Planet Size Options

[Vhalor]

Firstly, I just want to say that I'm really impressed with the game so far and its great to see such an active continued development going on! Because of that, I'd like to bring one specific area to your attention, as I feel it may be quite easy to improve upon while providing a rather solid return.

Now, I really like the experience that smaller sized planets provide, such as the moon or planetoid classes. Also, for me at least, the small / normal / large options mix rather well with those. Real fast turn times too!

Alas, with the other classes there really is no option at all to go for an actual small sized planet, let alone a tiny one. Even choosing "small" and doing a lot of rerolling only ever seems to end up with a planet I would at the very least still call "normal" sized. Yet sticking primarily to the moon / planetoid class would mean missing out on quite a bit...

As such, I'd greatly appreciate the addition of a smaller size option for the other classes as well. Could be in the form of a "tiny" size option perhaps? I'm quite sure that others would benefit from more options in that regard as well and hopefully it's not too difficult to add such an additional option. At the very least I wanted to bring it to your attention!

[GodwinW]

In fact.

I would totally love a new separate World:

Artificial World (or whatever you want to name it): You can set the map size and every other parameter by hand.

That would mean it would now be possible to have a thick atmosphere (high gravity) on a tiny map, and all the other possibilities.
Would also help testing stuff out quickly.

[zgrssd]

I think the issues comes down to Map Size dictating planet radius.
And thus planet mass.
And thus planet gravity.
Gravity in turn affects atmosphere, wich in turn has effects on the chance for life.

Smaler planets also have less pronounced seasons.

Ideally planet-size should not be tied to map-size. But that may require some rework of planet generatiom. Hm, maybe you could generate a large map, then down-sample it to medium or small? Just say that the hexes are bigger then 200 km on this map.


As for a temporary fix:
Make sure the gravity is high (~.5g)
the age high (5 Billion or more)
and the temperature not to 1-sided
At geology, aim for a decent amount of ocean (up to 20%)

If those 4 are true, you got a very good chance to get a biosphere.

[Vhalor]

Interesting, zgrssd! I guess there's a good bit involved in generating a planet, but your idea may be a way to get the desired result anyway. Also some kind of Artificial World or similar could be quite fun as well, easy way to shake things up a bit.

More options when setting up a planet certainly would help, especially when you want to go for something specific.