Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Let's say you wanted to expand the stock set of breathable atmospheres from 5 to 10. What would you add? All such types have to be feasible for energy production/storage use by large organisms. Noble gases like Argon are right out. None is an exception, naturally.

The stock list is;

None, O2, Methane, Hydrogen, CO2

My current list of candidates is:

Ammonia, SO2, Chlorine

Consideration of Nitrogen transformed into a more suitable (in my eyes) Ammonia. Fluorine was considered, but it is possibly too reactive. More importantly, it would end up with the same exact color planet as Chlorine (pale yellow-brown), which would make it visually indistinct in-game.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

H2O (water vapor or ocean planets)

Also, you could go to mixes of gases:
H/He (Jupiter and Saturn), H/He/CH4 (Uranus and Neptune), N2/O2 (Earth), N2/CH4 (Titan), etc.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

...Nitroglycerin?

Or how about a species that relies on a radioactive planet to absorb energy?

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

I like the water and radiation ideas... not technically "atmospheres" but neither is "none", and it never hurts to be creative!
Of course, dolphins would argue that Earth is a water planet, not an oxygen planet... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

So would Magellan.

Other atmospheres - Nitrous, Argon, Fluorine, Bromine

Add sodium as well.

From Google:
Three satellites of the outer planets possess atmospheres. Titan, a moon of Saturn, and Triton, a moon of Neptune, have nitrogen atmospheres. Another moon of Saturn, Enceladus, has an atmosphere composed primarily of water. Other bodies within the Solar System with extremely thin atmospheres are the Moon (sodium gas), Mercury (sodium gas), Europa (oxygen) and Io (sulfur). The dwarf planet Pluto also has an envelope of nitrogen and methane as it approaches close to the Sun, but these gases are frozen for most of its orbit.
Google Atmosphere

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

I don't quite see why noble gasses are necessarily ruled out. It doesn't quite fit into the current game mechanics, but it is conceivable to have lifeforms that depend on a non-reactive but pressurized atmosphere.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Unless there is intended to be some gameplay variation (e.g. cost/capacity of domed colonies varying by planet atmosphere), what purpose would be served in adding further types?

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Also, generally speaking, as far as the atmosphere types go, wouldn't they just specify what the 'majority' gas is? Although going by that, the earth is a nitrogen planet since our atmosphere is about 78% nitrogen and only about 20% oxygen. In any case, with the exception of 'none', I don't think any planet has an atmosphere that consists solely of one gas.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Variety is the spice of life.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

I am wary of using combinations of gases without redoing the existing atmosphere types to match (eg: Oxygen/Nitrogen instead of just Oxygen). I'm not sure if people would generally prefer combinations or just single gases.

StarShadow said:
Also, generally speaking, as far as the atmosphere types go, wouldn't they just specify what the 'majority' gas is?

SE4/5 specify atmosphere as the gas respirated by the sentient race of the planet. SE3 was a bit different, with atmospheres like Oxygen/Nitrogen, Argon, Carbon Dioxide/Nitrogen, Hydrogen/Helium, Chlorine and None.

Will said:
I don't quite see why noble gasses are necessarily ruled out. It doesn't quite fit into the current game mechanics, but it is conceivable to have lifeforms that depend on a non-reactive but pressurized atmosphere.

If we can't think of anything (consistent) to fill the 10th slot, I would be willing to go with Argon for historical reasons.

AstralWanderer said:
Unless there is intended to be some gameplay variation (e.g. cost/capacity of domed colonies varying by planet atmosphere), what purpose would be served in adding further types?

What purpose was served by adding red giant systems? Neutron stars? 20 different kinds of nebulae systems stemming from 11 storm colors? Swirling WP graphics? Electrostorms?

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

I think H2S (Hydrogen Sulfide) would be a good choice, given how it's possible to be used to slow metabolic processes of mammals to an extreme level. The race that breathed it could be said to possess an extremely low metabolic rate, and evolved over time to utilize it instead of oxygen as their home planet's atmosphere became slowly innundated with H2S.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

More atmosphere types will decrease the percentage of breathable worlds.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

It would also decrease atmosphere contention with other races.

I could make domed colonies have more space like in FQM for SE4 to compensate. If I made domes impose a 70% reduction instead of 80%, it would more or less balance out. Assuming 100 medium planets, we have breathable facility space + domed space (reduced to facility count for stock 1000 kt all facility size):

20 x 10 + 80 x 2 = 360 stock 5 atm and 20% dome
10 x 10 + 90 x 3 = 370 proposed 10 atm and 30% dome

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Been there done that- In my personal mod I added chlorine, nitrogen, sulphur dioxide, helium and neon. I wasn't going for the realism that you are. But don't rule out the noble gases- they are used as exotic diving gases- Argon and Xenon are too narcotic, Krypton causes dizziness and Radon is radioactive. Neon though expensive is a good replacement for helium.

Trimix is also good as it is a mix of O2 He and N2.

Hydrogen sulfide is a good choice but causes smelly planets http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

If you're just looking for other possibilities;
Nitrous Oxide---A very happy planet

Ethylene---ancient Egyptians, who would gas figs in order to stimulate ripening.

Sulfur hexafluoride---SF6 is the most potent greenhouse gas, with a global warming potential of 22,200 times that of CO2.

Hydrogen chloride---Very corrosive forming HCl acid in the presence of water/humidity

Nitrogen Dioxide---This reddish-brown gas has a characteristic sharp, biting odor. NO2 is one of the most prominent air pollutants and a poison by inhalation.

Vinyl chloride monomer---Until 1974, VCM was used in aerosol spray propellant. Prior to the removal of VCM from hair spray the accumulation of vinyl chloride vapor in hair salons may have exceeded the NOAEL (NO Adverse Effect Level) exposure guidelines. Just an odd fact.

Deuterium Gas---Don't know much about this one

Phosgene---This gas gained infamy as a chemical weapon during World War I, but it is also a valuable industrial reagent and building block in organic synthesis. It is colourless, but can appear as a white or yellowish haze when released into air, Chlorine light.

Silane---chemical compound with chemical formula SiH4. It is the silicon analogue of methane. At room temperature, silane is a gas, and is pyrophoric � it undergoes spontaneous combustion in air, without the need for external ignition. Silicon based life forms?

Hydrogen cyanide (HCN)--- is a colorless gas with a faint bitter almond-like odor. Very poisonous.

Dimethyl sulfide--- In vapor form it is produced by cooking of certain vegetables, notably corn and cabbage, and seafoods. It is also an indication of bacterial infection in malt production and brewing,and a disagreeable odor. DMS is the most abundant biological sulfur compound emitted to the atmosphere. Emission occurs over the oceans by phytoplankton.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

From Star Fleet Battles / Star Trek sources.

Planet Types:

Class A - Hot Gas (Jupiter)
Class B - Cold Gas (Uranus)
Class C - Hot/Toxic (Venus)
Class D - Airless (Luna)
Class E - Large Earth (ST)
Class F - Sulphurous
Class G - Desert (Mars)
Class H - Early Earth
Class I - Hot Rock (Mercury)
Class J - Cold Rock Thin None
Class K - Desert Breathable (Vulcan)
Class L - Earth like low H20
Class M - Earth like
Class N - Earth Like 90 percent H2O
Class O - Earth like, Cold
Class P - Carbon Dioxide, Frozen
Class Q - Frozen Ice (comet/Pluto)
Class R - Nitrogen/Ammonia Cold Rock
Class S - Frozen Methane (Hydrax)


Atmosphere Types vs Planet Type:

Rock/Rock-Iron

Carbon Dioxide
Nitrogen
Sulfur Dioxide
Methane
Argon
Ammonia
Chlorine
Fluorine
Hydrogen
Helium

Ice/Rock-Ice

Carbon Dioxide
Methane
Argon
Nitrogen
Ammonia
Hydrogen
Helium

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

THE HAMILTON INSTITUTE OF EXOPALEONTOLOGY
Glossary and Definitions

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This site is still under construction, however feel free to browse the entries as they are added by our hard- working researchers and graduate students.



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"STAR TYPES"
Star types are based on the same system as used at the beginning of Human interplanetary exploration. The Earth's sun is a Type-G main-sequence star; Barnard's star is a Type-M; Sirius-A is Type-A and so on. One modification is that for non-main sequence stars, two types are given: the current type (based on temperature/color), and the main-sequence type. A red supergiant such as Betelgeuse is Type-M(B), meaning it was formerly a hot Type-B main sequence star.


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"PLANETARY TYPES"
Planetary types are determined by the composition of the planet, its atmosphere and oceans (if any). Some of these are based on 20th-century Earth asteroid designations. Please do not confuse with the 'Star Trek' planetary classification system.
Type H: hot gas giant ("Brown Dwarf")
Type J: gas giant (Jupiter, Saturn)
Type U: gas giant with icy mantle (Uranus, Neptune)


Type S: silicate rock, airless. (Mercury, Earth's moon, Vesta) NOTE: this designation was originally used for meteroites and asteroids
Type C: carbonate rock, airless. (Ceres, Pallas, Phoebe) NOTE: this designation was originally used for meteroites and asteroids
Type M: highly metallic. Sometimes applied to metal-gas giants found in close orbits around stars. NOTE: this designation was originally used for meteroites and asteroids. Again, please do not confuse with the 'Star Trek' planetary classification system.
Type Y: ice, airless (Ganymede, Rhea, Hyperion)
Type Z: rock with ice crust (Europa)


Type G: Relatively thick atmosphere, but of noble gases.
Type R: Marslike, with a carbon-dioxide or nitrogen atmosphere (Mars, Venus as a special type--see below)
Type D: Worlds with NO/NO2, other odd nitrogen compounds, etc. in the atmosphere
Type E: Earthlike, with oxygen in the atmosphere (generated by certain ecotypes) usually mixed with nitrogen or inert gases, and water in the atmosphere or surface
Type O: Proto-Earth type
Type T: Methane or ethane atmosphere/oceans or organic-coated surface (Titan, Triton)
Type L: Ammonia atmosphere/oceans
Type P: Phosphine atmosphere/oceans
Type F: Fluorine/Chlorine/etc. atmosphere/oceans
Type I: Sulfur-coated surface (Io)
Special type, V: for worlds with an unusually thick atmosphere causing extreme heating (Venus is a type VR)
Special type, N: for worlds with a thick particle layer causing extreme cooling (Earth after a global thermonuclear war would be type NE for a short period)
Special type, W: for irradiated worlds (usually near dying stars, or after attack by extremely nasty weapons)
Special type, X: for worlds modified by metaforces, gods, or extremely advanced species


NOTE: Artificial planets and quasi-planetary structures (including Ringworlds, Dyson spheres, and Criswell structures) are not included. These are usually designated Type A with a summary explanation.

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ECOTYPES: describe the primary metabolism of the life forms
Fermentation (what Yeast can do)
Photosynthesis (what plants do)
Thermosynthesis
Electrosynthesis
Magnetosynthesis
Chemosynthesis (what some bacteria can do, many subtypes)
Phototransis
Respiration (what we humans do)
Metarespiration
Gravitosynthesis


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EVOLTYPES: describe the genetic material and the mechanism of evolution of life. NOTE: Here 'evolution' is used in the general sense (how life changes), but in the Evoltype designation the term is specifically reserved for Darwinian, selectionist evolution.

GENETIC MATERIAL
Not all forms of life have double-stranded DNA. Even on Earth, some use RNA. Some alien life forms have different types or arrangements of nucleic acids entirely; some use proteins, crystalline structures, or even stranger genetic material. Here we avoid simplistic definitions like "carbon-based life forms" and "silicon-based life forms", and designate each alien lineage by the type of genetic material.

List incomplete; of course includes double-helix DNA, RNA (in some viruses).

MECHANISMS OF EVOLUTION
Often the mechanism of evolution is limited by or even linked to the type of genetic material that is used. Note that the PRIMARY modes of evolution are designated (Earth is Drift-Selectionist)


Drift (random genetic changes in populations; is a factor in nearly all types of life)
Selectionist Evolution (evolution by natural selection; Darwinian theory)
Transformationist (transformation by inheriting acquired characters; Lamarckian theory)
Orthogenesis (changes caused by innate characteristics of the genetic material or metabolism)
Vitalist (changes caused by metaforces)
Interference (by aliens, either accidental or purposeful. The popular term for interference in the evolution of sapience is "Uplift" [see Brin; Black Monoliths; von-Daniken]. NOTE: "Creationism" also falls under this category; although life on Earth was not designed, on some planets there is good evidence that the basic genetic or metabolic apparatus was modified or designed by another sapient species)
Transmutationism (massive, sudden genetic changes, when one mutation can have a cascade effect on the genome)
Abiogenesis/catastrophism (on many young worlds, conditions exist for the formation of life from inorganic materials, but meteor bombardment may destroy new forms of life several times before a lineage is established. This may have occurred on Earth 4 billion years ago)


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DEFINITIONS OF PSUEDO-RELIGIOUS TERMS. The words "supernatural" and "paranormal" are not used here, because everything that exists can be regarded as normal or natural by some species. However, it is useful to have terms for things that appear beyond the ability of human senses (and technology) to analyze.

METAFORCE: a law or force that is beyond the senses of humans (and similar life forms); may control other laws/forces, or could also control gods, animin, or other aliens.

GOD: powerful alien species or being that has control over at least one natural law or force, and has an analytical intelligence.

ANIMIN: a powerful alien species or being that has control over at least one natural law or force, but does not have an analytical form of intelligence (may be instinctive, or have a form of intelligence that humans cannot comprehend).

BUDDHA: an enlightened being, renouncing power and selfish desires. It is probably more difficult for a God to become a Buddha than it is for a human being, just because Gods desire worship and power to such an extent they delude themselves into thinking they are a superior race.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

I have difficulty understanding what religious opinions have to do with planetary types. Or some of the other stuff you lifted. If you're going to copy-paste, at least filter.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Because, it can lead to other ideas and the more source material you have to draw upon the better. IE....pulling ideas together to make them cohesive and believable. You could have a very volatile atmosphere that lead to strict religious culture bound by harsh guidelines (so they don't blow themselves up), etc.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

That actually makes sense.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Many neat ideas. I'd love to see the game take more factors into account when it comes to planets and colonies, though. Gravity, for instance. I imagine a low-G population would have great problems being productive on a high-G planet.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Makes perfect sense to me. People regularly argue over Star Trek canon. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Slightly off topic:
It seems to me that most solar systems should have LOTS of tiny no-atmosphere or thin-atmosphere planets, especially around the fringes. In other words, a Kuiper belt.

Also, if you're going to aim for realism, then planets must have temperature attributes. I would think that the extremes of temperature would be more important for colonization than atmosphere type. If a planet's climate at its equator is like Antarctica in winter, then you're not going to get undomed colonies of humans even if the atmosphere is nitrogen/oxygen. Conversely, if a planet is very Earth-like except that it has little atmospheric oxygen, then colonists just need to carry an O2 supply/generator when they go outside -- domes aren't really needed.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Planets have gravity, temperature and radiation values, but they don't have any actual effect.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

I forgot some stuff:

Huge planets should always have several Tiny planets nearby. These would represent very large moons like Titan.

Making None atmospheres common (in order to be more realistic) would mean a big advantage for None "breathers." So to compensate you'd have to make sizeable None planets extremely rare, which is probably realistic anyway. (That would make None races very interesting to play. Lots of room for expansion in every system, but lots of planets to defend.)

If planets had temperatures, these would generally get more frigid the further away planets were from their star. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/Penguin.gif

And while I'm talking about realism: what's up with having two (or three!) main sequence stars close together, at the center of a star system, surrounded by planets? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

How else would you do binary stars? There isn't a whole lot of room to place them far apart.

The planet temperatures do get colder as the planets get farther away from the star, based on type even (in FQM anyways). Its a nice geometric formula, with distance^2 instead of the silly distance used in stock:

Name := Formula Planet Terr Temperature
Formula := MAX(-240, 100 - ([%HexDistanceToCenter%] * [%HexDistanceToCenter%] * 3) + Random(-50, 25)) + (([%NumberOfStars%] - 1) * 50)

Name := Formula Planet Ven Temperature
Formula := MAX(-240, 360 - ([%HexDistanceToCenter%] * [%HexDistanceToCenter%] * 3) + Random(-50, 25)) + (([%NumberOfStars%] - 1) * 50)

Name := Formula Planet Moon Temperature
Formula := MAX(-240, 80 - ([%HexDistanceToCenter%] * [%HexDistanceToCenter%] * 3) + Random(-50, 25)) + (([%NumberOfStars%] - 1) * 50)

Name := Formula Planet Ice Temperature
Formula := MAX(-240, 20 - ([%HexDistanceToCenter%] * [%HexDistanceToCenter%] * 3) + Random(-50, 25)) + (([%NumberOfStars%] - 1) * 20)

Name := Formula Planet Gas Temperature
Formula := MAX(-240, 40 - ([%HexDistanceToCenter%] * [%HexDistanceToCenter%] * 3) + Random(-50, 25)) + (([%NumberOfStars%] - 1) * 25)


Compared to the lamo (excessive) stock formula:

Name := Formula Planet Temperature
Formula := IIF([%HexDistanceToCenter%] <= 3, 500 - ([%HexDistanceToCenter%] * 100) - Random(0, 100), IIF([%HexDistanceToCenter%] >= 7, 0 - ([%HexDistanceToCenter%] * 20) - Random(0, 50), Random(-50, 50))) + (([%NumberOfStars%] - 1) * 100)

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Woohoo for the inverse square law of radiation. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Wouldn't Gas Giants argueably never be 'un-domed' if one were aiming for that kind of realism?

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Lots of space for floating cloud cities?

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

For binary systems, the game could allow travel from one sector to the other without warping. Of course, in that case, if one star went nova it would need to wipe out BOTH systems.

I didn't realize that the temperatures go down with distance as you say. But that doesn't affect gameplay in the slightest, right? Could one, in principle, set a formula for conditions so that planets with nice conditions would always be located within a "habitability zone"? Then conditions would automatically be bad for frozen or scorched planets.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Unfortunately, conditions are determined outside of the formula for temperature, gravity, and radiation.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

I think I'll make binary stars at 3,3 and -3,-3 instead of 2,2 and -2,-2. The difference in distance isn't very big, but there is a huge visual difference between such systems.

Sadly, there is no moddable formula for conditions.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Also: present way of doing binaries would be fine for white dwarfs closely bound to red giants. Just don't put any planets real close, or else: gobble! yum, yum! burp!

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Lots of space for floating cloud cities yeah, but wouldn't most people consider creating a floating city 'a bit more difficult' than an atmospheric dome?

Just trying to find the logic with Gas Giants being habitable, on a huge scale, for Rock or Ice planet natives.
I can see it working with 'energy beings' and the likes, something akin to the Vorlons of B5 and such, but making cloud cities to support (alot of) facilities( and several billion people ) appears a little strange. Then again, so does Mineral mining on those 'planets', I guess.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Wow, really? Not to be disrespectful to Aaron (who has made some great games that have given me kilo-hours of pleasure), but that's pretty lame. I was hoping to make a pseudo-realistic mod where the "outer" planets were numerous but cruddy, airless, and tiny. Then I could have a non-threatening race that ekes out a living on the fringes of everyone else's systems. (Maybe crystalline?)

I like your compromise idea for locating binaries. I would go one further, and put them way out at the corners.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Raapys:
Maybe... but there isn't really anything that can be modded about that, short of maybe making gas giants all have a different set of "atmosphere" types than rock/ice planets. This would make gas races always domed on rock/ice, and vice versa. Not sure how atmosphere converters would work in that case.. Might work out in another mod, but it would pose some serious gameplay changes and is beyond the scope of FQM.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

dmm said:
I like your compromise idea for locating binaries. I would go one further, and put them way out at the corners.

If I did that, planets and such would have to be located between the stars. I'd rather keep them outside the whole sphere occupied by the stars.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Gas giants are generally thought to have a solid core. But mining it would be a high-pressure job. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif
Maybe storms churn up the surface and put mineral dust into the gas??

Which brings up another question: Is it possible to mod facilities so that they only work on certain planet types or in certain atmospheres or only under certain conditions? For example, organic facilities (farms) that work on an Earth-like world would need considerable changes to work on a world with poor conditions. In a way, the existing mod (?name?) that makes population very important has that effect, indirectly, because planets with poor conditions would have small populations and thus low production. But there's no research involved -- none allowed and none required. (Yeah, OK, you could research organic production generally.)

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Yes, exactly. In a binary system with two main sequence stars, the stars are quite far apart and the planets are bound to one star or the other. The "twin" star might be so far away that inhabitants of one planet might not even know about it. Some astronomers think the Sun has a partner.

Of course, the system I'm describing can't be done with SEIV/V as currently coded. And anyway, such planetary systems are effectively not binary or trinary anyway. So, what I'm really saying is that binary or trinary systems in SE should always be shown as red giant / white dwarf pairs or trios. If you're aiming for semi-realism, that is.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

I'm not seeing anything that requires a binary pair to be in the red giant + white dwarf phase, only that it can happen.

"As a main sequence star increases in size during its evolution, it may at some point exceed its Roche lobe, meaning that some of its matter ventures into a region where the gravitational pull of its companion star is larger than its own."


Not to my knowledge.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Maybe will you be able to scale productions (or any...) with conditions, and with domed status, but I'm not sure.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Might it be possible to do what we discussed eons ago in the beta forum -- make non-breathable atmosphere impose a maintenance penalty instead of a space penalty? That makes far more sense. Especially if you can have it affect population maintenance as well as facility maintenance.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Despite months of hounding MM to make them have an effect. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Check out the references of that Wiki article, esp. 38, 39, and 43.

There are 2 cases: Planets orbit one star of the pair (S type) or orbit the center of mass of both stars (P type).

S type: If the stars are closer than about 7 AU, then planetary formation is severely compromised. Note that most binaries have separations similar to the distance from the Sun to Neptune (~30 AU).

P type: (This is the type currently depicted in SE.) For this type, you need stars closer than about 0.2 AU or so, plus the eccentricity of their mutual orbits has to be close to zero. Otherwise, again, planetary formation is severely compromised. But at this distance, they are close enough to steal matter from each other as they form. So one companion almost always ends up significantly more massive than the other, and you wind up with a red giant / white dwarf combo. I admit, though, that I don't know how long this would take. It might take a long time. So I take back my original criticism. It's not (obviously) silly to have several main sequence stars in a close binary or trinary.

There's another important point. Although 0.2 AU sounds small, the Sun's diameter is only a bit less than 0.01 AU. I was rather shocked at that info. It turns out that SEIV depicts star+planet systems more accurately than SEV, in which the stars are shown WAY too big. Perhaps a "realism mod" for SEV should greatly reduce the sizes of main sequence stars. (Of course the planets are ridiculously large, but that's just a graphical depiction. Regardless of the planet size, it only takes up one hex.) Alternatively, the star size shown could be taken to be the diameter inside of which ships burn to a crisp. So the star isn't actually that large, but the non-navigable region is. Unfortunately, this is always the same distance regardless of the empire's tech level. A better way would be to make the star much smaller but surround it with rings of damaging storms that diminish in intensity as you get further from the star. Then high tech ships could take short cuts and use hiding places unavailable to low tech ships.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

The stars are only too large if you have a fixed scale in mind for the hexes. Though I agree the current size would be best left to very large stars.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

I think that in SEV both stars and planets are inflated in size for "graphical depiction"

If you suppose that the entire system map encompasses say orbit of Pluto, that means that the system map is about 50 AU from center to edge. This gives you a rough distance of about 4 AU per hex. At .01 AU a star would be 1/400th of a hex across. Even if you reduce the map to 1 AU per hex a star will still only be 1/100 of a hex across. Either way, it will be as small as the stars in the background if you want to display it realistically.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

It would be good if temperature, gravity and radiation actually meant something or at least matched the planet. In one game I colonised a huge breathable planet and as we are RP'ing I wrote a story about it. Unfortunately although this supposed optimal world had radiation I could figure out, apparently less than earth, and gravity not too different from 1G it had a temperature of 300 degrees. Call that habitable, I don't. I gave up bothering to mention temperature. It's particularly annoying as it is a glaring difference from the picture.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Not without new functions, like "Get_Planet_Atmosphere_Type" or "Get_Planet_Is_Domed".

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

Isn't there an Is_Planet_Domed function? I believe I saw it in the modding documentation.

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

It was added circa 1.58, after 9/15. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Expanding Atmosphere Types
 

ah my eyes were not working I thought the post was dated yesterday oh well