submersible wrote:I have also noticed that the spreadsheet I have been using does not detail the Industrial/Agricultural nature of the planets, only "Planet #","Name","X","Y","Tech Level","Inhabitants","Government","Description"
There may be some useful things on the [wiki]Oolite planet list[/wiki] page. There are a few spreadsheets there, although looking at them, I think you're using the first, and the second, PhantorGorth's, while it has ind/agri data and most other stuff, doesn't have the planet descriptions.
But the individual galaxy pages linked from there contain plenty of information:
# 0. Tibedied (2,90), {19,71,75} within 7.0 LY. Radius 4610 km.
Feudal, Poor Ind. Pop. 3.6 B, Prod. 11520 MCr. HC: 3, TL: 9, Human Colonials.
This planet is most notable for Tibediedian Arma brandy but scourged by deadly edible grubs.
# 1. Qube (152,205), {40,74,159,187,194,240,242,251} within 7.0 LY. Radius 5528 km.
Corporate State, Rich Agri. Pop. 3.7 B, Prod. 16280 MCr. HC: 8, TL: 7, Human Colonials.
Qube is reasonably well known for its great dense forests but scourged by deadly civil war.
# 2. Leleer (77,243), {6,94,128,132,146,153,196} within 7.0 LY. Radius 3149 km.
Dictatorship, Mainly Ind. Pop. 3.5 B, Prod. 13720 MCr. HC: 7, TL: 8, Human Colonials.
The world Leleer is very noted for its pink Leleerian Er plant plantations but beset by frequent civil war.
It's not too difficult a job to copy this data and reformat it into something that can be used.
Alternatively, I wrote an oxp that wrote this sort of information to the log file when I was having a look at planet data myself. An example output:
22:35:48.250 []: 0, Tibedied, Poor Industrial, Feudal, 9, 3.6, Human Colonials, 11520, 4610, 3, This planet is most notable for Tibediedian Arma brandy but scourged by deadly edible grubs.
22:35:48.265 []: 1, Qube, Rich Agricultural, Corporate State, 7, 3.7, Human Colonials, 16280, 5528, 8, Qube is reasonably well known for its great dense forests but scourged by deadly civil war.
22:35:48.265 []: 2, Leleer, Mainly Industrial, Dictatorship, 8, 3.5, Human Colonials, 13720, 3149, 7, The world Leleer is very noted for its pink Leleerian Er plant plantations but beset by frequent civil war.
Again, with a bit of regex matching to remove the prefix, this data (and anything else that can be accessed/calculated from script) can be written into whichever format is necessary, potentially more quickly than processing the data on the wiki page, as I can determine how I want the output to be printed.
Interestingly, if you have a look at Oolite's default descriptions.plist, there are various potential natural features that just don't show up in game. For example, there are no "dust clouds" or "ice bergs" (which should be one word, not two, but as it doesn't actually appear in-game I'm not too fussed), and the oceans could theoretically be "funny", "weird", "strange", "peculiar", "ancient" and "great" as well. I'm also not aware of any "exuberant" forests".
Anyway, having had a very quick glance through the aforementioned file, I think you've missed "rock formations", which
are in game, and should be added to your oceans, mountains etc list. Also, the mentions of night-life could well be visible from space. I can have a proper look through and do some searches to see which modifiers are actually used and on what at some point to get a more complete idea of what's mentioned in the descriptions could affect appearance if you like!
Also, I agree that the economy type should impact upon the texture. For example, I would have thought that a "Poor Agricultural" planet would be rather rocky and barren (as could, potentially, be some of the "unremarkable"/"boring"/"dull"/"tedious" worlds), whereas a "Rich Agricultural" one would be rather green. Similarly a world being "Industrial" would affect smog/cities, as could Tech Level.
I'm not sure how "solar activity" would affect a world, or how one could make a "revolting" world (indeed, it could well be the inhabitants which make the world revolting, rather than the actual planet), but they might be things to consider...
Edited to add: Ooh, I like your thinking, cim! I'm clearly going to need to have a look at the New Cargoes oxp. Does it include the food/drinks mentioned in the planet descriptions?