Species Upgrade Why should an aquatic sentient species value forests and grasslands? The krell are known for being highly tolerant of toxic atmospheres it makes no sense for them to suffer the same penalties as humans. With this in mind racial templates have been developed for each of the major species in the Phoenix universe. These are applied to the world, modifying infrastructure and life demand multipliers and determine the relative worth of each type of sectors. The knock-on effect of this is that where previously worlds were classed as breathable or un-breathable irrespective of species it is now the case worlds may be suitable for some species but inhospitable to others. As such the world is now termed Terrestrial or Divergent. Terrestrial versus Divergent A terrestrial world means that the environment is suitable for the majority species. It presumes that within the integrated infrastructure there is sufficient allowance to cope with lack of terrestrial conditions for minority populations.

For example while humans would find a high carbon dioxide percentage of an atmosphere toxic, if they are a minority species on a world dominated by a dewiek population it is a given that there will be areas where the humans can live without making special allowances for them. If however the population changes such that the dewiek are no longer the dominant species then the world will stop being classed as terrestrial.

A dominant race requires greater than 60% of a single species to be present in the population. A world without a dominant species will be classed as Default and be subjected to the default racial infrastructure values.

A terrestrial world is defined as one where bases do not require domes. This makes for a simple mechanic even though it may not be logical in all cases. You can benefit for not needing domes on a world populated by aquaphids even though your entire workforce is krell. If however the population increases and becomes divergent, the base must build domes to avoid getting the efficiency penalty. A divergent world is one where any single infrastructure penalty is greater than 20%, the total infrastructure penalty is greater than 50% or there are atmospheric components that generate a life demand multiplier penalty greater than 1 i.e. a toxic atmosphere.

Colonising New Worlds
Worlds without a population are classified as default and use the default parameters. For species that are quite different from default this can lead to expensive infrastructure costs for colonisation. The simplest method of dealing with this is to first seed a few civilians of the appropriate species in order to create the desired population before attempting to integrate any techs. If the seeding base is looking to conceal their infrastructure improvement plans they can integrate items and techs but not complete them then when they are ready, seed the population quickly followed by integrating the techs.

Below is a short comment on the dominant species found within the Peripheries:

Sentient
Worlds suitable for sentients are similar to Earth-like worlds but if anything are more constrained. The reason for this is that the mix of species is more likely to result in one or more of the minority species being incompatible with the environment.

Humans
A world suitable for humans is Earth-like - not really anything more to add to this.

Aquaphid
The aquatic species holds little regard for atmospheres providing that there is oxygen present (and as a consequence oxygen in the water). Certain atmospheric gases however will contaminate the seas where they live. As such they suffer quite lightly from atmospheres that would make colonisation problematic for other species.
As the vast majority of their civilisation lies within water they have little use for land except where it is accessible by rivers and lakes.

Krell
Maybe years of civil war has made this species adept at eking out sustenance seemingly from barren rock. The same reasoning is also behind their lack of enthusiasm for vegetation. Maybe they see lush jungles as tomorrow's forest fire. This also explains their seeming delight in colonising ruins. While other species would seek to either repair or demolish ruins, the krell see them as pre-fabs.
They prefer living in large groups and urban sectors are always packed.
That the species also spends a long time underground and living in dense reprocessed air has given them a surprising tolerance for extreme atmospheres. They can happily breath air that is utterly toxic to humans. This is the sort of species that can be relegated to second class planets considered unfit for colonisation.

Dewiek
While knowledge of their exact homeworld is either lost of a well-kept secret it is clear that the shaggy humanoids prefer rough living in cool climates. When off-duty they prefer nothing more than getting out of the urban environments and losing themselves in forests and mountains, joining their packmates in their enclaves to drink and fight.
They are adapted to dense atmospheres but with a lower oxygen content easily processed by their prodigious lungs.
Their muscle and bone structure is dense and they prefer higher gravities as lower gravities tends to cause muscle and bone atrophy in the long term leading to more injuries during their favourite pastimes.

Felini All ancient felini literature contain copious prose about the savannah of Pride, the vast steppes and endless plains. That the felini have dozens of words for basking and a narrow band of temperatures all of which humans would find uncomfortably hot. Oceans are considered pointless and at best they tolerate large lakes providing they have rivers. While felini are adapted to high gravities their natural athleticism means that they enjoy lower gravities and make good use of them, often simply omitting steps much to the annoyance of other species. Hive Hive infrastructure has a high threshold for extremes in gravity and temperature. Even tectonic levels other species consider an issue proves little problem to them as they seek out active volcanic sites (hive also have a near complete lack of health and safety protocols). For this species rock is prized along with vegetation as a world suitable for colonisation. Hive urban sectors are little more than a mass of tunnels extending above and below ground, taking advantage of natural features such as mountains. They are always heaving with hive and rarely lit except in the locations where they deal with other sentients or as a result of industry being carried out. While not as tolerant as the krell with respect to atmospheres, modest levels of carbon dioxide give them little discomfort. Flagritz The lack of an internal skeleton means that this species prefers lower gravity to the point where they will lose more than 40cm in height when in they move from an optimal 0.7 to a 1g environment unless they are readily strapped up, something they find somewhat limiting. High temperature is also a major annoyance to Flagritz as it causes them to dehydrate, losing vital liquids. They prefer a temperature only slightly above freezing, though being highly saline this causes them no problems. Falconians Falconians prefer forests, jungles and shorelines where they form their large congregation points. It also makes taking to the air convenient as even the most graceful falconian can look somewhat ungainly as they leap skywards from the ground. This also explains their interest in low gravity worlds with high optical depths (associated with dense atmospheres). Anything to make flying easier.