COLONIZING PLANETS

PLANET VIEW SCREEN

The Planet View screen provides a summary of current population, population growth, industrial waste, factories, planetary defense shields, and orbital fleets. Each icon on the planet is equal to 10 units of whatever the icon represents.

Planetary Environments: There are 14 environmental types in Master of Orion. The type of planetary environment dictates the size of the planet, which in turn determines how many colonists the planet can support and how fast the population will grow. Hostile environments (barren, tundra, dead, inferno, toxic, and radiated) halve the normal population growth and require advanced technology to colonize. Hostile environments are also the systems most likely to have mineral rich resources that double or even triple ship, defense, and factory production.

• Terran planets are earth-like and can support the largest number of colonists.
• Jungle planets are young, undeveloped worlds reminiscent of the Dinosaur Age on earth.
• Ocean planets have very few land masses and are almost completely covered by water.
• Arid planets have only about one quarter of their surface covered by water.
• Steppe planets have rugged terrains that are difficult to clear for a colony.
• Desert planets have very scarce water supplies and are plagued by violent dust storms.
• Minimal planets can barely support life with an oxygen poor atmosphere and little water.
• Barren planets have no surface water supplies and little to no atmosphere.
• Tundra planets are basically huge balls of ice with sub-zero temperatures year round.
• Dead planets have no water supplies or atmospheres whatsoever.
• Inferno planets are similar to Venus with excruciatingly hot environments.