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[Killer of Fate]

this is very... Weird to me. Organics in our world are stuff like fuel. You know... Oil? At least I think that's what the game means. I mean, it's not wood. Cause that would fall under the category of farming. Same with other organic materials that could be harvested. Which besides wood no other ones come to my mind. But oil, along other fossil fuels which I would assume fall under organics... Is the result of... At least millions of years of organic matter decomposing in specific conditions.

So, does this imply that life around the sector is far more prevalent than one would assume? And would that technically mean that colonised worlds are built on the ruins of life that used to exist there?

Cause otherwise organics wouldn't have enough time to form. When they choose to make a terran world. And it has organics... Then this means that that planet used to have alien life, or might still have alien life? So life in the universe of Starsector. Alien life, is quite common.

Which makes sense, absolutely so. But that would also mean that the Domain colonised and terraformed planets like... That were often already inhabited in the past or present? How does that work? And if life aligned with our own biology is so common (cause otherwise terraforming it would make no sense). I mean, carbon-based life. Does this imply that in Starsector there is no methane-based life or whatever?

There are organics on toxic_cold, but do these refer to the elusive theoretical hydrocarbon lake aliens?

And if aliens are so common in Starsector, then how is it that humanity in the Domain has not encountered any sentient things which it was forced to negotiate and/or be at war with? Or they did? And it's all covered up?

Or is it that the game suggests that whilst the existence of life is common, sentient life is actually ridiculously rare if not ominously absent? After all humanity at its space stage in the universe of Starsector could not have been around for more than I would assume a few thousand years (as a space-faring society). Or were they? We don't have the numbers. But if they were about for tens of thousands of years, I would assume them to be slightly more... Freaky. And far more asymmetrical to us.

It'd be funny if Domain just kept discovering wrecks of itself, like alternate alien civilisations which just like it has spread and grew for tens of thousands of years and then eventually collapsed due to some unexplained albeit probably anticlimactic circumstances.

[Nettle]

Plants are life too. And naturally occurring oil doesn't require sentience, just millions of years and some carbon. Also, the habitable planets you see in the Persean sector were artificially seeded with probes before the Domain era.

[nathan67003]

"Organics" refers to organic (see wikipedia for "organic or organic-derived chemicals") materials that are seldom encountered; pools of methane and its derivatives, petroleum, various forms of organic sludge made up of bacteria, etc.

Complex hydrocarbons and other organics can rarely occur in astronomical contexts (see various nebulas with organic chemistry happening) but are far more common on planets where, well, organics live.

Oil isn't the only thing that 'organics' describes (as evidenced by them being needed to maintain colonies on uninhabitable worlds), although it does include it. This means you can have organics deposits within a few decades at most of life establishing itself on a planet. This means everything you're concerned about regarding aliens literally doesn't matter/isn't happening. Furthermore, the only actual alien biospheres you see are underlined by the Inimical Biosphere market condition; pretty much everything else is likely descended from Domain-era terraforming efforts.

[Serenitis]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_chemistry

[Killer of Fate]

"Organics" refers to organic (see wikipedia for "organic or organic-derived chemicals") materials that are seldom encountered; pools of methane and its derivatives, petroleum, various forms of organic sludge made up of bacteria, etc.

Complex hydrocarbons and other organics can rarely occur in astronomical contexts (see various nebulas with organic chemistry happening) but are far more common on planets where, well, organics live.

Oil isn't the only thing that 'organics' describes (as evidenced by them being needed to maintain colonies on uninhabitable worlds), although it does include it. This means you can have organics deposits within a few decades at most of life establishing itself on a planet. This means everything you're concerned about regarding aliens literally doesn't matter/isn't happening. Furthermore, the only actual alien biospheres you see are underlined by the Inimical Biosphere market condition; pretty much everything else is likely descended from Domain-era terraforming efforts.

nope and nah...

planets without inimical biosphere trait yet possessive of xenolife

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the fact that in order to harvest organics you need to apply a mining industry, and the fact that their production is heavily enhanced through the usage of Autonomous Mantle Bore suggests that the organic chemicals are prevalent deeper in the planet's mantle.

In order for such deposits to be formed, tens, hundreds of millions of years, possibly billions had to have passed. These aren't surface, easily accessible deposits formed by self-sustainable pathways of... Some sort of recently performed seeding processes. Otherwise Luddic practitioners would be okay with it for example... And... More importantly, said mining and Autonomous Mantle Bore wouldn't be necessary at all.

This would also align with organics appearing on toxic worlds. In accordance with scientific theories stating that Venus could have been quite a cosy place once fit for conventional carbon-based life.

[nathan67003]

The examples you've provided only have very primitive life. This does not bode well for your alien hypothesis, since the only known places in the galaxy with complex life are Earth, the preset planet with Inimical Biosphere (don't remember the name atm) and whatever the procedural generation throws the player's way.

Yes, organic chemicals can be prevalent in a planet's mantle - which, if you didn't know, mantles are almost completely disconnected from surface biological processes. Oil and such is only found in Earth's crust, if such deposits drop into the mantle they diffuse away and turn mostly into CO2, SO2 and other volcanic gases + some funky magma.

Deep mantle deposits in cold planetary mantles are entirely possible if the system was rich in organic elements during formation in the first place AND the accretion occurred very slowly.

Organics on toxic worlds is very simple to decipher: simply peruse Wikipedia at your leisure to discover how many organic liquids at room temperature have toxic vapours or how many organic solids are toxic when inhaled. It's entirely possible to explain every single organic occurence with present-day, established scientific hypotheses instead of resorting to ridiculous deus ex stuff that requires completely departing from established lore for the hell of it.

[Killer of Fate]

The examples you've provided only have very primitive life. This does not bode well for your alien hypothesis, since the only known places in the galaxy with complex life are Earth, the preset planet with Inimical Biosphere (don't remember the name atm) and whatever the procedural generation throws the player's way.

Yes, organic chemicals can be prevalent in a planet's mantle - which, if you didn't know, mantles are almost completely disconnected from surface biological processes. Oil and such is only found in Earth's crust, if such deposits drop into the mantle they diffuse away and turn mostly into CO2, SO2 and other volcanic gases + some funky magma.

Deep mantle deposits in cold planetary mantles are entirely possible if the system was rich in organic elements during formation in the first place AND the accretion occurred very slowly.

Organics on toxic worlds is very simple to decipher: simply peruse Wikipedia at your leisure to discover how many organic liquids at room temperature have toxic vapours or how many organic solids are toxic when inhaled. It's entirely possible to explain every single organic occurence with present-day, established scientific hypotheses instead of resorting to ridiculous deus ex stuff that requires completely departing from established lore for the hell of it.

this wouldn't however make any sense with how organics occur in the game. They almost never are on planets without the habitable condition, on toxic (not even on toxic_cold) and barren_desert they occur very rarely and in small quantities. Suggesting that organics are tied to living organisms. Even if said organisms are primitive.

Correction: organics can be found on toxic_cold, just as they can be found on toxic, somewhat complicating this theory

[Serenitis]

The following worlds always have organics on them (as defined in campaign\econ):
- Hesperus (Rocky Ice)
- Nomios (Frozen)
- Cethlenn (Cryovolcanic)
- Olinadu (Cryovolcanic)

"Organic" means "has carbon in it". Life is not requirement for this.

[Killer of Fate]

The following worlds always have organics on them (as defined in campaign\econ):
- Hesperus (Rocky Ice)
- Nomios (Frozen)
- Cethlenn (Cryovolcanic)
- Olinadu (Cryovolcanic)

"Organic" means "has carbon in it". Life is not requirement for this.

I would love to agree with you, but this is not the case at all for any of the procgen planets, so, this might be either a balancing thing or a retcon. Either way this does not 100% disprove my theory.

[Nettle]

How's that the evidence of commonplace sentient alien life in the Persean sector, though?

[Killer of Fate]

How's that the evidence of commonplace sentient alien life in the Persean sector, though?

how about the fact that ever ocean world has a description saying it's covered with algae mats, even though irl the chance of life occurring on such worlds according to science is quite small due to lacklustre chemical interaction

[nathan67003]

Tfw dolomites were present on Earth not a billon years after it formed (simple life is VERY common in Starsector on planets that're habitable, complex life is not)

[Killer of Fate]

Tfw dolomites were present on Earth not a billon years after it formed (simple life is VERY common in Starsector on planets that're habitable, complex life is not)

I think organics are what @Serenitis, @nathan67003 imply, but the game just kinda got confused and decided to go for gameplay and variety instead of real life logic. I don't see a reason why a colony can't survive without organics any more than it can't without ore, maybe it has something to do with these kind of chemicals being extremely relevant in habitat maintenance (I guess I can see), but that aspect is quite complex. And I might be too uninformed to fully comprehend it.

The absence of organics from volcanic, cryovolcanic, etc. planets could be just that the UI would get very cluttered if all planets had all kinds of resources. Therefore habitable planets are restricted to things we associate with being alive. And non-habitable ones with things that we associate with being dead...

[Serjo]

this is very... Weird to me. Organics in our world are stuff like fuel. You know... Oil? At least I think that's what the game means. I mean, it's not wood. Cause that would fall under the category of farming. Same with other organic materials that could be harvested. Which besides wood no other ones come to my mind.

I think organics are what @Serenitis, @nathan67003 imply, but the game just kinda got confused and decided to go for gameplay and variety instead of real life logic. I don't see a reason why a colony can't survive without organics any more than it can't without ore, maybe it has something to do with these kind of chemicals being extremely relevant in habitat maintenance (I guess I can see), but that aspect is quite complex. And I might be too uninformed to fully comprehend it.

Organics are pretty much oil and extractables similar to it. However, and I can't stress this enough, petrochemcials, often derived from oil, are so insanely important and everywhere. All the plastic you see is made with them. The keyboard you are typing on is made out of them. Most synthetic materials (like clothes) are made out of them. Furniture is made out of them. Roads are made with them. Digital devices, medical equipment, industrial chemicals, cleaning chemicals, fertilizers, rubbers, resins, you name it, all made with petrochemicals. Oh yeah and fuel. Could you imagine an industrial society without any of these? Would be pretty hard to survive without them indeed.

[Rusty Edge]

Certain raw organics would be necessary for oxygen production in the form of soil, plants or algae. Also for waste reclaimation in the form of bacterial sewage digestors. Oxygen and water itself may be considered "Organics" for the purpose of trade, in that they are the fundamentals of life.