The Quest for Realism...

from Stardock Forums
Brad, or any of you guys.

I always play on the biggest map and the rarest number of planets. I like it that way as I assume this is the most 'realistic' setting. I need to think this to become immersed in a game.

However this set-up establishes a particular pace to a game and it got me to wondering what the latest thinking was on the theoretical frequency of habitable planets and their dispersion in a standard galaxy.
Having set out on this search I returned boggled by mathematics and contrasting views.

I wondered then if the GalCiv team had considered this or if anyone has seen a simplistic figure, e.g.
'x' habitable planets per 'y' earth-like suns which are distributed at frequency 'z' across 'M' cubic metres of space.

One interesting site was the following but it left me none the wiser

http://www.kepler.arc.nasa.gov/pdf_files/Lissauer.Nature402.pdf

Steve
268 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I personally do not think there is any other intelligent (sentient) life forms in our galaxy.

There are a lot of studies on this and the odds of evolution favoring intelligence are extremely small.

There are also those who believe that complex life forms require a tide (i.e. a reasonably large single moon).

Realism has its place but I much prefer to play a game where there's lots of aliens. ;)
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Nothing more boring than watching a so called educational channel talking about Aliens.

There are no Aliens !

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I think there are shed load's of em out there ;)

in fact I live with one

;p
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
"There are no Aliens"
Yeah and the worlds flat.
:VOMIT:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2078507.stm
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
I guess we will all just have to agree to dissagree. There is no proof either way (I, for example, find it difficult to believe that there are no other planets with sentient life on them). If we sit and talk about this theory or that theory or this new discovery or that new discovery, we still will not have proof of exosentience until an actual exosentient lifeform is discovered, AND we will not have proof of the lack there of until every planet is exhaustively explored. With an arguement as unsolvable as this during our lifetimes, I think it is best that we just keep this on a speculative level.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
OF COURSE THERE ARE ALIENS!!!

In Star Trek, they are everywhere, and Star trek is NOT fiction, its real, they transmited it back to Gene Roddenberry from the future so he could write Star Trek! And if you look at the TV when there is a Star Trek convention there is ALOT of Klingons and Vulcans and stuff there! THAT PROVES IT! How can there be klingons if there is no aliens?? try answer THAT my Hard Rocking Amigos!

Hrm.. well seriously, I think there are aliens, prehaps not intelligent but who knows. If space is endless, there must also be endless chances for life.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
I think that at most there are about half a dozen aliens in our galaxy. However, I think bacteria and microscopic life is rampant across the universe.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Cool link Steevodeevo! Good old Fermi's Paradox. An interesting book about the issue is Rare Earth, though I read it a couple of years ago, so hey, things seem to be changing in astrophysics at, uh, light speed.

Who knows, all those SETI cpus chugging away could always turn something up.... ;)