The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

"Very Young Orangutans Could Grow Bananas, Perhaps Rather Well." Hayes says this. I'm trying to figure out what the hell it means.

I'm guessing planet value goes in this order: ?, Yellow, Orange, Cyan, Green, Blue, Purple, Red, White.

Yeah, so, what's the "Very" supposed to be? I don't recall violet planets being particularly valuable. It is a proven fact that Yellow and Orange planets rule absolutely, however.

ruby worlds maybe? they appear violet dont they?

~DEFIANT

Judging by the code, the V indeed stands for Violet.
There are several types of violet worlds, and while neither of them has any rare minerals, they all have a large quantity of good minerals (except a violet gas giant).

"'Very Young Orangutans Could Grow Bananas, Perhaps Rather Well.' Hayes says this. I'm trying to figure out what the hell it means. "

Actually I've always interpreted it to mean stars more than planets, in reverse order, in terms of mineral density (Total RU / # of planets).  At least with SC2, violet worlds were always crappy (2 or 3 common deposits, not worth the fuel to make the trip to get them), so  that tells me this isn't too correct with worlds in general, but in my playing time, I have determined that this seems to be the consistent thing in the game.

White, Red, P (not sure it's purple, purple is violet), Blue, Green, etc. - in terms of mineral density, not # of RU.  But usually it almost always pays to visit White stars assuming you can get the minerals off of the worlds (most RU, cheapest RU to get = MOST PROFIT!).

The V does indeed stand for Violet, and P for Pink. I'm not too sure about how consistent this is either, though it does make more sense if you interpret it as density of mineral deposits rather than total RU per planet. The color is the simple color of the planet graphic on the exploration screen, without any deeper meaning that I can tell.

You'll be better off in the long run just looking at each world and scanning it (which takes no fuel) rather than slavishly following this mnemonic. More important for saving fuel and more ultimately useful is remembering that hotter stars are better than colder, with the caveat that hotter stars create more hotspots on the planets. Trying to mine anything in the vicinity of a hot supergiant is hell unless you have upgrades.

Whatever it looks like in the game, P stands for Purple.

According to the source:
Violet: Oolite, Yttric, Fluorescent, Ultraviolet
Yellow: Lanthanide, Treasure, Urea, Auric, Plutonic, Rainbow
Orange: Metal, Radioactive, Shattered
Cyan: Opalescent, Sapphire, Organic, Xenolithic
Green: Quasi-Degenerate, Cyanic, Acid, Alkali, Halide, Green, Copper, Redux, Primordial, Emerald, Chlorine, Magnetic, Iodine
Blue: Ultramarine, Noble, Azure, Water, Telluric, Hydrocarbon
Purple: Chondrite, Purple, Super-Dense, Pellucid, Vinylogous
Red: Carbide, Dust, Crimson, Cimmerian, Infrared, Ruby, Magma, Maroon
White: Selenic

Gas giants come in the colours Blue, Cyan, Green, Gray, Orange, Purple, Red, Violet, and Yellow.


I'll make a proper Star Control Facts of this some day (with more info).

Well, I was wondering about this because I'm trying to use it in my guide.

You'll be better off in the long run just looking at each world and scanning it (which takes no fuel) rather than slavishly following this mnemonic.

The mneumonic isn't great, but I remember seeking out yellow and orange worlds religiously to great success ages ago when I didn't have the good planets memorized.

*blink* Well. *That's* weird. 'Cause the ones you listed under "Violet" sure look pink in my version of the game.

Huh. Goes to show. Anyway I think I disagree with the analysis of the "violet" ones being orange and yellow; the best planets you're likely to run across on a regular basis are Radioactive Worlds, Auric Worlds and Treasure Worlds.

Okay, that last post didn't make much sense. Sorry.

Um, orange and yellow are more consistently good than "violet" (pink) in my experience, anyway.

pink/violet worlds, in my experiance, yeild good quanties of higher quality minerials. after i read your post meep, i remebered when i first played how i saught out these worlds along with gold and orange like shiver stated before. they do contain good quality minerials.

~DEFIANT

I just mined EVERYTHING within a 50 fuel cost radius around Sol, then i ran out of time and started again, I had carefully noted super valuable worlds, and simply proceeded to mine them, and i was set.

Damn the first time around was boring =p

One more question. Are any of the deep purple worlds ever any good?

Only the Pellucid ones, which have exotics, though usually very few; some are generated with nothing at all. The rest are just common compounds, never worth it, or in the case of Super-Dense Worlds, base metals, which are only sort of worth it early on and in their case still aren't because of the high gravity and earthquakes.

One question, which single planet is the richest in the entire game? We probably don't know, but which one does everyone think it is? Tectonics, Weather and Heat don't matter.

According to the SC2 hit guide that came with the 3DO version, the planet is likely to be Beta Scorpii 5.

3DO hit guide? What are the rights on it?

I wish i could read that, sounds very interesting.

Must go and check Beta Scorpii V

There are established lists for this kind of thing.

The two most valuable systems are Delta Tauri and Alpha Centauri in that order.  You need upgrades for the second one, but the first one is easy pickings.

What about in bio data? I seem to remember that the blue sphere tentacled menaces yeild huge amounts of green stuff.
Anyone know the most populated world?

http://uqm.chumbucket.org/?cmd=search&star=Sol&distance=99999.0&checked=||||||||checked|

that place has a good search engine for whatever you are looking for.  And its the silly looking thing with one eye that waddles around that is the best hunting, they are fast but worth tons of bio data and are harmless.

Well, if you confine the planets to ones with exotic elements with over 2000 RU, the best ones are:

5750 Beta Cephei 6
5675 Alpha Centauri 3
4150 Iota Serpentis 1
4125 Beta Chandrasekhar 2
3900 Beta Normae 3
3825 Epsilon Cassiopeiae 1
3650 Gamma Luyten 2
3650 Delta Tauri 2
3650 Beta Scorpii 5
3575 Formalhaut 1
3350 Delta Tauri 1
3300 Alpha Hyginus 5
3275 Theta Lyncis 1
3200 Beta Ophiuchi 2
3100 Gamma Eridani 1
2975 Epsilon Volantis 4
2775 Gamma Leonis 2
2650 Gamma Antliae 2
2650 Delta Tauri 7
2625 Delta Aurigae 2
2625 Alpha Chamaeleonis 4
2500 Alpha Fornacis 5
2450 Zeta Antliae 4
2400 Beta Apodis 2
2325 Alpha Columbae 5
2275 Gamma Volantis 1
2250 Alpha Centauri 8
2175 Alpha Ceti 2
2150 Kappa Horologii 4
2025 Beta Scorpii 7

A number of these aren't easily reached near the beginning of the game though, or they're in enemy territory.

Never even heard of Beta Cephei =p

Sweet. What about lifeforms, though? A single bio data point is worth 40 RUs in fuel. That's way more valuable than even exotics, and I bet it'd change a few of the most valuable planets.

Since when? One bio point=one fuel=20 RU.

Still, its an astronomical amount of RU compared to Mining.

Why bother with hunting? I know where 100000 RU's worth of fuel are. =p

1 biodata point = 2 credits.
1 credit = 1 point of fuel
1 point of fuel = 20 RUs

Really?

Thats odd... I never really noticed that.

I will have to check that when i have access to my computer back.

Lifeforms?  Erg.  That's more tricky.  The online database of planets has a lot of errors in regards to where life is and isn't.  I kept some notes myself but didn't record how _much_ life was available at any given planet.

Trying to compare my notes with the online database, here's a very short list where the two seem to agree.  No guarantees though - this list may be wrong. Each solar system should have about 200 credits' worth for the Melnorme.  And expect some casualties along the way.

Delta Normae 1
Beta Tauri  1, 5b
Delta Sextantis 1
Eta Ptolemae 4, 5
Delta Lalande 4
Beta Cygnus 3, 4
Alpha Gorno 1 6a
Zeta Gruis 1a
Delta Centauri 2a

And don't forget to visit the Spathi homeworld, of course!

I wish you could find the planet that Zex's pet came from =p

Although, it would probably hurt a lot to vacation there.

Is it supposed to have been moved to where you find it from somewhere else? I always thought it had always been there, and was just such a badass creature that there was only one left after each new generation wantonly kills each other as they're growing up. (That'd be a sight to see.)

Spathi Homeworld doesn't actually have much biodata. One 'evil-one' is one bio-unit, if I remember correctly. The best aliens are the green one-eyed ones, which run fast and won't attack you.

Interesting theory.

An asexual (self-breading) animal that tries hardest to slay its own kind would inevitably evolve into something as horrifying as the VUX beast. The evolution would take an eternity, though, as asexual breeding almost never results in any change between the parent and offspring. Wow, am I ever good at hijacking my own topics.