Ruin and Ancient Construct Changes
With the introduction of new species types, the system bodies that could theoretically support ruins has changed.
In v2.7.1, the only qualification for ruins is a temperature range between 200K and 360K (-73C to + 87C) and gravity above 0.4G. Simply expanding that range downwards would be unbalancing, so I decided to revisit the ruin generation requirements.
I’ve added an extra factor to each terrain type called ‘Atmosphere Required’. There are four possible values:
- 0: Terrain can only appear on worlds with less than 0.005 Atmospheric pressure (including zero)
- 1: Terrain requires an atmospheric pressure of at least 0.005 atm
- 2: Terrain can exist at any atmospheric pressure, including zero
- 3: Same as 2 but this is a base terrain
So if a planet has an atmosphere of 0.005 or above, it can choose anything except 0. Below that pressure it can choose anything but 1. Note that frozen gases do not count toward atmospheric pressure, so raising temperature to the point where a frozen gas melts can potentially change terrain type.
I’ve added five new terrain types classed as 0, such as Regolith Plains and Impact Craters. Some of the terrain classified as 2 also has a frozen gas requirement, such as Methane Ice Mountains.
The new requirement for ruins is a body with a dominant terrain that has an ‘Atmosphere Required’ factor of 1, gravity of at least 0.3G and atmospheric pressure below 10 (to rule out Venusian worlds). This will remove some worlds that would currently qualify and add new worlds that currently would not qualify, but should be a better representation of where ruins are likely to occur.
The Ancients are classed as an oxygen-breathing race, so the location requirement for the presence of an Ancient Construct is a body with a dominant terrain that has an ‘Atmosphere Required’ factor of 1, gravity of at least 0.3G and no requirement for an non-oxygen gas. This will reduce the number of potential locations, so I am increasing the base chance to compensate.
There are four exceptions to the above rules:
- Rogue Planets, which have suffered some form of cataclysmic disaster that threw them into a highly eccentric orbit. These can have ruins and constructs, regardless of dominant terrain.
- Constructs created under the ‘Stellar Anomaly’ case, which are rare situations where the Ancients positioned a construct on the innermost planet of a star to study it.
- Ruins in Sol, which are very rare anyway.
- Ruins manually created by the player in SM Mode.
As an aside, the Raiders can now be of any species type. The other spoilers are all classed as oxygen but that has no mechanical impact.
