Guide / Tutorial Nutter’s explorers guide to the Galaxy

[EDbubba]

...Like when someone explained that it's totally viable to have icy planet with the surface temperature of 1000°C: if the atmospheric pressure is high enough, what we're getting is so-called "hot ice". It's hot, but it's still ice - water is being compressed into the solid state.

That would never happen in a body we would consider a rocky/solid planet. For "solid" water, the atmospheric pressures at 1000C would need to be more than a million atmospheres! You're essentially describing something like Jupiter, not a vaguely terrestrial planet.

Basically, you're not going to get "hot" solid water under a gaseous atmosphere, the two states are mutually exclusive (the gas above the water would become a liquid before the water became solid)...

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Phase_diagram_of_water.svg


It's obvious that ED takes some liberties with the composition/description of planets! We've commonly seen 100% metal planets (!), and those with an "atmosphere" of water (if there was liquid water on the surface, it would be actively vaporizing based on temperature cycles, and surface water would probably suggest other gases be present, yada, yada...)

 

[ZacMacCrac]

Canopy compromised.

After a brawl with another Asp I am almost 100k richer in bounty but my Hull is down to 24% and I was greeted with the message above. No oxygen timer yet, though. I am 400LY out. Am I good to go or is it going to crack and give me the timer eventually? I only have like 6 minutes of oxygen left.

 

[Jackie Silver]

Canopy compromised.

After a brawl with another Asp I am almost 100k richer in bounty but my Hull is down to 24% and I was greeted with the message above. No oxygen timer yet, though. I am 400LY out. Am I good to go or is it going to crack and give me the timer eventually? I only have like 6 minutes of oxygen left.

It won't fail unless you take more damage. If I was in your position I would turn back and seek repairs.

 

[ZacMacCrac]

Oh, I was heading home anyways.... 350 LY out now, should be ok.


P.S.:
OK, there's one hostile ship waiting to interdict me in EVERY system I jump to now... this is nuts!

 

[carazvan]

I think 1.1 has changed the scope now we are told the Exact Values - For example I've worked out that a Scanned body is worth 6 times the ping value, also that the (NEW) bonus is worth 50% of the scanned value....

Just getting the base values nailed which I should be able to do when I get back to a station (2 Weeks?)

I can confirm that detail on Pinged vs Scanned vs Surface Scanned bodies from the stars I mentioned: namely the ratio is 1:3:6
So if a body is worth 6000CR then:
- a discovery ping gives 1000CR
- simple scan gives 3000CR
- surface scan gives 6000CR

I thought the bonus will appear not in the general sell screen but will appear after you sell in the "First discovery screen"

 

[Varrag]

That would never happen in a body we would consider a rocky/solid planet. For "solid" water, the atmospheric pressures at 1000C would need to be more than a million atmospheres!

Lo and behold - here's what I've just found (again). Rocky ICE planet. Surface temperature 1800 °C. Atmospheric composition 100% water, pressure 120.000. Are we missing something here, or it's like you said - that FDEV indeed takes some liberties with the composition and classification of planets?

Spoiler

I have found one water world almost the same as yours. What's the science behind it?

Spoiler

View attachment 15564

Nice find mate. I'd really like to know too, how does the water stay in liquid state if there is no atmosphere so the ocean is in direct contact with cosmic vacuum? Let alone surface temperatures far below 0°C. Looking at the EDbubba's graph, I conclude that there is no way that water can be liquid on pressures lower than 611 Pa = 0.006 atmospheres. It either evaporates, or freezes.

 

[CMDR ATT]

Theoretically, could it not be under a surface layer of ice giving it protection from the vacuum like is theorized of some of Jupiter's Moons like Europa? Then further warmed by radiation from the nearby gas giant/star?

Also, just wanted to thank you Nutter, seeing as you inspired me to start exploring. This is me now!

http://i.imgur.com/0DLfgtS.jpg

 

[carazvan]

When talking about water there's many parts to consider on whether it's a solid/liquid/gas since for example water can easily be found on earth at under 0* C if the salt content is high enough.
I believe that the graphs usually shown for water states is for distilled/pure water.

That being said there's plenty of mistakes in the stats shown ingame by many planets so you shouldn't look too carefully at them except for records ...
(Look at some of the records in the exploration thread here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=50952 for really ridiculous numbers for worlds)

 

[Krunchie]

Theoretically, could it not be under a surface layer of ice giving it protection from the vacuum like is theorized of some of Jupiter's Moons like Europa? Then further warmed by radiation from the nearby gas giant/star?

Also, just wanted to thank you Nutter, seeing as you inspired me to start exploring. This is me now!

http://i.imgur.com/0DLfgtS.jpg

That's really far away, congrats. How is the ship holding up?

 

[Nutter]

Theoretically, could it not be under a surface layer of ice giving it protection from the vacuum like is theorized of some of Jupiter's Moons like Europa? Then further warmed by radiation from the nearby gas giant/star?

Also, just wanted to thank you Nutter, seeing as you inspired me to start exploring. This is me now!

http://i.imgur.com/0DLfgtS.jpg

Wow nice one! - 36ly jump too I see you still need a permit for SOL Like you need it!

+1

 

[Varrag]

When talking about water there's many parts to consider on whether it's a solid/liquid/gas since for example water can easily be found on earth at under 0* C if the salt content is high enough.
I believe that the graphs usually shown for water states is for distilled/pure water.

I guess you're right - FDEV either took an easy route and simplified their PG formulas to such a degree that they're spewing out (seemingly) impossible combinations, or there is much more going on in the background. Devs are pretty proud of their Stellar forge engine so I would be unpleasantly surprised if it's the former. Whatever the case is, with these scarce informations we were given, we can only speculate.

Btw there is this website which calculates thermodynamic properties of water: http://www.peacesoftware.de/einigewerte/wasser_dampf_e.html

When I enter pressure and temperature values for those two odd planets I found, results are:

pressure: 0 [bar]
temperature: -28 [Celsius]
the medium is vaporous


pressure: 121590 [bar]
temperature: 1800 [Celsius]
the medium is vaporous

... so, no liquid water nor hot ice under these conditions.

 

[Skybird]

Is there a way to tell if a system is 'undiscovered'? I was working on the assumption that if it had no 'discovered by' tag in the system view screen, it was fair game, but could it be that it was not suitable? I scanned the hell out of HYADUM II but I didn't get any finders recognition / bonus, despite being in open play, and no-one already claiming it? Sorry I can't find anything in the game manual about this.

 

[CmdrPSB]

Today I've stumbled upon this odd water world. I don't remember that I've ever seen one like it. No atmosphere? Surface temperature -28°C? Shouldn't this be classified as icy planet? Yet, from orbit it appears to be covered with liquid water ocean. But water cannot stay in liquid state if it's in the touch with cosmic vaccum. It boils and eventually freezes, right?

I found similar the other day, they look very odd on the system map, just a shiny blue ball!

I've already mine, so if anyone fancies a look at one and you're in the area it's Col 70 Sector NI-J D9-2 A 4

 

[EDbubba]

...I scanned the hell out of HYADUM II but I didn't get any finders recognition / bonus, despite being in open play, and no-one already claiming it? Sorry I can't find anything in the game manual about this.

With a name like that it sounds like a "pre-discovered" system from the original alpha/beta local systems seed, which will give you no cash or recognition.

You need to go out to systems that have really long convoluted names like "Omega Sector BM-W D12-1" (I made that up, but I did find a "BM-W"! )

 

[CMDR ATT]

That's really far away, congrats. How is the ship holding up?

I imagine the wear and tear is terrible, but I'm at 93% hull, worst system is 91% thrusters. Had a slightly close encounter with a binary neutron star.

Wow nice one! - 36ly jump too I see you still need a permit for SOL Like you need it!

+1

Thanks! I'm an Empire junkie so I never got around to doing Federation stuff and never got the permit unfortunitely. Not that I care, I know everything about about Sol already!

 

[EDbubba]

I guess you're right - FDEV either took an easy route and simplified their PG formulas to such a degree that they're spewing out (seemingly) impossible combinations, or there is much more going on in the background.

Yup, there are lots of examples of silly planets, like a "World suitable for terraforming" I found that had no atmosphere and was 0.02 the mass of Earth! Other than the surface temperature there were no redeeming features...

The 100% metal worlds are kind of funny too, essentially impossible, and even if there was a ridiculously remote chance that they were the remnant from some kind of supernova interaction "removing" the crust off a planet, there are far too many of them to be remotely believable.

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

Is there a way to tell if a system is 'undiscovered'? I was working on the assumption that if it had no 'discovered by' tag in the system view screen, it was fair game, but could it be that it was not suitable? I scanned the hell out of HYADUM II but I didn't get any finders recognition / bonus, despite being in open play, and no-one already claiming it? Sorry I can't find anything in the game manual about this.

There is at least one bug (lots of different symptoms that may be caused by a single bug, or several related ones) with claiming scanned stuff where objects you definitely scanned give you the normal scan fee, but no first found bonus. Others have reported that happening for every object they scanned in the system, so the system is not flagged as scanned by them - they cannot get into the system view. So I suspect you have hit (one of?) that collection of bugs.

There are multiple threads out there on those issues. I have asked the mods to merge them ...

 

[Jackie Silver]

I scanned the hell out of HYADUM II but I didn't get any finders recognition / bonus, despite being in open play, and no-one already claiming it?

I've certainly scanned both Hyadums before.

 

[EDbubba]

I've certainly scanned both Hyadums before.

If it's part of "known space" there will be no "First Discovered by" award, even though it may be allowed to be scanned. I think the name is the giveaway...

 

[KulKulcan]

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming of

My Three Suns


A lone Terrestrial, the only planet in this system with 3 suns.

A big thank-you for your guide. I do fly a Cobra instead of your suggested but what a great amount of work!