Regarding the rain on toxic planets

Discussion in 'Mechanics' started by scousekid92, Aug 7, 2016.

  1. scousekid92

    scousekid92 Void-Bound Voyager

    So Starbound has these planets full of toxic oceans, and under normal circumstances, there's no reason to visit. The climate is dangerous and the stuff there is either under or across the oceans. So to do anything, you need a way to deal with that. We currently have a poison resistance EPP module, which thankfully allows safe passage through the toxic water. Through that, you can reach stuff on the ocean floor and other islands without requiring a boat to cross.

    Now this is fantastic. Except there's one more obstacle in this world. Rain. The rain is also toxic. The problem here is that... it doesn't take the EPP module into account. So what I don't get is how we can swim in oceans of the stuff, but with it pattering on our heads, we start dying. Literally you can sit in a pool of the stuff to escape the rain and be perfectly fine.

    upload_2016-8-7_14-14-23.png

    Could the rain take the EPP module into account? Because from a physical standpoint, this is pretty silly :D
     
  2. Ulyssa

    Ulyssa Void-Bound Voyager

    Boats also take damage when exposed to rain, despite the fact that they are entirely unfazed by the toxic sea itself. Considering how often it rains on toxic planets, this is a problem. How am I supposed to collect that most valuable of commodities, raw sewage, when my boat dissolves in the rain? This is an outrage!
     
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  3. Knight9910

    Knight9910 Existential Complex

    In-Character Reason: Because it isn't toxic rain, it's acid rain.

    Out of Character Reason: Because the rain is resolved as an attack, not as a status effect. It's the same reason you still take contact damage from lava even with burning immunity. Honestly, it's one of many bizarre oversights the devs made.

    That said, I agree with this. If I can swim in a poison ocean, then I shouldn't die in poison rain.
     
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  4. scousekid92

    scousekid92 Void-Bound Voyager

    You bring up an interesting point Knight, the rain itself may contain harmful elements either not present in the ocean or so diluted by the ocean that it's at reasonably safe levels. Though I wouldn't be able to name anything that acts like this, it's probably reasonable to assume that travelling through space, there's going to be elements that aren't known to us, and are unique to certain planets.

    Perhaps the upper atmosphere is partially composed of a corrosive gas of some kind, a gas that is infused with clouds and brought down to the planet with the water during rainfall, which causes the rain to become corrosive. However, the corrosive elements, being on the upper layer of the atmosphere, would have to be particularly light, and float on / close to the surface of the oceans, and are quickly released as a result, rising back to the upper layers of the atmosphere. Though this would of course make the air itself corrosive unless the corrosive elements only became corrosive while in contact with the water, requiring the liquid as some form of catalyst for the corrosive reaction. There would have to be a reason why the reaction is not active on the surface of the ocean though - perhaps the clouds are particularly cold, but the ocean is warm - heat rises, taking those elements with it, and with the ocean being as wide as it is, what small amount remains on the surface of the ocean during the rainfall is diluted to a point where it's no longer harmful enough to be a problem.

    Note though that I do not have any kind of physics / chemistry degree, so while it may make sense to me, it may not be physically possible for this to happen as described. However, as we are dealing with other planets and potentially elements we have never seen before, I feel it's reasonable to assume it could theoretically be possible.
     
  5. Ulyssa

    Ulyssa Void-Bound Voyager

    It's not possible. It's completely impossible. The dissolved gas concentration would be practically identical in both the clouds and the ocean. For one, the rain itself would constantly scrub the gas out of the atmosphere and into the ocean. If the gas dissolves readily in liquid water, then it will build up in the ocean over time, since water vapor (going up) can't dissolve gas (because it's a gas itself and not a liquid) whereas rain (going down) can. If the gas does not dissolve readily in liquid water, then it's impossible for the rain to hold significant amounts of it. The only way the system could work is if the rain and the oceans were actually different substances (and, according to the game's mechanics, they aren't; toxic rain creates pools of the exact same liquid).

    That is all, of course, rather irrelevant. Toxic rain is just inconsistent from a gameplay perspective, there's no need for a physics debate here.
     
  6. scousekid92

    scousekid92 Void-Bound Voyager

    Fair enough :) I guess that's that then.
    I guess the original suggestion stands: Can we have the toxic rain's damage only affect the character if they do not have toxic damage resistance?
     
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  7. General Nuclear

    General Nuclear Supernova

    I made a similar post like this before the game got relased but they didn't take me serious when it came to the rain.
    Also really hoping they will add some skyscraper dungeons there like the ones in the backround
     
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  8. Knight9910

    Knight9910 Existential Complex

    In a virtually infinite universe anything is theoretically possible, just not using the physics as described... but yes, I agree anyway; having the rain and the oceans work differently just makes no sense from a gameplay or an immersion perspective. It would be an easy enough fix, too - change the rain to cause the Poisoned debuff rather than dealing straight damage.

    Yes. I would like to see those on both the Toxic worlds and the Scorched City worlds. It's not even like it'd be that hard, there are already skyscraper dungeons for the Apex.
     
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  9. General Nuclear

    General Nuclear Supernova

    i hate to be that guy especially sinse i don't like the rain nither and sinse your right and wrong at the same time it is possible, because acid rain is a real world phenomenon caused by overuse of industrial coal power plants i was hoping someone else would mentioning it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_rain
    which gives a huge hint of what happend to the planet

    i think i kinda know what the devs are going for now, they have planed to make a run to run and take cover and take cover again, critical environmental destroyed planet, destroyed by its own greedy alien species's over use of environmental damage industrials, killing or mutating all the life on the planet, also making the ocean raise by global warming with the toxic of the overworld mixing with the water.

    it may even be a bigger plot then that if the devs are creative enough and that it was done on purpose maybe by a war or some james bond evil genius type did it for world domination or a another ailen species did it to sabotate the native species from develop more then them self or it may also have been one of the home world to those ohter none glitching glitchses that exturminate them self that we hear about in the beta

    but for that to work they have to have waaaay more structures and ruins for use to go to, which they don't have and the posion ocean it self ruins it for exploration, because there are no way to get over the ocean without the toxic damage resistance and even with that its a pain the butt because the ship we got melts in under a minute from the rain so you have to dive to get to the ohter islands and that takes forever they should at least have some ruin bridges or skyscrapers poping up from the ocean to make it easyer to get from side to side

    so they can fix it and i really hope they do because its one of my favoritt planets types
     
    Last edited: Aug 18, 2016
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  10. Knight9910

    Knight9910 Existential Complex

    Yeah, I know it's weird to like a planet that's covered in gross sewage and poison, but... I really like it too. It's too bad there's not more put into it.
     
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  11. Ulyssa

    Ulyssa Void-Bound Voyager

    I'm not wrong. I never said it was not possible for a planet to have corrosive rain. But any planet that does have corrosive rain would inevitably have standing bodies of water which are similarly corrosive. Acid rain of Earth is a highly localized phenomena, but ponds and streams in areas with acid rain do, indeed, become acidic. The oceans don't because there's just not enough of those pollutants to significantly affect the entire ocean. But if a planet experiences lethally acidic rain (which is a ridiculous notion itself as it would require the rain to be at least a few orders of magnitude more acidic than even the worst acid rain on Earth) all over its surface, those oceans of those planets are probably going to be rather acidic themselves.
     
  12. scousekid92

    scousekid92 Void-Bound Voyager

    1.1 Patch Notes: "Acid rain now applies poison instead of direct damage"
    Thank you very much :D
    I suppose this thread can be locked or somethin' now.
     
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  13. General Nuclear

    General Nuclear Supernova


    :party:
     
  14. jmoran

    jmoran Space Hobo

    Through its cycle, everything on earth is being cared for by because how the water works around the world.
     

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