guiguibaah wrote:Although the wheel system is set in stone and is not going to change, what should be noted is that this wheel system is for solid / rock based planets.
A long time ago the developers mused about an alternate system for gas giants. [...] Nothing has really been set in stone about asteroids or comets either [...]
My recommendation is to propose ideas (such as an alternate to the wheel system) to areas that haven't been settled so the developers have a greater pool of ideas to fish from.
Got the message (shelves something and sighs). So now I propose a reordering/enrichment of the wheel:
Terran ----------
... | ................. |
Arid ............ Ocean
... | ................. |
Desert ........ Tundra
... | ................. |
Barren ......... Iceball
... | ................. |
Radiated ....... Methanic
... | ................. |
Inferno ........ Swamp
... | ................. |
Toxic-------- Primordial
The undelying idea is to group closely environments that have something in common. So the presence of water is concentrated around Ocean, the oxigen atmosphere around Terran, the "ammonia" atmosphere around Swamp, the temperature peaks around Inferno ad Iceball.
It is beefed up on the "far side", so that it is easier for races to actually like it there without finding our side also inviting. And look more exotic, too. The difference from Toxic to Methanic would be a decrease in gas pressure, a shift from CO2 and H3SO4 to NH3, CH4 and H2O, and a decrease in temperature.
For an idea of the environments:
Arid ------- Arrakis
Desert ---- Mars
Barren ---- Moon, Callisto...
Radiated - Mercury
Inferno ----- Io? or a pseudo-molten ball?
Toxic ----- (real) Venus
Primordial - pre-life Earth?
Swamp --- Sci-Fi Venus
Methanic - Ganimede, Titan (but a bit warmer)
Iceball ---- Europa, Pluto
Tundra ---- Asimov's Comporellen
Ocean ---- Asimov's Alpha Centauri
Terran ---- a bit drier than Earth...
I would keep the "within two" rule for optimality. On the spot, excellent. One away, good. 2 away adequate. 3 or more away, aw c'mon! In case of humans, this would mean that we go well from desert to tundra (neat, uh?).
For water-thingies, from Arid to Iceball. For lizards, from Inferno to Methanic (provided that they like Primordial). For the oh-so-loved lavamen, from Barren to Primordial. For the crystals, from Ocean to Swamp (they would love Iceball, imho). For the machines, from Terran to Radiated (they shall like Deserts).
I see furthermore the Wookies on Tundra, the insects on Arid, the energy-beings on Radiated, the plants on Swamp...
It all seems to work, to me
Ok, so you want me to kick ass on gas giants and asteroids? Here I do
Observation 1: asteroids are a good and easy source of solid material.
So an asteroid field gives system-wide bonuses to terraforming and can support a really productive mining complex (space object, must be built elsewhere and moved in loco, non refittable, scrappable, max three of such for every asteroid field).
Planetary rings instead are too thin to mine, but I would associate them to a planet's terraforming bonus. Rings on gas giants would help the terraforming of that giant's satellites... I am still hoping to see satellites independently colonisable, just as planets.
Observation 2: there is no "real" surface in gas giants, the gravity well is steep, planet-wide storms and wind bands are the norm. But the core could contain a lot of rare stuff formed in extreme physical conditions.
So, after artificial gravity and some good armor-shield tech, floating colonies can be build, which could produce one of some rare resources, depending on the color of the gas giant.
So a gas giant would ALWAYS provide one special resource late in the game, while such resources would be very rare on terran planets. But then we would need to lay down a special resources system. Dilitium, anyone?