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Terra - realistic geography

"Earth is the cradle of Humanity. But one cannot live in a cradle forever" - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Remake here : https://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2930070836

The Earth, 3rd planet of the Sol system, is for now the sole habitable planet known to man.

This planet is based on accurate landscape data, making continents the right size and at the right place, with correctly placed mountains and plains, instead of being hand-painted.

Atmosphere : yes
Surface gravity : 1g
Recommended size : 120 km
Files size : 2048 x 2048

The planet may get improved in the future. Your feedback is always welcome.

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LIQUID WATER MODS

The mod contains 2 planets :

- Terra : the good old Earth with solid ice as a placeholder for liquid water. This planet keeps the same ID and has not been modified, your saved games will not be broken by the update. Do NOT enable the water mod to play it unless you want to play a 2012 scenario with sea level reaching the Himalayas.

- TerraAqua : modified heightmap and altitudes in settings to fit water mods. DO enable the water mod to play it. For an optimal experience, I recommend spawning the planet with a size of 120 km

Tested water mods for his planet :

Classic water mod : https://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1806401855

- This mod only requires being enabled to function. It uses the product of the 3 maximal dimensions (max height x max length x max width) to calculate buyoancy.

Jakaria's water mod : https://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2200451495
(also requires https://steamoss.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=758597413 )

- Jakaria's water mod is in my opinion a better mod, with a more logical calculation of buoyancy, using gaz tanks as buoys. It is also configurable. Water isn't added by default on every planet, you need to type these commands for water to appear and be at the right height, when close from TerraAqua
/wcreate
/wradius 1.02703
(advised water radius for normal sea level)
/wquality 1

Right now the sea is 30-40 metres deep which should be enough for most ship designs, although it heavily depends on how buoyancy is calculated.

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CORRECT SUN ROTATION (massive thanks to Kill3rCat the Ironfist [D-2-506])

You will need to directly modify your game save files for that.
1- find the save files at userdirectory/AppData/Roaming/SpaceEngineers/Saves/(number)/your_savefile
2- open Sandbox.sbc in a text editor
3- find the lines BaseSunDirection and SunDirectionNormalized (use Ctrl-F) and replace the values by :
<BaseSunDirection x="0" y="0" z="1" />
<SunDirectionNormalized x="0" y="0" z="1" />
4- open SANDBOX_0_0_0_.sbs
5- find the lines SunAzimuth and SunElevation and replace the values by :
<SunAzimuth>0</SunAzimuth>
<SunElevation>0</SunElevation>
6- DELETE SANDBOX_0_0_0_.sbsB5 (unreadable if you open it with a text editor) in the savefile directory.
7- load your saved game. You'll have a format update message, press ok. It will recompile the missing SANDBOX_0_0_0_.sbsB5 then proceed to load the saved game
8- enjoy Terra or TerraAqua with the sun in the right direction :D

Note : you do need to change that for every saved game using Terra. It affects every planet.

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Version history :

1.23
(both Terra & TerraAqua)
- fixed coastlines in the Mediterranean Sea
- fixed biomes in the Mediterranean Sea
(TerraAqua)
- fixed depth of northern Adriatic

1.22
- added default Earthlike weather
- fixed some coastlines (India, Bangladesh, China, Libya, Provence, Liguria)
- removed some lakes (Central Asia, Transamur)
- added Rio de la Plata, ♥♥♥♥♥ & Congo rivers
(changes for both Terra & TerraAqua)

1.0
- welcome to Earth

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Frequently Asked Questions :

Q - how did you get the geography (mostly) right ?
A : I used a NASA cylindric heightmap that uses the same colour palette as ingame heightmap, and converted it into a cube map with the 360° photo editing program Bixorama. The rest of the modifications is the usual process for planet modding.

Q - how big is it ?
A : like any other planet, you can spawn it with a diametre between 19 and 120 km

Q - can you make it bigger ?
A : no, the max size isn't coded in the planet's files. You'd need a separate mod to make it bigger.

Q - why so much ice / no liquid water ?
A : there is no liquid water in Space Engineers (devs... wink wink) so ice, already used on vanilla Earth for lakes, is the closest from liquid water that there is, both in appearance and in use (it can also be split into Oxygen and Hydrogen for survival mode)

Q - how can I find ores ? There is no dark spots
A : I disabled dark spots for aesthetic reasons, that's why you cannot see them. However, you can use an ore detector to find ores. Large ore detectors can detect the deepest ores such as Uranium

Q - what are "easy start locations" ?
A : a lot of easily reachable Iron, Nickel and Silicium are there. That make the area an easy spot to start a survival game.

Q - does it need other mods ?
A : no, but I suggest using a speed mod

Q - can you make the Moon ?
A : here : http://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=864641176

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Q - how to use the planet ?
A : 1 - subscribe to this mod
2 - set up a new game (or change the options of an existing one). Preferably empty world in creative
3 - in the Mod tab, enable "Terra - realistic geography"
4 - launch the game
5 - once ingame : Shift + F10
6 - select planets
7 - slide the size bar to the size you want (preferably 120 km)
8 - ignore the seed
9 - select Terra or TerraAqua in the list
10 - click the spawn button.
11 - click where you want to spawn the planet

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Special thanks to :
- Ryukki for helping me implement the water mod
- Kill3rCat the Ironfist [D-2-506] for helping me with the sun's rotation