How many people set their OWN planet type to ICE??

[Spyder]

For those of you interested, the post below breaks down further:

Gas Giants 48
Ice Planets 65
Rock Planets 112

Carbon Dioxide 50
Hydrogen 50
Methane 50
Oxygen 50
None 25

Huge 45
Large 45
Medium 45
Small 45
Tiny 45



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Spyder, Chairman of the Arachnid Consortium

[Spyder]

Now, if you ask me (and, of course, you DIDN'T ) The size distribution should be more of a bell curve around the medium size...Fewer Huge & tiny, more medium. Tinies should have less of a chance to have an atmosphere of any kind, and, Ices should have a higher percentage of having an atmosphere of some kind (usually whatever the ice is made of). Rocks should be evenly distributed & Gasses should always have an atmosphere (as they both already are).

Also, I really like randomization...I'd like to see a completely random button...where all the planets' sizes, atmospheres & makeups are ALL compelely random. You could conceiveably pick a Gas/Hydrogen race and end up with your home planet being the ONLY one in the galaxy.


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Spyder, Chairman of the Arachnid Consortium

[capnq]

It seems to me that a "half-bell" peaking at Tiny would be more "realistic". The bigger a planet is, the less likely it is to have formed in the first place.

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Cap'n Q

[Suicide Junkie]

That 'half-bell' would be peaking at 'asteroid' since theres a ton of them everywhere.

[Spyder]

quote:

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Originally posted by capnq:
It seems to me that a "half-bell" peaking at Tiny would be more "realistic". The bigger a planet is, the less likely it is to have formed in the first place.

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Hmmm...it all depends on how you believe that planets are formed doesn't it? If a star system is formed by a catastrophic event, wouldn't you say that the size of the chunks would be random? Also, in a given star system, at inception, wouldn't you say that the smaller chunks were the ones most likely to be sucked back into the sun? Now, I'm not really an astronomer or a physicist (which is painfully evident to those who are ) but only working from a point of logic, and, thusly, it seems to me that the tiny planets would be fewer than the medium ones....I invite counter-views




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Spyder, Chairman of the Arachnid Consortium

[Possum]

Seen 7 systems so far, 65 planets total, found 4 CO2 Ice worlds besides my home, one each Tiny, Small, Large, Huge.

Isn't this game great? Just when I think I got it all wired, it throws me a curveball and revives my flagging interest

This Pirate stuff is great good fun!

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

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If a star system is formed by a catastrophic event, wouldn't you say that the size of the chunks would be random?

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quote:

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Also, in a given star system, at inception, wouldn't you say that the smaller chunks were the ones most likely to be sucked back into the sun?

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Ok, astronomy lesson:
The current view of how things probably happen (from seeing many in various stages):
Start with a nebula. something happens, such as a nearby supernova, and the gas is compressed.
With the gas more compact, the force of gravity has more effect. (since it decreases with distance)
Everything starts to fall inwards.
Wait many millions of years.
The gas is gathering in the center, but there is a slight rotation in the cloud. Think of a merry-go-round, spinning slowly. When everybody climbs in towards the center, it starts spinning faster to conserve angular momentum.
With the gas spinning rapidly, it forms a disk, with a bulge in the middle.
Now, the disk starts to clump up, due to gravity. Heavy elements gather, and smash into other, sometimes sticking together. Eventually you get bigger and bigger clumps, and the biggest ones, at the right distance from the star, gather gas too, becoming large faster.
When the star gets to it's main stage,and starts pumping out lots of energy, it blows away the remaining gas from the disk, leaving only the heavy dust, rocks & planets.

quote:

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Now, I'm not really an astronomer or a physicist (which is painfully evident to those who are ) but only working from a point of logic, and, thusly, it seems to me that the tiny planets would be fewer than the medium ones....I invite counter-views

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Consider that as planets get tinier, they start to be seen as moons, and there are tons of 'em in our solar system. Asteroids are even smaller, and there's many thousands of them out there.

We have:
Giant: Jupiter, Saturn
Large: Uranus, neptune
Medium: Earth, Venus, Mars
Small: Mercury, Earth's moon, larger moons of jupiter& saturn
Tiny: Pluto, any other moons, some large asteroids.
Asteroids: Oodles. I'm not gonna count them in my lifetime.

See the trend? Zillions of tiny stuff, not as many small, bunch of medium, couple of large or huge.