Oolite Bulletins

I agree, keep it...where would Ooniverse be without any weirdness?

It's the light reflecting off the ancient liquid methane gas sea, swarming with algae-like single-cell creatures. The only living organism capable of surviving such harsh environment, brought there by downed thargoid spaceships ions ago.

Those algae originally inhabit thargon ingestive organs and help decay thargon corpses. They would have never survived on their own, but the bizarre set of circumstances, provided them by seismically still active young moon and internal heat source, combined with the radiation from the parent gas giant, made the moon the ideal environment. But, the seismic activity seized and the sheer coldness is now keeping the algae frozen in a ice sphere...

A primordial soup that will never cook, if you will.
Unless... someone cooks it, that is.


Recent studies of the data gathered by drilling probes uncovered evidence of interactive properties of the algae that triggered scientists' imagination and opened a new world of possibilities from algae civilizations to intelligent planets, bringing the new meaning to the term "algae culture".

Sarin wrote:

I agree, keep it...where would Ooniverse be without any weirdness?

Yep.. check out this weird moon I once came across.. forget where.. wrapping a ship texture on a moon.. very cool..

Now what are the odd of that being natural?

Looks like a cobra MkIII swallowed that planet....

Diziet - Are you running any of the alpha versions of SysRed 2.0? If you are, I SERIOUSLY need to chat with ya. That would obviously be considered a MAJOR bug in my OXP.

This was SysRed 1.2.1 on 1.72.2 Shot was taken several months ago..

I have actually more questionmarks about the second texture, the one which you meant for a rich industrial. I concur with pagroove that it looks more like a gas planet.

Together with that there is an issue which I already raised when we discussed about the original System Redux. I still firmly believe that a Rich Industrial world would not look like this. Perhaps a Poor Industrial. Look at the Rich industrial nations on this world. Are they covered 100% with industry? No, not at all. On the contrary. The richer their inhabitants get, the more they would insist on a high quality of life, and the more they could afford it. Therefore I would expect a Rich Industrial planet to actually look more like a garden with real plants, than like the back yard of a power plant.

That would be altogether different for a Poor Industrial planet, which I indeed imagine to be possessed by its industries, and the inhabitants can't yet afford the large-scale clean-up.

Or in other words:
poor industrial = sweat shop in China
rich industrial = technology park in New Hampshire

I broadly agree with Commander McLane, although I think there are exceptions to the rule. Clearly Coruscant from Star Wars is the inspiration for these "city planet" rich industrial worlds. I don't have a problem with that. It is entirely possible that by the time a planets inhabitants wake up to the need to protect the environment, it is too late.

Another approach is that a planets inhabitants did wake up to the need to protect the environment and moved their heavy industry and bulk of population to a more barren, but perhaps mineral resource rich, planet and built all over that, preserving their home world as a reserve/holiday planet.

Yet another approach would be to stick with the original rule you set out and industrialise the planets moon instead. I think a lush planet, but with a moon which is clearly part enormous factory, part furnace. I'm thinking something that looks like Darkseid's Apokolips.

Yet another approach would be to move the industries (or at least part of it) underground.

Don't get me wrong: I don't advocate a rich industrial to not look like industry at all. But if comparisons to Earth are of any worth: In Germany there is no municipality(:!: I'm not talking of villages here) which consists of less than 50% forest or greenland. In other words: Even our highest industrialized zones are at least half covered with nature. And I do think that overall you could count Germany as a rich industrial place.

Or you could go for the Giedi Prime, mega-rich-industrial-planet-gone-mad look.. "Giedi Prime is an industrial wasteland" according to Wikipedia...

from David Lynch's Dune movie:


from the Dune 2000 video game:

Or there's Trantor: Once known as the "Glory of the Galaxy". Administrative centre of the Empire. Land area of 75,000,000 square miles and was entirely covered by metal with the exception of the Emperor's Palace. c10000GE domes were constructed covering the entire planet, again with the exception of the Palace. Population at its height was 45,000,000,000.

Diziet Sma wrote:

Or you could go for the Giedi Prime, mega-rich-industrial-planet-gone-mad look.. "Giedi Prime is an industrial wasteland" according to Wikipedia...

from David Lynch's Dune movie:


from the Dune 2000 video game:

..and you would need to add spice to commodities list.

Commander McLane wrote:

In Germany there is no municipality(:!: I'm not talking of villages here) which consists of less than 50% forest or greenland. In other words: Even our highest industrialized zones are at least half covered with nature. And I do think that overall you could count Germany as a rich industrial place.

Yes, but Germany is both rich and – at least relatively speaking, on the limited scale that nation-states operate – smart. There are other rich industrial nations which see nothing wrong with spraying the toxic byproducts of their industries all over their own populations (or at least the poorer elements thereof). I think there's room for a lot of variation even among Rich Industrials: from glossy, grassy high-tech Development Park worlds where sandal-wearing executives glide about on electric scooters, to polluted sumps dotted with tiny isolated pockets of domed-in greenery inhabited by the mega-wealthy elite.

Here is the total Main-Planet texture list, and the concepts I have noted to myself for each. Now, I'm FULLY open to suggestions, constructive criticisms, questions, short stories, anecdotes, and maybe even the small novella...

Yes, many concepts repeat. Keep in mind, I'm trying to make "generic" worlds. That means ideas like "Star Trek 2- planet with a crash-landed space ship" don't work very well because it would mean every 5th Poor Agricultural would have a crash-landed ship.

Poor_Agricultural_1 Swamp World - Dagobah
Poor_Agricultural_2 High moisture, cold temperature, just entering liquid water stages of terraforming.
Poor_Agricultural_3 Low Moisture, high temperature desert planet - Arrakis
Poor_Agricultural_4 High Moisture, low-land area ocean world
Poor_Agricultural_5 Low Moisture, temperate range planet in early stages of habitability during terraforming
Average_Agricultural_1 High Moisture, ocean world
Average_Agricultural_2 Tropical paradise, moderate landmass, but harvesting from oceans as well.
Average_Agricultural_3
Average_Agricultural_4 Low Moisture, temperate range planet in middle stages of habitability after terraforming
Average_Agricultural_5
Rich_Agricultural_1 Tropical paradise, moderate landmass, but harvesting from oceans as well.
Rich_Agricultural_2 Swamp World - Civilized Dagobah
Rich_Agricultural_3 Prairie World - Rivers, lakes, minimal oceans
Rich_Agricultural_4
Rich_Agricultural_5
Mainly_Agricultural_1
Mainly_Agricultural_2
Mainly_Agricultural_3
Mainly_Agricultural_4
Mainly_Agricultural_5
Mainly_Industrial_1
Mainly_Industrial_2
Mainly_Industrial_3
Mainly_Industrial_4
Mainly_Industrial_5
Poor_Industrial_1 Mining Planet - Rich in minerals and non-renewable resources
Poor_Industrial_2 Coruscant - The City World
Poor_Industrial_3 Mining Planet - Rich in minerals and non-renewable resources
Poor_Industrial_4 Low Moisture, high temperature desert planet - Arrakis
Poor_Industrial_5 Magmacite world, massive vulcanism - Star Wars Mustafar
Average_Industrial_1 Mining Planet - Rich in minerals and non-renewable resources
Average_Industrial_2 Coruscant - The City World
Average_Industrial_3 Gas Giant - Population is orbital
Average_Industrial_4 Coruscant - The City World
Average_Industrial_5 Gas Giant - Population is orbital
Rich_Industrial_1
Rich_Industrial_2
Rich_Industrial_3
Rich_Industrial_4 Dune - Geidi Prime - Heavily industrialized, polluted world
Rich_Industrial_5 Gas Giant - Population is orbital