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Terraforming


Hylios

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Will there be a way to completely terraform a planet, such as altering a snow planet into a jungle? What I'm thinking is that we'll have build some kind of large structure(s) to begin altering the planet. Other players could also build the same kind of thing on a planet to counteract already existing ones.

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They want to generate the planets procedurally, so i dont think this will be possible as it would require quite a lot more data to be transmitted to every other player.

It would make a great reason for conflicts tho, if 2 guilds occupy the same planet and one guild builds terraforming plants while the other keeps destroying it :D

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Hi Hylios,

For the time being, it's not planned to make Terraformation possible.

This would require some heavy development time, and that can't be in the priorities right now.

But we will look into it so see if it's feasible at least for small areas, like biosph?res. Maybe for a distant goal ? 

I'll come to you on the subject when I will have more info on the subject :)

 

Best regards

Nyzaltar.

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  • 1 year later...

If I understand procedural landscapes the seed uses it's values to get locations to put plants, rocks, etc. The biome defines which look up table to use. Having some thing that switches the designated look up table and throws in a force filed dome or valley roof would work. You get trees where there would other wise be rocks. It would be too much work for launch but it would be possible to do later particularly if we plan for it. One look up table has a 4 metre rock the other has a 4 metre tree designated to the same value. Player gets line of sight, the Terraformer unit tells the GPU that it's using table 2 not table 1. Green patch on a dead planet results. 

Clearly not early game though because only a fool would land the ark ship on a dead planet. 

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If I understand procedural landscapes the seed uses it's values to get locations to put plants, rocks, etc. The biome defines which look up table to use. Having some thing that switches the designated look up table and throws in a force filed dome or valley roof would work. You get trees where there would other wise be rocks. It would be too much work for launch but it would be possible to do later particularly if we plan for it. One look up table has a 4 metre rock the other has a 4 metre tree designated to the same value. Player gets line of sight, the Terraformer unit tells the GPU that it's using table 2 not table 1. Green patch on a dead planet results. 

 

Clearly not early game though because only a fool would land the ark ship on a dead planet. 

Pretty much, yeah. BIomes do act as a sort of inventory, but the algorithm still dictates the spread of the flora around the planet depending on possibly, the distance from the star and the size of the planet.

 

So, a "Dry Biome" would have little to no water, therefore, little to no plant-life, thus, it's a desert world. If it's in the goldilocks ring, the desert world is normal (to our standards). If it's further away from the star, it's a Mars-like planet. Too near, it's Mercury and so on.

 

 

The problem with Terraforoming though, is that like in real-life, it can't work unless the planet your try to alter is actually in the goldilocks ring. You can't terraform Mars, but what you CAN do, is set a bio-dome, an artificial dome around an area, where you can control atmosphere and temperature, similar to a greenhouse.

 

 

 

IMO, Terraforming is the lamest idea sci-fi came up with so authors won't have to think of the difficulties caused by living in a planet you were not evolved to live on. But bio-domes are the exact thing that make a sci-fi universe feel right.

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Terraforming doesn't make sense in a 'serious' type of game like this. Something like Spore it does, but now DU.

 

You want the different types of planets to visit and deal with the harsh environments. I know I'd like the challenge :)

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It would be nice.

 

But micro forming would also have interesting possibilities.  Like being able to create indoor parks with different biomes in the different rooms.  Farming of different types of plants and animals which require different conditions.

 

Or just decoration...

 

Imagine if you will a residential tower... the outer edge of which is Park like forest or jungle or what ever so people looking through their room windows see that set to the backdrop of the planet past the outer glass.

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Pretty much, yeah. BIomes do act as a sort of inventory, but the algorithm still dictates the spread of the flora around the planet depending on possibly, the distance from the star and the size of the planet.

 

So, a "Dry Biome" would have little to no water, therefore, little to no plant-life, thus, it's a desert world. If it's in the goldilocks ring, the desert world is normal (to our standards). If it's further away from the star, it's a Mars-like planet. Too near, it's Mercury and so on.

 

 

The problem with Terraforoming though, is that like in real-life, it can't work unless the planet your try to alter is actually in the goldilocks ring. You can't terraform Mars, but what you CAN do, is set a bio-dome, an artificial dome around an area, where you can control atmosphere and temperature, similar to a greenhouse.

 

 

 

IMO, Terraforming is the lamest idea sci-fi came up with so authors won't have to think of the difficulties caused by living in a planet you were not evolved to live on. But bio-domes are the exact thing that make a sci-fi universe feel right.

 

 

You can terraform Mars... and it's easy... you just can't get it to 100%.

 

Terraforming Mars is simple.  You go.  You build manufacturing factories to support your population with the products they need and the products the asteroid miners need and even things Earth needs... You turn Mars into a manufacturing power house... basically China...  And you don't care too much about what these factories pump out except for the most toxic stuff like mercury and some acids and such... but they can pump out as much Greenhouse gases as they want. 

 

Within 100 years we could increase the temperature and pressure on Mars enough so Humans would only need Warm clothes and a scuba tank for oxygen to go outside.  Successfully terraformed.  First bacteria and them grasses and shrubs would take hold.

 

You could maintain that level of terraforming for hundreds of thousands of years without running out of in situ resources.  As the solar wind strips the atmosphere away the factories replenish it with their waste gasses.  

 

But Mars will never be Earth like or no longer require active effort on our part to maintain its environment.   There is no way to heat the core back up and get a magnetic field going again.  And even if you could some how do that... you'd need to maintain what ever is keeping the heat up lest it cool and stop once again.

 

 

So I agree somewhat that the scifi idea of terraforming that you do once and have an Earth like environment there after with no further effort required is bunk.  Terrafroming is possible however... it just requires constant effort to maintain.

 

 

End real world digression.

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You can terraform Mars... and it's easy... you just can't get it to 100%.

 

Terraforming Mars is simple.  You go.  You build manufacturing factories to support your population with the products they need and the products the asteroid miners need and even things Earth needs... You turn Mars into a manufacturing power house... basically China...  And you don't care too much about what these factories pump out except for the most toxic stuff like mercury and some acids and such... but they can pump out as much Greenhouse gases as they want. 

 

Within 100 years we could increase the temperature and pressure on Mars enough so Humans would only need Warm clothes and a scuba tank for oxygen to go outside.  Successfully terraformed.  First bacteria and them grasses and shrubs would take hold.

 

You could maintain that level of terraforming for hundreds of thousands of years without running out of in situ resources.  As the solar wind strips the atmosphere away the factories replenish it with their waste gasses.  

 

But Mars will never be Earth like or no longer require active effort on our part to maintain its environment.   There is no way to heat the core back up and get a magnetic field going again.  And even if you could some how do that... you'd need to maintain what ever is keeping the heat up lest it cool and stop once again.

 

 

So I agree somewhat that the scifi idea of terraforming that you do once and have an Earth like environment there after with no further effort required is bunk.  Terrafroming is possible however... it just requires constant effort to maintain.

 

 

End real world digression.

You confuse Terraforming with colonisation good sir. What you described is a colonisation effort.

 

 

Terraforming is turning the planet's atmosphere into an Earth-like consistency, same atmospheric pressure as well, which is a bitch, since Mars doesn't have the same gravitational attraction as Earth.

 

 

So, from the get-go, you got a problem like ... gravity. So, you need to pump out more oxygen, nitrogen and w/e is inside our Earth's air floating about right? No... you need to establis a better ionosphere, which is a bitch to nail down, unless you don't mind a constant absence of an ozone layer. Combined with a lack of gravity, we need to extende said atmosphere even higher and make it even more dense than earth's to maintain the same pressure. 

 

 

 

Now, you SOMEHOW, managed to do all of the above. Tough luck, Martian soil can't really grow terran food, so, let's pump a lot of actual crap onto the planet itself, to fertilise the ground. Where will you get all the amount of crap to fertilise a whole field? Not the colonists (pun is awesome), but more likely, from terran "volunteers". Yep, the term "Spaceship full of space-shit" is a thing if it comes to terraforming.

 

 

You did all that, now, the planet is ready to be fertilised, hopefully, you brought some fly and other insects along ,cause plants need them to do many things. Cross your fingers for no pestilence running rampart.

 

 

But wait.... MArs is way too far from the sun and away from the nice and cozy coldilocks ring that earth is to sustain the terran plant-life on mars. Easy! Just build a greenhouse!

 

 

To which, we come back to my original point. Make a biodome and live in it. You don't need to terraform a planet.

 

 

 

Peace :D

 

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You're not up on the latest research and are wrong about the definition of terraforming. 

 

Terraforming is modifying a planets environment to make it more Earth like... Failing to make it 100% like Earth does not make what you did any less terraforming.

 

Mars ground can grow Earth plants pretty well.  Scientists have in the past year or so grown... I think it was beans... in simulated Mars ground.

 

Mars is inside the Goldilocks zone just near the outer edge of it.  It gets plenty of light to grow plants with. 

 

Your facts are wrong... 

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You're not up on the latest research and are wrong about the definition of terraforming. 

 

Terraforming is modifying a planets environment to make it more Earth like... Failing to make it 100% like Earth does not make what you did any less terraforming.

 

Mars ground can grow Earth plants pretty well.  Scientists have in the past year or so grown... I think it was beans... in simulated Mars ground.

 

Mars is inside the Goldilocks zone just near the outer edge of it.  It gets plenty of light to grow plants with. 

 

Your facts are wrong...

 

Apparently, partial terraforming is not terraforming. And to even grow beans, you need a controled enviroment, a biodome in other words.

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Mars has all the materials to make fertiliser for the biodomes. And Bob Zubrin's mars hab design stores all the astronaut droppings as freeze dried shielding for use as fertiliser on mars. See his "case for mars." book. We need not go into that level of detail though someone has all ready suggested it on another thread. 
I'm A National Space Society member and former Mars Society member. Curiosity rover has spotted several useful chemicals that if you put it through a mill gives you useful fertiled regolith, add seeds and some bacteria and you have soil. A minigreen house is planned on a near future mission. 

CaptainTwerkmotor  is correct biodomes and roofed valleys is not full terraforming. 
I've actually outlived my NSA life membership twice.  

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Seeds from orbit, isn't that what the aliens normally do in the B grade movies? Every thing is OP if you can do it from orbit. However orbital defence platforms would be the general answer to anything from orbit. 

I'm talking long term and a specific set of biome rules/ type that makes terraforming on it possible. 
 

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Seeds from orbit, isn't that what the aliens normally do in the B grade movies? Every thing is OP if you can do it from orbit. However orbital defence platforms would be the general answer to anything from orbit. 

 

I'm talking long term and a specific set of biome rules/ type that makes terraforming on it possible. 

 

Well, I'm still convinced that bio-domes ala Planetside 2 Biolabs are the way to go for colonisation. It's costing you way way way less and is a logistical SANE choice. Unless you have a century to invest in terraforming a planet :V, or like... three months in-game :P

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