This is a game, we received a completely new discovery scanner and codex in a server tick with no lore explanation so realism is a good reference that should come with a lower priority compared to the fun.



Terraforming could become a process of a week. I made a proposal some time ago.

The only strong cons I see is that this would require manual intervention on the stellarforge engine because to replace a Terraformable HMC into an ELW at the moment would require manual intervention. Alternatively it would require some new coding to make it automatic.

Another big cons is the requirement of Atmospheric Planets (so this would be a new content dedicated to that).



To make it short my proposal involved:

1. Exploration: find a planet that fulfills the requirements (it needs to be out of the bubble), sell cartography to a faction specialized in terraforming and they provides you a terraforming kit (3 land probes and an atmospheric generator to be placed on the surface)

2. Analysis: Go back to the planet, land at the poles and the equator and place the land probes. The probes will tell you where on the surface you have to place the atmospheric generator.

3. (NEW MODE) Hauler/Airliner: Transport commodities and workers to the planet to create an outpost and start the planet colonization.



When the outpost is built, Stellarforge converts the planet to ELW.



- The planet/colony is disconnected from the BGS

- You can use this base as your own

- It provides you a weekly salary

- Time to time you receive private missions asking you to transport commodities or people to and from the colony with special bonus reward.

- You can set the Colony independent (you lose the salary and the bonus missions) and get a big reward instead. You can still use the base to store your ships and modules.



Limitations:

You can only own one colony. So if you want to terraform another planet you need first to set the current colony independent.