World
A world is the general name given to celestial bodies, such as planets and their moons.
World Types
There are several sets of properties of worlds, that are orthogonal to each other. The main, and most influential property is the solar orbit zone in which the world located. There are five orbit zones:
- Inferno worlds orbit closest to the sun and can be gaseous, seas of lava or barren desert-like plains. Magmex, ioplasma, vulcanite, and phlogiston are found only on these worlds.
- Inner worlds orbit between the inferno and habitable zones. These worlds can support primitive plant and animal life, but they are too warm to support intelligent life. Terrain and resources on inner planets are very similar to terrain and resources on habitable planets. Inner planets are breathable if the atmosphere is standard or tainted with a density between 15%-85%.
- Habitable worlds are always habitable without additional life support, and are the easiest to reach self-sufficiency. Homeworlds are always habitable worlds. A wide range of basic resources are found here as well as plant and animal life. They are comprised of land and seas of water. Each habitable zone is able to produce 1 officer.
- Outer worlds function like inner planets, but they are too cold for intelligent life instead. However chances of ice and lumenite are much higher than for warmer worlds.
- Frigid worlds are icy planets which cannot support life. They can be barren snow plains or may have seas of liquid gases which are highly damaging to unprotected life and equipment. Cryozine, bolite, myrathane and polytaride are found only on these worlds.
For more information, see Orbit Zone.
Celestial Bodies Types
There are also different types of planetary bodies:
- Gas Giants have a massive dense atmosphere and strong gravity, that can heavily damages unprepared spacecraft and complicates colonization. They often have moons and can have one titan. Gas giants are 40'000m to 80'000m diameter.
- Planets have atmospheres and surface liquids (lava, water or supercooled liquid depending on their orbital zone), and are able to support large populations. Planets can have moons. Planets are 6'000m to 25'600m diameter. Homeworld planets are 10'800m to 14'800m diameter.
- Titans are basically moons large enough to have an atmosphere. They orbit a bigger world, be it a planet or a gas giant. Titans are 5'800m to 19'800m diameter.
- Moons are smaller and have no atmospheres nor surface liquids. They have a higher chance of containing eludium and lumenite, but will be easily overpopulated. They are found orbiting gas giants and planets. Moons are 2'000m to 5'600m diameter.
- Ringworlds are rare artificial worlds which surround a star. The worlds are the same as habitable worlds but are contained within a trough facing inwards to the star, a second orbital layer of plating artificially replicates a day and night cycle.
- Planetary Rings - Many worlds have asteroid rings surrounding them. Various materials, such as ice and stone, can be harvested from these using a prospector bay.
- Planetoids are larger asteroids in an asteroid belt which can be landed and built on. The planetoid tumble on two axes, making them an interesting experience to orbit and land upon. Planetoids are 1,200m to 1,800m diameter.
Resource Zones
Planets and ringworld arcs are divided into one or more resource zones depending on their size, like an orange divided into equal slices. The map on the Locator (F7) window displays longitude lines at the divisions between the resource zones.
Most planetary resources are distributed into resource zones. Resource quality and abundance varies by zone. A resource that is rare in one zone may be plentiful in another zone. Similarly, a resource that is poor in one zone may be superb in another zone.
Atmospheric and hydrographic factors do not vary by zone. The quality and quantity of these commodities is the same across the entire world.
The only visible change from one zone to the next is the appearance of the plant life. Otherwise, you must spot the rocks to watch for a change in resource quality to notice that you are in a different zone.
Number of Zones
The smallest worlds and moons only have 1 resource zone. The larger a world is the more resource zones it will have, up to a maximum of 4.
Ringworld arcs are the largest and always have 4 resource zones.
| Diameter | Zone 1 | Zone 2 | Zone 3 | Zone 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ? | 180°W-180°E | |||
| ? | 180°W-0°W | 0°E-180°E | ||
| ? | 180°W-60°W | 60°W-60°E | 60°E-180°E | |
| ? | 180°W-90°W | 90°W-0°W | 0°E-90°E | 90°E-180°E |
World Population
Citizens experience dissatisfaction due to population pressure when the world population limit is exceeded. Population of a world is the sum of the population of all homes that reside on the world. Citizens become increasingly unhappy the more the population exceeds the limit. Overpopulation morale penalties start once the population limit is exceeded and scales up to -20 at double the population limit and increased risk of disease outbreaks.
The diameter of a world can be found:
- On a city report from a city on the planet
- On a system survey report
- On sensor details
| World | Size | Area | Population Limit [1] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sphere 1 | 1'894m diameter | 11'268'913m² | 5'634 |
| Sphere 2 | 3'788m diameter | 45'075'652m² | 22'538 |
| Sphere 3 | 5'682m diameter | 101'420'217m² | 50'710 |
| Sphere 4 | 7'576m diameter | 180'302'609m² | 90'151 |
| Sphere 5 | 9'470m diameter | 281'722'826m² | 140'861 |
| Sphere 6 | 11'364m diameter | 405'680'870m² | 202'840 |
| Sphere 7 | 13'258m diameter | 552'176'739m² | 276'088 |
| Sphere 8 | 15'152m diameter | 721'210'435m² | 360'605 |
| Sphere 9 | 17'045m diameter | 912'781'956m² | 456'391 |
| Sphere 10 | 18'939m diameter | 1'126'891'304m² | 563'445 |
| Sphere 11 | 20'833m diameter | 1'363'538'478m² | 681'769 |
| Sphere 12 | 22'727m diameter | 1'622'723'478m² | 811'361 |
| Ringworld arc | 229'814 x 17'850m | 4'102'166'484m² | 2'051'083 |
Building Limits
All worlds also have a building volume limit of 10'000'000'000 and a building count limit of 10'000. This means that the collective volume of all buildings on the world has to be below the limit, but making many many tiny buildings is also limited.
Morale penalty is -1 per 1000 cubic meters of building volume in excess of the maximum, rounded up. e.g. 1 to 1000 cubic meters excess = -1 to morale, 1001 to 2000 cubic meters excess = -2 to morale. There is no limit on this morale penalty. A -1 morale penalty is incurred for every building beyond that the building count limit.
These limits can mostly be ignored, since they are so large that you will likely never reach them without considerable effort. These limits used to be much lower in the MMO game, but they have since been drastically increased.
Indigenous Population
Worlds can have an indigenous population if they have a habitable environment and they orbit in the habitable orbit zone.
Upon generation there is a 15% chance of the habitable world having a sentient species that matches the species of the explorer. A 35% chance of having a sentient species drawn from the pirate empires. And about 50% chance of having no sentient species at all.[2]
For more information, see the Indigenous Population page.