RealSpace Lite (Standalone Version)
This mod is a minor overhaul of the awesome mod TrueSpace to incorporate the features of the mod Barren Universe as well as to fix a few minor bugs and inconsistencies with the TrueSpace orbital regions.
This mod uses the original TrueSpace files as a baseline and tweaks the values. DO NOT install with TrueSpace, this is a standalone mod. You can find a version of this mod implemented as a patch here.
As with TrueSpace, installing this mod is a one way trip. Have fun!
The main feature of this mod is to reduce the number of habitable planets. Habitable planets and moons spawn only 20% as often as in TrueSpace, the other 80% of the time spawning a barren planet instead. The rough goal is to have between 1-3 habitable planets per system.
There are a few secondary features.
1) In TrueSpace, Class A stars could not generate any planets in the 6th orbital slot, which appears to be a bug. Now they can generate Hot class planets in that slot.
2) In TrueSpace, The 7th-10th orbital slots for Class G and Class K stars appear to be swapped. Despite being the warmer star, Class G planets had fewer Mild planet slots and more Cold planet slots. This has been fixed.
3) In TrueSpace, Class L stars had a Frosty band in orbital regions 6-7, instead of the expected Cold band. This appears to perhaps be a remnant of when TrueSpace had Spicy and Frosty planet bands in a previous version. RealSpace changes the Frosty band to the expected Cold band. Note that Class L stars retain their special Dark band where Midnight planets can spawn.
4) The system threat level was overhauled. In TrueSpace, the coldest stars have the lowest threat level (lower than the lowest threat in vanilla, even), and the hottest stars have the highest. The problem is that cold Class L planets tend to be higher threat level than mild Class G planets. Vanilla Starbound treats deviation in either temperature direction as an increase in threat level. So RealSpace changes it so that Class G stars have a threat level of 3, the baseline minimum in vanilla, and the threat level increases as stellar classes get hotter or colder, with both Class B and Class L having the maximum threat level of 6. Note that the stellar classes were also updated in the bounty quest system to make sure that they send you to easy stars at lower levels.
5) The Outskirts orbital slot in TrueSpace has a 75% likelihood of generating an ancient gate, much higher than vanilla. This changes the likelihood to 25%, and adds a 25% chance to spawn a Gas Giant or a Barren planet instead.
This mod should be compatible with patches and addons for TrueSpace that add planets into the TrueSpace temperature system. Any mods that add new stellar classes to TrueSpace or change the spawning likelihood of different planet types in TrueSpace should be incompatible.
Note that Arcana has a slight incompatibility. Arcana adds its new moon types to the same pool as the regular Lunar planet type, which means you will see Arcana moons very frequently relative to barren planets and moons. Everything still functions, it is just incongruent. You can use the mod More Vanilla Moons to solve this problem.
Project Ancient Cosmos requires a patch to make Black Holes follow the RealSpace planet distribution philosophy. The patch is available here.
All credit for the original TrueSpace goes to the authors HammyHammerGuy and bk3000. Thank you for making one of the best Starbound mods. And thanks to the author of Barren Universe, borsk, for inspiring this mod.
I am considering making a more advanced version of this mod that takes TrueSpace’s concept of more realistic planetary generation and goes even further, such as by having Gas Giants more likely to generate in outer orbital regions, making hotter stars always generate as "large" instead of "small", and adding more stellar classes. If you would like such a mod or have any ideas for such a mod, please let me know.