Elestan wrote:
I just noticed this thread and took a look, becoming rather shocked to discover that this playthrough has been running for over three years...you're really getting your money's worth, Trog!
You bet Elestan! And welcome to the thread! It’s kind of evolved over time into what it’s become, and if I were being pretentious I’d say it’s grown bigger than me now, but that would of course be rather ostentatious of me, so I won’t.
Perhaps when you have some time set aside for some “light reading” you can continue to follow my adventure, which is sure to include a wonderful playthrough of SC2/UQM with scientific observations and some humor sprinkled in as you get to know me and my portrayal of the unflappable Captain Zelnick, replete with my somewhat eccentric nature, my love for edification, quotations, alliterations and my gift for understatement. Please stay for a while, ask anything, and above all… Enjoy!
Elestan wrote:
I suspect that may be a record; it also looks like you may have the most detailed notes ever compiled from in-game play. Just FYI, about six or seven years ago, I dumped the planet database to a sortable wiki table. You can find it here if/when you decide you want to see it. It's only a little spoilery; it has a comprehensive list of planetary conditions and resources, but not plot items. However, it does list the Rainbow world locations.
Interesting. I take it that you extracted this info through the code itself rather than flying around to each and every planet and recording it firsthand. I have noticed a few discrepancies along the way, for example, when I explored
Eta Vulpeculae VI, a gas giant, its mass reading came in as -367.-84 (and yes, that did take me a little while to look up in my logs

) It’s probably just a bug from my version of the remake.
I’ll refrain from looking at the database for the meantime, but I’ll definitely bookmark it for whenever I complete the game, at which time I may even fact check the data with my own! (This may sound silly but recording planetary data is really one of my favorite things to do; it makes me feel like a real explorer!)
It’s funny you bring up the Rainbow Worlds, because they still remain one of my most illusive mysteries. I know that there’s supposed to be 10 of them arranged in a pattern to give some indication as to the Precursor’s whereabouts and/or fate, but I’ve only found a few so far and can’t detect a discernable pattern yet, but hopefully the more I explore and talk with different alien folk I may track down some more of them. The fate of the entire galaxy may very well depend on it!
Elestan wrote:
I noticed you expounded on the heat at Zeeman I; that is, indeed, the hottest planet in the game. However, it's worth noting that increasing temperature has no further effect on the game above 800 degrees.
Oh yeah! I remember now… Boy! That was a while back, and if I recall correctly, I even handed out awards to all the planets, with Zeeman-I picking up the gold trophy, coming in at over 5000° C!
Elestan wrote:
There are some assorted planetary trivia here, if you're interested. These include factoids like the most hazardous planet, highest/lowest gravity, largest amount of resources, lifeform data, etc. I'm not sure whether you'd consider those spoilers at this point in your playthrough.
It probably wouldn’t hurt my game experience at this point, but I’ll forego the look-see for now, if nothing less but for consistency’s sake; I assume that
Delta Centauri III-b made the list? Granted, it was before I ever obtained lander upgrades from the Melnorme, but that place was a nightmare!
There’s hardly any need for obtaining more minerals, and I’ve only kept one cargo bay on the Vindicator for quite a while, mostly for picking up exotics and seeing if there’s other element names, since you can’t make that determination without a place to put them.
Animal lifeforms remains my persisting curiosity when my scanners reveal life on any given planet, and I’d like to see if there’s any other types of lifeforms I haven’t found yet. Even for somebody following along it may be difficult to know for certain which ones I’m referring to without cross-referencing, since I usually give them my own descriptive names, like jumping jack gummy bears or celery stalks with eyeballs. They must have their own names that everybody’s familiar with since I’ve occasionally heard what I like to call octoshrooms (or the ever-popular portabella krakens!) as ‘fungal squids’, and palmpet called one of the lifeforms ‘merry whumpets’, which I describe as cyclopean elves.
By the way, on a completely separate note, I actually love it when I start seeing a bunch of black-covered text! It must mean there’s either some speculation going on within the group, or an entire conversation about something that would otherwise be spoilerous to me. 