in general - those that can be colonized are in the process of being colonized. - those that are not being colonized right now are either not worth it or too difficult.
planets that can be lived on are extremely rare and very precious. planets that are capable of sustaining human living and reasonable resources are reasons for large scale wars. in other words ... one cannot colonize / terraform a planet just like that. its a process that takes decades up to centuries of pumping money into it.
( in the past - a few mistakes were made, dishing out planets too freely ... also the only "really" professional organization with enough backup cash to terraform are houses )
I could help you with a few suggestions later, perhaps. I'm attempting to make a database containing calculations of all the essential parameters and information for judging if a planet is fit for (long-term) human habitation and/or terraforming for every planet in the game, but I haven't worked on it for a few months after I finished looking at the habitability of all the currently inhabited planets.
EDIT2: Right, I didn't really answer your question; I don't think there are any planets which are uninhabited but currently (relatively) suitable for colonization, unfortunately. Refer to Jinx's post if you haven't read it already, that sums up why there aren't any available planets very well.
If you want to check a few planets yourself, it's relatively easy to judge this from just looking at the infocard of the planet and its location:
1. What surface does (most) of the planet have? Is there anywhere on the planet you'd realistically be able to land a few ships and set up a base? Gas giants are obviously ruled out here, and the same applies to (most) planets covered by liquid, unless you come up with an interesting solution.
2. What is the surface gravity of the planet? For long-term stays or colonization you'd ideally want something between ~0.8 G and ~1.4 G, and for short visits anything under ~2-3 G should work fine, though I wouldn't recommend trying to do any heavy physical work above 1-2 G. You can find the formula for calculating the surface gravity numerous places online; I can't remember it off the top of my head.
3. If you're looking into long term colonization:
a. If you want to terraform it, would the planet be able to retain its (new) oxygen-rich atmosphere? A good rule of thumb here that I'm using is that if the escape velocity of a planet is more than ten times the average speed of a type of gas molecule in its atmosphere, that gas will (probably) remain in the atmosphere, otherwise the molecules will escape into space over time. Planetary atmosphere retention obviously also depends on a heap of other factors, but you don't (usually) have enough information about any given planet in Discovery to look any closer at this, unfortunately. (More information)
If you don't want to bother with any of that; if the planet you're looking at already has an atmosphere and isn't right next to a star or another very massive or intensely radiating object, that's probably a good indication.
b. Is there anything else which would suggest that this planet is suitable/unsuitable for habitation by humans in the infocard? Checking if the planet has a hostile climate, fauna/flora, or atmosphere (e.g. toxic gases) would be a good idea.
tl;dr: Just quickly verifying that it's actually possible to land on the planet surface and that you won't be crushed while doing so would usually indicate that you'd be able to build some kind of habitat on it - for (FL) RP, going much further than that is just over-complicating it in most cases, unless you want to. The first one(s) and 3b (reading through the infocard to check if there's anything interesting on it) are the most important, in my opinion.
- Space
EDIT: Jinx presents a good point as well; terraforming is in most cases a terribly complicated, expensive and lengthy process. The above wall of text is more directed towards what would be needed for a small base/installation on the surface with its own air supply (except point 3a), not long-term colonization and terraforming, which realistically only the houses would be able to do.
I know of planet Yuma, but I think the lore behind it was completely changed so it could fit Colonial Republic development
It went from "bidding war between OS&C and synthfoods to colonize" to "DSE was kicked out of the system by pirates, and then CR found it and Libeerty had absolutely no problem with that", and so the colonization of Yuma was forgotten.
There are several low gravity planets scattered around Omicron and Sigma space that could support dome colonies, if you can convince the parties that hold interests in the systems to let you colonize.
By technology, 22nd century one would take ~250 years, but since by lore technology is advanced Malta was colonized ~15 years so I think, why Atka failed to terraform.
Primary reason I think is the Gaian terrorists who hate Planetform that they dont want planets to change, it took ~400 years, estimating 100 terrorist attacks that reversed by 4 years, and it was subsequently abandoned because of Gallic invasion. So perhaps this is the cause.
Or Planetform doesnt have enough technology to terraform quickly... its like a slowdown of production.
(02-04-2013, 02:36 PM)Cris Wrote: I know of planet Yuma, but I think the lore behind it was completely changed so it could fit Colonial Republic development
It went from "bidding war between OS&C and synthfoods to colonize" to "DSE was kicked out of the system by pirates, and then CR found it and Libeerty had absolutely no problem with that", and so the colonization of Yuma was forgotten.
Liberty had no direct way to the planet. Only that survey ship in the system which took quite some time on conventional drives, got over there. When it was conveniently removed by pirate ships prior to the Colonials moving in (with jumphole knowledge provided either by the Zoners or IMG) Liberty was left with no direct route to enforce their claim. It'd take months for a ship to reach Coronado on conventional extrasolar travel without the jumpholes. Liberty doesn't know about the Cortez/Coronado hole IRPly, and prolly couldn't do much even if they did know. The system is beyond the independent worlds at the Bretonian border, not really part of Liberty space.
Yuma's lore is that it has megaflora that is VERY invasive and will decimate virtually any attempt at constructing groundbased facilities. Floating platforms on the oceans could remedy this for small populations but it makes life on the planet quite difficult. Imagine a tropical forest sized to where you're the size of an ant and you've got about the scale of that growth. Probably studied by DSE and CR for feasability as an ecological weapon, too...
(02-04-2013, 02:38 PM)Narcotic Wrote: As far as I know, Planet Sprague will be colonised and getting a docking ring in .87. See here.
Sprague was never "not colonized". It just needed specialized craft to make unassisted planetary landings when the docking ring was blown to bits. Seeing as the planet was off-limits at the time of the original campaign, this makes sense. It's feasability for supporting a large population was never really made clear though. Surface seems rather rocky - probably a world mainly made up of plains and deserts (but with easy access to clean water from the nearby Barrier outcroppings).
(02-04-2013, 02:39 PM)monmarfori Wrote: By technology, 22nd century one would take ~250 years, but since by lore technology is advanced Malta was colonized ~15 years so I think, why Atka failed to terraform.
Atka (in Hudson) didn't fail to terraform, but was put on hold, Planetform decided to pull out once the planet became the frontline between Liberty and Rheinland's conflict. You probably mean Ayr or Harris though. Ayr was in progress until Gallia rolled in - pushing ice comets into the atmosphere to thicken it and trigger a greenhouse effect on a dead planet. Harris, mostly same deal, although the dry condition requires cloudseeding to trigger precipitation.
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From a time when all seems lost, from a dead man to a world, without restraint, unafraid and free.
Mostly retired Discovery member. May still visit from time to time.
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