Nikola 1: True Tidal Lock Biomes [mod request]

[FALCmods4all]

How is decoding hidden planet data going?

I know a lot of us are particularly interested in exploring and developing exotic worlds.

As Nikola 1 is a rare tidal locked planet in vanilla, this makes it an ideal candidate for playing out what features the most interesting tidal locked planets might have. Is there a way to start reworking the biome and weather maps yet? If not, any way we might build pressure for Bethesda or their 3rd parties to make features more accessible? Certainly bethesda is invested in mods taking off. It’d be a shame if modding remains slow just due to technical proprietary blocks.

Currently, the planet does not have a hot side and a cold side as it should. So, as modding tools start to allow, correcting that would be the first step.

The next, and most interesting step would be to create a twilight habitable band vertically spanning the planet between hot and cold with custom vegetation and creatures. This band could be as thin as 1 tile if it must created manually, 1 tile at a time, still a crazy amount of biome edits to circle an entire planet, but maybe feasible, and definitely interesting to be able to physically drive from the cold boundary to the hot boundary in like 1 horizon length. Since twilight there is mostly reddish, leaves should be any other other color than red or white, absorbing red rather than reflecting red.

My hope is that once this becomes achievable, we can build twin cities, loosely spanning a twilight jungle by train where the enlightened are attempting to build a fully automated luxury communist utopia under threat from corporations. I’ve outlined more details for the idea in another post.

Here, I’d like to explore current progress on planet modding, options or tips for how to make Nikola 1 true to the tidal locked status it occupies, and I’m also interested to hear of any other tidal lock mod ideas so that if my idea for a city comes about it can acknowledge activities that may be taking place on Nikola 1 from other mods or even collaborate in building out Nikola 1.

So, what is getting better in terms of planet editing and what tools do Bethesda or modders still need?

What is the current status for custom npcs and followers in starfield, as in, are things major questmod ready yet, or still a bit too janky?

Do you have thoughts about Nikola 1? Does making this planet a hub for enlightened mods in particular sound like a good idea, or do you think there are other locations more suited to the science and ethics faction of starfield?

On a side note, I’d like to try to start building a nomadic spacestation consisting of a flotilla of random ships and ship modules. At first, I was thinking this could be for Sanctum Universum, but perhaps better suited as colonies of great serpent zealots, friendly or hostile depending on dlc decisions. If anyone thinks that sounds interesting, I’d like to collaborate.

I supose Sanctum Universum are the most care free faction. I guess they would be most interested in just trying to party with aliens or sentient robots. So either a location under water, trying to befriend fish/rock/etc people or on a planet where AI is making strange art and completely ignoring them? Curious what others envision as a main project for them.

Any other technically exotic planets not yet displaying exotic features that also need overhauling at some point? I’ve mentioned before, but also looking forward to rogue planets and upper gas giant atmosphere vacuum airships. Getting stranded out in the dark or looking over the edge into bottomless churning clouds. A planetary nebula would also be great.

I’m new to making mods, but very invested in helping with sciencey immersion to the best of my ability. 

Edited November 2 by FALCmods4all

[aurreth]

Quote

Is there a way to start reworking the biome and weather maps yet?

Yes.  Weather is actually linked to the biome.  It's possible to edit a planet.biom file to get it to allow different biome records.

As far as I know there's no way to completely rewrite the planet.biom file.  You can edit it to change, for example, all ice biomes to forest biomes, but you can't change where those are located on a planet.  So if your tidally locked planet does not already have a hot side, a cold side and a twilight belt there's no way to make that right now.

Of course it's possible that someone has figured out how to do it and just isn't sharing.  I don't have the time to dig through the narcissistic mess that is Discord hoping to wander across the one channel that explains things.

[FALCmods4all]

On 11/2/2024 at 4:54 AM, aurreth said:

Yes.  Weather is actually linked to the biome.  It's possible to edit a planet.biom file to get it to allow different biome records.

As far as I know there's no way to completely rewrite the planet.biom file.  You can edit it to change, for example, all ice biomes to forest biomes, but you can't change where those are located on a planet.  So if your tidally locked planet does not already have a hot side, a cold side and a twilight belt there's no way to make that right now.

Of course it's possible that someone has figured out how to do it and just isn't sharing.  I don't have the time to dig through the narcissistic mess that is Discord hoping to wander across the one channel that explains things.

Ah, I see. 
 

Maybe if we pester Bethesda about Nikola 1 having an inaccurate biome map as a bug report they’ll patch it eventually.

Better to be given full access to edit maps, but I’d settle for 1 scientifically accurate 3 biome tidal locked planet for now.

I’d encourage anyone interested in a fix for this to check steam or bethesda net for nikola 1 tidal lock bug reports to bump up.