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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lgburton" data-source="post: 2334919" data-attributes="member: 30653">on first look my thought was that a high ammount of volcanism would be needed to maintain the planet at a temperate level. there are some problems with high volcansim to low/ocean area though - the biggest one is of oxygen generation, the second largest being of co2 removal.... but we'll skip that for now, this is a kind of nitpicky detail that would get really annoying to try and figure out for a game. the problem with the ammount of rainfall you are describing is the lack of oceans to generate all the arial moisture - for a good solid raincloud, you need heat and standing water in the same place.my suggestion here is to look at a map from the book Blue Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson - it showss a possible result of a martian terraforming effort, where the surface is approximatly 70% land area, and 30% ocean. mars, in this case, is neither warm nor wet, but it is viable for life.how to change this up? there's a couple of different (though, honestly, not-really game affecting ways) things you could do:1) put your planet closer to the sun than mars is - earth-like distance is perfect for an active hydrosphere2) go back in time - the planet should be younger!3) give mars a more iron-rich and dense core, and make that core still spin (as earth's) to generate a magnetic feild - this will decrease ambient radiation (not by too much), and stimulate plate tectonics (so that you get high volcanism). at this point i'd really tell you to go read the mars trilogy by kim stanley robinson, if you have time.honestly, rather than trying to scientificaly explain it, i'd go with an "it's magic" and remember the important differences between a mars-type world and an earth-type:the horizons will be signifigantly closer.gravity will be less - jumps will be easier, falling damage lessthe atmosphere will be thicker at higher altitudes - gravity doesn't hold the air down so much</blockquote>

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