Honestly i think it’s quite possible that earth actually is rare on that regard. Most planets are majorly more uniform than earth. Conditions have to be juuuuuust right for a single planet to have water that exists in all 3 forms at the same time on different areas of the planet. That fact alone creates 4 of the 6 boxes.
Also there have been eras in earths history where it was basically like one of two environments. Like before the continents emerged from the oceans properly, or the several snowball earths, or the multiple times a super continent formed and created swamp land and desert land because of the fucken Appalachian mountains.
Probably helps that grasses evolved since the dinosaurs got Cained by the universe. Honestly the variation seen in the Holocene is probably the direct result of the Yucatan impact and the Great Dieing before it.
Personally, I think you’re half-right in that (with a sample size of our solar system) the Earth is the only one with an actually diverse range of biomes - really only possible because the availability of water in multiple forms…
But the Earth-like planets in NMS should rightfully have the same biome diversity if they were being scientifically accurate…
Though we all know the real reason for the lack of diversity is to force movement between planets. If every resource was on one planet, there’s be no reason for the player to explore.
My guess is that a rocky planet that is 5% - 95% covered with ocean is probably pretty rare. You probably mostly either get water / ice planets or rock planets.
Another thing that makes Earth unique is the liquid iron core. Without that you don’t get a magnetic field. Without a magnetic field, it’s hard to keep the atmosphere intact. That means that water vapour gets blown off over time, which eventually results on a dry planet like Mars.
As for all 3 states of water, as long as you’re in the range to have a wet surface, you’ll probably get all 3 states of water. The poles will get a lot less solar radiation than the equator, so if the equator is wet it’s pretty likely that you’ll get at least a bit of ice at the poles. If there’s a lot of water then it’s easy to get water vapour. Even Europa which has an average surface temperature of -171C (102K) has a liquid water ocean under the icy surface, and although its atmosphere is extremely thin, part of it is water vapour.
Honestly i think it’s quite possible that earth actually is rare on that regard. Most planets are majorly more uniform than earth. Conditions have to be juuuuuust right for a single planet to have water that exists in all 3 forms at the same time on different areas of the planet. That fact alone creates 4 of the 6 boxes.
Also there have been eras in earths history where it was basically like one of two environments. Like before the continents emerged from the oceans properly, or the several snowball earths, or the multiple times a super continent formed and created swamp land and desert land because of the fucken Appalachian mountains.
Yeah, the holocene is a weirdly varied time period for climates. Grasslands and similar ecosystems are pretty new geologically.
Probably helps that grasses evolved since the dinosaurs got Cained by the universe. Honestly the variation seen in the Holocene is probably the direct result of the Yucatan impact and the Great Dieing before it.
Personally, I think you’re half-right in that (with a sample size of our solar system) the Earth is the only one with an actually diverse range of biomes - really only possible because the availability of water in multiple forms…
But the Earth-like planets in NMS should rightfully have the same biome diversity if they were being scientifically accurate…
Though we all know the real reason for the lack of diversity is to force movement between planets. If every resource was on one planet, there’s be no reason for the player to explore.
My guess is that a rocky planet that is 5% - 95% covered with ocean is probably pretty rare. You probably mostly either get water / ice planets or rock planets.
Another thing that makes Earth unique is the liquid iron core. Without that you don’t get a magnetic field. Without a magnetic field, it’s hard to keep the atmosphere intact. That means that water vapour gets blown off over time, which eventually results on a dry planet like Mars.
As for all 3 states of water, as long as you’re in the range to have a wet surface, you’ll probably get all 3 states of water. The poles will get a lot less solar radiation than the equator, so if the equator is wet it’s pretty likely that you’ll get at least a bit of ice at the poles. If there’s a lot of water then it’s easy to get water vapour. Even Europa which has an average surface temperature of -171C (102K) has a liquid water ocean under the icy surface, and although its atmosphere is extremely thin, part of it is water vapour.
Monobiomes are probably the rule and Earth-like continental planetoids with diverse topology are probably exceedingly rare in the universe.