Spent some time doing this, not sure if I covered everything. I was not able to cover spaceports or storage due to the fact it needs to be actually built to show info on it or whatever. Anyway, LOTS of juicy lore, so I bring you the infodump!
COMMAND CENTERS
"Modular Administrative Structure" (Temperate/barren)
The modular design of this administrative structure allows it to be deployed piecemeal from orbit, then manually assembled on the surface by MTACs and engineering personnel. Supported by self-regulating pylons that follow the contours of indigenous terrain, the facility can accommodate almost any severity of incline or other non-critical geological hazard. Once active, it serves as both a central command post to coordinate the activity of all other nodes and a basic transportation site for getting commodities off world using standard, vertically launched rockets.
"High altitude/atmospheric orbital command facility" (Gas)
Maintaining control over a section of “territory” above a gas giant requires a very specific type of command facility, one that is able to maintain its own orbit, house administrative personnel, and easily communicate and interact with other nodes. Suspended with equilibrium technology, these nodes are able to maintain altitude with minimal upkeep. If there is one major advantage to colonizing gas giant planets, it is that these facilities can literally be dropped directly from orbit with almost no concern for their descent or deployment.
"Underwater command center" (oceanic)
Several interconnected underwater buildings comprise the oceanic command center, which serves as the nervous system for node structures built on water worlds. Built on the ocean floor, this facility includes a thick umbilical that connects it to a communications pod floating on the surface, through which all interplanetary transmissions are sent and received. It also houses a basic two-stage pressurized rocket tube for getting people and cargo to the surface and thence off world into orbit.
"Hostile world command structure" (ice/storm/plasma/lava)
This command structure is designed to survive in the harshest planetary environments the universe can offer. The superstructure uses a combination of titanium-steel reinforcement, increasing its overall resilience, and counter-harmonic stabilizers, which keep it level and secure regardless of geological conditions or activity. The entire facility is covered by a skin of adaptive plating originally designed for terraforming platforms, a protective barrier that insulates it from the surrounding environment. Visitors can expect a prolonged and immodest decontamination and pressurization process when first arriving at the command structure. Valuable materials are lifted off world by a bulk payload, reusable rocket, the scattered components of which are retrieved by cargo drones.
EXTRACTORS
"Seismic extraction facility" (non-cs crystals [plasma/lava], noble metals [plasma], base metals [plasma/storm/lava], felsic magma [lava], heavy metals [lava/plasma/ice])
This facility consists of seismic insulated platforms and heavy, jointed conveyor belts leading into deep tunnels. Extremophile drones, built to function in even corrosive, intemperate, and high- or low-pressure atmospheres, run a constant circuit along the belts, performing repairs and clearing away rubble. A staff of mining experts and technicians occupy the main building in case any of the automated systems fail.
"Custom-built gas extractor" (noble gas, reactive gas, base metals [gas])
Custom-built gas extractors were first developed to take advantage of gas giant settlements and represented the most lucrative long-term development of such unique worlds. These enormous extraction units, when carefully lowered to the proper altitude on gas giant planets, provide a cost-effective way of acquiring rare and high-demand resources, such as noble and reactive gases and suspended plasma. The proliferation of gas giant settlement in recent years has drastically lowered the price of these base materials, which in turn has seen increased productivity in the numerous planetside and spacebound industries built around these valuable commodities.
"Surface mine" (noble metals [barren], base metals [barren])
Surface mining is a common and effective practice that dates back to early planetary settlement. The process involves stripping a planet’s surface layer until the ore buried beneath is exposed. At this point, the ore can be more easily extracted. Surface mines are typically quite shallow and are built in areas where the surface material covering the valuable deposits is relatively thin. For this reason, surface mines are sometimes built on the ocean floor.
"Deep surface fission extractor" (noble gas [storm/ice], ionic solutions [storm], suspended plasma [storm/plasma/lava], aqueous liquids [temperate/barren/storm/ice])
Finding desired liquids on hostile worlds can be almost as challenging a task as extracting it from the unforgiving environment, which often entails drilling kilometers below the surface or condensing fluids from the upper atmosphere. Once the liquids are discovered, the facility itself begins the relatively simple task of separating it from the ambient plasma interference, scalding magma streams, or potentially infectious indigenous bacteria. A surprising amount of valuable liquids can be extracted from hostile worlds, but only if the equipment is properly calibrated and carefully maintained.
"Biomass cultivators" (micro organisms [temperate/ice/oceanic], complex organisms [temperate], autotrophs [temperate], planktic colonies [ice], carbon compound [temperate/barren])
Modular biomass cultivators have been the mainstay of low-cost micro-agriculture for centuries. As a result, these facilities have proliferated across many planetary settlements. These adaptable micro-ponds allow communities to alter their cultivators to take advantage of local environments, benefitting optimally from the unique bacterial makeup of local water supplies. Although traditional farming methods remain competitive on terrestrial planets, the production of micro-organisms is most efficient when handled by a custom biomass cultivator.
"Underwater collection and processing plant" (micro organisms [oceanic], planktic colonies [oceanic], complex organisms [oceanic])
Centuries of aquatic life and plant growth typically blanket ocean worlds’ floors with a thick layer of valuable biomass. When properly cultivated, harvested, and refined, the applications of such material range anywhere from food production and medical application to more esoteric functions, such as genetic enhancements and super-resilient textiles. The facility itself includes both a processing plant, which filters and compresses the material; and a roving collector, which is little more than a series of churning scoops and a powerful pumping mechanism connected to the facility via flexible conduit.
"Underwater extraction platform" (carbon compounds [oceanic], aqueous liquids [oceanic])
This underwater platform and extendable extraction arms are capable of scouring the ocean floor for valuable materials and bringing them to the surface for transportation to processing facilities. A small habitation module serves as living and operation quarters for the human administration and maintenance crew, along with emergency surfacing capsules in the case of a seismic event or breach of the building’s integrity.
"Gas extraction refinery" (ionic solutions [gas], aqueous liquids [gas])
Extracting gas from a gas giant requires more effort than simply opening a door into a container. Each specific type of desirable gas requires an ionized filament to be calibrated to attract only the right particles from the atmosphere. Even a fraction of a percent error could spoil an entire batch of product by tainting it with unwanted material. Likewise, once the gas is extracted from the surrounding air, the platform’s equilibrium tanks must be adjusted to compensate for the added weight or buoyancy. Beyond that, it’s a simple matter of supercooling it and transferring the liquid form into a container for transport. As one pioneer of this technology accurately described it, “The extractor itself is much like a living organism, breathing in what it needs and expelling that which becomes cumbersome.”
PROCESSORS
"Automated mass production facility" (temperate/barren)
Populated almost entire by robotic laborers, mass production facilities excel at creating products in bulk with minimal supervision and maintenance. They can be so self-sufficient that rumors abound of Gallente factories operated entirely by androids and governed by a skeleton crew of drones. (Detractors of this method like to note that Sansha facilities work in much the same fashion.) Either way, the results are irrefutable: Raw materials and components go in one end, and polished commodities come out the other side.
"Environmental, self-powering industrial facility" (ice/storm/plasma/lava)
Instead of laboring to shield the production lines of this industrial facility from the surrounding environment, designers opted instead to use the available heat, interference, and even crushing pressure to help power the structure itself. A plant on an ice planet might have highly advanced extended heat sinks, while a factory on a plasma world might draw most, if not all of its electricity from magnetized coils specially attuned to the planet’s local ion winds. Taking advantage of the indigenous features of each world helps offset the cost of building mass production infrastructure there, which usually involves protective coatings, environmental clothing, and reinforced foundations.
"Mass production industry platform" (gas)
Hovering eerily among the clouds of a gas giant planet, this mass production industry platform can cast a long shadow, for it requires a massive static attunement system to remain afloat. Inside, the only real difference between it and one of its terrestrial counterparts is in the material composition used in its construction. Anything that would have been made from cheap, sturdy metal is replaced with high-strength, ultra-resistant alloys. Spare parts and raw materials are kept at absolutely minimal levels to maintain the proper weight and balance, while even items as innocuous as staff personal effects are carefully monitored and regulated.
"Underwater mass production facility" (oceanic)
Because of the difficulties involved in maintaining a habitable environment for human workers, all requirements for such personnel have been eliminated on oceanic mass production facilities. Instead, the building’s focus is centered on maintaining production quotas under extreme circumstances, with reinforced bulkheads occupying almost every space that would normally have been reserved for hallways, offices, and living quarters.
Author
Topic: Planetary buildings Lore infodump! (Read 3895 times)