Planet and Atmosphere Percentages

[Cipher7071]

Somewhere, once upon a time, I ran across a post that mentioned the approximate percentages of rock, ice, and gas planets that the map generator normally creates. Naturally, I can't locate the post.

I'd also like similar information for the types of atmospheres created.

Can anyone give me those percentages?

[Fyron]

Which game are you asking about?

In SE5, its right at the top of SystemTypes.txt. The percentages are used for generating all planet values of "Any". Manually specified planet types, sizes, and atmospheres do not get taken into account. In the stock game, there are very few such planets though (a few Huge planets with tiny/none moons), so the balance is fairly accurate.

If this was meant for the SE4 forum, you can use this program to see type distributions for any given data file set.

[Cipher7071]

This was indeed a SEIV question. The program you mention does exactly what?

I'm not trying to analyze any particular game data. I know that rock planets are more common than ice planets, and both are more common than gas planets. What is the relative abundance of each type compared with the total when they are randomly generated?

I was also wondering about the relative abundance of atmophere types.

[Fyron]

Answering your questions is exactly what the program does. You pick a data folder (stock or mod), then a quadrant type, then hit all the buttons. It even has fancy pie charts at the end!

SJ wrote that program 4 years ago?! My, time flies.

[Cipher7071]

Thanks Fyron. I'll try it.

[Cipher7071]

Okay. The analysis of rock, ice, & gas planets is about what I would expect to find. But, continuing on to analyze the various quadrants, in each case it includes figures for gas planets with no atmosphere. Doesn't this call the rest of the numbers into question? Or am I missing something?

[Suicide Junkie]

That is for Vaccuum breathing races with gas colonization tech. Admittedly, it is very rare to have as a starting setup, but it is possible with the right mod.

More relevant, your vaccuum breathers will eventually develop gas colonization tech, so those numbers will definitely become important in the mid-late game period.


Specifically;
The numbers you see are the average value of one starsystem to a race with that atmo and surface type.
If the race has two or three surface types available, you can add the numbers together.

[Cipher7071]

That clears it up some. I was trying to take an omnipresent view, when the data makes better sense viewed through the eyes of one race at a time.