OK so I've been away a while and this may be a dumb question...

[Lngjohnsilver1]

But, has anyone done a comparative probability of findings geological or biological features on planetary bodies by type (sorry for bad examples, I'm not in front of ED right now so I'm paraphrasing useful examples - i think you get the point.) I find myself looking for specific features to fill my CODEX but I'm not sure what planetary body types to focus on to save time and effort and CODEX often contains too many 'possible' planetary body type occurrences to be really useful.

e.g.

Planetary Body	Core type	Probability of Geological Feature (and type)	Probability of Biological Feature (and type)
HMC	Iron Magma	35% (iron geysers)	15% (Brain trees)
Rocky icy Body	Silica Vapour Geysers	75% (Silica vapour fumaroles)	2% (Space pumpkins)

 

[Sapyx]

For geologicals, I believe this is the Google Doc you're looking for. Derived from this thread.

Biological POIs are easiest to track down using the Codex. For biologicals, it's not a matter of probability, it's a matter of rule-fitting. If a planet fits all the rules for a biological, then it will have those biologicals present, 100% guaranteed. It's figuring out those rules that's tricky. Figuring it out is like trying to figure out how to play a weird foreign sport just by watching it, without having a local guide with you to explain what the rules are.

 

[Lngjohnsilver1]

rep to you sir/madam/nongenderspecificenlightenedperson

 

[marx]

Biological POIs are easiest to track down using the Codex. For biologicals, it's not a matter of probability, it's a matter of rule-fitting. If a planet fits all the rules for a biological, then it will have those biologicals present, 100% guaranteed. It's figuring out those rules that's tricky. Figuring it out is like trying to figure out how to play a weird foreign sport just by watching it, without having a local guide with you to explain what the rules are.

It's not actually 100% guaranteed: there are times when a body is small enough that even though it fits all the requirements, no bio signals will spawn. This would be because surface POIs can't overlap, and appear to have an "exclusion zone" around them. Since all most all bio types require volcanism on a planet, on a small moon, and with biologicals that only spawn in set places (like in/around larger craters), they might be crowded out and not appear. (Geo signals are probably generated before bio are.)
But yeah, this only seems to happen on the tiniest bodies, so it would be something like 98% guaranteed.

Figuring out the rules is not that tricky though: they are listed in the Codex. For the most part. What's not listed is that not all biologicals appear everywhere in a region (for example, brain trees and sinuous tubers only appear in certain areas), and some information appears to be missing too. Like temperature requirements for tubers, volcanism requirement for amphora plants, and not sure what else.

 

[Lngjohnsilver1]

What's not listed is that not all biologicals appear everywhere in a region (for example, brain trees and sinuous tubers only appear in certain areas), and some information appears to be missing too. Like temperature requirements for tubers, volcanism requirement for amphora plants, and not sure what else.

Yeah i figured there was something extra - I looked up Crystalline Shards on CODEX last night and they apparently can appear in a number of common star class systems, but recently I haven't had a sniff of any so i was assuming there was additional sub-limiting conditions.

It's a start i guess, but yeah sounds like Frontier to 'not tell us everything' - seems to be the model. Not sure why? it isn't like its a money grind and you still have to fly some distance to find this tuff - but anyhoo…. we plod on. I'm making my way through the Formidine rift presently, which is pretty sparse for stuff, hopefully the next sector will have a bit more to it. Been a heck of a while since i ran across a stellar phenomenon too....

 

[Orvidius]

The codex also appears to be misworded on a few things. Those crystalline shards say they have to be a minimum distance from a star, but it's actually distance from arrival, in my experience.

 

[Lngjohnsilver1]

and another thing...I thought we had gotten rid of beige planets - yet it seems that most of the HMC worlds I have visited lately suffer for an overabundance of beige. Whats interesting is that during glide and just before I drop out, I get a glimpse of quite a nice featured planetary surface, then as I drop into the instance a beige cloud drops over everything. Im on PS4 so not idea if that matters or if its engine wide.

 

[iain666]

On PC the colours are varied - there's a tendency towards your generic silicate colours (i.e. beiges and greys) for rocky (geologically, in ED all not gas giant or icy) worlds but that's how the real galaxy would be. The terrain during glide and the terrain when you drop out are the same terrain, if it's changing for you I can only assume that's a PS4 thing.

 

[Orvidius]

Any haze that appears over the planet does seem to have a moment where it disappears and reappears, during the transition, on the PC. It's brief. But I've only seen this affect the haze, and not the color of the surface itself.

 

[Lngjohnsilver1]

...there's a tendency towards your generic silicate colours (i.e. beiges and greys) for rocky (geologically, in ED all not gas giant or icy) worlds but that's how the real galaxy would be.

Yeah nah. The colours produced by rock strata is, and can be, quite varied: there are a considerable amount of factors at play to be sure but i don't think your assertion of beige is accurate. Recent studies have indicated that there is considerably more water present in the universe than initially thought, even on atmosphere-less planets - so oxidation of minerals is still a possibility and oxidation can cause some odd colour effects in geological strata. Then there is of course the differences in temperature to account for, planetary formation physics, exposure of underlying strata by asteroid impacts (crater splash effects) and lastly of course, the wavelengths of light from the parent star and how they refract or reflect when striking the particulate composition of mineral make-up in the surface 'soils' or dusts. So I'm not sure that all planets would be similarly grey or beige necessarily.

Of course one last word - its a game and it would be nice if they had a bit of variabililty.

 

[iain666]

Yes, rocks come in all colours. They're mostly greys and beiges though, then shades of red if your iron can oxidise freely and greens aren't hugely uncommon.

There could definitely be more variation in textures but beige and grey, and to a lesser extent red and green are going to be the dominant colours which is what we have in game (given white light, more restricted spectra are available and already accounted for in game) with the other colours standing out as outliers, just like they do on Earth, and being localised.

 

[Lngjohnsilver1]

I definitely recall an alleged fix for beigeness and i recall, if briefly, some really nice shaded planets - but they seem to have gone the way of the dodo...or maybe I'm just unlucky several tens of times in a row.

 

[iain666]

It went too beige at one point, and the other colours are more common again. Still moslty beige and grey and that is how it should be - although there should definitely be more differently coloured features on mostly beige worlds, especially around volcanic features.

How can we have sulphur fumaroles without patches of vivid yellow, for example?