Aurora is on version 2.5.0 C#, available at the Aurora Forums.
Contact Erik on the forum for a wiki account.
Terraforming
The principle of Terraforming in Aurora is based on changing the atmosphere in order to alter the environment of the planet so it is suitable for your species.
The actual mechanics of using terraforming in the game interface are relatively straightforward. If you have any terraforming installations on a planet or any ships with terraforming modules in orbit, go to the Environment tab, select the gas you want and type the target amount of gas for the terraformers to meet. Make sure to check the Add Gas checkbox if you're adding gas (or uncheck it if you're removing it).
Terraforming installations are ground-based, cost 300 wealth, 150 Duranium, 150 Boronide and take up 50000 cargo space (2 cargo holds). They also require 0.125m workers per installation.
Terraforming modules are space-based, cost 500 wealth, 250 Duranium, 250 Boronide and take up 25000 tons of volume on a ship or station. They do not require any workers.
Both spaceborne and ground-based terraforming installations are boosted by the Terraforming skill of the ship captain and governor, respectively.
The base terraforming speed per module is 0.00025 atm/year. This rate can be improved by research and is modified by Earth Surface Area / Planet Surface Area, meaning smaller bodies will be terraformed faster, and larger bodies will take a lot more time.
The system bodies with less than 0.1G of gravity can't retain atmosphere and therefore can't be terraformed.
| Terraforming Rate | RP Cost |
|---|---|
| 0.00032 | 3000 |
| 0.0004 | 5000 |
| 0.00048 | 10000 |
| 0.0006 | 20000 |
| 0.00075 | 40000 |
| 0.00096 | 80000 |
| 0.0012 | 150000 |
| 0.0015 | 300000 |
| 0.0019 | 600000 |
| 0.0024 | 1200000 |
| 0.003 | 2500000 |
| 0.00375 | 5000000 |
Temperature
Temperature is one of the main factors that can determine a long-term viability of the colony. Unlike gravity, however, temperature can be adjusted to a large degree with addition of greenhouse (or anti-greenhouse) gases.
The formula for the temperature calculations is:
Surface Temperature in Kelvin = Base Temperature in Kelvin x Greenhouse Factor / Anti-Greenhouse Factor x Albedo
Base Temperature cannot be changed by the player and depends on the distance between the planet and its parent star. This means that bodies with eccentric orbits can have major fluctuations in temperature that make any terraforming a complicated affair.
Greenhouse Factor is the influence of the atmospheric gases on the surface temperature. All gases that are not condensed/frozen (refer to the gas table for the gases' boiling points) will add 10% of their atmospheric pressure to this factor. In addition to that some gases are greenhouse gases and will add their full atmospheric pressure to this factor. Aesthusium is the safe greenhouse gas that can be freely used for this purpose. Greenhouse Factor can't go above 3.
Anti-Greenhouse Factor is the cooling effect of anti-greenhouse gases. Currently, only one gas - Frigusium - acts as an anti-greenhouse gas, adding it's full atmo pressure to this factor. Like Greenhouse Factor, Anti-Greenhouse Factor can't go above 3.
Albedo is the measure of reflectivity of the body's surface and cannot be directly changed. Unlike real life, albedo is just a direct modifier to the surface temperature, so it can go above 1.
If a planet has a frozen hydrosphere, heating it up will cause it to melt, increasing albedo and giving a boost to the surface temperature. Conversely, cooling the planet will freeze the hydrosphere and reduce the albedo.
Colony Cost
Colony Cost (CC) is a measure of the amount of infrastructure needed to support the population on a given celestial body. CC 0 means the body is perfectly habitable and needs no infrastructure whatsoever. Otherwise, the colony will need
CC * 100 / Population Density Modifier (usually 1)
units of infrastructure to support 1 million colonists. This number is shown in the Summary tab of the Economy window for any given colony, so you the player don't need to manually calculate it.
There are multiple factors that influence colony cost of a celestial body, with the highest number out of them being the final colony cost:
- Temperature will affect colony cost if it's outside of the species' tolerances, applying a colony cost of
Temperature Difference / Temperature Deviation. If the body is tidally locked against the star, this penalty is reduced by 80% while also reducing population capacity by the same amount. - Excessive atmospheric pressure will affect colony cost, applying a colony cost of
Atmospheric Pressure / Species Maximum Pressurewith minimum of 2.0. This makes Venusian planets with huge atmospheric pressure very time-consuming to terraform. - Any dangerous gases in sufficient quantities will impose a flat colony cost or 2.0 or 3.0 depending on the gas involved.
- Lack of oxygen1 will impose a flat colony cost of 2.0. Same cost will apply for having too much of it (more than 30% of the total atmosphere).
- Hydrosphere extent below 20% will impact the colony cost, directly proportional to the amount of hydrosphere missing with the formula being
(20 - Hydro Extent) / 10. Hydro extent above 75% will negatively impact the population capacity. To influence the hydrosphere, the player will have to add or remove Water Vapour; the speed at which it condenses or evaporates depending on the surface temperature of the body. - Gravity below species' tolerances will impart a colony cost of 1.0, as well as require Low-Gravity Infrastructure instead of regular one. Gravity above species' tolerances renders the world uninhabitable.
1 Technically, it applies to the breathable gas your species of choice uses to breathe, but as of current version game only generates oxygen-breathers.
In short, you need to make sure there is enough oxygen, enough other gases to dilute oxygen and swing temperature the right way, no dangerous gases and plenty of water.
You can also reduce the colony cost by researching the Colony Cost Reduction tech line. These technologies reduce the final colony cost by set percentage and are applied for every colony, making them better the bigger your empire becomes.
| Colony Cost Reduction | RP Cost |
|---|---|
| 5% | 5000 |
| 10% | 10000 |
| 15% | 20000 |
| 20% | 40000 |
| 25% | 80000 |
| 30% | 150000 |
| 35% | 300000 |
| 40% | 600000 |
| 50% | 1200000 |
List of gases
| Gas | Toxicity (for oxygen-breathing races) | Boiling Point | Greenhouse Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hydrogen | Colony cost 2 (safe level 500 ppm = 0.05%) | 20K = -253C | None |
| Helium | None | 4K = -269C | None |
| Methane | Colony cost 2 (safe level 500 ppm = 0.05%) | 109K = -164C | Warming |
| Ammonia | Colony cost 2 (safe level 50 ppm = 0.005%) | 240K = -23C | None |
| Water | None | 245K = -18C | None |
| Neon | None | 27K = -246C | None |
| Nitrogen | None | 77K = -196C | None |
| Carbon Monoxide | Colony cost 2 (safe level 50 ppm = 0.005%) | 82K = -191C | None |
| Nitrogen Oxide | Colony cost 2 (safe level 5 ppm = 0.0005%) | 121K = -152C | None |
| Oxygen | Colony cost 2 (safe level 30,000 ppm = 30%) | 90K = -183C | None |
| Hydrogen Sulphide | Colony cost 2 (safe level 20 ppm = 0.002%) | 212K = -61C | None |
| Argon | None | 87K = -186C | None |
| Carbon Dioxide | Colony cost 2 (safe level 5,000 ppm = 0.5%) | 195K = -78C | Warming |
| Nitrogen Dioxide | Colony cost 2 (safe level 5 ppm = 0.0005%) | 262K = -11C | Warming |
| Sulphur Dioxide | Colony cost 2 (safe level 5 ppm = 0.0005%) | 263K = -10C | Warming |
| Chlorine | Colony cost 3 (safe level 1 ppm = 0.0001%) | 239K = -34C | None |
| Fluorine | Colony cost 3 (safe level 1 ppm = 0.0001%) | 85K = -188C | None |
| Bromine | Colony cost 3 (safe level 1 ppm = 0.0001%) | 332K = 59C | None |
| Iodine | Colony cost 2 (safe level 1 ppm = 0.0001%) | 457K = 184C | None |
| Aestusium | None | 1K = -272C | Warming |
| Frigusium | None | 1K = -272C | Cooling |