Environment

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The map environment are all aspects of the map that often can not be directly influenced by the player, such as terrain, weather conditions and lighting.

Beauty

Main article: Beauty

Terrain, flooring, objects, and plants attribute to a tile's beauty, which in turn can affect a colonist's mood. The contents of a tile have a cumulative effect on its beauty; i.e. a granite chunk (beauty of -10) on a carpeted floor (beauty of +2) gives the tile a net beauty of -8. Certain unsightly objects, i.e. vomit, have one value when under a roof and a lower value when unroofed. This simulates the general disgust of seeing eyesores indoors versus encountering them outside.

Space

Environment space (as opposed to the Need for Space) is the count of how much space there is to freely move around in a room. This is all the floor tiles that are either empty or have objects that can be passed through at full speed, such as chairs, building materials, and the various "spots". All objects that either slow down or prevent movement through are not counted towards Environment Space. The "Space" number shown in the Environment display is this count x 1.4. This number is a measure of the entire room, and does not change depending on where a pawn is standing.

Flora

Main article: Plants

Certain plants and trees have beauty, and may also provide cover to colonists.

Light

For the furniture item, see standing lamp.

Light can be generated artificially or naturally. Artificial light is produced by appliances in a limited range. Natural light is generated throughout the map on unroofed tiles. Roofed tiles will be dark unless lit artificially.

Occasionally an eclipse befalls the planet. Natural daytime light is no longer generated until it ends.

Light's importance lies in the following effects:

• Plant growth - Most plants have light requirements to grow.

• 0% only: Nutrifungus 
• 0%+: Agarilux, Bryolux, Glowstool, Polux tree , Gauranlen tree , Timbershroom 
• 30%+: Daylily, Rose, Tinctoria, Bonsai tree , Fibercorn 
• 50%+: All other plants

• Power - Solar generators only produce power when naturally lit.
• Colonists want 30% light or better. This affects:

• Colonists' mood - Colonists in sustained darkness will have the 'In darkness' thought. Sleeping colonists will not have this thought. Therefore, lighting is not needed in areas only used for sleeping.
• Colonists' movement speed - Colonists in darkness will have a reduced move speed, scaling to 80% at a light level of 0%. Due to this, combat at night or under unlit roofed areas can lead to a disadvantage against non-human opponents, such as insects, manhunter animals, or mechanoids. Pawns that are Blind, have the Lighting: Darklight preferred precept, or have the Dark vision gene are unaffected by this factor.
• Colonists' global work speed - Similarly to their movement speed, colonists will have a work speed penalty when working in darkness, scaling to 80% at a light level of 0%. Pawns that are Blind, have the Lighting: Darklight preferred precept, or have the Dark vision gene are unaffected by this factor.

• Surgery success chance factor is optimized at 50% light or better.

There are three light levels: Dark (0-29%), Lit (30-89%), and Brightly lit (90-100%). Each tile on the map has one of these light levels. The light level of a tile is listed in the tile's information area located above the Architect menu (when the menu is minimized). The light level is immediately followed by the brightness given in a percentage (%).

Light levels according to Light (%)
Light (%)	0-29	30-89	90-100
Light level	Dark	Lit	Brightly lit

Artificial light sources

Light in roofed areas is provided by the following appliances:

Name	Light Radius
Agarilux	0.00292
Bryolux	-0.436
Campfire	7.175
Chemfuel powered generator	3.485
Electric crematorium	3.442
Electric smelter	3.442
Flood light	17.455
Glow pod	3.481
Glowstool	0.916
Heater	1.653
Machining table	2.658
Standing lamp	9.093
Sun lamp	11.718
Torch lamp	7.175
Vanometric power cell	1.756
Wall lamp	7.974
Wall torch lamp	6.378
Wood-fired generator	3.442
Atmospheric heater	2.975
Bioferrite generator	5.223
Fleshbulb	1.188
Proximity detector	1.734
Void monolith	8.513
Blood torch	7.884
Ancient comms console	2.599
Ancient enemy terminal	0.72
Ancient lamp	0.783
Ancient terminal	0.676
Autobong	7.175
Christmas tree	5.742
Darklight brazier	7.108
Darktorch	4.746
Effigy	7.175
Fungus darktorch	4.746
Hermetic crate	1.552
Lightball	4.686
Loudspeaker	1.658
Pyre	13.592
Sacrificial flag	7.175
Security crate	1.865
Anima tree	1.91
Brazier	7.175
Count-down activator	0.546
Mech node	1.65
Proximity activator	0.415
Ship landing beacon	0.964
Unstable power cell	2.033

Daylight timing and latitude

Daylight, or natural light, is the light generated on unroofed tiles throughout the map. The timing and strength of daylight is affected by latitude, time of year, and time of day, due to the planet's apparent axial tilt.

This effect is more pronounced at extreme northern and southern latitudes, which can result in light levels not reaching 0% at night or 100% at daytime.

Near the central latitude, light level change throughout the day as follows:

Start time	Light level
4h	Lit
7h	Brightly lit
17h	Lit
20h	Dark

Day Length Table

Note that the below values represent the number of hours that the light level is above 30%, meaning there is no guarantee that it will reach 100%.

Latitude	Aprimay 1	Aprimay 6	Aprimay 11	Jugust 1	Jugust 6	Jugust 11	Septober 1	Septober 6	Septober 11	Decembary 1	Decembary 6	Decembary 11
90° N	0	0	0	24	24	24	24	24	24	0	0	0
75° N	0	0	0	10.7	24	24	24	24	24	0	0	0
60° N	11.2	11.7	12.8	14.1	15.5	16.5	16.8	16.2	15.0	13.6	12.3	11.4
45° N	12.6	12.9	13.5	14.3	15.1	15.6	15.8	15.5	14.8	13.9	13.2	12.7
30° N	13.5	13.7	14.0	14.5	14.9	15.3	15.4	15.2	14.8	14.3	13.9	13.6
15° N	14.3	14.4	14.5	14.8	15.0	15.2	15.2	15.1	14.9	14.7	14.5	14.4
0°	15.2	15.2	15.2	15.2	15.2	15.2	15.2	15.2	15.2	15.2	15.2	15.2
15° S	15.2	15.1	14.9	14.7	14.5	14.4	14.3	14.4	14.5	14.8	15.0	15.2
30° S	15.4	15.2	14.8	14.3	13.9	13.6	13.5	13.7	14.0	14.5	14.9	15.3
45° S	15.8	15.5	14.8	13.9	13.2	12.7	12.6	12.9	13.5	14.3	15.1	15.6
60° S	16.8	16.2	15.0	13.6	12.3	11.4	11.2	11.7	12.8	14.1	15.5	16.5
75° S	24	24	18.7	15.0	12.2	10.4	9.9	11.0	13.2	16.4	20.6	24
90° S	24	24	24	24	24	0	0	0	24	24	24	24

Plant growth time table

Latitude	Aprimay 1	Aprimay 6	Aprimay 11	Jugust 1	Jugust 6	Jugust 11	Septober 1	Septober 6	Septober 11	Decembary 1	Decembary 6	Decembary 11
90° N	0	0	0	0	24	24	24	24	24	0	0	0
75° N	0	0	0	5.8	24	24	24	24	18.6	0	0	0
60° N	8.9	9.4	10.5	11.9	13.2	14.0	14.3	13.8	12.7	11.3	10.0	9.1
45° N	11.0	11.3	11.9	12.7	13.4	13.9	14.1	13.8	13.1	12.4	11.6	11.1
30° N	12.2	12.4	12.7	13.2	13.6	13.9	14.0	13.8	13.4	13.0	12.6	12.3
15° N	13.2	13.2	13.4	13.6	13.8	14.0	14.0	13.9	13.7	13.5	13.3	13.2
0°	14.1	14.1	14.1	14.1	14.1	14.1	14.1	14.1	14.1	14.1	14.1	14.1
15° S	14.0	13.9	13.7	13.5	13.3	13.2	13.2	13.2	13.4	13.6	13.8	14.0
30° S	14.0	13.8	13.4	13.0	12.6	12.3	12.2	12.4	12.7	13.2	13.6	13.9
45° S	14.1	13.8	13.1	12.4	11.6	11.1	11.0	11.3	11.9	12.7	13.4	13.9
60° S	14.3	13.8	12.7	11.3	10.0	9.1	8.9	9.4	10.5	11.9	13.2	14.0
75° S	17.3	16.0	13.6	10.6	7.6	5.1	4.3	6.0	8.8	11.8	14.6	16.7
90° S	24	24	24	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	24	24

Daylight math details

The calculation of sunlight is surprisingly involved. On a nutshell: the formula obtains the angle between the vectors Latitude and Sun Position, subtracts an angle θ from it (determined by Latitude), obtains the cosine of the difference, and divides this number by 0.7. Finally, this result is capped between 0 (no light) and 100% (full light).

If you only care about the final formula, go to "Final formula" below. Otherwise, carry on.

The amount of sunlight a given cell receives depends on its Latitude, Day of the year, and Hour of the day. The simplified steps to reach the final value are:

1. Obtain the factor "u" for the given latitude

Latitude	Value of u
<= 70	0.2
[70, 75]	Latitude * 13/50-18
=>75	1.5

2. Obtain Sun Position Vector SP = {SPx, SPy, SPz}. Do note these formulas are not in degrees, but radians.

• SPx = -cos(Hour * π / 12)
• SPy = -cos(π * Day/30) * u
• SPz = -sin(Hour * π / 12) [NOT ACTUALLY USED, BUT PART OF THE VECTOR]

3. Calculate angle θ. Do note that the values of this table are in degrees. To convert to radians, multiply result by π / 180

Latitud	Value of θ
<= -60	19
[-60, 60]	36 - abs(x) * 17/60
[60, 70]	19
[70, 75]	299 - 4x
>75	-1

4. Calculate the angle (Δ) between the vector Latitude (L) y SP.

• Δ = arc cos [ ( cos(Latitude) * SPx + sen(Latitude) * SPy ) / √ 1 + SPy²  ]

5. Sunlight = cos(Δ - θ)/0.7; Capped between 0 and 1 (100%).

Do note that the creation of the vector Latitude : {cos(latitude), sin(latitude), 0} was omitted for simplicity.

Final Formula:

Where:

Latitude	Value of u
<= 70	0.2
[70, 75]	Latitude * 13/50-18
=>75	1.5

Latitud	Value of θ
<= -60	19
[-60, 60]	36 - abs(x) * 17/60
[60, 70]	19
[70, 75]	299-4x
>75	-1

Interestingly, while some effects are applied differently above latitude 70 (70° N), these do not seem to apply below -70 (70° S). This has some odd effects on extreme Latitudes, such as the south pole having neither full darkness nor full light.

Getting useful data from this formula is inconvenient. You can use this google doc to get a better idea of how many hours of daylight a given tile (based on Latitude) will have through the year.

Openness

Openness refers to the often critical aspect of structures being open to the outside. It affects many things such as temperature, item deterioration, light, exposure to weather, and certain events.

Every tile on the map falls into one of three categories:

• Outdoors - not enclosed by any structure, even if there is a roof.
• Indoors - completely enclosed structure, completely roofed.
• Unroofed - completely enclosed structure, but with one or more unroofed tiles.

Sufficiently large unroofed rooms, approximately 300 tiles, are considered outdoors.^{[Detail Needed]}

Temperature

Main article: Temperature

Environmental temperature is affected outdoors mainly by the map's biome and by the current season. Temperature affects a plant's ability to grow. Temperature affects a human's comfort, and health in extreme temperatures.

Terrain

Terrain consists of the map's walking surface, terrain features, and mountain areas. Terrain affects things including walking speed, where plants can grow, and may prohibit construction.

Natural surface terrain includes soil, rich soil, marshy soil, marsh, mud, sand, lichen-covered dirt, gravel, rough stone (granite, marble, etc.), rough-hewn stone, shallow water, and deep water.

Terrain features include steam geysers and mountains. The steam from a geyser produces heat and an enclosed area around it will heat up unless unroofed. A mountain cannot be destroyed, even if all of its stone and ore has been mined out. What remains are terrain tiles listed as 'overhead mountain'.

Naturally generated surfaces

For the artificial flooring, see Floors.

While most terrain properties are self-explanatory, some require special attention.

• Path cost determines how difficult is to travers a given terrain.
• Move Speed Modifier is the net effect of said cost, and is obtained with the formula 13/(13 + Path cost) rounded.
• Terrain Support determines what kind of structures can be build on a given terrain. If a given structure has a Terrain Affordance not listed for a given terrain, then said terrain is not a valid construction site. The types used are:
  • Light: Supports light structure.
    
  • Medium: Supports medium structures.
    
  • Heavy: Supports heavy structures.
    
  • ShallowWater: Can be built on with things that are waterproof.
    
  • MovingFluid (moving water): Contains power usable for hydroelectrics.
    
  • Bridgeable: Bridge can be built over this terrain.
    
  • GrowSoil (growable): Things can grow here. Unsure if is does anything or if merely indicative.
    
  • Diggable: Able to build graves.
    
  • SmoothableStone (smoothable): Can be ground and smoothed into smooth stone.
    
• Filth Mask determines what kind of filth can be applied on this terrain. Most natural floors only accept Unnatural filth, if any at all, but there are exceptions.
• Tag use is unclear. It may be used on map generation.

As of Version/1.5.4104, all terrains with Heavy Terrain Support also support both Medium and Light. To help the readability of this table, only the Heavy tag will be used in those cases.

Type	Move Speed Modifier	Fertility	Terrain Support	Bridgeable	Diggable	Terrain Type	Beauty Indoors/ Outdoors	Cleanliness	Filth mask	Dries To	Tags	Path cost	Generates Filth	Allows Special Attack	Others
Broken asphalt	100%	0%	Heavy			-	-1	2		-	Road	0
Packed dirt	93%	0%	Heavy			Soil	-1	-1		-	Road	1	Dirt
Chest-deep moving water	24%	0%	-			-	0	0		-	Water	42		Water	Extinguishes Fire Traversing generates thought Soaking wet
Deep ocean water	0%	0%	-			-	0	0		-	Water ocean	300		Water	Impassable Extinguishes Fire
Deep water	0%	0%	-			-	0	0		-	Water	300		Water	Impassable Extinguishes Fire
Shallow ocean water	30%	0%	ShallowWater			-	0	0		Stony soil	Water ocean	30		Water	Extinguishes Fire Traversing generates thought Soaking wet
Shallow moving water	30%	0%	ShallowWater MovingFluid			-	0	0		-	Water River	30		Water	Extinguishes Fire Traversing generates thought Soaking wet
Shallow water	30%	0%	ShallowWater			-	0	0		Stony soil	Water	30		Water	Extinguishes Fire Traversing generates thought Soaking wet
Marsh	30%	0%	ShallowWater			-	-3/0	-2		Soil	-	30	Dirt	Mud	Extinguishes Fire Traversing generates thought Soaking wet
Soil	87%	100%	Heavy GrowSoil			Soil	-3/0	-1		-	Soil	2	Dirt	Dirt
Lichen-covered soil	81%	100%	Heavy GrowSoil			Soil	-3/0	-1		-	Soil	3	Dirt	Dirt
Marshy soil	48%	100%	Light GrowSoil			Soil	-3/0	-2		Soil	Soil	14	Dirt	Dirt
Rich soil	87%	140%	Heavy GrowSoil			Soil	-3/0	-1		Soil	Soil	2	Dirt	Dirt
Stony soil	87%	70%	Heavy GrowSoil			-	-3/0	-1		-	Soil	2	Dirt	Gravel
Sand	76%	10%	Heavy			Sand	-3/0	-1		-	Sand	4	Sand	Sand
Soft sand	48%	0%	Light			Sand	-3/0	-1		Sand	Sand	14	Sand	Sand
Mud	48%	0%	-			Soil	-3/0	-2		Soil	-	14	Dirt	Mud
Ice	48%	0%	Heavy			-	-3/0	0		-	-	14	Dirt		-
Polluted terrain	-	0-50%	-	-	-	-	-1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Fertility can't exceed 50%. Overlay: Applies stats over existing terrain (additive) Overlay: Changes graphics of affected terrain. Can be removed. Allows growth of Toxipotato, Gray pine, Pebble cactus, Rat palm Prevents growth of most other plants. Colonist receive toxic buildup from waking here.
Rough stone	87%	0%	Heavy			Stone	-1	0		-	-	2			Smooothable Hardcoded
Rough-hewn stone	93%	0%	Heavy			Stone	-1	0	All	-	-	1			Smooothable Hardcoded
Smooth stone	100%	0%	Heavy			Stone	2	0	All	-	-	0			5. Natural, non-generated floor/terrain hybrid. Paintable Hardcoded
Gray surface	87%	0%	Heavy			?	0	0	?	-	?	2			Only present on the Labyrinth.
Flesh	87%	0%	Heavy		[Note]	?	-10/-5	-3	?	-	?	2	?		Behaves like a natural Floor. Cleaning time Mult 150% Removable. Inflammable 32%

¹ The kind of Filth accepted by this terrain. denotes terrains that accept Unnatural filth, those that accept none. Special cases are denoted as such.

² As Stony soil doesn't exist in Sea ice nor Ice sheet, it dries to Ice instead.

³ All of these attacks have a cooldown of 1.5 seconds, require the KickMaterialInEyes capacity, and apply a Hediff of the same name.

4^{1 2 3 4 5 6} All water tiles triple the deterioration rate. Additionally, these have a perceived path cost of 180 if undrafted and of 18 when drafted

5^{1 2} Redundant due to being Impassable. It would result in a 4.2% Move Speed Modifier otherwise.

⁶ The fertility is capped at 50%, but will not affect the value of the original terrain if it was equal or lower than that.

⁷ Plus any defined on NaturalTerrainBase. In vanilla, this in just Unnatural filth.

⁸ Not on the xml files but rather defined programmatically for all stone types.

Steam geyser

Steam geysers are terrain features that allow the placement of a geothermal generator on them and also output a significant amount of heat when sealed in a roofed room.

The steam geyser sprays after a random delay between 500 ticks (8.33 secs) and 2,000 ticks (33.33 secs). It will then spray for between 200 ticks (3.33 secs) and 500 ticks (8.33 secs). While spraying, it will output 40 heat every 20 ticks (0.33 secs). Thus, it averages 16.15 heat per second, with no maximum temperature.

Besides their use in power generation, they can also be used to heat bases and greenhouses without the need for electricity or fuel by sealing them in. Like any means of temperature regulation, geysers require an enclosed and roofed room to actually cause a change in heat. If you don't want heat, keep the geothermal room without a roof.

Weather

Weather events occur from time to time depending on the biome and time of year, with the current weather listed at the right edge of the screen. When a weather event ends the weather returns to Clear. Each weather event has a general effect on wind speed.

Wind speed continually varies between 0% to 150% but it is not displayed onscreen. Wind speed is a direct multiplier of a wind turbine's nominal power output of 2300W. At 50% wind speed a wind turbine produces 1150W up to a maximum of 3450W at 150%. Note that the "max power output" listed in the infobox claims that 2300W is the maximum under "ideal conditions" - this is incorrect.

The Weather controllers can force a single type of weather to constantly appear, and will only allow natural changes in weather once it is destroyed.

Weather types

Label	Time of year	Temperature range	Accuracy modifier	Movement speed modifier	Wind speed	Wind speed modifier	Can put out fires	Snowing rate	Notes
Clear	Any	Any	100%	100%	None to Moderate	100%	No	None
Fog	Any	Any	50%	100%	None to Calm	50%	No	None	Suppresses firewatcher if forced
Rain	Any	0 °C – 100 °C (32 °F – 212 °F)	80%	90%	Calm to Moderate	80%	Yes	None	Rain intensity can vary. Rain will put out any outdoor fires on the map. Rain can cause electronic objects to short circuit.
Dry Thunderstorm	Any	Any	100%	100%	Moderate to Extreme	150%	No	None	Lightning strikes from thunderstorms can ignite flammable objects, including flora. If accompanied by rain the fires should be extinguished without becoming a threat.
Rainy Thunderstorm	Any	Any	80%	80%	Moderate to Extreme	150%	Yes	None
Foggy rain	Any	Any	50%	90%	None to Calm	150%	Yes	None
Hard snow	Mainly Winter	-270 °C – -0.5 °C (-454 °F – 31.1 °F)	80%	80%	None to Moderate	150%	Yes	120%	Weather event that can distribute Snow onto the terrain.
Soft snow	Mainly Winter	-270 °C – -0.5 °C (-454 °F – 31.1 °F)	80%	100%	None to Moderate	150%	Yes	80%	Weather event that can distribute Snow onto the terrain.
Flashstorm	Any	Any	100%	100%	None to moderate	100%	No	None	An extreme version of the dry thunderstorm, and an event of its own (rather than normal weather changes). Lightning strike many times in a row in a small area, igniting anything flammable and causing giant wildfires which can spread to your base easily. It also disables rain for a short time.

Lightning

Lightning in a Dry thunderstorm

Lightning is created either naturally through thunder and flashstorms, or artificially with the flashstorm psycast. These do 10 Flame damage in a 3x3 area (1.9 block radius) and start fires in the area of effect. Dry thunderstorms can be especially dangerous, starting fires around the map without rain to put them out. The flashstorm psycast should be used with caution, preferably in areas without vegetation or during rain. Lightning can also be spawned in with a debug command in development mode.

Lightning is bright enough to momentarily power solar generators and grow plants.

Version history

• 0.0.245 - Weather (rain/fog) now affects chances of hitting a target
• 0.3.410 - Rain now slowly washes away blood. Added rich dirt patches.
• Beta 19/ 1.0 - Changed deep moving water to chest-deep moving water: walkable but slower than shallow water. Shallow water movement cost 12 -> 22. Sand fertility 6% -> 10%.
• Version/1.1.0 - Fix: Wind turbines register no wind during windy storm.