Water World with Land Mass?

[[VR] optimal_909]

I'm genuinely baffled.

I just saw an image of a water world (in thew galactic records thread, not in-game) with large land mass. After 1+ year of playing and exploring for the better part of, I never seen such thing, apart some with tiny archipelagos. Are those extremely rare, or simply WWs are bugged on my PC?

And let me vent it: I think it is quite a strech that all WWs bear life.

 

[Zieman]

They are around. Not very common, but not super rare either.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

They are around. Not very common, but not super rare either.

Bummer. Then I'm either super unlucky, or simply don't scan them. I can spot ELW in system maps even before the full reolution comes in, if those look that much different, then I'm skipping them (although the images I saw were pretty ELW-like).
BTW I was checking the records for largest WW as I found one with 21k km radius, but then noticed exactly our record of 24k km.

 

[Zieman]

Bummer. Then I'm either super unlucky, or simply don't scan them. I can spot ELW in system maps even before the full reolution comes in, if those look that much different, then I'm skipping them (although the images I saw were pretty ELW-like).
BTW I was checking the records for largest WW as I found one with 21k km radius, but then noticed exactly our record of 24k km.

The record seems to be actually a bit bigger:
http://universalcartographics.org/planetary-quick-reference/
(25755 km)

 

[rrobes]

Earth-like world with indigenous life, I just discovered it. Pictures show a land mass with some very high mountains, also a cyclonic cloud pattern with an eye over the water. No lights in the land masses when flying over the night-side, indigenous undeveloped.[yesnod]

Secondary land mass with large lakes, bays, islands appears to have quite a bit of elevations as well. A bit cold at -5C/22F, .89 earth mass, 1.05g.


https://goo.gl/photos/ERZZ5XarLFoq73Vr6
https://goo.gl/photos/AMnnjd1z3mdcf7jp8

Shame we can't land.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

Earth-like world with indigenous life, I just discovered it. Pictures show a land mass with some very high mountains, also a cyclonic cloud pattern with an eye over the water. No lights in the land masses when flying over the night-side, indigenous undeveloped.[yesnod]

Secondary land mass with large lakes, bays, islands appears to have quite a bit of elevations as well. A bit cold at -5C/22F.


https://goo.gl/photos/ERZZ5XarLFoq73Vr6

Shame we can't land.

WWs with land mass apparently look very similar, altough I don't know why a WW with supposedly life only in water has green lands, but whatever.

Probably it's only me*, but I think human imagination is just too limited to create an alien Earth-like that is also believable. Some things are best to be left under veil.

*This is why as a kid I was never into Star Trek, too many humanoids...

 

[Allitnil]

I'm genuinely baffled.

I just saw an image of a water world (in thew galactic records thread, not in-game) with large land mass. After 1+ year of playing and exploring for the better part of, I never seen such thing, apart some with tiny archipelagos. Are those extremely rare, or simply WWs are bugged on my PC?

Was it an old post? It used to be quite common for WWs to have land masses but it got changed quite some time ago. I don't recall seeing one since the change was made.

 

[rrobes]

WWs with land mass apparently look very similar, altough I don't know why a WW with supposedly life only in water has green lands, but whatever.

Probably it's only me*, but I think human imagination is just too limited to create an alien Earth-like that is also believable. Some things are best to be left under veil.

*This is why as a kid I was never into Star Trek, too many humanoids...

Well, Earth's evolution apparently had land masses before some creature developed the means to go dry, probably to escape predation, gain food or some or other advantage. The only thing is that elements are galaxy wide and they way they fit together to form whatever are governed by some fairly strict rules, but you are right, the end results could be quite different.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

Was it an old post? It used to be quite common for WWs to have land masses but it got changed quite some time ago. I don't recall seeing one since the change was made.

Thanks for adding this, quite probably this was changed before I started exploring. I'd like to see WWs with dead (read: not green) land masses, also WWs without life (for the most occasons for the sake of muh immershun).

 

[iain666]

And let me vent it: I think it is quite a strech that all WWs bear life.

Since the definition of 'Water World' in ED terminology is a planet bearing carbon-water based life and lacking a human breathable atmosphere (it'd be earth like if it had both) they have to all bear life.

A WW without life would be an HMC with an abundance of water, and we've all seen plenty of blue HMCs that look very nearly like water worlds.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

Since the definition of 'Water World' in ED terminology is a planet bearing carbon-water based life and lacking a human breathable atmosphere (it'd be earth like if it had both) they have to all bear life.

A WW without life would be an HMC with an abundance of water, and we've all seen plenty of blue HMCs that look very nearly like water worlds.

I've seen HMCs with large bodies of water, but only-water planets all have life which is not okay I think. It is probably the influcence of those who scream life whenever water is found (i.e. wherever there is a desert, there must be a Las Vegas).

 

[iain666]

I'm the opposite then - I find the number of geologically active planets that appear to possess large bodies of liquid water and no signs of life to be too high. They have water, they have volcanic activity - hence pH gradients - and they almost certainly have organic chemistry. Simple life seems to me to be all but inevitable in those conditions if you give it a few million years. There are certainly arguments against that, but IMO FDev have been fairly conservative in the parameters of their simulation that determine how many rocky planets with suitable conditions end up with life.

In terms of what they look like and which ones are all blue, I'd expect a complete overhaul of that when we can land on (in?) them and that to change when it becomes more than just a texture...

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

I think that is exactly the point, the transition from lifeless roganic matter to something incredibly complex and capable of reproducing itself... even with all the advance we've achieved, we cannot create artificial life from scratch, so to have it happening on its own even on a vast timescale is hugely unlikely I think. In fact, I think going from single cell to intelligent life is the smaller step.

At the end I think there must be alien life given the vast universe, but it should be incredibly rare.

Edit: and to make the original point, it is definitely a strech that EVERY water world (planet that is covered by water only) has life.

 

[Sapyx]

Can someone post a (current) closeup picture of a Water World with landmasses? Because I've never seen one. Every time I've thought I've seen landmasses on the system map, up close, they were just brown clouds caused by a high-ammonia atmosphere, or icecaps (which don't count as "landmass"), or both. Water worlds usually have a single, Hawaii-sized archipelago, and that's it.

To clarify ED's terminology: "Water world" does not mean "planet completely covered with water". It means "there is liquid water in abundance on the surface". Just like "ammonia world" means there's liquid ammonia on the surface; ammonia worlds are not completely covered with an ammonia ocean. Earth-likes are a special subcateogory of Water worlds, that also happen to have survivable surface gravity, not too hot or too cold, the right amount of oxygen in the atmosphere and no toxic gases. A water World that meets all these criteria is an Earth-like.

It appears that, in the game, the land/water surface ratio is calculated after the Water-world/Earth-like determination is made. If the planet is Earth-like, then the ratio is somewhere in the 60% to 80% water range. If it's a water world, then the ratio is 99.9% water. In my experience, anyhow. I do not know if this is a glitch, or if someone in ED's graphical rendering department doesn't quite understand what ED's science guys meant by "water world".

 

[Zieman]

Hmm. I may have been mistaken. And/or something's changed with 2.1/2.2 launch...

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

Can someone post a (current) closeup picture of a Water World with landmasses? Because I've never seen one. Every time I've thought I've seen landmasses on the system map, up close, they were just brown clouds caused by a high-ammonia atmosphere, or icecaps (which don't count as "landmass"), or both. Water worlds usually have a single, Hawaii-sized archipelago, and that's it.

To clarify ED's terminology: "Water world" does not mean "planet completely covered with water". It means "there is liquid water in abundance on the surface". Just like "ammonia world" means there's liquid ammonia on the surface; ammonia worlds are not completely covered with an ammonia ocean. Earth-likes are a special subcateogory of Water worlds, that also happen to have survivable surface gravity, not too hot or too cold, the right amount of oxygen in the atmosphere and no toxic gases. A water World that meets all these criteria is an Earth-like.

It appears that, in the game, the land/water surface ratio is calculated after the Water-world/Earth-like determination is made. If the planet is Earth-like, then the ratio is somewhere in the 60% to 80% water range. If it's a water world, then the ratio is 99.9% water. In my experience, anyhow. I do not know if this is a glitch, or if someone in ED's graphical rendering department doesn't quite understand what ED's science guys meant by "water world".

I saw a couple of ELW's which were dominated by water, but those are rare indeed.
If you take a look at the galactic record book, the water worlds are illustrated with a picture of this elusive version.

Hmm. I may have been mistaken. And/or something's changed with 2.1/2.2 launch...

I'm playing since last September, and I can't recall seeing one, so these disappeared with Horizons, or earlier...?

 

[Zieman]

I'm playing since last September, and I can't recall seeing one, so these disappeared with Horizons, or earlier...?

Went through my Orionis Constellation notes and most probably I confused the ones with ice caps & lots of cloud formations as ones having several not exactly tiny landmasses. Have to get a closer look of a couple, the system map pic isn't accurate enough (though comparing with similar HMW, I see the WWs lack the browninsh/greenish features, that I believe are the land masses on HMWs).

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

I've seen ELW lookalikes with what appeared as an ocean, but upon closer inspection the blue areas appearded to be land as well, with craters and other features.

Can anyone visit a former example, like the one discovered by CMDR Jackie Silver?
I guess this is close to the bubble and I'm 50kly away from Sol.

 

[thundernuns]

I've seen ELW lookalikes with what appeared as an ocean, but upon closer inspection the blue areas appearded to be land as well, with craters and other features.

Can anyone visit a former example, like the one discovered by CMDR Jackie Silver?
I guess this is close to the bubble and I'm 50kly away from Sol.

http://i.imgur.com/s3gQq66.png

That world looks amazing, I would want to go there, if It weren't for the mass, among other things.

Maybe there's a mass cutoff for ELWs, so that is considered too large for Earth-likeness. I'm sure someone has said this already, and I'm no forge expert as well

Edit-When go there I mean visit the surface. I also can't get there, being 30kly away

 

[cmdr milesred]

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