High Value Water Worlds worth more than ELWs?

So I quite often stumble upon high value WWs that are more valuable than finding an ELW...
How can this make sense?
I don't get how a terraformable is worth more than an ELW, which typically get 3Mil max?

1612354801413.png


Perhaps someone could explain this to me?

Thanks!
 
Sure. For whatever reason, terraforming candidate bodies can have certain values be outside what ELWs could, mass being one of them. (Terraformed ELWs can have values outside what natural ELWs would. Probably an oversight from the original version of the Forge.) WWs and ELWs use the same formula to calculate payout (see here), and while ELWs might have a higher terraformability multiplier there, over a certain mass, this is offset by the mass difference and the heavy WWTC ends up paying more.

As for an in-game reason... hm. Bureaucracy.
 
Last edited:
So I quite often stumble upon high value WWs that are more valuable than finding an ELW...
How can this make sense?
I don't get how a terraformable is worth more than an ELW, which typically get 3Mil max?

View attachment 206806

Perhaps someone could explain this to me?

Thanks!
Just off the top of my head as I'm not very informed about these in game things but could it be due to what's in the asteroid rings? 🤷‍♂️
 
Sure. For whatever reason, terraforming candidate bodies can have certain values be outside what ELWs could, mass being one of them. (Terraformed ELWs can have values outside what natural ELWs would. Probably an oversight from the original version of the Forge.) WWs and ELWs use the same formula to calculate payout (see here), and while ELWs might have a higher terraformability multiplier there, over a certain mass, this is offset by the mass difference and the heavy WWTC ends up paying more.

As for an in-game reason... hm. Bureaucracy.

Smile! Thanks for the numbers! I hadn't seen this so it was most useful! I'll pour over this in the morning in more detail.
If FD are doing a balance pass though, perhaps increasing the payout for ELWs would be a welcome change?

Thanks for the help!

Susie
 
"Top-tier" terraformables - the "tiers" being somewhat nebulous but seem to be some internal calculation of how "easy" the planet would be to terraform - have the exact same payout scale as Earth-likes. But you will sometimes see terraformables pay more than Earth-likes, because as Marx said, the Earth-likes tend to be smaller.

For planetary payouts, you are paid by weight: heavier planets pay more. A planet's terraformability is linked to surface gravity, rather than mass, so a heavier planet can be terraformable if it's "fluffier" (less dense). Metals are dense, while ice is not, so a high-ice terraformable can be quite heavy. But as a general rule, bigger planets have higher surface gravity.

Earth-likes tend to max out at about 1.6 G, though planets up to 1.8 G are known. Terraformables can go up to 2.00 G. It is usually planets in that 1.6 to 2.0 G range that are "more valuable than Earth-likes".
 
Back
Top Bottom