helium, iridum and rubidium editing

[Lord Tirian]

How can you justify this giving health, energy, recycling opportunities or anything else that could increase base size though? Planet's atmosphere already has oxygen (though not enough for humans), and AFAIK there's oxygen in all rocks.

Mainly because you get the oxygen and the minerals in one package. You crack that stuff open, get oxygen out of it and valuable resources in - more or less - one go, other rocks mean you get oxygen - so it's really more of an efficiency thing (a bit like the resources in vanilla Civ4 - a lot of stuff is found everywhere in certain amounts, but the resources represent particular large and pure/useful deposits). Problem, of course, would be that after the first couple of months/years, the resource would become much less important, as oxygen supply will improve and better mines will give you better ore deposits anyway. But Health resources are a hard thing to do... I wonder whether you can eat glowmites!

Err I don't remember. That change dates from years back, in SMAniaC. I guess I thought harvesting quantum power was too much of a fluff idea. But as you say Antimatter probably isn't any better. I guess that vacuum polarization idea I just invented doesn't make much sense?

*shrug* my problem with that would only be: That's actually very similar to a process through which black holes radiate/lose energy: it's Hawking radiation.

EDIT: Note that all that stuff is actually fine with me as it is now - as a physics student I learned a long time ago stop over-thinking Sci-Fi. Though I have to say SMAC always held up pretty well to the whole over-thinking (at least compared to most other sci-fi stuff), because they kept many things rather abstract.

Cheers, LT.

 

[deadliver]

Immediate gut reaction: Ilmenite-rich deposits. The NASA was actually looking for deposits on the moon in 2005, because it's a titanium-iron oxide - you can get oxygen from it - and having titanium and iron ore isn't too shabby as well. For an early colonisation, this stuff would be pretty valuable and useful. And for a real-world mineral, Ilmenite certain sounds cool.

EDIT: Just out of curiosity, Maniac, why did you replace the SMAC's quantum reactor-theme with antimatter-themed energy?

Cheers, LT.

Seems a little extreme for me. Why not just use rust to justify health (you can get oxygen from that after all). Applying techniques theorized to establish a moonbase does not make much sense planetside, where energy is precious (i.e. if you are on the moon, you have the energy to be there)

 

[Lord Tirian]

Applying techniques theorized to establish a moonbase does not make much sense planetside...

Right, and in another facepalm moment, I realised something else: Planet has water - that's all the oxygen you need right there - electrolysis doesn't need a lot of electricity...

Cheers, LT.

 

[Maniac]

*shrug* my problem with that would only be: That's actually very similar to a process through which black holes radiate/lose energy: it's Hawking radiation.

That's why one of the tech paths to Singularity Mechanics leads through Antimatter.

 

[deadliver]

Why would oxygen generation be relevant though? Plenty of oxygen being produced by flora already.

 

[Lord Tirian]

That's why one of the tech paths to Singularity Mechanics leads through Antimatter.

(though I'd rather like to reserve the name "antimatter" for weaponised systems, to me, antimatter reactor sounds like "dynamite reactor" - and call the civilian tech something like vacuum harvesters, Casimir generators or something like that)

Also, just something you might like to read about: Methane hydrates is naturally occurring methane "trapped" by water molecules. The interesting bit is that it only occurs in depths of 300m to 500m, above that, it's unstable, below that, it doesn't form. Would be nice to have more resources in the sea (since with sea bases, naval expansion becomes more important), this sounds like something interesting. Also, it (and derivatives) appear in a couple of sci-fi novels and is harnessing it is future technology that we haven't mastered yet, but we plan to do - SMAC had a lot of these things, so it might just fit right into it. It couldn't be a replacement for the antimatter-enabling resource though, it's more of a tier 3-4 tech.

Cheers, LT.

 

[GeoModder]

It sure sounds like a resource that, when extracted, would give a strong native reaction...

 

[deadliver]

(though I'd rather like to reserve the name "antimatter" for weaponised systems, to me, antimatter reactor sounds like "dynamite reactor" - and call the civilian tech something like vacuum harvesters, Casimir generators or something like that)

Also, just something you might like to read about: Methane hydrates is naturally occurring methane "trapped" by water molecules. The interesting bit is that it only occurs in depths of 300m to 500m, above that, it's unstable, below that, it doesn't form. Would be nice to have more resources in the sea (since with sea bases, naval expansion becomes more important), this sounds like something interesting. Also, it (and derivatives) appear in a couple of sci-fi novels and is harnessing it is future technology that we haven't mastered yet, but we plan to do - SMAC had a lot of these things, so it might just fit right into it. It couldn't be a replacement for the antimatter-enabling resource though, it's more of a tier 3-4 tech.

Cheers, LT.

Okay the link you provided leads to an article that states Methane hydrates occur 300 to 400m beneath the ocean bottom, or near a top layer of sediment. I think this would be more relevant for a truly submerged settlement. Those would be cool though!

edit: would land based Methane really be unique enough for a bonus resource?

 

[Maniac]

Methane Ice sounds cool for a health resource. Though I too am wondering if it might be better represented by an energy increase to all of a certain type terrain. IIRC these Methana Hydrates are the reasons why a while back I let Bioreactors provide +1 energy to the Ice feature for instance.

If I understand the article correctly, this resource would appear on Shelf and Polar terrain?
(though the map on wikipedia shows most stuff has been found in areas close to trenches. Japan, Alaska etc )

 

[The_J]

Also, just something you might like to read about: Methane hydrates is naturally occurring methane "trapped" by water molecules.

If you create a graphic for it...there's maybe somebody else, who could use it....

If I understand the article correctly, this resource would appear on Shelf and Polar terrain?
(though the map on wikipedia shows most stuff has been found in areas close to trenches. Japan, Alaska etc )

I guess, the reason is, that bacteria are involved.
Cold water can incorporate more oxygen, which leads to better bacteria growth.

 

[deadliver]

Methane Ice sounds cool for a health resource. Though I too am wondering if it might be better represented by an energy increase to all of a certain type terrain. IIRC these Methana Hydrates are the reasons why a while back I let Bioreactors provide +1 energy to the Ice feature for instance.

If I understand the article correctly, this resource would appear on Shelf and Polar terrain?
(though the map on wikipedia shows most stuff has been found in areas close to trenches. Japan, Alaska etc )

Yeah The best place for the fields today would be shelves, polar regions, lakes probably. Any ideas for deep sea resources?

 

[Lightbringer]

Two methods that have been proposed for extracting energy from black holes is via Hawking's Radiation (if they are microscopic) or through stealing their rotational energy (if larger, naturally occuring). Assuming you dont want to name the tech/reactor after the people first conceiving the idea (Hawking and Penrose) you could name them something like a 'singularity siphon' ,which is a broad enough generalisation without being wrong

 

[WarKirby]

IT seems like energy resources should more logically give... energy, rather than health.

Health is for sources of food, fresh water, and supernatural healing stuff, I think.

 

[deadliver]

Energy resources in this mod add to the general quality of life which means health bonuses.

 

[WarKirby]

But quality of life generally brings happiness, not health. or perhaps both.

As a side note, it might be a good idea to incorporate some sort of power system. Rather than these resources directly giving health/happiness, a Reactor Core building gives them, with the appropriate resources. Possibly commerce/production bonuses too.

 

[deadliver]

read the earlier posts bro, my laziness prevents me from indulging your own.