I will continue to edit this post, so keep an eye on this space.
1. I don't think we should be able to terraform Gaseous planets.
The reason I included this was to balance Ocean and Arctic against Arid worlds. Frozen planets are already less frequent than Barren worlds so I needed to balance it some how. Most gas planets are theorized to have a solid core, admittedly extremely dense, it's chemical constitution being largely dependent on size, temperature, pressure etc. At the centre of Jupiter, for example, there is solid rock/ice core, surrounded by metallic (conductive) liquid hydrogen, liquid hydrogen, gaseous hydrogen, and other gases, including small quantities of traces of carbon, ethane, hydrogen sulfide, neon, oxygen, phosphine, and sulfur. I read somewhere (I will post if I find it) that if you could apply enough force you could separate the core from the gaseous exterior.
I could balance this by adding a small chance of failure, and potentially some risk, to the terraforming process. If at all possible I could exclude certain Gaseous planet types from the terraformable type, and do some research to find out which.
Molten-Arid terraforming could be less risky, but take longer, since you wouldn't have to do something quite so radical as knock the core out of giant ball of liquid metals and gasses lol.
I've also read before that you could theoretically terraform a "barren planet" like mars by making machines that could extract the large quantities of surface iron, turn it into steel, and reproduce itself. The idea being that the process of smelting iron would produce huge quantities of pollution that would over time thicken the atmosphere and change the climate. This may only make sense for planets specifically like Mars which are pretty much covered in what is basically rust. Unrelated but cool none-the-less. In game the idea is that you basically collect the atmosphere gasses else where and deposit them on the planet.
I hope I can find some of these sources so I don't just look like a bumbling idiot.
2. I think that toxic worlds should terraform into molten, barren and frozen.
Toxic -> Barren makes sense, Frozen and Molten on the other hand I'm not sure. In it's current form there would be no utility to this either, since Barren is more useful that molten. The surface beneath Venus's extremely thick carbon atmosphere is most certainly dry and rocky; expelling gasses from this atmosphere might leave you with a barren planet. I can't imagine there would be enough water, if anyway, to form a frozen planet.
Molten -> Toxic on the other hand might make sense.
3. Molten should be able to terraform into arid and tundra.
Presumably if you was to cool the planet, by moving slightly further in orbit from the sun, the cooling process would likely deposit a very thick atmosphere, hence toxic. You certainly wouldn't be able to add solid or liquid water to the planet before it had cooled, which would be required by both Tundra and Arid planets which have small amounts of water, and for this reason it would be in-fact a two step process.
4. Barren should be able to terraform into Desert and Tropical.
Barren -> Desert maybe. I see Desert as slightly more precipitous than Arid, which is extremely dry and rocky, and so I designed it the way I did. You could argue that they switch places honestly, the distinction is fairly minor. However Barren -> Desert would seem to disrupt the balanced design i'm trying to obtain.
Barren -> Tropical, would require adding an ocean, as well as forests and jungles, and a much thicker atmosphere. It seems like too radical a change.
5. Tomb world should be able to terraform into arid, Ocean, and Arctic.
This would be balanced, but what would the reasoning behind this be?
6. Asteroid Base should have 40% habitability, but with high(15 to 25?) ethics divergence.
On second thought I can get behind this, but I think it should start lower, and require a special set of buildings. I believe it is possible to have a unique building for asteroid bases only, but I'm not entirely sure. It's something we'll have to experiment with.
7. Asteroid Base only building that adds habitability (10 to 15maybe), but also adds 10 to 15 ethic divergence.
If we can add a new chain of buildings that spawn straight out of the colony ship specifically for asteroid bases, then we can start with habitability extremely low, making them risky business for races that refuse to use AI. The ideal scenario being that you start the colony off with Droids but have the option to invite organic life later when the environment has been engineered for them.
I would also like it if this building chain had branches so you could specialise your asteroid base:
-Refuelling hub = +repair speed +border projection.
-Trading hub = -minerals +habitability
-Mining hub = -habitability +minerals
-Military hub = ++planetary defense ++orbital station damage
8. Asteroid base should be low level tech.
Yeah I agree, but it should be difficult without further specialized techs.
9. Arctic and Tundra should produce more minerals. Desert and Arid should produce more energy.
Honestly this is perfectly fine with me. On Earth arctic regions more consistently contain oil fields than desert regions, so I picked it the way I did.
Feedback and criticism is always welcome.
