Planetary Interaction
Starter Guide
OverviewWelcome to the starter guide for Planetary Interaction, henceforth referred to as PI. In this guide I will cover what the different types of planets are, what resources can be found where, how production works, and finally how to build a fully self-sustaining system of planets.
Planet Types and Their Resources
Gas
Gas planets are characterized by a deep, opaque upper atmosphere, usually composed primarily of light elements such as hydrogen or helium. Simple chemicals can add a range of hues and shades in the visual spectrum, and the interaction between upwellings and rapidly circulating pressure bands result in a huge variety of visible surface structures. A similar level of diversity can be found beneath the cloud-tops: the inner composition of a given gas planet might belong to any one of a dozen broad groups, with no two planets entirely alike in this regard.
a) Resource Types found on Gas Planets:
- Ionic Solutions
- Reactive Gas
- Noble Gas
- Base Metals
- Aqueous Liquids
The majority of icy planets went through a period of being barren terrestrials, before being surfaced with ice over the course of many millennia. The exact process for this varies from case to case, but the end result is both common and visually uniform - a bright, reflective planet scored by countless fractures and crevasses. A few icy planets are hypothesized to have been warmer, liquid-bearing planets in the past that have subsequently frozen, as a result of either stellar cooling or failed terraforming projects.
a) Resource Types found on Ice Planets:
- Micro Organisms
- Planktic Colonies
- Noble Gas
- Metals
- Aqueous Liquids
Storm worlds are usually considered terrestrial planets, although to a casual eye they may appear more similar to gas planets, given their opaque, high-pressure atmospheres. Geomorphically, however, the distinctions are clear: compared to a gas world, the atmosphere of a storm world is usually considerably shallower, and generally composed primarily of more complex chemicals, while the majority of the planet's mass is a rocky terrestrial ball. Their name is derived from the continent-scale electrical storms that invariably flash through their upper atmospheres.
a) Resource Types found on Storm Planets:
- Ionic Solutions
- Noble Gas
- Suspended Plasma
- Base Metals
- Aqueous Liquids
Barren planets are archetypical "dead terrestrials": dry, rocky worlds with a minimal atmosphere and an unremarkable composition. They are commonly etched with flood channels, which are often broad enough to be visible from orbit; most such worlds have accumulated significant quantities of ice over their lifetimes, but cannot retain it on their surface. Generally surface liquid evaporates rapidly, contributing to the thin atmosphere, but occasionally it will seep back into the ground and refreeze, ready for another breakout in future when the local temperature rises.
a) Resource Types found on Barren Planets:
- Micro Organisms
- Carbon Compounds
- Noble Metals
- Base Metals
- Aqueous Liquids
5. Temperate - Life-bearing worlds are often referred to as "temperate", as their mild temperatures are one of their defining features. Planets with existing, stable ecosystems are prime targets for colonization efforts as they are generally easier to make fully habitable; as a result, the majority of highly populated worlds are of this type. Indeed, it is not altogether uncommon for detailed surveys to reveal signs of previous settlements from various stages of New Eden's history.
a) Resource Types found on Temperate Planets:
- Micro Organisms
- Carbon Compounds
- Autotrophs
- Complex Organisms
- Aqueous Liquids
So-called "lava planets" (properly "magmatic planets") fall into one of three groups: solar magmatics, which orbit sufficiently close to their star that the surface never cools enough to solidify; gravitational magmatics, which experience gravitational shifts sufficiently strong to regularly and significantly fracture cooling crusts; and magmatoids, which are for largely-unexplained reasons simply incapable of cooling and forming a persistent crust. All three types generally exhibit the same external phenomena - huge red-orange lava fields being a defining feature - but the latter two types are sometimes capable of briefly solidifying for a period measured in years or perhaps decades.
a) Resource Types found on Lava Planets:
- Non-CS Crystals
- Suspended Plasma
- Base Metals
- Felsic Magma
- Heavy Metals
Oceanic worlds are a class of terrestrial world covered entirely by liquids, usually in the form of mundane water. While the liquid surface is exceptionally smooth, the ocean floor on most worlds of this type exhibits significant topographic variety. It is this subsurface irregularity which causes the formation of complex weather systems, which would otherwise revert to more uniform patterns.
a) Resource Types found on Oceanic Planets:
- Micro Organisms - Carbon Compounds - Planktic Colonies - Complex Organisms - Aqueous Liquids
8. Plasma - The aptly-named "plasma planets" have captured the imagination of countless artists and inspired innumerable works, yet the physics behind them are surprisingly mundane by cosmological standards. A rocky terrestrial with the right kind of atmosphere and magnetic field will, when bombarded with solar radiation, generate sprawling plasma storms as specific atmospheric elements are stripped of their electrons. Over time these storms will generally scorch the surface rock black, adding to the visual impact.
a) Resource Types found on Plasma Planets:
- Non-CS Crystals
- Suspended Plasma
- Noble Metals
- Base Metals
- Heavy Metals
Shattered planets were once terrestrial planets, torn asunder by some immense cataclysm. All such worlds in the New Eden cluster are products of the disastrous stellar events that occurred during the "Seyllin Incident". However, reports continue to circulate of similar planets discovered in the unmapped systems reached exclusively through unstable wormholes. How these met their fate, if indeed they exist at all, is unknown.
a) Resource Types found on Shattered Planets:
- None
Getting Started
When getting ready to start up a PI installation, you must first decide what it is you wish to produce in the end. This will dictate what planet or planets you need to setup on to produce the final commodity.
For example, lets say you wish to mass produce Coolant, which is used extensively in the production of POS fuel. The two main planets you will need to setup on are a Ice and Storm planets, as these will offer the greatest abundance of the required raw resources Aqueous Liquids and Ionic Solutions.
The Ice planet will yield plenty of Aqueous Liquid to be turned into water, a key ingredient of Coolant. The Storm planet on the other hand will offer a large amount of the Ionic Solution needed to make Electrolytes, the other key ingredient for Coolant. From here you would simply put both of those products into an advanced factory to make Coolant.
So, that being said, what do you need to get started? The answer is Command Centers. There is one Command Center for each type of planet in the game (not including the Shattered Planet type). You need to purchase or create a command center for the planet(s) you wish to setup on, and then fly to that planet, right click it in overview (or the planet itself), hit view in planet mode, then scan for the resource(s) you need. Once you find where the resources are, switch to build mode, and place your command center in such a way to allow easy access to all the resources.
Once that is done, confirm your changes to the planet, and click your command center on the planet. Upgrade it as high as you can with the skills you have available, to maximize how much playroom you have for power and cpu needs.
Key structures to place BEFORE placing anything else:
Launch Pad – This allows you to send your resources / commodities to the orbiting customs office for pickup. You technically could just have your command center jettison them to space in a cargo container to pickup, but this also opens you up to a possibility of theft, especially in low/null security space.
Storage – Not necessarily needed, unless you plan on going a week or more between pickups. A Launch Pad can only hold up to 10,000 m3 worth of items, while a storage structure can hold up to 12,000 m3 each. Not much, but it can make a difference.
Planetary Links – for every structure you place, you need to make sure they are all connected back to the command center using links. To place these, select Planetary Links in Build Mode, click Create Link, and then click on the source structure (lets use the Launch Pad for this example), then click the Command Center.
Once the initial infrastructure is up and running, apply your changes. Now the fun begins. Remember when you were scanning for those resources? Lets say you scanned for Aqueous Liquids on the Ice Planet. When doing the scan you should have noticed shaded areas ranging from a very light blue to a bright red or white. Light blue is a very small deposit of that resource, while red or white means an extremely high deposit of the resource.
With that being said, do the following steps on the Ice Planet (you can repeat these steps for the Storm Planet, but for the other needed resource. The process is the same):
1. Go to Build Mode on the planet.
2. Click Extractor Control Units
3. Click Ice Extractor Control Unit (exchange Ice for the type of planet you are building on)
4. Find the highest deposit you can near your command center, and place the structure in the middle of that deposit
5. After placing the structure, create a link from your command center (or launch pad) to the extractor.
6. Apply changes.
7. Next, click the new extractor structure, and hit the icon that looks like a downward facing arrow pointing at a flat circle.
8. Starting off, click 3 of the 10 check circles on the left side of the window to setup Extractor Head Units. Each of these take up power and cpu provided by the Command Center, so don't over do it.
9. Then, on the right side, click the image of the resource you wish to extract (in this case, Aqueous Liquids).
10. A Graph will appear in the center, adjust the Extraction area size slider on the bottom left side until the Program Output section on the right side shows a total of at least 200,000 units, with per hour being about 1500 or more. You may need to increase or decrease the number of Extractor heads to accomplish this.
11. Make sure when you are adjusting the sliders, that the circles surrounding each head on the planet itself are not overlapping, as this can affect production in a negative way if done too much.
12. When you are happy with the numbers, hit Start Program and close the window.
13. Apply the changes.
Congratulations! You have just setup the most basic part of a PI operation. Now go do the same with the Storm Planet, but for Ionic Solutions. Once this is all done, it is time to do this next step.
The Next step is to setup your Basic Industry Facility. This is found under Build → Processors → Ice Basic Industry Facility (again Ice is replaced by whatever planet type you are building this on). Place this close to your launch pad / command center, then click on it.
In the new window, click the icon that looks like a production tree (a bunch of boxes with lines between them). This opens up the schematics list for this facility. Scroll through the list until you find Water (Electrolytes for the Storm Planet), and double click. Now under the icon that looks like two arrows going through a circle, click the commodity, and at the bottom of the window, hit create route. Select the launch pad, and click Create Route. As long as you have created links between all the structures of the planet back to command center or launch pad, you should now be done with these two planets.
Now for the final part. Mass Production. Because you had to produce these two commodities (Water and Electrolytes) on two different planets, you need a way to combine them on one planet to turn into your final product, Coolant. To do this, we need to settle a third planet. I recommend a Barren planet, because it is the most numerous planet to be found so far in the game.
Setup a Barren Command Center following the steps from before, with a launch pad and links. Don't worry about building storage facilities at this time as it won't be required for the purpose of this guide. Next, go the Build → Processors → Barren Advanced Industry Facility. Place this near your launch pad, and click on it. Go to schematics, and double click Coolant. Route the product back to your launch pad, make sure everything is linked, and hit apply.
The only step you have left to make everything work, is to wait until some Electrolytes and Water have been produced on your Ice and Storm Planets, then fly over to the custom's office, transfer them from the right pane to the left pane (which does cost ISK), and then after they have been transferred, move them into your ship's inventory. Then fly to the custom's office of the Barren Planet, and do the reverse of this process. Move the items to the left pane of the office, then transfer to the right pane.
From here, go back to view planet mode for the Barren Planet, and route the water and electrolytes to the advanced processor facility. That's all you have to do, now every hour you should have produced 5 Coolant units to be picked up at your custom's office of that planet. You can expand your facilities (and therefore your total yield and profit) by building more than one extractor and basic processor on your planets, then build 2-3 more advanced processors on your barren planet, repeating all the necessary steps for each planet.
It takes 30 minutes to produce 20 water and 20 electrolytes, and you need 40 of each to produce 5 Coolant. From here, I leave it to you to find out how best to manage your planets, and wish you luck.
Important SkillsBelow are some key skills to be trained if you really want to get into PI.
1. Planetology
a) The higher this skill, the clearer your scans will be on what resources are where.
2. Command Center Upgrades
a) The higher this skill, the high level of upgrades you can apply to your command center. This allows for high CPU and Powergrid allowance, meaning more structures.
3. Interplanetary Consolidation
a) The higher this skill, the more planets you can control. You start off with the ability to setup only one planet, and with this skill trained to level 5, you can setup a total of six planets.
4. Advanced Planetology
a) You first need to get Planetology to level IV before you can train this, but it allows even clearer scans for each level you train in this.
5. Remote Sensing
a) For each level in this skill, you can scan planets without needing to be in the same system. Level one allows scans with 1 lightyear, level two allows 3 ly, then 5 ly, 7 ly, and 9 ly, respectively.
Links to Important Resources
Some links to important resources to help you in your ventures of PI:
wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Planet
wiki.eveuniversity.org/Planetary_Commodities
eveplanets.com/
