Not a very exciting suggestion, but I think Gas planets should be explorable, like you would have to have a gas mask to filter the "oxygen (or whatever the characters breathe" out of the air, BUT some might not have oxygen in their gaseous mixtures so the only way to explore would be with oxygen tanks which would mean you would only have a certain amount of time on the planet, which would make exploring a bit more difficult.
A nice basic concept, but it raises some questions. How do you explore a planet with no solid surface? and what would there be to actually find?
How about a new flyable object, like, maybe an space drone? Hmm... With this, this suggestion would be possible! Nice job, by the way, seems fun and exciting!
Some gas giants do have a core, and others have random floating rock throughout it, most of the time it is molten but still it's a game so some things can change, there are also "Ice Giants" which I would assume have a solid core, but even if not so, there could be normal planets without oxygen on them so the same principle applies. The latter was pretty much what I had in mind anyways, once you're on the planet it looks "normal", you just can't breathe.
Azorth, I will make a suggestion for Space Drones/Mechs that you could use to navigate planets with !?NO CORES?! Honestly, this is an amazing idea.
Gas giants could be an in-game source of metallic hydrogen, a substance which is currently theorized to be a superconductor at room temperature, this could be used to craft high-end energy weapons.The massive pressure within a gas giant is the only known environment in the universe where metallic hydrogen can form. The core of the gas giant could simply be a very small planet with a huge atmosphere and a surface dotted with lakes of metallic hydrogen (which to my knowledge is a liquid).
Whoa, this just got way cooler then previously thought, lol It could probably also be used as a very strong power source (if there are things that require power/electricity to function, in game), but yeah molten metal mining on gas planet would take some pretty specific machinery, and if it's as useful/high-end as it sounds I imagine the atmosphere would be filled with terrifying enemies.
i think he means a planet that has an atmosphere that is deadly to humans or altogether unable to sustain life. his/her suggestion does lack detail. completely agree.
Gas giants don't have definite border between solid rocky surface and gaseous atmosphere, but that doesn't mean that they don't have solid core. In Starbound gas giants could be displayed as onion-like layers. I will explain these layers as definite layers, but it is obviously better to have some sort of gradient border, to make them slowly shift from one to another while you descend. Or, if impossible, each layer could be subdivided to several layers with obvious slower progression of effects. 1. Top layer is, obviously, vacuum. 2. Next layer is earth-like atmosphere. I mean only in density. Temperatures and air composition are probably way off. That means that you probably must have high fire/cold protection (usually fire, but Starbound is soft enough sci-fi to have, say, extra cold gas giants just for make it more diverse) to survive even here. Also, you need breathable air, because whatever it is around you is definitely not healthy to inhale. 3. Next layer is compressed atmosphere. Still gas, but with extremely powerful winds. From this layer on, characters need special equipment, designed to sustain high pressure. And the more down you go, the more high-leveled equipment you need to have. 4. Venusian atmosphere. Gas here is so deep that you can float in it. Yes, this could be simulated with liquid. 5. Even more dense liquid, like water. 6. Liquid more dense than water, characters can still swim in it, but slo-ow. 7. Semi-solid liquid. It should be impossible to travel through without special swimming-digging machinery. Shielded from pressure, of course. 8. Solid matter. 9. Super-dense matter around core and core itself, could be unbreakable. Useful stuff, like metallic hydrogen, could be found from layer 5 in small amounts, but mostly around levels 7-8. I don't want to elaborate on possible fauna of gas giants in this post, you can think of something yourself anyway.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are planets without a known solid surface, admittedly one or more of them may have one depending on the inerior conditions. Tough i find it unlikely that Jupiter or Saturn would have one due to that the Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism would keep any rocky surface in a permanently molten state.
Jupiter is thought to consist of a dense core with a mixture of elements, a surrounding layer of liquid metallic hydrogen with some helium, and an outer layer predominantly of molecular hydrogen. This cut-away illustrates a model of the interior of Jupiter, with a rocky core overlaid by a deep layer of liquid metallic hydrogen.
You do realize that that is a thoretical illustration? "It may also have a rocky core of heavier elements, but like the other gas giants, Jupiter lacks a well-defined solid surface." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter Noone knows if jupiter has a solid core or not, and not even our most advanced scientific eqiupment could penetrate deep enough to determine the answer.
It is pretty obvious that with such powerful gravity field everything solid that has fallen inside (and there was a lot) is descended to centre of planet. And, of course, in such immense pressure matter there exist at least in quasi-solid state. Anyway, this is Starbound forum, and I hope you do realize that Rule of Cool prevails here? If we have a sci-fi setting with various kinds of humanoid aliens (confirmed) and free FTL travel (supposed), this setting is obviously not very high on softness-hardness scale of sci-fi. Which is good. And if there is a theory - real, plausible scientific theory which states that there is something solid inside gas giants, then it definitely could be used as fact in Starbound universe.
While I do not fully agree with you I believe that our little debate has derailed this thread far enough. And I do of course realize that enjoyable gameplay and an interesting universe does (and should) take priority over real-world physics.
If they do add gas giants as explore-able planets however, it would be awesome if they added a new Virorb, made of this "Metallic Hydrogen," I don't know what it would be called, but it could possibly do something like cracking your helmet screen, making you breath in the atmosphere, to make it a bit of a challenge. There would undoubtedly be other animals too.
OH MY GAWD. You explore a groundless planet using air to ground machines. Easy. Just float around all boss and wait for a big a** plant monster to rip through your hull!
I did a post on gas gaints and other werid planets, let me copy and paste that part here. :Gas giants:A very common in the universe, yet normally not very good for game play, a good way I think to deal with this are gas giant bases, large metal buildings and complex with in the gas giant, blocking the super pressurized outside with danger from breaking walls casing an explosive decompression of large parts of the base (only stopped by automatic air locks) filling the rooms almost instantly with deadly gas (you can't breath it, it's full of deadly chemicals, and is moving so fast as to grind your bone to dust) and blocking access to that area for anyone else A detail I think would be nice is back ground windows showing the pattern of gasses and reminding you how unstable the place you are is if things get damaged... This places would be like populated by sentient and technologically advanced foes
In order for it to maintain a gravity field to create the spherical shape it is pretty much expected to have an immensely dense core to be able to support its large size. The core size could vary but the stronger the field the more the particle in the center will be closer together, to create a solid object. There is no doubt it doesn't have a solid core. The only doubt is what the core is made of. Anyway i like the idea of gas planets. Expecially if they have a restriction, like if you start a fire. It could cause a fire storm., and temporarily burn all the gas in the area. Also your visability is very low.
