Hi,

Since this game release, a sensation I got with some planets in ES1 has get worse. Most of temperate and low-tier planets seems variations of earth, just a bit warm/cold or wet/dry. I would like to see planets more different from the terran prototype.

Knowing that devs are redoing the colonization systems, and are taking this posts and ideas as base (suspect most of you know what I talk about):

• https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/ideas/2-rework-the-entire-planet-grid
• https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/forum/66-game-design/thread/22124-rework-the-planet-grid-issues-with-planet-climates-fidsi-and-terraforming
• https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/ideas/15-new-colonization-system
• https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/forum/66-game-design/thread/21582-suggestion-new-colonisation-tech-system

I would like to see more diverse and less terran planets. It's not a redoing or any other system important change, but only a rework of flavor text and bit modification of art.

Actually XorUnison has made interesting proposition for the new planet types using his grid, but still have some holes. I didn't ever do it, except for a response post.

So, I want to propose some new planet flavor text to make them more interesting. I'll put the link in the related posts if you're interested.

Most will be based in solar system planets, dwarf planets and moons, so you can look at wikipedia if more interest. I'll also be glad to see your propositions here, as I'm sure I won't do the most awesome and astonishing ones. Here My ideas:

• Arid: (rework of actual version): "This planets have an atmospheric conditions that make very difficult to be liquid water on its surface, regardless its temperatures, still you can found water in vapor or ice forms". Based on Mars, but modified a bit to allow this in planets near to its sun. Thought to have same place as actual arid.
• Desert: (rework of actual version) "This planets are even harsh than arids, totally depleted of water in its surface. It makes almost impossible to grow anything, but fortunately easy to find dust". Inspired in drier version of Mars, without any ice or form of water.
• Barren: (rework of actual version) "This planets has very cold surfaces with rivers and oceans of liquid nitrogen, methane and other compounds, and very strnge geological formations of them, making they ideal to study very low-temp physics and superfluids".Thought to be near to Pluto/Caronte system, I never liked thinking about a cold planet close to Mercury.
• Moorland: "Depleted of atmosphere, this planet is very hard to colonize, but this makes very easy to find dust and mineral deposits near surface". A proposition for hot + dry planets, justifying high incomes of dust + industry. Inspired in Mercury.
• Greenhouse planet: "Depleted of hydrogen in its atmosphere, this planets have very dense clouds of sulfides and other acidic substances, that creates a high greenhouse effect which increases surface temperature over expected by its distance to sun. Hard to live on, ironically our machines can take advantage of the clouds as free energy source". Inspired in Venus, I wanted something to fill the burning/hot + flooded spot.
• Organic: "With an atmosphere rich in organic composites and little water, this planets has lakes, oceans and rivers of methane and other simple carbohydrates, which can be packed and sold for various uses". This one is based on Saturn's moon Titan, and I thought of it as being something industrial.
• Ice: (rework of actual version): "This planets appears lifeless rocks, but when you reach the ocean under the surface crust of ice, there's plenty of liquid water to grow crops and use it in any other way". Base on Jupiter's moon Europa, this also gives an excuse to put some dust or science output. May fill the cold + flooded gap.

That's all for now. If I got more ideas I'll follow posting.

As final note, I thought of naming this planets Venusian, Titanian and so on, but at last I changed my mind, to avoid it sounding too human-centrist.

I would prefer planet type specific buildings.

Like for cold planets special artic science departments. 

Gas Gaints harvest special isotopes. you can built with those isotopes faster engines better ammuntion.

Because of terraforming I would rather see this more like a scale for different variables:
Temperature - hot / temperate / cold

Atmosphere - dense / medium / light / none

Water - water world / oceans / lakes / desert
Life (amount of plants and animals) - rich life / medium life / no life

All of those can have more values if needed.
Each of those has different effect on FIDS.

This is just a quick thought that would need to be considered for values and outcomes of the mixes but you get the general picture.

samsonazs wrote:

Because of terraforming I would rather see this more like a scale for different variables:
Temperature - hot / temperate / cold

Atmosphere - dense / medium / light / none

Water - water world / oceans / lakes / desert
Life (amount of plants and animals) - rich life / medium life / no life

All of those can have more values if needed.
Each of those has different effect on FIDS.

This is just a quick thought that would need to be considered for values and outcomes of the mixes but you get the general picture.

What you're saying is what appears in the ideas and threads I provided a link.

This one is only about flavor text and some ideas to fill the gaps in XorUnison's idea. I shamelessly didn't even try to fill the gaps in my chart , which at least he did, but leave at least one in blank.

vega wrote:

Do you saw my posts (1, 2) in thread GDD 3 - Galaxy & Exploration? (Caution, "Spoiler" elements broken)

Two good post and good work. IMO they fit better in XorUnison's and my idea (tagged as duplicate, so will only link to first one) about planet grid: https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/ideas/2-rework-the-entire-planet-grid

If you have interest there's also links to my original thread, this one is only complementary, trying to fill the gaps in new grid propositions with more flavor text.

vega wrote:

I think that what, that most Endless Space 2 planet types is earth-like, is fine, and can be justified by setting of Endless universe (like "Endless connected through starlanes mostly those systems, which has earth-like planets").

This justifies lore-wise, why there are rocky planets in almost every system, but hen, why they connected lanes to system with only gas giants with no interesting anomalies?

vega wrote:

My idea slightly differs, in regard to that gaps don't need to be filled by unique planet type, because single planet type can fill multiple positions on that grid. This is acceptable due to that, planet FIDSI, in the early grid, only defined by temperature and humidity parameters, and planet type itself defines only appearance. Also, this is realistic, because desert or barren planets can exist in wide range of temperatures.

Can't say you're mistaken, because what you say is correct in real life, but IMO in this game not making 1 planet type = 1 slot in the grid = 1 FIDSI output may be confusing and making this hard to play. So I prefer this equivalence, even if not corresponding to reality.

This justifies lore-wise, why there are rocky planets in almost every system, but hen, why they connected lanes to system with only gas

Maybe every planet, even barren or gas giant without anomalies, presented in ES2, are not usual, for example - it may be due to presence of dust. Rest "usual" planets, that doesn't represented in the game, are not linked by starlanes, and have not even a dust.

Also can't say about that. We really don't know exact everything Aplitude has in mind in lore sense, so it can be explained by various ways.