Landmarks

Landmarks are giant natural wonders of Planet, the most important geophysical features of the world. You might encounter any of the following.

Bonuses

• Fossil Field Ridge. One of Planet's many pseudo-coral species has created a massive reef, stretching for hundreds of miles, rather like Earth's Great Barrier Reef.
  • +1 mineral production.
• Freshwater Sea. Most of Planet's oceans are salty, but one small sea is unusually fresh and hospitable for Earth-born life. Fisheries and kelp farms in the Freshwater Sea are particularly productive.
  • The richest aquatic region on Planet provides +1 nutrient per square.
• Garland Crater. Some thousands of years ago, long before Planetfall, a small planetoid slammed into Planet, leaving a vast impact crater. The region's ecology was devastated, and had yet to recover when humans arrived. The remnants of the impactor lie close to the surface, and are a rich source of industrial metals.
  • The rare and valuable remnants of the original object remain in the crater, giving the squares inside a +1 mineral bonus.
• Geothermal Shallows. One of Planet's continental shelf regions is an area of intense geothermal activity. A scatter of underwater geysers betrays the presence of fierce heat under the sea bottom.
  • A whole field of underwater geysers underlies this coastal shelf, providing +1 energy per square.
• Monsoon Jungle. Fed by almost-constant rainfall off the nearby ocean, the Monsoon Jungle is a region of dense vegetation. Here, the native plant life grows to heights unmatched anywhere else on Planet, and the undergrowth forms several layers of habitat for different animal species. Planet's biodiversity is at its highest in the Monsoon Jungle.
  • This is an anomalous expanse of thick and curiously earthlike vegetation. The rich soil of the Monsoon Jungle yields +1 nutrient per square.
• Mount Planet. The highest mountain on Planet is an immense shield volcano, similar to Earth's Mauna Loa or Mars' Olympus Mons. Mount Planet remains active, but its slopes offer both mineral resources and a bounty of geothermal energy. Bases located around the mountain's slopes became primary industrial centers.
  • This enormous volcano is active, but its slopes provide a +1 bonus of both minerals and energy. The enormous crater at the top fills a whole square with lava.
• Pholus Ridge. Planet exhibits plate tectonics much like those of Earth. In one region, a continental plate is sliding over an ocean plate, sending the lower plate down into Planet's mantle. The result is earthquakes and mountain-building activity all along the line of Pholus Ridge.
  • The geothermal energy unleashed by the clash of two of Planet’s tectonic plates produces +1 energy per square along Pholus Ridge.
• Uranium Flats. This savanna is particularly rich in heavy elements that provide +1 energy per square.

Other

• Borehole Cluster: In one area, the colonists found unmistakable evidence of past engineering of Planet's surface: three thermal boreholes drilled through Planet's crust, about 200 miles apart. The boreholes were somehow being maintained against local geological forces, and remained useful despite the thousands (or even millions) of years since their construction.
  • These act as regular thermal boreholes.
• Great Dunes. Most of Planet is moist and green with life (or crimson with fungal mats). One region is a vast, harsh wasteland comparable to the Gobi or Sahara deserts of Earth. Agriculture is impossible, and even the native life is extremely sparse.
  • The largest, most unforgiving desert on Planet. The Great Dunes provide no bonus resources, and are in fact a remarkably inhospitable place.
• Manifold Nexus: A cluster of mysterious ancient ruins, the Manifold Nexus eventually proved to be the central communications point for all of the alien engineering projects on Planet; in effect, a control center for Planetary intelligence.
  • +1 Planet rating if in faction territory. +1 to Planet and Research, if playing as either Progenitor faction.
• New Sargasso. This is the largest naturally occurring growth of sea fungus on Planet, located in the deep ocean, where thick sea fungus grows in a field over a thousand miles across. Many Unity supply pods were tangled in the region's sea fungus.
  • It provides no special bonus, other than the resources that can be harvested from the fungus itself.
• Sunny Mesa. This extensive highland offers no special resource bonuses, but its elevation makes it naturally excellent for harvesting energy.
• The Ruins. A vast and ancient ring of monoliths embedded in thick xenofungus, it has no special resources, other than the monoliths themselves.
• Unity Wreckage. Scattered across hundreds of miles of landscape, the wreckage of the Unity is almost unidentifiable. The colonists who first located the wreckage were able to salvage a few pieces of equipment, and recover computer records from the remains of the command module.

Unimplemented

• Nessus Canyon. +1 mineral per square. Can only be added via map editor, does not appear on random maps.
  • Using Scient's Unofficial SMACX Patch, it will be spawned in random maps.