Although I already imagine this to be in the game, and I didn't see any threads on it, so I felt I may as well suggest it; Planets that have little to no atmosphere and are exposed to the vacuum of space. Now, these planets would be usually devoid of life, or maybe rarely home to extremophilic lifeforms. Maybe with said extremophilic lifeforms existing in sealed pockets of underground caverns. You'd need to wear external protection and have an oxygen source of course, and maybe base construction on these planets would require additional things like airlock doors and making sure everything is thickly layered due to the fact that on atmospherically void worlds, meteorites and other assorted space debris wouldn't have anything to burn up in. Although that might seem like a huge negative, maybe meteorites and meteors could be made of pure metal, which is yours for the taking when you go scope out the impact site, that, and sentient being made space debris like defunct satellites, probes, and even ships would probably be in better condition maybe even in recoverable condition compared to if they crashed on a planet with an atmosphere. Gimme your input guys.
This is such a simple idea that seems like it would be implemented. An idea to add to it could be a place of ruins where it was abandoned due to a catastrophic event. That event may have altered the atmosphere to nothingness and has all but put the planet in dust. Inside the ruins, be it underground or buildings above ground, there would be a lot of mystery to it and a lot of treasure to loot. If you go deeper underground, maybe there could be a surviving civilization trapped and scared of the outside world.
Now thats also a neat idea, what about secret alien bases on planets like these? They'd've probably thought no-one would to go to an atmosphereless planet. Maybe if other planets have meteor showers that are just pretty, 'void' planets would have meteor showers that could be potentially deadly.
That's a good idea too! Having an alien race hiding on a baren planet extremely hostile to life. Maybe they gathered slaves or robots to collect minerals down inside the planet for them.
This was one point about the game that puzzled me, since it's sort of strange that every planet would have breathable air and an environment that could be livable. Why not have an entire category of planets considered "Unlivable" with hazards like atmospheres comprised of toxic gasses, eternally churning oceans of lava, or scarred planets unshielded from meteors from their lack of atmosphere? I mean, of course you could explore them, but you'd need special equipment to brave the extreme conditions of the planets. Maybe there could be beings on the planets that had learned to survive, and possibly even intelligent life beneath the surface or something like that?
I don't know... that is a good idea though. It would seem that in real life most planets would be inhabitable. Although if there is an "unlivable planet," you could make it your home and terraform it to your will.
If a planet had water and no atmosphere, the "water" should be liquid oxygen as a breathable source, and there could still be creatures on a planet without/planet with very little atmosphere. 2 words, Thermo Vents.
Oh yeah, totally. What would be cooler than making a secret installation on a planet with seas of acid and an atmosphere made of methane? You could build habitation bubbles and stuff, set up terraforming equipment, and then slowly harvest the materials and replace the atmosphere until it became breathable.
An atmosphere-less planet sounds like a great challenge for a late-game character. You'd need airtight housing, oxygen generators, internal greenhouses for food, so much stuff to manage. Being in a vacuum would make combat much more dangerous too, one tiny cut and your suit is ruptured and you are reenacting Total Recall.
I like the idea I even saw a screenshot on fb that would suggest planets without atmosphere exist, and that you need a space suit to explore them. Breathable air management would be interesting. Terraforming also sounds great although this should be no easy tasks. I wonder if there will be planets that only some races could easily inhabit, regarding atmosphere as well as gravity, flora, fauna. So while a planet is welcoming for one race it is hostile for another because they can't breathe the air or can't find proper food to sustain them on said planet. In any case, it's interesting to discuss the endless possibilities of this game.
Oooh, yes, terraforming, thats what I want in this game, for sure. I'd like to think that you can go to one planet, drain most of its atmosphere, then travel to your desired planet and release the stolen atmosphere and enjoy your new fresh air, that'd be neat.
On such a planet, I'd imagine that the safest place to build habitats would be several kilometers below the surface, where the ground would provide adequate protection from solar radiation and most meteors. However, providing enough power to sustain said habitats' life-support systems would be a challenge in and of itself. In terms of sustainable power sources, geothermal power is one possible solution. If the planet contains an underground ocean (which doesn't necessarily have to be water) that spans the entire planet, then hydroelectric power could be another solution. Solar power plants would require more maintenance than usual, as tiny meteorites would often collide with the solar arrays as they fall to the planet. Moreover, if placing habitats underground, the solar power plants would require extra long power cables.
