Manual:Game Mechanics/Planets

Each system contains a random (yet predetermined) number and type of planets and moons. To study a new world you may spend 0.1 turn scanning it to receive basic information, if you spend 0.5 turn scanning it, you may be able to pick details or small things you might have missed otherwise (such as crashed ships, ruins, invisible hazards, etc), and gain a +1 bonus to your Sensor values to do so. Upon entering a system you will receive the types and locations of each planet within that system (example; you'd know right away if a planet was a volcanic world or not).

Each planet has 3 stats; Ore, Gas and Fertility. Ore and Gas represent the resources the planet has available, these are used for building structures, ships and various other things and having high resources is always good. Fertility is the third stat, it represents how habitable the world is, planets have a starting infrastructure cap of twice a world's fertility. This means it is easier to colonize planets with higher fertility.

Many planets possess hazards and opportunites. Hazards can affect colonization and exploration of such planets. Other planets simply have unusual qualities such as high gravity or simply being very small.

Planet Locations
Planets are listed according to their distance from their star. There are 5 positions; simply labeled 1,2,3,4 and 5. Planets closer to the star have higher ore and lower gas stats, whereas those further away have the opposite and planets that are near the middle of a system usually have higher fertility (these stats will already be adjusted when you scan them). Some planets also have moons, these will be labeled as such. For example, if there is a system in hex 26-26 and there is a world in the third position that has a moon, the location of the planet (when posting, and listing your structures, etc) is 26-26.3.1 (first numbers show the hex, second shows the position and third shows the planet), whereas the moon would be represented by 26-26.3.1.1 (if there are multiple moons they will be labeled as other numbers, .2, .3, etc). Sometimes there is more than 1 planet within the same position. In this case the position is the same but the planet's number is different, for example; if you had two planets in that same system in the third position their coordinates would be: 26-26.3.1 and 26-26.3.2. This all sounds more complicated than it really is, if you have any questions just ask.

Deadly Local Predators
This world/moon has very dangerous wildlife. You do not gain infrastructure on this world each turn until you do one of the following: build a defense that has at least 4 hull or 4 shields or 'attack' the planet with at least 10 planetary attack strength (this removes the hazard entirely).

Extreme Temperatures
This planet/moon has either very high, very low or very chaotic temperatures. This makes building here very difficult, as additional resources are required to shield structures and inhabitants from the temperatures. Structures here cost an extra 1 Ore and 1 Gas initially (this is not applied to upgrades to that structure).

Fiery
This planet/moon is volcanic or perhaps has a chemical agent that burns in the atmosphere. Either way this hazard provides the same effect as extreme temperatures. In addition, you must spend 1 Ore and 1 Gas each turn for every 5 infrastructure here. If you can't or don't, the infrastructure you didn't pay for is removed and any structures left without infrastructure due to this are also removed or deleveled enough to match your current infrastructure.

Radioactive
This planet/moon is covered in radiation either from a war long ago or natural occurring energies/minerals. In either case, each turn there is a 10% chance you will lose 1 infrastructure instead of gain the normal infrastructure for that turn. If this causes a structure to drop below its required infrastructure, it simply ceases functioning until the infrastructure is replaced.

Stormy
This place has either one large permanent storm or is ravaged by several smaller ones daily. Colonizing this planet/moon requires you to build special structures to resist them, and cost 2 Ore and 2 Gas, you must build these before building any other structures here. However the storm also makes for an effective defense, reducing the planetary attack strength of invaders by 2.

Toxic
This place has poisonous and/or corrosive elements in its atmosphere, oceans and earth. As such, special care is needed to survive such a hostile place. To colonize such a planet, you must build an environmental control center there that costs 3 ore and 3 gas. Planets/moons with this trait only provide 1/2 their Fertility to the infrastructure cap there. In addition, planetary defense and planetary attack strengths here are both reduced by 2.

Vacuum
This environment is extremely difficult to survive in, special habitats are required to endure on such planets/moons. Structures that provide infrastructure cap here have their costs doubled, and any effect that would alter the fertility of this planet/moon does not apply. In addition, this planet has 0 Fertility and 1/2 Gas value (trapped near the core), and also suffers the effects of the Extreme Temperatures hazard.

High Gravity
This planet/moon has high gravity, which means it has higher ore value than normal. However, this planet is also more difficult to construct upon, reducing the planet's construction value by 2 to a minimum of 1, but increases its Ore value by 1.

Low Gravity
This planet/moon has low gravity, which means that it has a lower ore value than normal. However, this planet also is easier to construct upon, increasing the base construction value here by 1, but decreasing its Ore value by 1.

Rare Gas Deposits
This planet/moon has very valuable gas deposits, as such, effects that increase the Gas value here each increase it by 1 extra.

Rare Ore Deposits
This planet/moon has very valuable ore deposits, as such, effects that increase the Ore value here each increase it by 1 extra.

Small
This quality is on moons almost exclusively, the maximum infrastructure cap of this place is 20. This quality can be removed by 'multi-level structuring' (see 'Industry' for more details)

Technology caches and artifacts
Planets have a small chance of possessing caches of technology. It could be in the form of a crashed ship, ancient ruins, wreckage from a battle, etc. You can also stumble across valuable and powerful alien artifacts. Some caches are easy to find while others will often be unnoticed by a casual glance.