Atmospheric conversion

sander,
Isn't the whole concept of atmosphere conversion to convert atmospheres to be friendly to your race? If there's a race already on the planet then they are breathing that atmosphere and if you want them to breathe then why convert in the first place? Plus you have to own the planet in order to build so why worry about the natives when you should be worrying about how your people breathe and to expand the room for your people and industries.
Omnius

In previous SE games, Atmospheric converters converted to the breather race on the planet. Thats the way its SUPPOSED to work.

Also Omnius, you seem to have overlooked some rather major things. Lets start with the scenario of a methane planet filled with CO2 breathers owned by Sander's O2 breathing race

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

Rilbur,
It would be foolish to waste the time and resources to build an atmospheric converter that doesn't work for your population's atmosphere. I was looking at this and migration in the manual and it looks like migration from races with different atmospheres could end up doming your breathable planets. I didn't see multiple races on a planet in SE4 but the atmosphereic converter worked just the way it should have by converting atmospheres to my race's atmosphere.
Omnius

Atmospheric Conversion should change the atmosphere to one breathable by the largest population on the planet, simple as that. That's how it's supposed to work, that's how it should work, etc.

You're right when you say migration of two different races may cause a colony to go domed, but in 1.13, I have a planet I set up with a caputered colony ship of an enemy race that breathes another kind of atmosphere. Despite it being in a system with another race, no migration has occured. It seems, at least with 1.13, that the game will not let a colony go domed due to migration.

-----
With all these people, you would expect one of them to carry an iguana around...

Thy Reaper,
Thanks for the tip on migration and atmosphere. I was a tad worried that was a little poison pill the AI would spring on me somewhere. The whole point of atmospheric conversion is to make the atmosphere compatible for your people, not someone eles's. If they want better atmosphere for their type then they should build it. Personally I just exterminate planet populations before colonizing it for myself to avoid any personality or atmospheric problems between my race and a conquered one.
Omnius

Its not a waste to have the converter convert to something other than you're race's people. It doesn't happen often in stock, but occasionally you end up with more alien people than your race in your empire, making populating planets with them a MUCH better idea simply because there are more of them to throw at a given planet to fill it up.

At which point you want the alien-breathers to get the planet converted to their atmosphere. Its happened before to me, and will probably happen again.

Heck, if all I have is a small colony of breathers I'll probably convert their (presumably domed) planet to get more use out of 'em untill I find a planet that they fit better on! (I tend to expand slowly but surely, so that IS an issue for me).

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

Rilbur,
I haven't gotten to mixed races on my planets yet. I can see where loading a certain type of breather on a colony ship could help make that colony undomed rather than domed if you used your native race. Could be the game treats alien races like the saying "when in Rome do as the Romans do". Maybe the game makes breathers of different atmospheres convert to your native atmosphere type by wearing breathing masks. Only way to explain how alien races breathing different atmospheres don't dome your own colonies needlessly.
Omnius

If there are non-breathers on a planet, its domed. Thats the way it worked int he past, at least. I don't think they MIGRATE to non-breathable planets, though.

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

I used the Intelligence Focus: Sabotage - Ships & Fleets. Occasionally you will gain control of enemy vessels, and I got lucky enough to get one of their colony ships that was headed toward my empire.

-----
With all these people, you would expect one of them to carry an iguana around...

He just said so up above

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

I tweaked the Atmospherics plant abit to convert the atmosphere to that point that my own people can breathe in 0.5 years, but it doesn't work. 0.5 years after building the plant, its still a domed colony.Worse yet: even after 2 years the colony is domed. Do i miss something here?

Modded mine to 2 years (20 turns). Worked fine for me.

A theoretical question. If I colonize a crappy planet with only room for 1 facility, but I want to change the atmosphere so that I can give it to an ally empire. I'm assuming that the recieving empire would value a breathable (to them) planet over a non-breathable planet. Is this assumption correct, and is this tactic plausible? How much of a distinction would the AI have for the two different planets if I gave them the planet before and after the conversion?

Mendel
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority

Atmospheric modulation was fixed in the 1.15 changelog. It seems it was using some arbitrary time rather than what the component specified.

-----
Give me atmopshperic manipulation cannons, or give me death!

ship capture worked in 1.00? never knew that :s

care to post the code you used in here?

Name := Atmospheric Modification Plant Description := Massive atmospheric processors that slowly change the atmosphere of a planet to a breathable state. Facility Group := Planet Modification XFile Class Name := Atmospheric Modication Plant Picture Number := 19 Maximum Level := 5 Tonnage Space Taken Formula := 1000 Tonnage Structure Formula := 1000 + (([%Level%] - 1) * 250) Cost Minerals Formula := 15000 + (([%Level%] - 1) * 250) Cost Organics Formula := 15000 + (([%Level%] - 1) * 250) Cost Radioactives Formula := 15000 + (([%Level%] - 1) * 250) Number Of Requirements := 1 Requirements Evaluation Availability := AND Requirements Evaluation Allows Placement := TRUE Requirements Evaluation Allows Usage := TRUE Requirement 1 Description := Empire must have at least tech level 11 in Planet Utilization. Requirement 1 Formula := Get_Empire_Tech_Level("Planet Utilization") >= (11 + ([%Level%] - 1)) Number Of Abilities := 1 Ability 1 Type := Planet Atmosphere Change Ability 1 Description := Atmospheric Modification Plant changes the atmosphere of the planet to one that is breathable by its colony over [%Amount1%] years. Ability 1 Scope := Space Object Ability 1 Range Formula := 0 Ability 1 Amount 1 Formula := 6.0 - (([%Level%] - 1) * 1) Ability 1 Amount 2 Formula := 0

Based on Balance Mod 0.97. At level 5 it takes 20 turns to convert.

Did the tech that controls Atmosphere Conversion get fixed. So many fixes it's hard to tell. I'm glad Solar Sails got fixed.
Omnius

didn't work for me, in the game it said that i would take 5years..... not 2

I must admit however that i do not have the balance mod installed( not that i know of....)

Looking at the raw data, for 1.20 unmodded.... I found out why people found this a hidiously long time to convert atmospheres.

The converter was set to a max tech level of 20, which would give a time of 0.5 years.... but.... The Planet Utilization tech was capped at 21, which meant that the Converter would only ever reach tech level 2. Raise the cap on Planet Utilization tech to 39 and hey presto.... fixed....

Hmmz, this probably should go down as a bug too....

Thats been known for a while Nevyn, just not ar eal high priority to fix.
_______________________
There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

Rilbur,
I had a couple of planets convert atmospheres but they stayed domed. I found some garbage remnants of a dead race on some of my planets so I spaced them and my atmospheres converted properly and I didn't have any domed planets. Just space the wrong breathers early on and you won't have any atmosphere conversion problems.
Omnius

I changed the code that way that it only takes 5 turns to convert an atmosphere.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Every great fall begins with a single mistake, YOU just made your's........

Total atmospheric conversion in 5 turns = 0.5 years. Even going to a new atmosphere of roughly the same atomic weight (say, CO2 to O2), that's a significant change in mass and/or density. It'd play hell with the weather patterns. Err, everyone...you might want to stay inside your domes for the next year or so....yeah....and if it isn't tied down, it's not going to be there when you come out.

Doing that sort of thing no matter what the timescale would be annoying for the colonists. For example all that native life around them? Gasping for breath then dead.

There is also that thing called climate control facility, that should take care of the rest i think.
Build like 20 of those and you'll should be ok............ ( nothing happened to my planets yet)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Every great fall begins with a single mistake, YOU just made your's........

Building 20 climate control facilities on any planet is a waste. It only takes one to change the planet conditions and it just takes a little patience for it to do the trick. I put them on every planet with less than optimal conditions.

Atmosphere Conversion in only 5 turns is way too fast. Doing it in 2 years, 20 turns, seems a bit fast for me but it's somewhat reasonable. Just screws up gameplay and gives the human too big an advantage over the AI's, like humans need any help against the pathetic AI's.
Omnius