospace, a Vehicle Assembly Building is where spacecraft are constructed. Randall Munroe whimsically refers to the launchpad as the Vehicle Disassembly Building. Contains a figure in a cave saying "MMM SPIDERS HOMF NOMF", which refers to Alternate Universe and may also be a reference to the Spiders Georg meme. Collecting the small dot above the mountain peak will turn your ship into a flying person figure. What If? 2 references include: A car preventing rubber pollution by being in a rubber ball, referencing Chapter 25: Tire Rubber People catching helicopters, one by the skid and another by the blade, referencing Chapter 2: Helicopter Ride (by the blade is reportedly more effective for downing the helicopter) Old Faithful, which appears in Chapter 8: Geyser A giant phone, presumably running on archaic vacuum tubes, from Chapter 36: Vacuum Tube Smartphone A jetpack takeoff appearing in Short Answer Section #1 A T-Rex being weighted against an elephant, referencing Chapter 7: T. Rex Calories Igniting a house with a laser, referencing Chapter 37: Laser Umbrella Dropping the Washington Monument to propel a plane, referencing Chapter 18: Airliner Catapult
sun	The Sun	"The sun is governed by magnetohydrodynamics, or 'Magic' for short" "My countertop!" "This will make a good soup base" "Can I touch it yet?" "No, be patient. It's still too hot. Give it another 20 or 30 billion years." "It's okay. I'm wearing five layers of sunscreen." TV Anchor: "The forecast for today is lots of sun" "This should be enough sunscreen"	(-14950, 12080)	Y	Y			Difficult to escape from if you hit the core. The description of magnetohydrodynamics is a reference to 1851: Magnetohydrodynamics. Throwing a countertop into the Sun is a reference to What If? Tungsten Countertop. Both the five layers of sunscreen (effective against ultraviolet) and the ten-meter blob (still ineffective against heat) are references to What If? 2 Chapter 62: Sunscreen. Waiting for it to cool down before touching it may reference Chapter 64: Walking on the Sun.
	Sun's core	Cueball: "The core of the sun may seem hot, but it only produces about as much energy per volume as a lizard" Megan: "Wow. So how many lizards are there?" Cueball: "No-one knows."		Y				Difficult to escape from. Can be escaped by rotating around the sun until an escape-like velocity could be reached. Comparing the sun's heat per volume to reptiles- in this case, lizards- is a reference to What If? Eat the Sun.
soupiter	Soupiter	"I think it's chicken noodle? Hard to tell."	(-800, -9040)	Y				A model of the solar system filled with soup out to the orbit of Jupiter. As commented by Cueball, noodle soup. Soupiter was the title of What If? 2 Chapter 1, but it filled the Solar System out to Jupiter and became a black hole, rather than another fun planet.
nojapan	Earth without Japan	"Something is missing."	(-7680, -5850)	Y				Earth, except it's missing Japan. Reference to What If? 2 Chapter 50: Japan Runs an Errand.
japanmoon	Just Japan		(-5930, -5800)	Y				A moon with water surrounding... just Japan. In What If? 2, this is a possibility for where Japan might go without intending to return.
pigeons	A blob labeled "Pigeons"		(-9020, -2490)	Y				A reference to Chapter 6 of What If? 2, where it would take 1.6 x 10^25 pigeons to lift you and a chair up to the halfway point of Australia's Q1 skyscraper.
enterprise	Starship Enterprise		(2389, -60879)	Y				Star Trek reference: The Enterprise-C, 2344, commanded by Captain Garrett's. While defending a Klingon outpost, the weapons discharges resulted in the creation of a temporal rift, through which the badly damaged Enterprise drifted. In the comic, there is a large, invisible gravity distortion near the Enterprise-C.
qwantz	Dinosaur planet	"Welcome... to Jurassic Park."	(20403,-49559)			Y		An homage to Dinosaur Comics, a webcomic Randall has mentioned several times before. All the dinosaurs on the planet are black-and-white versions of the clip art dinosaurs in that comic. Also references the Jurassic Park movies, with CEO John Hammond welcoming paleontologists Dr. Sattler and Dr. Grant to the planet. The long grass depicted is a plot point in later films.
roads	Cat blocking traffic flowing through portals			Y?				Roads in space may reference What If? 2 Chapter 5: Cosmic Road Trip.
outside	Edge of the Universe	"Welcome, traveler!" (found inside the edge of the bubble universe)	( 6081, 26138 )		Y			It looks like a planet labeled "edge of the universe". Outside the universe, so inside the "edge of the universe" planet, is another universe, the bubble universe, whose outside is labeled "edge of the bubble universe". Hidden entrance is between 10 and 11 'o clock. It is a reference to Bubble Universes.
roads	A tree larger than the planet it's growing on				Y			May be a reference to Petit Trees. More probably, a reference to The Little Prince, a French children's novel about a traveler from a distant asteroid. In the novel, baobab trees are a serious threat to the Prince's home asteroid, as they are so large that their roots would engulf the asteroid entirely. Randall has alluded to The Little Prince numerous times before, especially in what-if articles.
outside	Milliways		in code: [0,-14500] in game: [0,29000]			Y	Y	A reference to Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. On one side of the planet, Ponytail, Cueball, Megan, and other characters gather on the patio of the Milliways restaurant; on the other side, the Sojourner rover examines a rock.
greatattractor	The Great Attractor		(-596048, 247952)		Y			Beret Guy stands on the surface of a large ball labeled "The Great Attractor". The gravity is extremely strong (over 200 times that of the black holes), leading to various bugs and collision issues. It's a reference to Great Attractor, in which Beret Guy is gravitationally attracted to the Great Attractor more strongly than usual.
present	Present	"I didn't do any of my Christmas shopping yet because I was too busy drawing tiny planets." "I'm done with my shopping! I got everyone What if? 2" "...You got me my own book?" "Yeah! I figured that since you wrote it, it must be right up your alley." "It does make a good gift, though. You can get it at xkcd.com/whatif2" "I got you this present!" "Is it an angry bobcat?" "It might not be."	in code: [22820,-18920] in game: [45640,37840]		Y			The XKCD cast react to giving each other What if 2? as a present. Black Hat gives Cueball a "gift" which he claims "might not be a bobcat", a reference to A-Minus-Minus A quarter of the planet was missing on the release day, but it's fixed now.
maw1, maw2, ... maw14	Black hole cluster					Y		A cluster of black holes with extremely high gravitational strength, set to the maximum of 2048. Not particularly easy to land on with multiple conflicting gravitational fields, but once landed on, rather difficult to escape. Likely a reference to the Maw Cluster in Star Wars.
remnant	Remnant	"All right, that's close enough" "Oh no" "So don't delay, act now, supplies are running out" "In 5 billion years, the Sun will run out of fuel and suffer gigennial burnout." "The immense gravity of the sun's remnant means that this is the tallest possible skyscraper."	(19620, 3800)	Y			Y	A white dwarf stellar remnant, with high gravity (making it difficult to escape, although it's possible to achieve escape velocity by flying sideways). Has various small landmarks, including a "skyscraper" and suspension bridge, using a penny for scale. There is a set of images of a rocket descending towards the planet, falling and then trying to escape by sledding. The band is performing Smash Mouth's "Walkin' on the Sun". Most of these are references to What If? 2 Chapter 63: Walking on the Sun.
steerswoman	Steerswoman Planet	"As a Steerswoman, I have to answer any question anyone asks me, or I'm expelled from the order." "What's one question that you would be unwilling to answer?" "Oh no." "Handle this artifact with great care. It contains a magical wizard's potion which the ancients called 'trinitrotoluene'"	(-35070,-2500)				Y	A reference to the Steerswoman series of books by Rosemary Kirstein. Includes a number of references to the series, including a group of people observing a small object orbiting the planet. Trinitrotoluene is better known as TNT, a powerful explosive.
peeler	Peeler		(-9270, 620)	Y				A reference to the question posed by What If? 2 Chapter 13: Lose Weight the Slow and Incredibly Difficult Way. A large potato peeler is seen removing the earth's crust.

Ships

Name	Description	Location	Filename
Default	The starting ship.	It is possible to change back to this ship by collecting a dot located within the Black Hole cluster	ship2
Tintin	Ship in the shape of the moon rocket from Tintin	On the starting planet; can be obtained by collecting the cannonball in orbit	ship-tintin
Figure	Stick figure	On Goodhart, atop the mountain up which Sisyphus is pushing his boulder.	ship-figure
Soccer ball	Soccer ball shaped ship	On Earth, between two figures playing ball	ship-soccer
Alternative Ship	Default ship with KSP-style parachutes on both sides of the ship. The parachutes seem to disappear on landing.	Only available by using console to change Comic.ship = ship1	ship1

Data and Maps

View the data that is embedded in the comic on this page.

Maps created by the Community:

• https://bacontime.github.io/xkcd2712 | A zoomable map of the universe with markers for all planets, coins and with the option to highlight secret passages
• https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/zpe7bz/i_rendered_the_entire_what_if_2_universe_as_a/ | The whole universe rendered as one big image

Hacks

Various modes and hacks have been found or developed by the community, and can be activated by opening the browser console (F12, Ctrl-Shift-I or Cmd-Option-I to open your browser's developer tools, then choose the Console tab) and typing a command.
Click to expand:

• Speedhack: ship.engines = "warp" - Speed hacking, sets speed to 1.4x. set to "standard" to reset to normal speed
• Teleport to planet: [Comic.voyager.pos.x, Comic.voyager.pos.y] = Comic.planetRects.origin.slice(0,2) - teleport near a planet, in this example near earth. You'll still have to fly a bit towards the nearest planet to reach it. Replace origin with the ID of the planet you want to go to, from the table above.
• Teleport to coordinate: [Comic.voyager.pos.x, Comic.voyager.pos.y] = [0, -2000] - teleport to an exact coordinate. [0, -2000] happens to take you to the starting area.
• Improved radar: Comic.wayfinderFarDistance = Infinity - make the direction of all objects visible. This can be hard to understand though.
• Chaos Mode: ship.engines="infinite improbability drive" - Seems to randomly teleports the ship. A reference to its namesake in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
• Insta Death: ship.shields = false - Kill the player if they land on a planet, the code never sets it to false, so it seems to be always true.
• No Clip: noclip = true - Enables noclip. Also disables gravity.
• Select ship: Comic.ship = "ship-tintin" - Select ship (use filename from list of ships)
• Autorotate: Comic.cameraRotation = false - View does not rotate with ship
• Goggles: ze.goggles() - returns a warning: "they do nothing!". This is a reference to Hoverboard, where ze.goggles() would give you the ability to see false walls. Both of which are a reference to the Simpsons episode "Radioactive Man" (season 7, episode 2), where Rainier Wolfcastle, playing Radioactive Man, complains that his safety goggles do nothing against a deluge of acid, sounding like "Ze goggles, zey do nothing!" with his accent.
• Python: python("import antigravity") - reverses gravity, so the ship falls away from planets. A reference to 353: Python. Reset with Comic.gravityConstant = 100.
• Light Mode Comic.lightMode = true - inverts the color of the comic. reset with Comic.lightMode = false

Trivia

The objects in the mini-universe of this browser game are all at fixed positions and do not interact through gravity, however, the ship controlled by the player is affected by gravity. While this makes it technically a relatively easy integration problem (of the position of the player ship forward in time), the integrator used seems to be a relatively simple one - and certainly not a symplectic one, because it does not conserve angular momentum. This can be seen when one manages to get into orbit around some object, e.g. the core of the sun. The orbit slowly decays over time.

The logic for extending the landing legs and landing is rather simple. A ship can (normally) land if it is facing away from the surface it collides with, and if its momentum is more-or-less directed towards the surface. Once landing is triggered, the ship will rotate to face directly away from the object exerting the most gravity on the player, regardless of how sloped the surface is. The only way to get into space again is to accelerate forwards, as neither turning nor accelerating backwards cancels the landed state. All of this can be abused to land on almost everything. To land on the underside of an object, simply point your ship away from the object and slowly accelerate backwards to counteract the force of gravity. Landing on the side of an object is more difficult, as ships cannot accelerate sideways. The first method is to accelerate backwards to launch yourself upwards and towards the object so that at the top of your arc you will collide with the object. Then, rotate your ship accordingly to land. Method two is to just repeatedly slam your back of your ship into the object until you land. Note that with any of these weird landing methods, your ship will turn to face away from the source of gravity and can clip into objects.

Executing window.python("import antigravity") or python("import antigravity") as Javascript on the page will reverse gravity, multiplying the gravity constant by -1.

Executing window.ze.goggles() or ze.goggles() as Javascript on the page will show a warning in the console: "they do nothing!"

Transcript

This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.

Welcome!

To celebrate the world of what if? 2, here is your very own planet to explore!

Give someone the science question-and-answer book what if? 2 for Christmas: xkcd.com/whatif2

 add a comment! ⋅  add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅  refresh comments!

Discussion

this game is really hard...i got stuck on the sun, then tried again and got sucked into a black hole.(insert name here) (talk) 06:34, 20 December 2022 (UTC)

Whatever image is supposed to be in the center isn't showing up for me! D: Tried on both Safari and Chrome but it gives me the little broken picture icon. Hopefully it's fixed soon! (The comic's been up for about 10 minutes going by when the bot updated this page.) 172.70.126.117 22:28, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Is it me or are the planets way too close together, and if the gravity were real, they'd all smush together?

The center image is trying to load this link, but there's nothing there: https://xkcd.com/tile/ship1/ship_gliding_2x.png. I hope that gets fixed soon. The "ship" seems to rotate a bit unpredictably over time. At first I thought it was responding to my mouse movements, but I don't think so anymore. Orion205 (talk) 22:34, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Still broken on the mobile site (Chrome, Android). I just see a rotating missing image box. 172.71.134.133 11:39, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Ah, the center image is controlled by the javascript, of course: https://xkcd.com/2712/comic.js. So this is some sort of interactive comic? Orion205 (talk) 22:36, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Okay, left/right arrow keys seem to control the rotation. I'll check back in later in hopes of seeing the ship so I have some idea what the point of it all is. Orion205 (talk) 22:39, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

And now it's working. You fly a little spaceship around the little planet. Luckily you have shields if you slam into the ground too hard. Orion205 (talk) 22:43, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Catch the cannonball for a spaceship upgrade. Also, not so easy to find a stable orbit around this little planet. Orion205 (talk) 22:49, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Found another planet (has a reference to the "Tires" chapter in How To) with a cannonball, which turned me into an astronaut.

You can transform the ship into a different (seems faster to me) one by running into the last cannon ball. 108.162.241.249

Rough summary: The comic is an interactive space flight game, starting landed on an origin planet. The planet is static, and the player starts in a ship controlled by WASD or Directional keys. The ship can go up and down, and rotate left and right. Game simulates orbits and gravity, making navigation tricky. Around the player ship there are dots which indicate nearby planets - there are numurous planets, each with what seem to be drawings related to the What If book. Within the browser, planets are loaded in PNG format by chunk, names formatted as "planet_0_0" with numbers incrementing as grid co-ordinates. Planets and objects found: "origin" "europa", "road", "b612". NOTE: Several hazards exist, such as a field of black holes - if flown into, the ship can become stuck if let to be pulled close to the surface, locking in place. 172.70.110.230 23:13, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Within browser dev console exists the objects "Ship" and "Comic", the latter containing a list of all objects and coordinates, as well as various setting for the game physics and settings. Comic contains the sub-object "Voyager", which contains the details and settings for the player ship, including location, speed, etc. 172.70.110.230 23:13, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

There are 5 ship types in the game code, each with their own consumable transformative found in the world. The ship alternatives are (ship1, ship2, ship-tintin, ship-figure, ship-soccerball). These can be changed with console command [Comic.ship = "ship1"]. Note: At current, "ship-soccerball" returns an error and does not load correctly. 172.70.110.230 23:13, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

The "ship.shields" is a boolean value that defaults to true, and when set to false, makes the game behave in a lunar lander mode (bad landing black screens the whole page). The "ship.engine" types I see in the code are "warp" (very fast speeds) and "infinite improbability drive" (teleports to 'improbable' places). Default engine is "standard", but it seems any value that is not the former two has the same effect. --172.70.254.165 23:32, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

In addition to Europa, the space road, and B-612, there is the "Edge of the Universe" (complete with Milliways restaurant nearby), a... tree (which is extremely hard to land on), a planet populated by the characters from Dinosaur Comics (and the main cast of Jurassic Park), the USS Enterprice (NCC 1701-C), and likely quite a bit more. Orbital mechanics make it tough to land on the smaller targets. 172.71.254.46 23:07, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Plus what appears to be Earth, complete with the LHC. There's a 2nd "cannonball" there for an additional ship upgrade, but at the time I found it, that graphic was unavailable. 172.70.126.232 23:15, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

"Edge of the Universe" is part of "Outside". There is a hidden tunnel from the main universe to the bubble universe at coordinates (7597,24327) point nose of ship at words "EDGE OF THE" and fire thrusters. 162.158.79.160 03:59, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

I went out a long ways away, and eventually found The Great Attractor. It attracts really hard. I couldn't leave the surface. (I wasn't able to leave the center of Europa either, though, so, not saying much.) There are also some terrifying black holes (a binary system?), though something's weird about their gravity; you kinda bounce off of them a quarter screen away or so? 108.162.216.77 23:10, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

I *think* thats a wormhole, you go in one and then out the other. I got stuck right between them. Speaking of getting stuck, there is a bug where if you hit a planet with enough gravity fast enough, the ship is inside the planet. Holding W makes you go backwards (or at least towards the center maybe?) and you can get all the way to the other end of the planet where you slow down a lot, but can eventually leave. 172.70.82.166 23:19, 16 December 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

There's one planet that's supposed to be the "remnant of the sun", is that what you mean with The Great Attractor? (It has a bridge on it with a coin(?) blocking part of the way, and a space ship actively crashing into its surface, drawn as several frames.) You can leave that by skidding over the surface like a skipping stone to gather momentum - it's tricky, due to various obstacles, but possible! (It's possible you need two ship power-ups?! If they're indeed power-ups and not just aesthetic changes, I didn't pay attention.)

No, it's labeled "The Great Attractor". It's big and white and has strong gravity. Lemme see if I have a screenshot. 108.162.216.25 00:20, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Here: https://github.com/Erhannis/random_garbage/blob/main/Screenshot%20from%202022-12-16%2017-47-48.png 108.162.216.25 00:24, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Screenshot of the Enterprise and Dinosaur Comics planet. Sorry for the broken image in the middle, I picked up two powerups and my current ship image is broken. -(pinkgothic) 172.68.110.143 23:22, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Dog Park planet 172.71.254.114 23:28, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Using a tablet (no keyboard, but seems to respond to touch), controls are confusing. Presuming that touching bottom left activates left-rotate and touching bottom right does right-rotate (can't see the presumably white-lije controls over the white planet) but I can't get thrust anything but 'reverse' into the planet centre. No obvious top-edge hotspots, either. Maybe I need to do a "You will not go to space today" and then reverse upward... BRB, after a bit more testing, though... 172.69.79.185 23:39, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Ok, the next go went 'better'. The browser keeps wanting to load "simplified content", but if I ignore that I can get full-screen, at one point I changed rocket-type (no idea how, can't do it again) and I easily get off the planet (hard to thrust just enough to get to the Hooke comment/cannon), with plenty of targets coming in range (but cannot slow down enough to not have it glitch and rebuild a totally new set of targets that I never can reach). Will try desktop version when I'm next on a suitable one... Looks to be a lot of interesting content. 162.158.74.30 23:53, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Using the developer console, the ship can be teleported to different coordinates via console command [Comic.voyager.pos.x = 0, Comic.voyager.pos.y = -1461], provided here with start location coordinates. This can be used for manual navigation to known coordinates. List of locations per game code added below, append landing X,Y to each as determined. 172.70.110.230 23:42, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

b612: [5280,-7601] dogplanet: [2598,-23168] earth: [33803,-32974] enterprise: [1898,-61215] europa: [24930,8022] goodhart: [-23372,5928] greatattractor: [-594782,248510] japanmoon: [x,y] maw1: [x,y] maw2: [x,y] maw3: [x,y] maw4: [x,y] maw5: [x,y] maw6: [x,y] maw7: [x,y] maw8: [x,y] maw9: [x,y] maw10: [x,y] maw11: [x,y] maw13: [x,y] maw14: [x,y] nojapan: [x,y] origin: [0, -1461] peeler: [x,y] pigeons: [x,y] present: [x,y] remnant: [x,y] roads: [x,y] soupiter: [x,y] steerswoman: [x,y] sun: [x,y]

Note: For ease of teleportation, reference the Comic.planetRects array and use the first two numbers as X,Y. This will get the ship close enough to the object to then land and determine a landed location, via Comic.voyager.pos

In your developer console, enter window.ship.engines = 'infinite improbability drive' and pressing up will randomly teleport you to interesting places. window.ship.engines = 'warp' will let you escape normally inescapable objects.

Unfortunately, the infinite improbability drive will sometimes result in an object's image and geometry failing to load. The same bug can occur with a manual teleportation too close to an object. For convenience, here are a list of coordinates which put you relatively close to various locations, but far enough away to trigger the object's loading: Major Locations: origin: (0, -1500); dogplanet: (2480, -23484); earth: (28720, -36912); europa: (26360, 984); goodhart: (-26600, 2424); greatattractor: (-594000, 247952); qwantz: (22120, -51788); remnant: (39240, -9648); soupiter: (-16000, 16032); steerswoman: (-70140, 2952); sun: (-29900, -32352); Bubble Universe: (5000,21000); Smaller Locations: b612: (5220, -8424); japanmoon: (-11860, 10576); nojapan: (-15360, 10676); enterprise: (2020, -61904); outside: (250,28500); peeler: (-18540, -2264); pigeons: (-18040, 3956); present: (45640, 36816); roads: (26480, 23500); light mode toggle: (1500,-200000) Black Holes: maw1: (-63152, 17130); maw2: (-60422, 16638); maw3: (-55950, 15508); maw4: (-59092, 14918); maw5: (-59582, 14238); maw6: (-58656, 14126); maw7: (-59400, 13828); maw8: (-58330, 13296); maw9: (-61544, 12796); maw10: (-59032, 11618); maw11: (-58762, 11472); maw12: (-53664, 10832); maw13: (-63486, 8424); maw14: (-52142, 20624);

Also, I found the following javascript function helpful for teleporting around. function tp(x,y){ Comic.voyager.pos.x = x; Comic.voyager.pos.y = y; Comic.voyager.pos.vx = 0; Comic.voyager.pos.vy = 0;} --172.70.126.233 03:06, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

If anyone wants to download the planet images, they're at https://xkcd.com/2712/tile/<name>_i_j.png, for i,j = 0, 1, ..., going as high as needed for the planet size. For example, https://xkcd.com/2712/tile/origin_3_3.png gives the bottom-right part of the start planet.

Proposal

It seems the most explanatory thing we can do is replace the blank starfield with the starting image screenshot, and label its four corners with their x and y coordiates, and then make a table of all the objects with their coordinates, a screenshot, and a description of their behaviors. 172.70.206.204 23:55, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

A map with insets would be better than coordinates since the frame rotates. 172.71.158.231 00:17, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Here are some overview images: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UPJ1_4xNQbsHVP5FplrTaVJa3e6WddjG The Great Attractor is much farther out than most of the planets. So I've also included a more zoomed-in image that doesn't include it. --172.70.127.38 07:35, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Got images for all the locations: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CVADHsRgBtDPYca-gdfVwNW_nEsrJ-zj?usp=share_link Clam (talk) 00:03, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Looks like I was beat to the punch, but here's another way to access the raw images (on a dark background): https://aeromancer.dev/xkcd_2712/ 172.70.211.90 01:15, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

I’ve been able to glitch into the center of planets, but the ones with lower gravity I can get out of. I did this unintentionally by going headfirst into one really fast.

Here's a version of the images on the starfields! Figured it would be the closest thing. 172.70.111.29 02:23, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Table system

I've added the graph from good'ol hoverboard. Here's the format to add stuff. |-

|Title, perhaps in triple apostrophes if they're a major feature, not on top of another planet.

|Transcription for people talking in that area. Don't do this for planets.

|Coordinates. 172.70.126.233 has a comment on a ton of coordinates and locations which need to be added. I don't know how he does that science stuff, but use it!

|Is it a reference to What If 2? Put a Y here if so.

|Is it a reference to XKCD? Put a Y here if so.

|Is it a reference to a movie? Put a Y here if so.

|Is it a reference to something else? Put a Y here is so. Leave these empty if not.

|Put the explanation here.

Please help out on adding stuff! There's a lot! Remove the newlines from in between the lines. I had to add those for them to format right. Eelitee (talk) 04:33, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

OHNO 172.70.126.233 coordinates for teleportation specifically. I didn't read it right and put them in... I'm going through the data dump to try and extract them. Sorry!! Eelitee (talk) 04:37, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Alright, fixed. A few things I'm thinking about to do next, but I don't have time for: 1. Add gravitation attractions in a new column. They're all in the json dump, I suggest using a json viewer for more convenience. Or doing some coding? 2. Add item locations. This one is important, as items are a major feature. 3. Organize the items, either by alphabetical, or by distance from Earth. This might be hard... 4. Get details in! We need more information. This is the most important by far, get to work! haha.

GL, HF!

Eelitee (talk) 04:48, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

I'm was adding the "Y" tags for the different bodies, do we want to add a "Y" if there is any of that reference on the planet (for the planet row in the chart) or only add the Y on the specific comic fragments or POIs on the planet? On the one hand it seems like it would be helpful to see what kind of references are on a planet overall, but I also feel that it could quickly turn into every planet having every single box checked. Also, I feel we need a 2nd box for what if 1 vs what if 2, as well as TE and HT. I haven't explored the map very much yet, but if there are a lot of ST/SW/LR references they may need to be separated from movies, similar to the abbreviation system on hoverboard. I don't edit a lot and I have only edited "new" pages once or twice so if anyone has any advice or issues with what I have added feel free to add your opinions here. Thanks!

Unlisted Planet

Hi all, first time poster so sorry if I'm formatting this wrong. I found a planet at (46070, 37936) which doesn't seem to be listed yet, and I didn't see it in the comics.js output or the google drive link from Clam. It's very small and has characters talking about the new book https://drive.google.com/file/d/19lfN8N06s18mKUhFkPcFddKYEXApAED4/view?usp=share_link Have we already accounted for this, and if not does anyone know where we might find a listing including this planet and possibly others like it? Jgendelgreen (talk) 06:07, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

No, you're doing alright. If you find something new, just add it to the list. Other people will correct it if it's wrong! You can find a listing using the json dump that was posted underneath the list. I may have deleted the listing for that one accidentally... oops... Eelitee (talk) 06:17, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Oh cool thanks! I think the one I found is "present"Jgendelgreen (talk) 06:23, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

I wish to note that I'm using Safari on an iPad, which usually can't touch the interactive comics (I know hoverboard was a whole lot of nothing), for this one I can turn the rockets on and off, that's it. Seems like my path is predetermined, on autopilot (turns here then there, first time in an S, with nothing in sight to be modifying my flight). The first time I was going pretty fast, rockets off, then I turned them back on right before I blasted past SOME planet, flitted by in a blink, so I'm hoping to find it again, but I have no control except Thrust or No Thrust. NiceGuy1 (talk) 07:12, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Check that, NOW if I tap the left side I get the right thruster and vice versa! Hey, I have control! NiceGuy1 (talk) 07:24, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Found Jurassic Park planet and Dog Park planet, then found the sun, saw SOMEBODY saying something but I skidded to a stop too far away, and no, escape is NOT possible. I'm in the default rocket and turning on the thrusters just gives a little hop, not enough to then tun on ONE thruster to actually change position. I am unquestionably STUCK, LOL! NiceGuy1 (talk) 07:42, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Does anyone know what this little island is called? It's near the roads. It's been described as "A tree larger than the planet it's growing on" on the main page's table. -(pinkgothic) 198.41.242.241 00:59, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

It's the "roads" tree planet, because the roads through portals need a center to show up as a point on the ship's mini-map system. 172.70.214.205 08:58, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

Cosmic topology?

Does space wrap around horizontally and vertically in a torus like the Atari Asteroids video game, or does it go on forever in all directions? If the former, how many times the area of the initial comic is it? 172.71.154.159 07:33, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

I've gotten to X = 1,000,000, no signs of wrapping around. 172.70.189.113 22:52, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

I think so... Or rather it's like an edge. ONCE I was flying a long distance, then something seemed odd and the page refreshed itself and I was back at the launchpad. NiceGuy1 (talk) 06:44, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

Game breaker

I found out that if run `ship.shields = false` and touch anything, the screen goes black forever.172.70.179.4 14:49, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Light mode

I don't see any mention yet of the "Light mode" button at X=1500, Y=-200000; it's clickable and inverts black and white for the comic. 172.71.30.83 07:50, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

I actually came across it a few days ago. I'm pretty sure I found it by holding down the thrusters from the starting position, but now that just sends me crashing into the USS Enterprise (and not even at the same angle every time, maybe due to lag) so either the position of something got changed or I'm remembering what I did wrong. SitkaFox (talk) 03:56, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

More console shenanigans

Executing window.python('import antigravity'); (referencing xkcd #353) in the console does what it says: gravity is reversed. 172.71.30.83 07:50, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

observations

this three-quarters planet seems to be impossible to get out of without the "warp" engines if you get in the center: https://i.imgur.com/tMchAa1.png

Planet is not supposed to be three quarters, I'm guessing one of the tiles did not load for some reason. See here. 172.70.35.69 18:08, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

i also got stuck in one planet by descending toward it very quickly https://i.imgur.com/9ilmtdK.png - in this state, descending and turning do nothing, but accelerating (pressing up) makes me slowly move downward and lets me turn very slowly

--172.70.114.7 15:01, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

also, i went toward this planet (downward) at high speed and became knit cap somehow https://i.imgur.com/JlRFuy4.png --172.70.230.160 15:16, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Instead of there being a wide "references" column with 4 sub-columns, I think it should be just a "references" column with what the reference is as the text, instead of it being a boolean. This also allows for more detail such as "What If 2, chapter 94: What if I made up a chapter name" or something like that 172.71.22.22 15:46, 17 December 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

There is a planet at {x: 34704, y: -25501} with a space elevator attached to it. In that same planet, at {x: 31682, y: -34551}, there's a guy complaining about the framerate being "really bad out today"; the screen will stutter if you fly by him.

I think that the planet labeled "Earth" in the table is actually Mars. Apparently it has two asteroids orbiting it. N-eh (talk) 19:45, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

I questioned if it's actually Earth too, but if you mess around in the Console it's called "earth" in the code and can teleport there by name. NiceGuy1 (talk) 06:44, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

I managed to stitch the tiles for each location and therefore created a complete image of each of the 34 locations. Where can I upload this to? I uploaded the code here: https://github.com/roee30/xkcd-scripts

Is it possible to make a google maps type zoomable version of your images like [1] is for 1110: Click and Drag? 172.71.166.123 22:54, 18 December 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

It already exists! See : https://old.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/zo07ji/xkcd_2712_static_and_zoomable/ --172.70.242.39 22:02, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

What if 2 planet

It's got a dinosaur being offered a hamburger, a person firing a cannon (one cannonball nearly goes into orbit) and if you can get yourself struck by one of the cannonballs the ship transforms.

I'm not sure if the transformed ship is BETTER, but it is different.

--172.70.131.52 17:19, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

I turned the ship into a person (Megan?) by hitting the cannonball next to the "HMMM Spiders!" SQB (talk) 16:46, 20 December 2022 (UTC)

Underneath Europa's Crust

I managed to clip through the icy crust of Europa to the sea underneath (by flying at the planet really fast)... and there's stuff *down* here. Neat!

I'll update the table accordingly. TwilightWorlds (talk) 19:51, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

I noticed some text that isn't written down on the transcript anywhere. Apologies if I'm doing something wrong, I've never contributed before. Here is the link to a screenshot of what I found. Not sure where it is, but hopefully it looks familiar. https://drive.google.com/file/d/11z1_mChMlWr2ZgJCksXEWiY17vosoMlI/view?usp=sharing

Maybe I'm crazy, but is it possible that the positions of some objects have been changed since the comic was posted? The other day, if I flew straight up from the starting point never disabling the engine, I'd get flung around by some gravity wells before being flung out in a direction that would, eventually, lead me right past the 'light mode' button. Today, however, I always end up crashing into the USS Enterprise, and to add to the weirdness, I don't even hit it at the same angle every time. Also, I hope I'm signing this right, it's my first post. SitkaFox (talk) 23:45, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

I noticed that the coordinates in the game code are not the same as the coordinates given by [Comic.voyager.pos.x, Comic.voyager.pos.y]. To convert between the two, multiply the x-coordinate by 2 and the y-coordinate by -2. Hdjensofjfnen (talk) 00:01, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

of which one? voyager x pos = 2 * in game x pos? or in game x pos = 2 * voyager x pos?

"Europa's crust, with a single entrance into the core demarcated by an octopus leaving a hole." - the entrance design is quite a lookalike to the sea level boundaries in ZX Spectrum computer game Scuba Dive from 1983, with octopus guarding the entrance.

Stitched together image?

Would it be difficult to scrape the coords of everything and stitch it together into one large image/something with zoom-in and out a la those made for 1110: Click and Drag?172.71.166.122 00:25, 18 December 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

or maybe at least some zoom-out thing i can put into the console? 172.71.30.64 00:35, 18 December 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

The pictures are tiles 1024*1024 px, file name as https://xkcd.com/2712/tile/origin_3_3.png, the last two digits varying from 0 to planet size. Done it for Origin but it seems I can't upload a file (?) Biem (talk) 08:09, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

Already working on this Majko (talk) 17:14, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

Done: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12ZxoMn4Val_9ccJKKE7OMYkfSq54ectq?usp=sharing (turned out it would be a HUGE image so the planets are separate files). I leave adding it to the page to whoever has the permission to upload files here. Majko (talk) 19:24, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

Basic Zoomable Version here: https://old.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/zo07ji/xkcd_2712_static_and_zoomable/ --172.71.254.46 04:33, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

Different coordinate systems

Coordinates in the game you use to teleport are 2 per pixel ([1000, 0] is 500 pixels from the origin). Coordinates in the json file are 1 per pixel. Should the coordinates in the page be adjusted to be in the "teleport coordinates"? Majko (talk) 17:14, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

Navigation display

I created a simple “navigation panel” to show my current coordinates and velocity; write this into the developer console:

document.getElementById('bottom').innerHTML += '<div id="coorddisplay" style="position:fixed;top:0;left:0;width:30em;height:2em;background:white;border:1px black solid"></div>';
setInterval(function() { document.getElementById('coorddisplay').innerText = `${Comic.voyager.pos.x.toFixed(2)}, ${Comic.voyager.pos.y.toFixed(2)}; ${Comic.voyager.pos.vx.toFixed(3)}, ${Comic.voyager.pos.vy.toFixed(3)}` }, 500) 

--Mormegil (talk) 09:00, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

I've expanded on Mormegil's idea to provide a distance to other planets and objects as well, including the light mode button!

function round2(num) {
    return Math.round(num * 100) / 100;
}
function distanceTo(ax, ay) {
    return Math.sqrt(Math.pow(ax - pos.x,2) + Math.pow(ay - pos.y, 2))
}
function planetIsNearby(p) {
    const [px,py] = p.loc()
    d = distanceTo(px, py)
    const isNearby = d < p.radius * 5;
    return [d, isNearby]
}
function compareDistances(pd1, pd2) {
    return pd1.d - pd2.d;
}
function objectIsNearby(o) {
    d = distanceTo(o.x, o.y)
    const isNearby = d < 250;
    return [d, isNearby]
}

comic = window.Comic
voyager = comic.voyager
opts = voyager.opts
pos = voyager.pos
remainingObjects = [...opts.objects];

let planets = [
    {"id":"b612","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":82,"gravity":60,"x":5220,"y":-7400},
    {"id":"dogplanet","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":337,"gravity":600,"x":2480,"y":-22460},
    {"id":"earth","width":16384,"height":16384,"radius":3275,"gravity":21000,"x":28720,"y":-28720},
    {"id":"enterprise","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":160,"gravity":200,"x":2020,"y":-60880},
    {"id":"europa","width":8192,"height":8192,"radius":1625,"gravity":5000,"x":26360,"y":5080},
    {"id":"goodhart","width":8192,"height":8192,"radius":1625,"gravity":9000,"x":-26600,"y":6520},
    {"id":"greatattractor","width":4096,"height":4096,"radius":800,"gravity":450000,"x":-594000,"y":250000},
    {"id":"japanmoon","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":67,"gravity":50,"x":-11860,"y":11600},
    {"id":"maw1","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-63152,"y":18154},
    {"id":"maw10","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":15,"gravity":2000,"x":-59032,"y":12642},
    {"id":"maw11","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":12,"gravity":2000,"x":-58762,"y":12496},
    {"id":"maw12","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-53664,"y":11856},
    {"id":"maw13","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-63486,"y":9448},
    {"id":"maw14","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-52142,"y":21648},
    {"id":"maw2","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-60422,"y":17662},
    {"id":"maw3","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-55950,"y":16532},
    {"id":"maw4","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-59092,"y":15942},
    {"id":"maw5","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-59582,"y":15262},
    {"id":"maw6","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-58656,"y":15150},
    {"id":"maw7","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-59400,"y":14852},
    {"id":"maw8","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-58330,"y":14320},
    {"id":"maw9","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":18,"gravity":2000,"x":-61544,"y":13820},
    {"id":"nojapan","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":200,"gravity":80,"x":-15360,"y":11700},
    {"id":"origin","width":4096,"height":4096,"radius":630,"gravity":2300,"x":0,"y":0},
    {"id":"outside","width":16384,"height":16384,"radius":125,"gravity":200,"x":0,"y":29000},
    {"id":"peeler","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":40,"gravity":50,"x":-18540,"y":-1240},
    {"id":"pigeons","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":160,"gravity":100,"x":-18040,"y":4980},
    {"id":"present","width":2048,"height":2048,"radius":195,"gravity":300,"x":45640,"y":37840},
    {"id":"qwantz","width":4096,"height":4096,"radius":850,"gravity":1400,"x":22120,"y":-49740},
    {"id":"remnant","width":4096,"height":4096,"radius":537,"gravity":9000,"x":39240,"y":-7600},
    {"id":"roads","width":16384,"height":16384,"radius":30,"gravity":40,"x":26480,"y":23020},
    {"id":"soupiter","width":4096,"height":4096,"radius":812,"gravity":1300,"x":-16000,"y":18080},
    {"id":"steerswoman","width":4096,"height":4096,"radius":520,"gravity":600,"x":-70140,"y":5000},
    {"id":"sun","width":16384,"height":16384,"radius":540,"gravity":9000,"x":-29900,"y":-24160}
]
for (const planet of planets) {
    planet.loc = () => { return [planet.x, planet.y]};
}
remainingPlanets = [...planets];

comicElem = document.getElementById('comic');
posbox = document.createElement("pre");
posbox.id = 'posbox'
comicElem.after(posbox)

objectNames = ['tintin', 'figure','ship2', 'soccer', 'lightmode'];
i = 0;
for (const obj of opts.objects) {
    obj.id = objectNames[i];
    i += 1;
}

function decreaseStrongGravity() {
    //If you get a breakpoint in onTick you should be able to see the closure variable
    // Hn, and if you set:
    //     planets = Hn;
    // In the Console while you are breakpointed there, then this will allow you to
    // take off from any planet
    for (const p of planets) {
        if (p.gravity / (p.radius * p.radius) > 0.02) {
            p.gravity = 0.02 * (p.radius * p.radius);
        }
    }
}

let intv = 0
if (intv !== 0) {
  clearInterval(intv);
}
intv = setInterval(() => {
    const playerPos = `${Math.round(pos.x / 100)}, ${Math.round(pos.y / 100)}`
    const playerVel = `${round2(pos.vx)}, ${round2(pos.vy)}, ${pos.va}`
    const planetDistances = [];
    for (const planet of planets) {
        const [d, isNearby] = planetIsNearby(planet);
        if (isNearby) {
            planetDistances.push({d, s:`  - ${isNearby ? "NEARBY" : ""} ${planet.id}: ${Math.round(d / 100)}`});
        }
    }
    for (const planet of remainingPlanets) {
        const [d, isNearby] = planetIsNearby(planet);
        if (!isNearby) {
            planetDistances.push({d, s:`  - ${isNearby ? "NEARBY" : ""} ${planet.id}: ${Math.round(d / 100)}`});
        }
    }
    planetDistances.sort(compareDistances);
    // If you're very close to a planet, take it off the list
    remainingPlanets = remainingPlanets.filter(p => {const [d, isNearby] = planetIsNearby(p); return !isNearby;})

    const objectDistances = [];

    for (const obj of opts.objects) {
        const [d, isNearby] = objectIsNearby(obj);
        if (isNearby) {
            objectDistances.push({d, s:`  - ${isNearby ? "NEARBY" : ""} ${obj.id}: ${Math.round(d / 100)}`});
        }
    }
    for (const obj of remainingObjects) {
        const [d, isNearby] = objectIsNearby(obj);
        if (!isNearby) {
            objectDistances.push({d, s:`  - ${isNearby ? "NEARBY" : ""} ${obj.id}: ${Math.round(d / 100)}`});
        }
    }
    objectDistances.sort(compareDistances);
    // If you're very close to a coin or the button, take it off the list
    remainingObjects = remainingObjects.filter(p => {const [d, isNearby] = objectIsNearby(p); return !isNearby;})

    posbox.innerHTML = `${playerPos}` + "\n" + `${playerVel}` + "\n" + planetDistances.map(pd => pd.s).join("\n")+ "\n" + objectDistances.map(pd => pd.s).join("\n");
}, 500);

-- 162.158.146.80

Inspiration for Japan missing?

Could it be a reference to Japan being absent from maps edited by the PRC's government? For example, this PRC-sponsored video features a map in the intro where Japan is missing. https://youtu.be/e0oJtuljYRo Ck (talk) 12:58, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

Not just PRC maps. Missing island on stylized world maps are pretty common. See https://old.reddit.com/r/mapswithoutJapan/ and https://old.reddit.com/r/MapsWithoutNZ/ --172.70.131.103 15:01, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

This is no longer plausible when *all* the other, much smaller islands, like especially Corsica and fine detail in the Philippines, are all present and correctly shaped! Ck (talk) 15:46, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

Perhaps a stretch, but in the Webcomic Starslip Crisis, Japan successfully launched itself into space. Nedlum (talk) 16:18, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

Apparently you have not read WhatIf 2. One of the questions is "What if Japan wasn't there" This is a reference to that. 172.69.33.124 00:02, 20 December 2022 (UTC)

The above assertion is probably/certainly the reason but, going with the general note of missing islands, it's not always islands that go inexplicably missing... ;) 141.101.99.31 01:41, 20 December 2022 (UTC)

Black Hole Maw

Is the cluster of black holes, labeled "maw", possibly related to the Maw Cluster in Star Wars?Nedlum (talk) 17:00, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

In the cluster of the black holes there is a small white planet about the size of the spaceship, which does not appear to show any gravity. It can be found at [-60050, 16150]. --172.70.246.211 20:27, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

The "edge of the universe" planet is missing. Teleporting there with the console command teleports you a few seconds of flight between Soupiter and the Milliway Restaurant.

Jurassic Park ninja

If you bump into the little dot next to the guy pushing a rock uphill, your spaceship turns into a little ninja guy. Not sure what the reference is.

not Jurassic Park. It's on Goodhart. 172.69.69.7 04:03, 20 December 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

https://xkcd.com/2713/ is up (Data Point).172.71.222.108 03:39, 20 December 2022 (UTC)

What If? 1 scenario planet

Someone put it into the table, but does it really exist? No ID, no transcript, no explanation, no nothing. So I'm probably not the only one who never saw it. --172.68.110.177 12:36, 20 December 2022 (UTC)

Is the universe infinite

Space is big. Really, really big. But it's not infinite. Or is it? If you transport to positive coordinates > ~1000001019, the starfield freezes and becomes blurred. However, you still have momentum/can manouevre, and once you reach acceptable coordinates again it unfreezes. If you transport to negative coordinates < ~-2900000000000000000, the starfield looks fine, but you're frozen in place. Firing your rockets will only move you a short hop before you freeze again, until you manage to hop close enough to acceptable coordinates. It turns out physics is not the same everywhere in the universe after all...172.70.85.175 12:26, 21 December 2022 (UTC)

Floating-point errors 172.70.142.253 23:53, 21 December 2022 (UTC)

Not working at all for me

If I click and hold on the rocket on the xkcd page, I get a faintish grey copy of it that I can move about within the original pic, or out of the pic into other parts of the window. As soon as I release the button, the grey rocket disappears. What am I missing? 172.70.142.95 09:35, 22 December 2022 (UTC)

That sounds like fairly normal (modern) browser behaviour for 'loose' image objects on a web-page/similar. All controls so far mentioned are via keyboard, and no sign that mouse-control has been implemented in any way. Try cursors/wasd/hjkl (perhaps after a click to 'focus' on the dynamic image?) and it should work, or at least after a fashion. 13:31, 22 December 2022 (UTC)

I eventually worked out that I needed to use the arrow keys, but all I got was a few passing dots that I couldn't interact with, and a lot of time where all there was just the rocket and black space, so I had no way of telling if the rocket was moving or not. No sign of the stuff other people have mentioned here. 162.158.170.228 08:51, 23 December 2022 (UTC)

It's not guaranteed to work with every browser/platform, and you might just have it unlucky (I can only get it to work on my tablet's Chrome (not the also present Firefox) and it has crashes/oddities that might be resource limits being reached on such a relatively low-powered device. For desktop, I don't use Chrome at all (and I don't have Edge/etc, either), and it really doesn't like my Firefox setup, but that might be my long-standing settings/etc (for historical compatability) rather than innate inability.

For all I know, you're hitting similar roadblocks to (some places for).me. Or perhaps you've just not found the 'touch' (which l, for my tablet/Chrome use, I had to learn and develop to get some sensible 'play' out of it) and so your trans-orbital slingshots are not giving you the chance to convert into any sort of slow-flyby or landing situation. Or a bit of both (technical issues and (perhaps because of that?) lack of proper practice with sufficient judicious thrust/rotate control. 172.70.86.105 12:48, 23 December 2022 (UTC)

Browser must have access to canvas

In case anyone can't fly the ship at all, the game requires browser to access the canvas, or your ship will be constantly "shielded" and unable to move more than a pixel or two at a time. Privacy-based browsers or those with fingerprint defender add-ons block canvas access or will report fake canvas values, so they must be disabled.

Janelle Shane

On the present planet, the woman standing next to the cube with limbs may be Janelle Shane (the author of AI Weirdness), as the cube drawing bears a resemblance to the little cube robots that she uses in her drawings.

Very small asteroid and stick figure

A very small asteroid and stick figure can be found at [36281, -36600] according to console.log([Comic.voyager.pos.x, Comic.voyager.pos.y]) --172.69.79.137 11:35, 16 January 2023 (UTC)

A Little Prince

Near the above asteroid there is a Little Prince planet [35781, -35358]. 172.71.147.78 (talk) 19:20, 21 September 2023 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Possible reference to "What To Bring"

On the planet "Earth", there is a White Hat standing next to a Cueball who is holding an object, which resembles the lids held in https://xkcd.com/1890/ . --1234231587678 (talk) 17:50, 30 December 2023 (UTC)

Semi-Stable Orbit Around The Great Attractor

By setting [Comic.gravityConstant, Comic.voyager.pos.x, Comic.voyager.pos.y, Comic.voyager.pos.vx, Comic.voyager.pos.vy, Comic.voyager.pos.isLanded] = [14.95, -594000, 251800, 100, 0, false], I am able to obtain a semi-circular orbit around the Great Attractor to admire all its glory. Just posting it here to save anybody in the future some work. --Mumingpo (talk) 17:44, 29 July 2024 (UTC)