How do we spot terraform candidates from the system map?

[Edith_The_Hutt]

I'm half way through my first Sag A* run and I've finally realised that terraform candidates are about as plentiful and as rewarding as those tasty water worlds I keep on making a detour to scan, they're just a lot harder to eyeball from the System Map.

I've noticed that the terraform candidates that I've found so far are all rocky, metallic or water worlds of 0.5-2 Earth Masses and about 0.5-1.5 AU from the primary (although there may be a bit of selection bias there, I'm not scanning every body in a system and may be missing some). This kind of fits the idea that terraforming candidates are solid bodies with a gravity which can hold an atmosphere without crushing humans and which sit in the goldilocks zone around a star (not too hot, not too cold), the specific atmosphere being replaceable through terraforming.

Is there more to this or some sort of guide to roughly where Terraforming candidates show up? If not then I'm screen-capping every terraform candidate I find and I'd love other commander's data too, if it really is something as simple as the right combination of distance from primary and mass then with enough data points we should be able to come up with a good rule of thumb for eyeballing these from the system map without scanning every body in the system.

 

[newman1702]

I'm not entirely clear on what makes a planet a TC - I've seen planets well outside of potential habitable zones that were terraformable while those that seemed ideal weren't. I will share something I've noticed, though - maybe you'll find it useful: terraforming candidates usually come in groups. This means that, for example, you won't usually see planets 2, 5 and 7 be TC's. It will be more like 3,4 and 5, and if your planet 6 isn't a TC anymore than it's a good bet none of the further planets will be, either. This can be useful if you want to cover large distance faster for whatever reason; once planets stop being TC's you can skip the outer ones as they're worth a lot less.

 

[dognosh]

deleted...

 

[Jackie Silver]

The range for terraforming candidates varies according to the radius and temperature of the star - there's a link in my sig to a calculator I made which lets you plug those numbers in and see where habitable planets will be in a given system (with the caveat that things get more complicated in multiple-star systems and in hand-placed (i.e. catalogue) star systems.)

Very broadly speaking you're already looking in the right sort of distance range for KGF stars, although you can find terraformable planets down to quite low mass, under 0.1 Earth masses even.

 

[Eisen]

I've scanned really a lot of HMC and even Icy-worlds to find out, what can be pre-determinable from system-map. But the only thing I found is, that they roughly are in the habitable zones. But with numerous exceptions, leading me to think, that there is a certain randomness with them. They have no sounds of their own, size doesn't seem to matter, I even found atmosphere-less TCs. So only one thing helps to be sure: go there and scan

 

[dognosh]

deleted...

 

[Edith_The_Hutt]

The range for terraforming candidates varies according to the radius and temperature of the star - there's a link in my sig to a calculator I made which lets you plug those numbers in and see where habitable planets will be in a given system (with the caveat that things get more complicated in multiple-star systems and in hand-placed (i.e. catalogue) star systems.)

Very broadly speaking you're already looking in the right sort of distance range for KGF stars, although you can find terraformable planets down to quite low mass, under 0.1 Earth masses even.

That is exactly what I'm looking for, thank you very, very much

 

[dognosh]

oops, i misunderstood, will delete my posts

 

[Mysturji]

This is all a bit wishy-washy and more like guidelines than rules, but generally speaking I have found:
It needs an atmosphere (ovbiously)
It needs to be (more or less) in the habitable zone. I figure this out by comparing the radius & mass of the star with a planet's distance in AU.
e.g. A G type star approximately the size of Sol would have habitable planets in the general area of 1 AU distant (obviously)
K type stars are a little smaller, so the habitable zone will be a little closer.
F type stars are a bit bigger so the HZ will be a bit further away.
A type stars are relatively huge, so much farther away (~ 3 - 6+ AU)
Don't bother with other star types when looking for habitable/terraformable worlds (generally).
When you target the planet, the planet image to the left of the scanner should look like it has coastlines. If it has loads of craters or what look like lava flows, it's probably not the planet you're looking for.
Hope that helps.

 

[Kancro Vantas]

Welcome to the Terraformable Planets Appreciation Club! Lol. I also look for those, as they are more abundant than the ELP and WW, really helping with boosting up credits when exploring.

You seem to be on the right path. I think most of us here follow those general rules you are applying, knowing that there might be some exceptions here and there. In the worst case scrnario, you end up scanning a HMC, which is still a win-win outcome, IMO.

 

[Arch3rAc3]

It needs an atmosphere (ovbiously)

Oh, does it?

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

Some of the terraformables can be spotted right away, HMCs and WWs with distinctive white clouds and otherwise clear atmosphere, much like the way you spot ELWs.

Obviously there are lots of exceptions, like that landable world above.