Realistic planet types (and ther effects on colonization)
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Sins Forums
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Here are A few general rules that govern how A planet forms
Planetary Atmosphere
Three factors play into a gas's ability to escape the pull of a planet's gravity: temperature, molecular mass, and escape velocity (the speed a molecule needs to achieve to escape into space). Hotter, lighter, and faster particles more easily slip out of a planet's gravitational grip into space than cooler, heavier, and slower particles.(so special equipment would be needed to retain any atmosphere of size on small worlds. or Dome structures.
Gravity
Gravity is Going to be an issue for any creature that moves through it's enviorment in anything but A horizontal fasion,By this I mean the further your center of gravity is from the ground ,the more gravity is going to be an issue.
A flat organism on a high gravity world would not have much problem ,but something like A human whom walks upright
would find it rather difficult to move about on a planet say 3 times as big as earth .
Distance from Parent Star or Star's
There is A "zone around any star where Water would exist in its liquid state .Any closer and it boils away,Any further and it freezes .
Multpile Stars and Stable orbits
We probably owe our existence to the fact hat the Sun is A single Star ,and almost all our Planets orbits are fairly circular. This is very important in regards to climate. A circular orbit will give A fairly stable climate year round. there may be A tilt of a planet's Axis Causing slight climate changes. like earths seasons,but these changes are only by A few degrees and not all that drastic.
an eliptical orbit or even more distorted orbits are seein in multiple star systems .These planets see temperature changes in the ranges of 100's of degrees ,going from -200 degrees to well above 700 degrees in the span of an orbit this would be fatal for life as we know it. but thats not saying life could not find a way to go dormant for the harsher part of the orbit .(there are organisms whom create their own antifreeze)
So with these things in mind lets apply this to what kinds of bodies there can be possible
you have 3 temperature types we will seperate them by their water state
then you got the planets actual composition,its distance from parent star would vary in accordance to the existance of liquid water depending on the actual stars type(The habital zone of A blue supergiant would be much larger and farther away from the star as the habital zone of say a red Dwarf .)lets just worry about its composition and water state for now. then we can apply some penalty's and bonuses to each type in sins .
A bodie must be a certain size to copmpress into roundness. right around 300-400km across . this size figure would decrease the more icy the body is as it is easier to move ice around than it is to move rock,and of course a gas ball would compress at even smaller sizes. probably around 100km to be round
the notation of water or no water or ice is purely A matter of where the planet developed .not all planets will contain water.this just lists the posibility of whether it could contain it .as water is a very volatile substance and readily evaporates or boils or binds with substances so although water could pool on a medium asteroid it would be vaporized and dissipate rather quickly
Of Atmospheres And Planet Cores
the possiblilty to have a molten core and hence A magnetic field would arise on worlds
approaching this size . One thing to note now that we have gone this far is age.
Atmosphere and molten cores are not permanent.the older the system the less likely there are gonna be terrestial atmospheres and terrestial magnetic fields. A gas giant would last far longer in both respects than a small earthlike planet. Large things cool quicker .No mol;ten core and you got no mag field which consequentially now makes the atmosphere go bye bye even faster . solar radiation will burn an atmosphere away pretty fast at distances where water would be liquid,in the absence of A protective magnetic field that is channeling all that harmfull solar radiation away to the planets poles.
Freezing /Cold Liquid /Warm Hot/boiling
Small asteroid Low grav/Ice/rock/ Low grav/No Water/rock Low Grav/No Water/rock
1-10km No Atmosphere / No Atmosphere/ No Atmosphere/
Not spherical Not spherical Not spherical
Medium asteroid Low grav/ice/rock/ Low grav/No Water/ rock Low grav/No water/rock
10-99km No Atmosphere/ No Atmosphere/ No Atmosphere/
Not spherical Not spherical Not spherical
Here is the cutoff point where a planet has sufficient gravity to compress into a sphere
Large asteroid Low grav/ice/rock/ Low grav/No water/ rock Low grav/No water/rock
100-299km No Atmosphere/ No Atmosphere/ No Atmosphere/
No mag field No mag field No mag field
Spherical if ice Spherical if ice Spherical if ice
ProtoPlanet Low grav/ice/rock/ Low grav/Water/rock Low grav/No water/rock
300-400km No Atmosphere/ No Atmosphere/ No atmosphere/
No mag field / No mag field / No mag field/
spherical spherical spherical
all planets this size and up are spherical and are just noted with A /S
Tiny Planet Low grav /ice/rock/ Low grav /Water/rock low Grav/No Water/rock
400-800km No Atmosphere / No atmosphere/ No Atmosphere/
No mag field / No mag field/ No mag field/
/S /S /S
Small Planet Low grav/ice/rock low grav/water/rock lowgrav/No water/rock
800-2999 km Possible Atmosphere/ possible Atmosphere no Atmosphere or light /
No mag field/ No mag field/ no mag field/
/S /S /S
(earths diamiter is 12756.1 km )
Medium Planet 1/5th-earth grav 1/5th-earth grav 1/5th- earth grav
Atmosphere / Atmosphere / Atmosphere/
3000- 14999km Ice/rock Water/rock Rock
mag field mag field mag field
/S /S /S
(not yet A gas giant)
Large Planet 2-5x earth grav 2-5x earth grav 2-5x earth grav
15000 -24999km Atmosphere Atmosphere Atmosphere
ice /rock water/rock rock
mag field mag field mag field
/S /S /S
From here on planets are Gas Giants and the larger you get ,the morestarlike the planet
becomes ,up untill the point where it undergoes nuculear fission in its core. which is around 87
times jupiter's mass or 27,666 earths so we are only going to deal with gas giants and not go
into planets much larger than 10 times jupiters mass. these giants would be very violent
neighborhoods anyway due to their large and powerfull magnetic fields and swarms of
charged particles orbiting it
Gas giants 5-50 times earths gravity all will have thick atmosphere ,high speed winds,large magnetic
fields,many moons , Water is probably present but only accesable from moons.
So what does this all have to do with sins?
well i am designing planets that have properties that affect gameplay based on these assumptions so he goes some examples.
there will be new sub types of each planet type
Terran :
Island planet,Tundra(icy),Desert(barren),Dense Atmosphere(venuslike),Forest,Swamp,Primordial(prehistoric earth).giant (high grav earth)
Ice :
frozen comet,comet,ocean core(slushball),frozen asteroid,Methane volcanic.
Gas giant :
Huge earth(think a bit smaller than neptune) ,Jovian(jupiterlike),Protostar(almost a brown dwarf)
Plasma Storms :
I place these around my stars to simulate solar flares and prominences .
Magnetic clouds I place around my gas giants to simulate the clouds of charged particles surrounding these bodies .
Wormholes:
Although the Idea of wormholes does not sit well with my theories of the universe ,I use these as my sole connections
to other stars,
Stars :
In my Galaxy's There are no connections to stars ,rendering them as just a pretty ball, Logically speaking ,Approaching A Star at even A modest distance. (say one or 2 solar disk's distance away )becomes a suicide mission
There simply is to much violence surrounding this reigon in so many different forms that approach would be unlikley,so i eliminate star travel altogether and use the plasma storm as my near star rout s around it.
Now Assignig values to things like gravity strength,temperature ,magnetic field ,shape,size ,planet type is A balancing issue And needs to be tested before any real numbers would be useful ,but changes to population growth,population cap,tax rate,tactical and logistical slots,Health,Gravity well,And all that other stuff i am trying to work in.
So if anyone has A thought. a comment , Whatnot I Would surely apreciate any feedback.
Planetary Atmosphere
Three factors play into a gas's ability to escape the pull of a planet's gravity: temperature, molecular mass, and escape velocity (the speed a molecule needs to achieve to escape into space). Hotter, lighter, and faster particles more easily slip out of a planet's gravitational grip into space than cooler, heavier, and slower particles.(so special equipment would be needed to retain any atmosphere of size on small worlds. or Dome structures.
Gravity
Gravity is Going to be an issue for any creature that moves through it's enviorment in anything but A horizontal fasion,By this I mean the further your center of gravity is from the ground ,the more gravity is going to be an issue.
A flat organism on a high gravity world would not have much problem ,but something like A human whom walks upright
would find it rather difficult to move about on a planet say 3 times as big as earth .
Distance from Parent Star or Star's
There is A "zone around any star where Water would exist in its liquid state .Any closer and it boils away,Any further and it freezes .
Multpile Stars and Stable orbits
We probably owe our existence to the fact hat the Sun is A single Star ,and almost all our Planets orbits are fairly circular. This is very important in regards to climate. A circular orbit will give A fairly stable climate year round. there may be A tilt of a planet's Axis Causing slight climate changes. like earths seasons,but these changes are only by A few degrees and not all that drastic.
an eliptical orbit or even more distorted orbits are seein in multiple star systems .These planets see temperature changes in the ranges of 100's of degrees ,going from -200 degrees to well above 700 degrees in the span of an orbit this would be fatal for life as we know it. but thats not saying life could not find a way to go dormant for the harsher part of the orbit .(there are organisms whom create their own antifreeze)
So with these things in mind lets apply this to what kinds of bodies there can be possible
you have 3 temperature types we will seperate them by their water state
then you got the planets actual composition,its distance from parent star would vary in accordance to the existance of liquid water depending on the actual stars type(The habital zone of A blue supergiant would be much larger and farther away from the star as the habital zone of say a red Dwarf .)lets just worry about its composition and water state for now. then we can apply some penalty's and bonuses to each type in sins .
A bodie must be a certain size to copmpress into roundness. right around 300-400km across . this size figure would decrease the more icy the body is as it is easier to move ice around than it is to move rock,and of course a gas ball would compress at even smaller sizes. probably around 100km to be round
the notation of water or no water or ice is purely A matter of where the planet developed .not all planets will contain water.this just lists the posibility of whether it could contain it .as water is a very volatile substance and readily evaporates or boils or binds with substances so although water could pool on a medium asteroid it would be vaporized and dissipate rather quickly
Of Atmospheres And Planet Cores
the possiblilty to have a molten core and hence A magnetic field would arise on worlds
approaching this size . One thing to note now that we have gone this far is age.
Atmosphere and molten cores are not permanent.the older the system the less likely there are gonna be terrestial atmospheres and terrestial magnetic fields. A gas giant would last far longer in both respects than a small earthlike planet. Large things cool quicker .No mol;ten core and you got no mag field which consequentially now makes the atmosphere go bye bye even faster . solar radiation will burn an atmosphere away pretty fast at distances where water would be liquid,in the absence of A protective magnetic field that is channeling all that harmfull solar radiation away to the planets poles.
Freezing /Cold Liquid /Warm Hot/boiling
Small asteroid Low grav/Ice/rock/ Low grav/No Water/rock Low Grav/No Water/rock
1-10km No Atmosphere / No Atmosphere/ No Atmosphere/
Not spherical Not spherical Not spherical
Medium asteroid Low grav/ice/rock/ Low grav/No Water/ rock Low grav/No water/rock
10-99km No Atmosphere/ No Atmosphere/ No Atmosphere/
Not spherical Not spherical Not spherical
Here is the cutoff point where a planet has sufficient gravity to compress into a sphere
Large asteroid Low grav/ice/rock/ Low grav/No water/ rock Low grav/No water/rock
100-299km No Atmosphere/ No Atmosphere/ No Atmosphere/
No mag field No mag field No mag field
Spherical if ice Spherical if ice Spherical if ice
ProtoPlanet Low grav/ice/rock/ Low grav/Water/rock Low grav/No water/rock
300-400km No Atmosphere/ No Atmosphere/ No atmosphere/
No mag field / No mag field / No mag field/
spherical spherical spherical
all planets this size and up are spherical and are just noted with A /S
Tiny Planet Low grav /ice/rock/ Low grav /Water/rock low Grav/No Water/rock
400-800km No Atmosphere / No atmosphere/ No Atmosphere/
No mag field / No mag field/ No mag field/
/S /S /S
Small Planet Low grav/ice/rock low grav/water/rock lowgrav/No water/rock
800-2999 km Possible Atmosphere/ possible Atmosphere no Atmosphere or light /
No mag field/ No mag field/ no mag field/
/S /S /S
(earths diamiter is 12756.1 km )
Medium Planet 1/5th-earth grav 1/5th-earth grav 1/5th- earth grav
Atmosphere / Atmosphere / Atmosphere/
3000- 14999km Ice/rock Water/rock Rock
mag field mag field mag field
/S /S /S
(not yet A gas giant)
Large Planet 2-5x earth grav 2-5x earth grav 2-5x earth grav
15000 -24999km Atmosphere Atmosphere Atmosphere
ice /rock water/rock rock
mag field mag field mag field
/S /S /S
From here on planets are Gas Giants and the larger you get ,the morestarlike the planet
becomes ,up untill the point where it undergoes nuculear fission in its core. which is around 87
times jupiter's mass or 27,666 earths so we are only going to deal with gas giants and not go
into planets much larger than 10 times jupiters mass. these giants would be very violent
neighborhoods anyway due to their large and powerfull magnetic fields and swarms of
charged particles orbiting it
Gas giants 5-50 times earths gravity all will have thick atmosphere ,high speed winds,large magnetic
fields,many moons , Water is probably present but only accesable from moons.
So what does this all have to do with sins?
well i am designing planets that have properties that affect gameplay based on these assumptions so he goes some examples.
there will be new sub types of each planet type
Terran :
Island planet,Tundra(icy),Desert(barren),Dense Atmosphere(venuslike),Forest,Swamp,Primordial(prehistoric earth).giant (high grav earth)
Ice :
frozen comet,comet,ocean core(slushball),frozen asteroid,Methane volcanic.
Gas giant :
Huge earth(think a bit smaller than neptune) ,Jovian(jupiterlike),Protostar(almost a brown dwarf)
Plasma Storms :
I place these around my stars to simulate solar flares and prominences .
Magnetic clouds I place around my gas giants to simulate the clouds of charged particles surrounding these bodies .
Wormholes:
Although the Idea of wormholes does not sit well with my theories of the universe ,I use these as my sole connections
to other stars,
Stars :
In my Galaxy's There are no connections to stars ,rendering them as just a pretty ball, Logically speaking ,Approaching A Star at even A modest distance. (say one or 2 solar disk's distance away )becomes a suicide mission
There simply is to much violence surrounding this reigon in so many different forms that approach would be unlikley,so i eliminate star travel altogether and use the plasma storm as my near star rout s around it.
Now Assignig values to things like gravity strength,temperature ,magnetic field ,shape,size ,planet type is A balancing issue And needs to be tested before any real numbers would be useful ,but changes to population growth,population cap,tax rate,tactical and logistical slots,Health,Gravity well,And all that other stuff i am trying to work in.
So if anyone has A thought. a comment , Whatnot I Would surely apreciate any feedback.
