User Guide

PLANET
CHAPTER 3
55
Ecological damage can be minimized (or even eliminated entirely) through
Social Engineering (increase your Planet rating; see Social Factors, p. 141),
base facilities (Centauri Preserve, Temple of Planet; see Facilities, p. 64) and
Secret Projects (The Pholus Mutagen and others; see Secret Projects, p. 65).
RANDOM NATURAL PHENOMENA
Planet is a mysterious and complex system. It constantly produces new and
unexpected means to discomfit and endanger humanity, but it can also capri-
ciously produce surprising blessings.
The influence of Planet’s suns and moons may provoke a burst of mind worm
activity, or solar flares may increase energy stores while disrupting diplomatic
communications, or you may discover an unexpected store of extra resources
near a base, or an alien plague may break out. The effects of random events
range from windfalls to disasters. Some events directly affect your faction, oth-
ers affect other factions, and many affect all of Planet indiscriminately.
Some events happen instantaneously; others last for several years. Negative
random events can sometimes be avoided (for example, plagues are far less
likely to break out in bases with biology lab facilities), but most just have to
be ridden out, for better or worse.
The only thing that can be reliably said about natural phenomenon on Planet
is it’s always safest to expect the unexpected.
Random events can by turned off in the game configuration options.