Please create a patch to allow the Terraforming of Class-0 Planets.

Perhaps a "Terraformer Base" Starbase would be the key.

from GalCiv2 Forums
Hello. When I figured out that no amount of technology could possibly terraform Class-0 planets (at least as of this current patch), I felt peeved by this.

In other sci-fi literature, there are well-known examples of colonies and habitats in what would otherwise appear to be Class-0 planets on GalCiv2.

Bespin, of Star Wars fame, is a Gas Giant. Whereas a Gas Giant is a Class-0 in GalCiv2, Cloud City and other cities on "repulsorlifts" (an anti-gravity device) were possible on Bespin, as well as other gas giant planets found in various places in the Star Wars universe.

Bespin had a habitable band in its atmosphere, yes, so to make terraforming Class-0 planets possible, I propose a 5th type of Starbase- Terraforming. The player would build the starbase in the planet's orbit, and the base would start to slowly make new sectors habitable.

At first, it would take plenty of weeks to turn a single sector green, but when constructor ships arrive to fit upgrades onto this base, the terraforming time would shorten with each new upgrade.

For gas giants with no solid surface- the Terraforming Starbase would be responsible for turning patches of the atmosphere habitable, and improvements would be able to get built in those places. (They're automatically repulsorlifted by this point.) However, a technological prerequisite should be researched first- "Repulsorlifting" or something along those lines.

For hot runaway-greenhouse planets like Venus- atmostrippers could be a terraforming base component to, as said above, strip away (merely thin down) atmospheres to allow the greenhouse gases to pass back into space. Another beneficiary component would be "Orbital Mirrors" to divert the star's heat away from the planet and, as a result, cool it down.

For nearly atmosphere-less planets like Pluto and Mercury- habitation domes for any colonies and improvements there.

For ice-cold planets like Hoth of Star Wars fame- orbital solar magnifiers that magnify the incoming starlight to in turn provide habitable warmth to the planet, which in turn creates green sectors. Another component would thicken the atmosphere in order to better retain the warmth. (Perhaps the name for such a component should be called the "Atmosthickener?" I'm not sure on that one.)

A wildcard of planets is radiation- it could occur more or less anywhere, depending on many things. The terraformer would need a "deradiator"- a component that cleans the radiation levels in the atmosphere or on the surface, and thus make the planet more inhabitable.

For planets with acidic atmospheres and bodies of water- (3 possible names: Terra-Seltzers, Pepterro-Formols, or Alka-Formers) to provide planetary relief from excess ocean acid and atmospheric pain. "Zap, Zap. Splash, Splash. It's all water in a flash!" (Or "Zap, Zap. Splash, Splash. Makes H2O in a flash?")

For pelagic planets (worlds covered mostly or completely by water)- Floating and underwater colonies. Sky cities too, I suppose.

This is all I can think of at this juncture. I invite the devs to share their thoughts.
colonies
15,546 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
there is a random event that either makes all planets in a system habitable or all planets in a certain sector radius habitable by a certain PQ amount and the UP vote where a planet has become newly habitable.

HOWEVER, what you are talking about here is the same idea of the new planet habitatibility system coming in Dark Avatar. It probably won't be as complicated as the part about water on acidic planets, but there are suppoused to be types such as Heavy (more than 1 G, which is Earth normal gravity, possibly in the 3-7 gravities range), toxic (like your venus example), and barren (Mercury and Pluto). So the whole idea you have here is already going to be implemented. However we don't have any info YET on what we can do with class 0 planets or how exactly the system works.

One part of the problem with making class 0 planets habitable right now is that the game makes no distinction between gas giants and rocky planets when the random event or the UP vote event happens, so it can be a little wierd. I agree on your habitable band in the atmosphere of gas giants, that could be implemented, but the new system in DA is suppoused to be able to tell the difference between Gas Giants and rocky worlds.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The question isn't whether anyone could survive on a class zero planet, it's if the planet would be hospitable enough and colonizable enough that within a reasonable timeframe you can have a burgeoning colony that actually provides benefit to your empire.

The system in place now where each race tends to start with one class 4 planet in its solar system, assumes a planet like Mars. Just barely out of the habitable range, we can imagine the melting of icecaps or greenhouse factories or just habitation domes or somesuch thing would be able to provide for a colony. It's still no jewel, life there is tough and few regions are able to support the necessary infrastructure, but managed properly you can get some benefit out of colonizing it.

Class Zero planets on the other hand.. well let's take gas giants for instance. Let's say you can create floating cities large enough to support some sort of useful venture. Why build these on the gas giant, when you could instead place them over inhospitable stretches of terrain on more habitable worlds? With a manufacturing base already on the planet it'd be much cheaper to do it this way and an order of magnitude faster, so what would you rather have a rating 3 gas giant or a rating 30 terran world in a tenth of the time?

I just don't think GalCiv II has that sort of 'peak technology' paradigm going on where it becomes a good and feasible idea to colonize every planetoid. Furthermore, the way the 'real time' progresses is rather slower than games like MoO. We're making decisions every week instead of every year, every year is actually a milestone in GCII and so a terraformation that takes 100 years is much too late to make a difference in an interstellar war.

But the first problem that occured to me is that in any decently sized map we'd be seeing hundreds of colonized worlds. It'd take damn near forever to conquer the map, a technological victory would be virtually certain. Also you can pretty much already do this by tweaking the game start settings so there's tons of habitable planets.
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
"Week" in GC is no week in earth time, or you thing is posible to go from lasers to black hole gun in 5 years ? I thing not.
And (advanced) terraforming is very needed in GC2.
In MOO (or other games) if you have are advanced enough, you can make all planets to have biggest PQ and living "capacity" (based on size - small up to huge/gigantic).
I love MOO terraforming of gas gigant (useles in early game and in early game slowing expansion) to one of biggest advantages in late game.

And idea of starbase teraformer is great, and if movable it will be better. (make no sense to terraform planet if is self-sufficient base estabilised and planet can be terraformed from base itself and cheapier).
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, you can set the habitable planet density in the game setup if that's a concern. I've found I need to be aware of how many habitable planets I'm generating in my universe. Any more than 200 or so makes the game unmanageable, for me at least.

Being able to upgrade Class 0 planets to a habitable class would require a lot of game mechanics I doubt the game developers would feel any motivation to code. If I have the ability to upgrade unhabitable planets to habitable, then for sake of game balance, the AI needs that ability as well. That could result in too many habitable planets. In fact, I back up on games that get the random habitable planet event (reload from a savegame). I've had that event add as many as 100 habitable planets...aaargh.