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Planet

A world in orbit around the system center. The primary site for economic development, population growth, and deep sector investment. Planets have the highest sector slot counts of any stellar object type.

Layer

Primary orbiter. Planets orbit the system center. They can have secondary orbiters — moons and debris fields — in orbit around them.

Goal

Make planets the most developed and strategically significant objects in the game, with enough variety in their subtypes and occurrence profiles to ensure no two planets feel economically identical.

Core Problem

Planets are the workhorses of the economy. If every planet is interchangeable, regions lose identity and expansion decisions lose meaning. The challenge is building in natural variety without requiring complex type-specific mechanics before the core systems are functional.

Working Directions

Subtypes Are Visual Only

Planet subtypes — rocky, barren, habitable, ocean, volcanic, gas giant, ice giant, and others — determine appearance, lore, and which species can colonize them easily (future mechanic). In the current model they do not mechanically force a resource profile.

Resource occurrence ratings are set at world generation time. The generator uses planet subtype as a strong input — a gas giant will almost always receive a high Volatiles occurrence, a rocky planet will almost always receive high Structural Materials occurrence — but the type does not hard-code the resource values. The engine reads occurrence ratings only. Type is a cosmetic and generation hint.

Gas Giant: Not Surface-Accessible

Gas giants are the one subtype that carries a gameplay flag in the initial build: they are not surface-accessible. Extraction sectors cannot be placed on a gas giant the same way they are placed on a solid body. Orbital extraction mechanics for gas giants are deferred — in the minimal test set, gas giants are present but not yet extractable through standard means.

All other planet subtypes are surface-accessible by default.

Sector Slots

Planets have the highest sector slot counts of any object type. Exact counts are not yet defined but planets are the objects where deep, multi-sector development is intended and expected. A large rocky planet should support a full industrial chain alongside extraction and logistics infrastructure.

Composition at Generation Time

Each planet receives a resource occurrence profile when the game world is generated. This profile does not change through normal gameplay. Two rocky planets in the same region may have very different Structural Materials occurrence — one rich enough to anchor a regional supply network, one barely worth developing.

Minimal Test Set

Rocky Planet — included. Primary Structural Materials source. Standard surface extraction. High slot count enables deep development.

Gas Giant — included, with the surface-inaccessible flag. Primary Volatiles source once orbital extraction is defined. Present in world generation and on the system map. Not extractable in the first build.

Open Questions

  • Should gas giant orbital extraction be blocked entirely in the initial build, or should a simplified placeholder sector exist to make the Volatiles chain testable?
  • Should different planet subtypes have different slot count ranges, or is slot count determined by object size independent of subtype?
  • Should colonization restrictions by species type be a property of the planet subtype, or defined through a separate compatibility system?
  • At what level of play should planets become contestable — can another player claim a planet in a system where one already exists?