User Guide

PLANET
CHAPTER 3
39
You can learn to exploit this pattern by raising and lowering terrain with your
former units to create favorable rainfall conditions for yourself or unfavorable
rainfall for an opponent (see Terraform Menu, p. 46).
NATIVE LIFE
Planet has been teeming with life since eons before the arrival of humanity.
Individual specimens of Planet’s indigenous species seem simpler than analo-
gous Earth life, but appearances can be deceiving. Much of Planet’s plant and
animal life is tied together in a grand symbiotic relationship, far more intricate
than any comparable system on Earth. Truly the whole is greater than the sum
of its parts. For more information on the native ecology of Planet, see
Planetography, p. 216.
FLORA
Though there are many different species of plant life, the dominant form is
the crimson, fantastically shaped xenofungus (or “fungus”), which covers vast
tracts of the surface. Its near cousin, sea fungus, is equally ubiquitous in
Planet’s oceans and seas.
Fungus squares (squares with fungus in them) can not be used for bases, tend to
spawn mind worm boils (see Fauna, p. 40), and they are difficult to move through.
However they do have one useful property—a ground or sea unit can hide in a fun-
gus or sea fungus square, and is invisible to detection by all other factions unless
they actually try to move a unit into the square or have sensor arrays nearby (see
Terraform Menu, p. 46). Also, units attacked while in fungus get a defensive
bonus, unless the attacking unit is itself native life (either human-bred or “wild;”
see Fauna, p. 40), in which case the attacking unit gets an offensive bonus.
As your knowledge of Planet expands, you discover ways to extract useful
resources from fungus squares (see Resource Production Table, p. 52). You
can also overcome many of the inconveniences of fungus squares by enhanc-
ing your Planet rating through Social Engineering (see Social Factors, p. 141),
allowing easier movement through fungus.