Environment consists of several aspects throughout the map that are largely intangible but can have a great impact on human inhabitants, wild animals, and plant life. Many of these aspects are ruled by the map's biome.
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 wood 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.
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.
Flooring replaces the natural terrain. It has an effect on beauty, growing zones, and walking speed.
Certain plants and trees have beauty, and may also provide cover to colonists.
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 - Plants only grow when the light level is at least 51%.
- Power - Solar generators only produce power when naturally lit.
- 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.
There are three light levels: Lit, Brightly lit, and Dark. 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 level||Dark||Lit||Brightly lit|
Artificial light sources
Light in roofed areas is provided by the following appliances:
Appliances that incidentally generate light are a crematorium, an electric smelter, a heater, and a campfire.
Daylight timing and latitude
The timing and strength of daylight is affected by latitude and time of year, 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|
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.
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 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'.
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 100% but it is not displayed onscreen. Wind speed is a direct multiplier of a wind turbine's power output. At 50% wind speed a wind turbine produces 1500W of its 3000W max.
|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||Can accompany rain to create Foggy Rain|
|Rain||Any||0 - 100°C||80%||90%||Calm to Moderate||80%||Yes||None||Rain intensity can vary. Rain will put out any outdoor fires on the map. Rain will turn into snow if the temperature falls below +2 degrees Celsius. 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 to -0.5°C||80%||80%||None to Moderate||150%||Yes||120%|
|Soft snow||Mainly Winter||-270 to -0.5°C||80%||100%||None to Moderate||150%||Yes||80%|
|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.|
- Can continue even if the temperature exits the appropriate range, once started.