Well, I do know a few things about Chiron (gotten out of planets.txt in the Alpha Centauri folder), which will have a big impact upon how things are done on Planet.
--Things on Chiron are only 40 percent as flammable as they are on Earth, due to the fact that Chiron's atmosphere has double the nitrogen, and almost half of the oxygen as Earth's atmosphere. Because of this, there is much less danger from using Hydrogen as a gas for zeppelin-type vehicles, both because there is less oxygen to ignite with the hydrogen and we won't be enough of dumbasses to coat the skin of the blimps with gunpowder, which is, by the way, the reason that the Hindenburg exploded. Hydrogen blimps aren't that bad of an idea on Earth, let alone Chiron. Therefore: Helium is much less useful, and due to the fact that it is chemically inert, would not have too many uses on Chiron. Hydrogen is also out as a resource, if only because it is present
everywhere.
--Also, just another thing against Helium--it does not aid in fusion power--Helium is a by-product of Hydrogen Fusion, but fusion of the Helium element itself into lithium is actually much, much less useful (has to do with the binding energies present in atoms--this makes Hydrogen good for fusion and Uranium and Plutonium good in fission).
--(this is from the the TECHLONGS.txt in the same folder, and since it states my point perfectly concerning oil as a resource, I'll just copy and paste it here
The extreme efficiency with which the neural net
fungus managed Planet's vast ecosystem kept extensive
deposits of organic material from forming over the epochs.
Because of this lack, the fossil fuels known on Earth
never developed, forcing early colonists to rely on less
efficient alternative sources of energy. However, advances
in [Advanced Subatomic Theory (B3)] and [Gene Splicing (B3)]
finally allow scientists to short-circuit the eons-long process,
providing them with the {Synthetic Fossil Fuels} needed
to build advanced vehicles and machinery.
--Fresh Water. While Fresh water is indeed important, I do not think that the technology to purify water would have been "lost" in the wreckage of the Unity. Everyone just got done with a 40 year voyage to Chiron, and the water recycling systems (along with oxygen recycling and purifying) would have been the most sacred of equipment. While it would be nice and easy to just have fresh water lying about, I doubt we would really need it. Rather, perhaps put a limit on base size due to water recycling until a Recycling Center is built. Besides, due to the various xenobiological organisms no doubt present throughout Planet's ecosystem, there is unlikely to be fresh water lying about which would not be terribly poisonous. It would all likely need to be purified anyhow. Therefore, Fresh Water is not needed, as we are efficient enough with technology available.
--However, there is validity in the need for Heavy Water (water rich with Hydrogen atoms with atomic masses of 2 and 3), because Heavy Water is a good source of deuterium and tritium, which are invaluable to anyone wanting to build either fusion reactors or thermonuclear bombs (hydrogen bombs). Heavy Water also has some use in Fission reactors, but graphite is better for these purposes. And if graphite is ever needed, it is abundant in surrounding organic chemicals from alien life and whatnot, so even if there isn't much in the ground, we can get it from somewhere.
--I thin metals are probably the most useful to early colonists. Once nanotech is discovered, however, basically all metals become obsolete as armor or any sort of thing like that because of bucky balls and buckytubes (also known as carbon nanotubes). Carbon is abundant, and would be
the element to replace all others. Likely, the discovery of Nanotech would obsolete all other metals as resources, besides ones that are nice because they are shiny. Nanotubes are the strongest material in existence, and have endless applications.
--We should definitely bring back the landmarks. Those were awesome.
--I agree that ruins would be good resources, to replace Civ IV's various happiness resources (and some could make things easier to construct and whatnot, due to the ancient machinery we find--not because of the raw materials themselves). With sufficiently advanced societies, all we need is raw matter.
Edit: Whoops, sorry, I posted this without seeing that there were many more pages to read, so sorry if any of it is out of date.
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