Planetary Atmousphere Specials

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labgnome
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Planetary Atmousphere Specials

#1 Post by labgnome »

So I've been thinking about the different growth specials, and one idea that occurred tome is the idea of a growth special that benefits one type of metabolism, but harms the others. In line with the three growth-special oriented metabolisms I'd like to pitch the idea of these three growth specials.

Biogenic Atmosphere
Description: The composition of this planet's atmosphere is the product of the metabolic functions of the indigenous biological organisms. This is highly beneficial to creatures with organic metabolisms but can be toxic or corrosive to other life-forms.
  • population bonus for organic metabolism species
  • population malus for other species
  • can be found on any planet type except barren, asteroids or gas giants
  • possible extra chance to be found on terran, ocean or swamp planets (?)
  • possible extra chance for the planetary cloud-cover special (?)
Volcanic Atmosphere
Description: The composition of this planet's atmosphere is the product of constant geological and volcanic activity. This is highly beneficial to creatures with lithic metabolisms but can be toxic or corrosive to other life-forms.
  • population bonus for lithic metabolism species
  • population malus for other species
  • can be found on any planet type except barren, asteroids or gas giants
  • possible extra chance to be found on inferno, toxic or tundra planets (?)
  • possible extra chance for the planetary ash-clouds special (?)
Industrial Atmosphere
Description: The composition of the local planet's atmosphere is the product of sustained industrial activity and the resulting waste. This is highly beneficial to robots but can be toxic or corrosive to other life-forms.
  • population bonus for robotic metabolism species
  • population malus for other species
  • can be found on any planet type except barren, asteroids or gas giants
  • possible extra chance to be found on radiated, toxic or desert planets (?)
  • possible extra chance for planetary cloud-cover or ash-clouds special (?)
These special would be mutually exclusive, so unlike the other growth specials, you couldn't find a planet that had both at once. I tried to go with a roughly accurate distribution as far as planets with extra chances to spawn this special, though I don't know if that part, or the possibility of the planetary stealth specials is a bit complicated. Mostly I like the idea of something that helps one type of alien but would hurt other types of aliens. I'm also considering that there could be a tech, maybe some sort of "advanced terraforming" that would allow you to apply the special to a planet hosting aliens of the appropriate metabolism type.

In addition you could also have "no atmosphere" as a special, maybe a universal population malus but some small bonus to research and industry focus with a passive boost to supply or infrastructure.
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em3
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Re: Planetary Atmousphere Specials

#2 Post by em3 »

I think that for robotic specials "Dry Atmosphere" could be more beneficial. Lack of any dampness in atmosphere could be harmful to other life forms, as water is an important solvent that facilitates many chemical reactions.
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labgnome
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Re: Planetary Atmousphere Specials

#3 Post by labgnome »

em3 wrote:I think that for robotic specials "Dry Atmosphere" could be more beneficial. Lack of any dampness in atmosphere could be harmful to other life forms, as water is an important solvent that facilitates many chemical reactions.
I was trying to go for atmospheres that were also tied to their metabolic functions. IE: geologic activity for lithics, biological activity for organics and industrial activity for robotics. I also don't think "dry" coveys the hostility to other creatures they way "industrial" does. An organic species from a desert planet would probably be just fine in a "dry" atmosphere as well.
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labgnome
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Re: Planetary Atmousphere Specials

#4 Post by labgnome »

I made graphics for them here
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Geoff the Medio
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Re: Planetary Atmousphere Specials

#5 Post by Geoff the Medio »

These seem to overlap quite a bit with the functions of the planet types for various species...

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Krikkitone
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Re: Planetary Atmousphere Specials

#6 Post by Krikkitone »

Geoff the Medio wrote:These seem to overlap quite a bit with the functions of the planet types for various species...

Well except they would be a bonus that is metabolism dependent and not environment dependent.

Say you have an Organic Oceanic species... a Desert world with Biogenic atmosphere would be better for them than it would for a Robotic Oceanic species

Metabolism essentially gives species a second "identifier" in how they interact with the environment.

Indeed, advanced terraforming might be able to add these specials to worlds of the right environment

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labgnome
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Re: Planetary Atmousphere Specials

#7 Post by labgnome »

Krikkitone wrote:Well except they would be a bonus that is metabolism dependent and not environment dependent.

Say you have an Organic Oceanic species... a Desert world with Biogenic atmosphere would be better for them than it would for a Robotic Oceanic species

Metabolism essentially gives species a second "identifier" in how they interact with the environment.

Indeed, advanced terraforming might be able to add these specials to worlds of the right environment
That's exactly what I was going for, on both counts. Also if the idea floating around of giving stealth to the existing metabolism specials happens, these would be no or very low stealth metabolism specials. Especially since IRL we already can do some detection of planetary atmospheres in other solar systems. So you could see them early on, but if you started as the wrong type of species you might actually want to avoid those planets.

However if terraforming can add them, i am wondering if the usual boost for the regular specials is a bit much and instead maybe a +50% or even just a +25% boost to population might be best.

I was also considering, if these get green-lit that organic, robotic and lithic empires (except the Cray) might instead start off with a medium planet and one of these specials.
All of my contributions should be considered released under creative commons attribution share-alike license, CC-BY-SA 3.0 for use in, by and with the Free Orion project.

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