Talk:List of planet types

Do we need to have separate pages for all those? With the amount of information available it would make more sense to put them all on one page. If we would still want separate pages, they should be renamed to their singular forms. -- SvdB 11:10, 14 Oct 2004 (CEST)

I'm working on moving all the info from the world type pages to this page. For the types which have no page, I will just put "No info has been entered in the Ultranomicon on this world type." --Jacius 19:50, 23 Oct 2004 (CEST)

Ok, done! I changed the plan a bit: I put a notice at the top that many types are missing information, and moved all the ones that don't have info to a list at the bottom (and unlinked them all). The ones that do have info have their own subsection, so you can link to them, like this: [[List of planet types#Water]] (for the Water world type) --Jacius 20:48, 23 Oct 2004 (CEST)

"A moon cannot be a Gas Giant."
Is this a fact? Why? -Fadookie 03:34, 25 Oct 2004 (CEST)

I'm almost certain that it never occurs in SC2, but beside that, it's physically very unlikely. The planet would have to be incredibly large to have a gas giant for a moon (gas giants themselves have to be quite big to keep from dissipating), and in such a case the planet would most likely siphon the gas from its moon until nothing of the moon remained. --Jacius 05:24, 25 Oct 2004 (CEST)

I'm looking through the planet generation code, and while this code isn't the clearest in the game, I don't see such a restriction (that's no guarantee though; I'm just browsing through it). As for reality, planets can have a body their own size as a companion. You'd be talking about a double-planet then instead of a moon. As for "siphoning", that all depends on the distance between the planets. -- SvdB

Another thing, I don't know where you generate this list, but I've got the impression you got it from my minerals page. In any case, it's easier to look at plandata.c in the source, which is organised by planet. It also includes more information (like tectonics, surface density, atmosphere, colour). This stuff could go in a similar table as I did for the minerals page. -- SvdB 10:02, 25 Oct 2004 (CEST)

Good idea. The list was already here when I started editing, I just started filling in info as I played the game. It would probably be easier to look at plandata.c :) A table would be good, too.

If you had two gas giants "orbiting" each other, their gravities would be very strong (because they are both so large), and they would probably be pulled together and eventually merge. If one gas giant is a good deal bigger than the other, the larger one would probably slowly pull the matter from the smaller one, or simply pull the smaller one in. Of course, if they are very far from each other, the gravity between them would be decreased, so they wouldn't necessarily be pulled together. It would be a delicate balance between being pulled together and flying apart. But I'm no astrophysicist, so I may be wrong.

I have never, ever seen a gas giant as a moon in SC2, though, which was the primary reason I put that in the article. This article isn't an astronomy lesson, it's a list of the planet types in a game. I'll take a look at the code/data to see if it ever occurs. --Jacius 02:40, 26 Oct 2004 (CEST)

I have never encountered a gas moon, but if we make a blatant statement like "a moon cannot be a Gas Giant" we should support it. The support could be as simple as saying that star control does not contain any gas moons, but we should back it up in some way. -Fadookie 04:35, 26 Oct 2004 (CEST)

Good point. I made the sentence less certain, and specified that this applies to SC2. I'll check the code tomorrow or sometime to see if there are any gas giant moons in SC2, and then we can make a more certain claim. --Jacius 05:02, 26 Oct 2004 (CEST)

Groovy. -Fadookie

It's not really relevant to the wiki, but a little physics lesson: without any external influence, an object (for instance a planet) with a specific speed will retain that speed. If you put another object in its proximity (another planet), there will be a force pulling them towards eachother. That force over time changes the speed of the object. But if the pull is not large enough and the speed was not slow enough, then by the time the direction in which the planet was moving has changed to the direction where the other planet was in the first place, it will have moved enough so that they will miss eachother. The direction in which they need to go has changed. This balance is not delicate. If you change the mass of one of the objects a little, all that changes is the shape of the orbits, and the speeds during the orbits. -- SvdB 16:16, 26 Oct 2004 (CEST)

Alternate names

Are the primordial and shattered worlds ever referred to as greenhouse and cracked worlds (respectively) either in-game or in the code? I don't seem to remember these alternate names used in any versions that I played, but perhaps I've forgotten. --Fyzixfighter 00:25, 7 January 2006 (CET)

The X homeworld is a Y world

So? Do we keep the extrasolar examples for planet types? Do we specify all the homeworlds that are of that respective type, just as we did for planets in the Solar System? I'm asking this because an anonymous editor has removed one of the extrasolar examples, and we need to figure out if it's good or not (sorry for the strange wording, I have no time right now to improve it, but I trust you understand what I mean). Valaggar 14:08, 31 October 2007 (CET)

I think that it may have been removed because it was wrong (Vlik looks like a Water World to me, but I still need to let the Death March pass it to check it). Personally, I think only planets of interest should be used for examples, starting with the Sol system, then homeworlds, then maybe (but I'd rather not go this far) other places of interest. So I see no problem with listing extrasolar homeworlds, but do with random extrasolars like Canopus I, which a player is less likely to visit. Anyways, my two cents. --Fyzixfighter 14:26, 31 October 2007 (CET)

Looks like my initial entry to this got lost when I apparently tried to submit while Fyzix was submitting (coincidentally, my edit comment was also "my thoughts"). Anyway, I basically agree with Fyzix. I think the homeworlds should be shown, since the only way most players could ever see them is following the Kohr-Ah path of destruction (something I've never done). --PsiPhi 14:36, 31 October 2007 (CET)

Actually, the fact that most players could only get to see homeworlds by waiting for the Death March (which doesn't happen too often) would be an argument not to list homeworlds — just as we don't list random planets like Gamma Brahe II. And Vlik is a Water World, as I still have the screenshots I used to get the 3D and map images for the planet pages, and the Vlik homeworld screenshot shows it as a Water World. Valaggar 15:29, 31 October 2007 (CET)

Well, it's either all or nothing. If we decided not to include them, I wouldn't be to broken up about it. I guess if we did remove this, the extra info for Oolite would need to go as well. While we're on the subject, has anyone ever come up with an answer as to why Shattered worlds are also known as Cracked? Where does that reference come from? The manual? --PsiPhi 17:51, 31 October 2007 (CET)

Evet, o ad el kitabıdaki... oops, I mean that yes, that name is from the manual. Valaggar 19:09, 31 October 2007 (CET)

Val, is that a joke in reference to all the stupid vandalism? --PsiPhi 20:42, 31 October 2007 (CET)

A joke? Nah, it's Turkish for "Yes, that name is from the manual". Valaggar 20:55, 31 October 2007 (CET)

Oh, sorry ... it was not my intention to insult the Turkish language. I just thought you were copying the recent pattern of vandalism, which also does not make any sense to me. ;-D --PsiPhi 21:05, 31 October 2007 (CET)

Heh, don't worry, I'm not Turkish. So you're not insulting Turkishness, or at least there's no problem if you do. :P Valaggar 22:20, 31 October 2007 (CET)

Regardless, I just wanted to be clear. So, I must now ask, how exactly do you know Turkish? --PsiPhi 22:52, 31 October 2007 (CET)

We also learn Turkish at my school. But hey, we're forgetting the true purpose of wiki talk pages. Valaggar 22:56, 31 October 2007 (CET)

I'm not so sure it comes from the manual - anyone got a page number since I can't seem to find it in either the PC or 3DO manuals? I've always thought that it came from the code; the images for the shattered world are "cra__*.png" which I assume is short for "cracked". --Fyzixfighter 07:39, 1 November 2007 (CET)

Uh, yes, sorry. I thought it was in the manual, but it seems that was just a false memory due to having seen this list for so many times. Never mind. I guess we should keep only "Shattered" in the title, and mention the different name given in the content package in the description. Valaggar 13:38, 1 November 2007 (CET)