Just wondering why I haven't seen any desert planets with atmospheres in my travels?
Where's the desert planets
- Thread starter SatansMittens
- Start date
The two previous incarnations of Elite (FE2 and FFE) both had the whole spectrum of standard sci-fi sub-earth-like planets. "Desert planets" like Tatooine or Arrakis? Delta Pavonis had one. "Jungle planets" like Pandora or Endor? Quince was just one of many. "Ice planets" like Hoth? Merlin in the Ross 154 system was perhaps the most famous. When these games were ported over into ED, the planet descriptions were ported over too - so the galaxy map for such places still says that there are desert planets, jungle planets etc in the system. But when you look, the planets in question have usually become "normalized" into bog-standard Earth-likes, though perhaps with surface conditions near the edge of qualifying for that definition.
THe ED galaxy no longer has those varieties of semi-earth-like planets. This game seems to take a more "scientific" approach to planet generation: that a planet without "earth-like" conditions in terms of a varied climate (jungle equator, temperate and desert midzones, icy poles) is unlikely to have a human-breathable atmosphere and even if it did, it still wouldn't be comfortable to live on. It's not impossible to find such planets, just highly unlikely. And it's not likely that life will form a major component of such a planet's surface features. Either way, the game does not distinguish readily between such "semi-earth-likes" that are theoretically inhabitable, and similar planets that are not. You need to use your knowledge of science, plus your imagination.
There are planets out there with apparently human-breathable atmospheres (roughly 20% oxygen, or equivalent thereof, with no toxic gases) that are hot, arid, barren wastelands (desert planets, if you wish). These will appear on your system map as "high metal content" planets, not "Earth-like"; the only indicator of their surface habitability would be the atmospheric composition and pressure. There are no "Earth-like" planets, or any other planet types for that matter, that are life-bearing but not majority covered in seas - i.e. there are no planets where it's almost entirely dry land with just a few lakes scattered about.
Likewise, there are planets out there with apparently human-breathable atmospheres that are cold, icy, barren wastelands (ice planets, if you wish). These will usually appear on your system map as "water worlds", not "Earth-like". Again, only temperature (below 273 K) and atmospheric conditions would indicate the difference between a "Hoth" and an uninhabitable kind of water world (such as one with a 70% ammonia atmosphere). An "ocean planet" would be similar, but warmer (not qualifying as "Earth-like" perhaps because of carbon diioxide in the atmosphere, which the ED star forge regards as a "toxic gas").
A "jungle planet", I would consider, would be an Earth-like with an average surface temperature above 300 K and "water" being a significant portion of the atmosphere. I've seen them (I think Quince is one) but they are, as I said, near the extreme conditions at which a planet still qualifies as "Earth-like". Any hotter, and the planet becomes either a water world or a lifeless high metal content planet with a 100% water atmosphere and runaway greenhouse effect.
THe ED galaxy no longer has those varieties of semi-earth-like planets. This game seems to take a more "scientific" approach to planet generation: that a planet without "earth-like" conditions in terms of a varied climate (jungle equator, temperate and desert midzones, icy poles) is unlikely to have a human-breathable atmosphere and even if it did, it still wouldn't be comfortable to live on. It's not impossible to find such planets, just highly unlikely. And it's not likely that life will form a major component of such a planet's surface features. Either way, the game does not distinguish readily between such "semi-earth-likes" that are theoretically inhabitable, and similar planets that are not. You need to use your knowledge of science, plus your imagination.
There are planets out there with apparently human-breathable atmospheres (roughly 20% oxygen, or equivalent thereof, with no toxic gases) that are hot, arid, barren wastelands (desert planets, if you wish). These will appear on your system map as "high metal content" planets, not "Earth-like"; the only indicator of their surface habitability would be the atmospheric composition and pressure. There are no "Earth-like" planets, or any other planet types for that matter, that are life-bearing but not majority covered in seas - i.e. there are no planets where it's almost entirely dry land with just a few lakes scattered about.
Likewise, there are planets out there with apparently human-breathable atmospheres that are cold, icy, barren wastelands (ice planets, if you wish). These will usually appear on your system map as "water worlds", not "Earth-like". Again, only temperature (below 273 K) and atmospheric conditions would indicate the difference between a "Hoth" and an uninhabitable kind of water world (such as one with a 70% ammonia atmosphere). An "ocean planet" would be similar, but warmer (not qualifying as "Earth-like" perhaps because of carbon diioxide in the atmosphere, which the ED star forge regards as a "toxic gas").
A "jungle planet", I would consider, would be an Earth-like with an average surface temperature above 300 K and "water" being a significant portion of the atmosphere. I've seen them (I think Quince is one) but they are, as I said, near the extreme conditions at which a planet still qualifies as "Earth-like". Any hotter, and the planet becomes either a water world or a lifeless high metal content planet with a 100% water atmosphere and runaway greenhouse effect.
There are pure desert worlds out there (high metal content) what I found interesting is that earth like worlds vary depending on their proximity to the main star (obviously still within the Goldilocks zone) - The terrain actually varies depending on the temperature of the ELW, you'll find vast deserts on the hotter ELW's.
Well I've also noticed lately that all the "earth-like" planets seem to look exactly the same. Same continent shapes and everything. Only difference between them that I've noticed was earth itself and the populated ones had city lights vs non populated. Was just thinking some variety would be nice. Found an earth-like kinda far from it's main star and was thinking that it should have had large polar ice caps, but it did not.
No two earth likes are the same, continents vary. Believe me I've probably spent hundreds of hours floating above ELW's in VR admiring the continents,mountain ranges,islands and cities below.
As mentioned, ice caps,deserts,jungles etc etc, it all varies based on the planets temperature - type of star that it orbits and its distance from the star all play a role.
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Get back to NMS you! Oh... wait
Yeah, they are out there, and quite common. At least, from space they look like thety might be desert planets. Maybe you are just not recognizing them as desert planets?
Problem is, we can't really land on them yet. Without an atmosphere (for wind) or water (oceans or rain), there is no mechanism for proper sand to build up. On the rocky worlds we have at the moment its more of a fine dust that has settled on the planets.
http://www.planetozkids.com/Ace_Detectives/ghostmine/casenotes/how_deserts_formed.html
At least, the irony is, one of the best ways for deserts is to form is via water
Not sure how likely or frequent a pure desert planet like Dune might exist in reality. However, Dune is not a pure desert planet. We know there are rocky outcrops everywhere which the Fremen use. Those could be leftovers from ancient mountains that over millions of years were worn down by the strong wings of Arrakis. Or, it might have been that at one point Arrakis had a lot of water (i think this is hinted at in the books/lore) and ultimately how they transformed it back into a habitable planet, due to all the moisture in the air. So the deserts could have been formed by water in the first place, and the seas dried up a long time in the past due to warming of the planet.
Yeah, they are out there, and quite common. At least, from space they look like thety might be desert planets. Maybe you are just not recognizing them as desert planets?
Problem is, we can't really land on them yet. Without an atmosphere (for wind) or water (oceans or rain), there is no mechanism for proper sand to build up. On the rocky worlds we have at the moment its more of a fine dust that has settled on the planets.
http://www.planetozkids.com/Ace_Detectives/ghostmine/casenotes/how_deserts_formed.html
At least, the irony is, one of the best ways for deserts is to form is via water
Not sure how likely or frequent a pure desert planet like Dune might exist in reality. However, Dune is not a pure desert planet. We know there are rocky outcrops everywhere which the Fremen use. Those could be leftovers from ancient mountains that over millions of years were worn down by the strong wings of Arrakis. Or, it might have been that at one point Arrakis had a lot of water (i think this is hinted at in the books/lore) and ultimately how they transformed it back into a habitable planet, due to all the moisture in the air. So the deserts could have been formed by water in the first place, and the seas dried up a long time in the past due to warming of the planet.
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Most ELW planets in the game are procedurally generated, with "fractal" shorelines. There's not terribly much you can do to make the landmasses of one fractal planet look different to another, since they're all generated by the same rule set. "Ammonia worlds" are different colours, but again, same rule set, same fractal coastlines. Polar cap size is one of the ways ELWs can vary dramatically; it varies with axial tilt and temperature. One of the ELWs I discovered had vast icecaps that stretched nearly halfway down to the equator.
The only truly unique planets are the two hand-crafted ones: Earth and Mars. Terraformed Mars is particularly impressive, being generated from in-real-life altitude data for the planet. So there are seas in the low-lying areas of the north pole and Hellas basin, and the huge Tharsis Bulge volcanoes that stick up clean out of the atmosphere.
The only truly unique planets are the two hand-crafted ones: Earth and Mars. Terraformed Mars is particularly impressive, being generated from in-real-life altitude data for the planet. So there are seas in the low-lying areas of the north pole and Hellas basin, and the huge Tharsis Bulge volcanoes that stick up clean out of the atmosphere.
dynamicbob
Banned
i think whent earthlikes are landable we might see a wide variety of % water present from say 10% through to 80% then it would border on waterworlds.
I'm with 777Driver on this. Not seen two identical earthlikes, and it would highly unlikely to occur due to the nature of procgen.
You can even see different sized polar caps, from non-existant to ones that cover vast areas.
At the end of the day, to qualify as an earthlike, they do have to correspond to a certain type. Otherwise they are simply HMCs with water and an atmosphere.... and boy, i've been caught out by a few of those on my travels.
I'll have to check out mars... never bothered to and I don't know why
As stated above, they're there technically they're just not labeled as such.
If you find a rocky or metal-rich planet that's a bit on the toasty side (~300K-330K), and either has a nitrogen/oxegen atmosphere or is listed as a "terraforming candidate", then you've likely found a Tatooine or Arrakis-like planet.
If you find a rocky or metal-rich planet that's a bit on the toasty side (~300K-330K), and either has a nitrogen/oxegen atmosphere or is listed as a "terraforming candidate", then you've likely found a Tatooine or Arrakis-like planet.
Get back to NMS you! Oh... wait
Yeah, they are out there, and quite common. At least, from space they look like thety might be desert planets. Maybe you are just not recognizing them as desert planets?
Problem is, we can't really land on them yet. Without an atmosphere (for wind) or water (oceans or rain), there is no mechanism for proper sand to build up. On the rocky worlds we have at the moment its more of a fine dust that has settled on the planets.
http://www.planetozkids.com/Ace_Detectives/ghostmine/casenotes/how_deserts_formed.html
At least, the irony is, one of the best ways for deserts is to form is via water
Not sure how likely or frequent a pure desert planet like Dune might exist in reality. However, Dune is not a pure desert planet. We know there are rocky outcrops everywhere which the Fremen use. Those could be leftovers from ancient mountains that over millions of years were worn down by the strong wings of Arrakis. Or, it might have been that at one point Arrakis had a lot of water (i think this is hinted at in the books/lore) and ultimately how they transformed it back into a habitable planet, due to all the moisture in the air. So the deserts could have been formed by water in the first place, and the seas dried up a long time in the past due to warming of the planet.
Weren't the sandworms ultimately responsible for terraforming Arrakis to the desert planet?
Yes, and also responsible for the rain at the end of the movie.
For there to be sandworms, there had to be sand
Not sure if there was some genetic manipulation there, or they evolved along with the planet. But my guess is they didn't exist (in their current form) until Arrakis had at least quite a bit of sand for them to live in.Dune wiki says they are native, so would presume evolved along with the planet.
Yeah they evolved with the planet, if I remember correctly the young are kept in water.For there to be sandworms, there had to be sand
Dune wiki says they are native, so would presume evolved along with the planet.
I thought that was fans of the book relieving themselves to show their opinion of what had been done to the story.
That helped, yes...lol
I expect when we're able to land on them we'll get the full range of speculated earthlike types. I'm also hoping to see tidally locked earthlikes where on side is alive and the other barren due to darkness. Would also like to see tomb worlds - former earthlikes which were destroyed by an ancient failed civilisation with lots of ruins.
EDIT: Apparently yes, they are ok with water, but seal it up so the sandworms can survive.
However, it appears we have some contradictory information here. The entry on sandworms says they are native, but the entry on sandtrout says they were introduced: http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Sandtrout
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