Things I found, and things to clarify about exploration

[Ander_Wand]

Unfortunately, most major landmarks are inundated with carriers these days. They're an absolute eye-sore. Wish I could turn them off and pretend they don't exist.

Same, they are a nuisance. At least the game allows you to filter them out. Still those system maps....

I started playing ED long after they where implemented, still even to me they feel somehow alien to the game.... like they havent been integrated properly.

 

[Ander_Wand]

I have been watching a lot of the fantastic documentaries on this channel History of the Earth lately and they reminded me of the 'terraforming' processes that are portrayed in this game, or rather the technical details of those. Are there any detailed indications given of these methods in the lore of Elite?
I mean, an Earth like World obviously needs no terraforming, and a continental Water World and terraformable HMC need the composition of their atmospheres adjusted for human breathing. So far this seems somewhat doable. Now for me the problems start at bodies like Water Worlds completely covered in water, or HMC's without atmospheres. How do you go about terraforming planets like this? Seems utterly impossible for me on a grand scale.
Not to speak of the terraformable Ammonia Worlds that apparently exist as well.
What is the games definition of terraforming in the first place? Does it only mean to make the planet suitable for human breathing? Or to have it develop the entirety of our earths ecosystem?

 

[Sapyx]

An "Earth-like planet" in ED is defined as a planet a human can survive on indefinitely out in the open, with no space-suit or environment suit necessary. The necessary conditions:

• Gravity: must be between 0.40 and 2.00 Earth-normal.
• Atmosphere: must have partial pressure of oxygen between about 0.15 and 0.40 atmospheres (haven't done the checking to find the absolute limits here). "Partial pressure" can be derived by multiplying the atmospheric pressure by the oxygen content factor. Total atmospheric pressure must not exceed about 4.2 atmospheres, though this can be exceeded in low-nitrogen, high-argon environments. Edit: And must not have any toxic gases in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide can be present but levels must be below 0.5%.
• Temperature: must be between 260 K and 320 K.

And that's it. If a planet can be engineered to bring its statistics within these ranges, it is terraformable. The current state of the atmosphere and the presence or absence of a hydrosphere are irrelevant to terraformability; these are considered engineering problems, not laws-of-physics-breaking problems.

As for the actual technology of terraforming, all we really have to go in in lore is the commodity descriptions for terraforming machinery:

Atmospheric processors:

Components and consumables for atmosphere processors. These are large installations, usually with a high power output reactor at their cores, used to process and stabilise breathable planetary atmospheres, especially on terraformed worlds.

Land enrichment systems:

A soup of carefully designed archaebacteria, lichens, and micro-fauna and their dispersal equipment. Used in terraforming or enriching agricultural land.

Together, these indicate that 34th century terraforming tech is a combination of heavy industry and genetic engineering. In "old lore" (the prequel games FE2 and FFE), the Federation tended towards high-tech automated machinery to make a planet as close to Earth as possible, whereas the Empire preferred to use genetic engineering on both the target planet and the cohort of prospective colonists for that planet, so that a planet's terraforming could be completed and people living on it quicker. But this particular aspect of lore now seems to be retconned.

 

[Ander_Wand]

An "Earth-like planet" in ED is defined as a planet a human can survive on indefinitely out in the open, with no space-suit or environment suit necessary. The necessary conditions:

• Gravity: must be between 0.40 and 2.00 Earth-normal.
• Atmosphere: must have partial pressure of oxygen between about 0.15 and 0.40 atmospheres (haven't done the checking to find the absolute limits here). "Partial pressure" can be derived by multiplying the atmospheric pressure by the oxygen content factor. Total atmospheric pressure must not exceed about 4.2 atmospheres, though this can be exceeded in low-nitrogen, high-argon environments. Edit: And must not have any toxic gases in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide can be present but levels must be below 0.5%.
• Temperature: must be between 260 K and 320 K.

And that's it. If a planet can be engineered to bring its statistics within these ranges, it is terraformable. The current state of the atmosphere and the presence or absence of a hydrosphere are irrelevant to terraformability; these are considered engineering problems, not laws-of-physics-breaking problems.

As for the actual technology of terraforming, all we really have to go in in lore is the commodity descriptions for terraforming machinery:

Atmospheric processors:

Land enrichment systems:

Together, these indicate that 34th century terraforming tech is a combination of heavy industry and genetic engineering. In "old lore" (the prequel games FE2 and FFE), the Federation tended towards high-tech automated machinery to make a planet as close to Earth as possible, whereas the Empire preferred to use genetic engineering on both the target planet and the cohort of prospective colonists for that planet, so that a planet's terraforming could be completed and people living on it quicker. But this particular aspect of lore now seems to be retconned.

Looks like the requirements for terraformability are pretty abundant then. No wonder they are just about anywhere. Just found a lone terraformable HMC orbiting a neutron star.... If humans ever get to live there, it will be eternal blue twilight for those poor souls. Might make a good prison colony for psychopaths....

Thanks for your detailed insight!

Edit: doesn't he look lonely:

 

[Sapyx]

Yes, "temperature" is the only consideration in terms of habitability - the quality of the radiation being emitted from nearby stars and causing that temperature, is not considered, even though logically it "should be". If a planet is nice and warm because it's being bombarded by gamma rays rather than visible light, then you don't really want to be living there.

You'd probably need a really thick atmosphere to shield any native lifeforms from the harmful high-end radiation coming from a neutron star. Many of the Earth-likes found orbiting neutron stars do indeed have an atmosphere that's at the thick end of habitability, thoguh this seems to be a coincidence of the typical size of a neutron star's planets (Earth-like planets in the 0.9 to 1.2 Earth-masses range almost always have a super-thick atmosphere, no matter what star type they orbit) rather than an attempt by the Forge to create that extra-thick atmospheric shield.

 

[Ander_Wand]

725 K does seem a little on the hot end of cosiness though.

 

[varonica]

725 K does seem a little on the hot end of cosiness though.

It's not the current temperature that matters, it's what the temperature would be if the current atmosphere was replaced by an earth normal atmosphere.

 

[Ander_Wand]

People seem to visit neutron systems only for boosting, most visited systems that have one are left unscanned. Which is a shame, I find them rather fascinating!

 

[varonica]

People seem to visit neutron systems only for boosting, most visited systems that have one are left unscanned. Which is a shame, I find them rather fascinating!

I have found some interesting things in Neutron star systems, and I think my highest value system was a neutron star system, so I don't avoid them to any great degree. I have never boosted from one in fact, just a personal preference.

 

[marx]

People seem to visit neutron systems only for boosting, most visited systems that have one are left unscanned. Which is a shame, I find them rather fascinating!

For too long, neutron star farming was the quickest way to gain credits (and rank) via exploration. The way to do that was to jump to NS (and BH) systems, scan the arrival star, and quickly jump to the next. Some of what you're seeing might still be the legacy of this.
(Also, consider that during this time, neutron stars didn't have their jets, so visually, they were just a tiny dot out in space. Honestly, it was probably The most mind-numbing activity in the game, but at the very least, certainly in exploration.)

 

[Ander_Wand]

I have found some interesting things in Neutron star systems, and I think my highest value system was a neutron star system, so I don't avoid them to any great degree.

Good to know!

 

[Ander_Wand]

I am slowly approaching the Core now, and am absolutely stunned by the night sky there.... just breathtaking to see!
Had a run of luck, found some real beauties:

Water Giant. Haven't found one of those yet!

And on the next jump: Zebra Giant
But now for the crazy part: On the system map it is actually listed to have two rings..... one could easily miss the second one:

Too far away to DSS it.

 

[iain666]

And on the next jump: Zebra Giant

Bah, humbug

 

[varonica]

Good to know!

One of the advantages of Neutron stars is they have very large habitable zones so the planets of close secondary stars are often all within the habitable zone of the neutron star and thus you get more terraformable bodies in neutron star systems with a lot of planets.

 

[Ander_Wand]

Bah, humbug

Care to elaborate?

 

[Ander_Wand]

One of the advantages of Neutron stars is they have very large habitable zones so the planets of close secondary stars are often all within the habitable zone of the neutron star and thus you get more terraformable bodies in neutron star systems with a lot of planets.

I have found some interesting things in Neutron star systems, and I think my highest value system was a neutron star system, so I don't avoid them to any great degree. I have never boosted from one in fact, just a personal preference.

What did you find there? Screenshot maybe?

 

[Ander_Wand]

I know I am probably boring you guys to death with stuff you have all seen a gazillion times... but I do have to vent my exitement over the stuff I discover somewhere.
Can we has more stars pls:

Also found out what varonica said about cool neutron systems:

That is an ELW, a terraformable Water World and 4 terraformable HMC, orbiting an L-Class star
This ELW got to be the gloomiest and coldest place to ever house life.... The L-Star is way to dark, and even the dense backdrop of the core stars doesn't manage to light it up anywhere: