I've updated my "habitable zone" graph again.
Didn't add any more data points, but rather removed a few that were causing inconsistencies. The 3 planets I removed all had "iron magma volcanism" which were artificially raising the surface temperature above where it should be, based on the distance from the star alone.
As far as I can tell, the other kind of volcanism, "silicate vapour geysers," does not raise the surface temperature -- at least not significantly.
I also changed the trendline to a 2nd order polynomial which seems to fit the few data points better. I will continue to hunt.
View attachment 97239
So, if you're trying to find candidate planets without DSS'ing each one in a system, this should give you a rough idea where to look based on star temperature alone. Might save you some time. Of course, volcanism and other factors (orbiting a secondary star) can raise the temperature, and so far we don't know if barnacles are ok with that or not.
So here is my updated criteria:
Planets to look for:
In or near nebula
Mild surface temperature (194-379K), non-icy (use the graph to quickly locate)
Low-G planets? Barnacles may just prefer steep canyon walls, more common on low-G planets.
No "heat producing" volcanism? (silicate vapour is ok)
Once you've found a candidate planet, look for:
Mineral deposit zones
Flat-bottomed, fairly deep canyons, sandy looking ground
Usually close to canyon walls
There are actually surprisingly few planets within the Pleiades Nebula that fit all these critera. I took a stroll around Pleione 11 B through I for a few hours last night. Didn't see any barnacles, but then I went back to 11A to refresh my memory of what the canyon looked like, and the 2 barnacles were not spawning there either. Re-logged, and there it was! Really hoping FD fixes the spawn bug!