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Moon

A natural satellite in orbit around a planet. More development capacity than an asteroid belt but less than a planet. Moons derive strategic value from both their own composition and their proximity to their parent planet.

Layer

Secondary orbiter. Moons orbit a specific planet, not the system center. A moon's position on the system map is relative to its parent planet.

Goal

Give players a mid-range development option that creates meaningful extensions of planet-based holdings. A moon is not interchangeable with a planet or a belt — it occupies a distinct strategic position as a satellite of something larger.

Core Problem

Moons must feel distinct from both planets (fewer slots, lower development ceiling) and asteroid belts (more slots, more development options). Their secondary orbiter position creates a natural narrative: a moon is most valuable when its composition complements or contrasts with its parent planet's composition.

Working Directions

Subtypes Are Visual Only

Moon subtypes — rocky, ice, volcanic — determine appearance and lore. Resource occurrence ratings are set at world generation time using the subtype as a generator hint, not a hard constraint.

Slot Count

Moons sit between belts and planets in slot capacity. Exact counts are not yet defined. A moon should support more than one narrow extraction operation — enough for a modest multi-sector outpost — but not a full industrial chain.

Composition Contrast With Parent Planet

World generation should tend toward giving moons different composition profiles from their parent planet. A rocky planet orbited by an ice moon creates a system where both Structural Materials and Volatiles are accessible nearby — but neither body alone is sufficient for the full production chain. This forces logistics between the two objects even within a single system.

Ice Moon: Volatiles Profile

In the minimal test set, ice moons are the intended secondary Volatiles source. Their high ice content produces Volatiles occurrence, making them the counterpart to gas giants for Volatiles extraction — smaller, lower output, but more slots and potentially surface-accessible.

Proximity Value

A moon's value is partly determined by which planet it orbits. A high-occurrence ice moon orbiting a gas giant in a Volatiles-rich system is more strategically significant than the same moon in an isolated system with nothing nearby to process its output.

Minimal Test Set

Ice Moon — included. Secondary Volatiles source. Makes the gas giant's orbital context strategically interesting even before orbital extraction is implemented on the giant itself.

Open Questions

  • Should moons be claimable independently from their parent planet, or does claiming a planet automatically grant access to its moons?
  • Can a moon ever be developed to the same tier as the planet it orbits, or is its development ceiling lower by type?
  • Should volcanic moons carry any distinct resource profile beyond what a rocky moon would produce?
  • Is it possible for a moon to orbit an asteroid belt, or only a planet?