Barren
Barren planets are archetypical "dead terrestrials": dry, rocky worlds with a minimal atmosphere and an unremarkable composition. They are commonly etched with flood channels, which are often broad enough to be visible from orbit; most such worlds have accumulated significant quantities of ice over their lifetimes, but cannot retain it on their surface. Generally surface liquid evaporates rapidly, contributing to the thin atmosphere, but occasionally it will seep back into the ground and refreeze, ready for another breakout in future when the local temperature rises.
Resources
- Aqueous Liquids
- Base Metals
- Carbon Compounds
- Micro Organisms
- Noble Metals
Barren planets have three resources with little to no pattern in their distribution, and two with a more consistent pattern. Aqueous Liquids tend to be gathered near the poles in moderate to poor quantity, while Micro Organisms tend to cluster here and there in the "temperate" band (in Earth speak).
Available Single Planet Products
- Biocells
- Mechanical Parts
- Nanites
- Test Cultures
- Water-Cooled CPU
Transcranial Microcontrollers (P3)
Gas
Gas planets are characterized by a deep, opaque upper atmosphere, usually composed primarily of light elements such as hydrogen or helium. Simple chemicals can add a range of hues and shades in the visual spectrum, and the interaction between upwellings and rapidly circulating pressure bands result in a huge variety of visible surface structures. A similar level of diversity can be found beneath the cloud-tops: the inner composition of a given gas planet might belong to any one of a dozen broad groups, with no two planets entirely alike in this regard.
Resources
- Aqueous Liquids
- Base Metals
- Ionic Solutions
- Noble Gas
- Reactive Gas (unique)
Single Planet Products
- Coolant
- Oxides
- Synthetic Oil
- Water-Cooled CPU
- Condensates (P3)
Ice
The majority of icy planets went through a period of being barren terrestrials, before being surfaced with ice over the course of many millennia. The exact process for this varies from case to case, but the end result is both common and visually uniform - a bright, reflective planet scored by countless fractures and crevasses. A few icy planets are hypothesized to have been warmer, liquid-bearing planets in the past that have subsequently frozen, as a result of either stellar cooling or failed terraforming projects.
Resources
- Aqueous Liquids
- Heavy Metals
- Micro Organisms
- Noble Gas
- Planktic Colonies
Single Planet Products
- Supertensile Plastics
- Test Cultures
- Viral Agent
- Synthetic Synapses (P3)
Lava
So-called "lava planets" (properly "magmatic planets") fall into one of three groups: solar magmatics, which orbit sufficiently close to their star that the surface never cools enough to solidify; gravitational magmatics, which experience gravitational shifts sufficiently strong to regularly and significantly fracture cooling crusts; and magmatoids, which are for largely-unexplained reasons simply incapable of cooling and forming a persistent crust. All three types generally exhibit the same external phenomena - huge red-orange lava fields being a defining feature - but the latter two types are sometimes capable of briefly solidifying for a period measured in years or perhaps decades.
Resources
- Base Metals
- Felsic Magma (unique)
- Heavy Metals
- Non-CS Crystals
- Suspended Plasma
Single Planet Products
- Construction Blocks
- Consumer Electronics
- Miniature Electronics
- Transmitter
- Smartfab Units (P3)
Oceanic
Oceanic worlds are a class of terrestrial world covered entirely by liquids, usually in the form of mundane water. While the liquid surface is exceptionally smooth, the ocean floor on most worlds of this type exhibits significant topographic variety. It is this subsurface irregularity which causes the formation of complex weather systems, which would otherwise revert to more uniform patterns.
Resources
- Aqueous Liquids
- Carbon Compounds
- Complex Organisms
- Micro Organisms
- Planktic Colonies
Single Planet Products
- Fertilizer
- Genetically Enhanced Livestock
- Livestock
- Test Cultures
- Viral Agent
- Vaccines (P3)
Plasma
The aptly-named "plasma planets" have captured the imagination of countless artists and inspired innumerable works, yet the physics behind them are surprisingly mundane by cosmological standards. A rocky terrestrial with the right kind of atmosphere and magnetic field will, when bombarded with solar radiation, generate sprawling plasma storms as specific atmospheric elements are stripped of their electrons. Over time these storms will generally scorch the surface rock black, adding to the visual impact.
Resources
- Base Metals
- Heavy Metals
- Noble Metals
- Non-CS Crystals
- Suspended Plasma
Single Planet Products
- Construction Blocks
- Consumer Electronics
- Enriched Uranium
- Mechanical Parts
- Transmitter
- Robotics (P3)
Storm
Storm worlds are usually considered terrestrial planets, although to a casual eye they may appear more similar to gas planets, given their opaque, high-pressure atmospheres. Geomorphically, however, the distinctions are clear: compared to a gas world, the atmosphere of a storm world is usually considerably shallower, and generally composed primarily of more complex chemicals, while the majority of the planet's mass is a rocky terrestrial ball. Their name is derived from the continent-scale electrical storms that invariably flash through their upper atmospheres.
Resources
- Aqueous Liquids
- Base Metals
- Ionic Solutions
- Noble Gas
- Suspended Plasma
Single Planet Products
- Coolant
- Rocket Fuel
- Super Conductors
- Synthetic Oil
- Water-Cooled CPU
- Ukomi Super Conductors (P3)
