04-20-2017, 10:22 PM
You make a good point. I guess I hadn't properly thought this through! The secondary mirrors aren't flat; they are either conic sections or (as illustrated in High Frontier) a series of flat panels. Either way, they take the incoming light and spread it out over the area of the torus. A smaller mirror is spreading less light over the same area, thus less intensity compared to the bigger mirror.
However, for game purposes at least, we assume that there is plenty of sunlight — as long as you're not occluded by other parts of your station, or passing through some nearby planet's shadow, or way out past Earth's orbit where the sun just isn't that bright anymore.
So in the situation illustrated, we'll imagine that the each torus has adjusted the mirror reflectivity, or the window tint, to produce a pleasant "100%" lighting (as long as none of the above conditions apply).
However, for game purposes at least, we assume that there is plenty of sunlight — as long as you're not occluded by other parts of your station, or passing through some nearby planet's shadow, or way out past Earth's orbit where the sun just isn't that bright anymore.
So in the situation illustrated, we'll imagine that the each torus has adjusted the mirror reflectivity, or the window tint, to produce a pleasant "100%" lighting (as long as none of the above conditions apply).
Joe Strout
Lead Developer, High Frontier