: Tools for science-based world building? I tend to lean towards science-fiction and fantasy, so world building matters a lot to me. A while ago, there was a question which asked how to go about

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I recommend the book World-Building -- A writer's guide to constructing star systems and life-supporting planets, by Stephen L. Gillett. The author has a PhD in geology, and so he covers topics like plate tectonics, water and air, magnetic fields, colors, etc. The book also covers various aspects of planets and stars, orbits, gravity, seasons and tidal action.

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First, as someone who has used world builders extensively, a warning: When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

World builders are all limited to certain things. None are as realistic as they say on the box, and you'll find yourself with a few odd looking flaws which actually damage immersion. I strongly suggest you design your world first and find the mechanics that explain why it works that way instead of rolling a generator and building the story around your results. You'll likely create less scientific flaws than if you ran it through a generator.

But to answer the question, some games do put a lot of focus on world creation. Civilization 5 has a nice system if you want to simulate terrains loosely.

The best so far is Dwarf Fortress. It was designed first-most as a fantasy world simulator, with the game built on top of that. It simulates incredible detail, from boiling points and chemicals to geology. It takes about a week to get past the poor interface. Though it doesn't simulate things like multiple moons and suns yet. There's also good modding capacity if you want to generate something very specific.

To wander a little off topic, Aurora is an incredibly detailed universe creator, which seems to be designed as a sci fi roleplaying game of some sort. It's not a direct world builder, but anyone who appreciates extreme detail and sci-fi worlds might find it useful. On the other hand, it might take around half a month just to learn how it works.

But this also brings up a second warning on world generators: They can be fun/distracting to play with in themselves and the more realistic a simulation is, the more work it takes to learn to use it.

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UniverseSandbox has a relatively new powerful Astrophysics and celestial mechanics simulator if you are writing a Sci-Fi universe and would like something that will give you a chance to make sure your orbits, day/month/year lengths, number of moons, etc are reasonable and workable.

It also has a gross calculation of planetary surface temperatures based on your sun's data and planet's orbit, with configuration for planetary Albedo and Infrared Emissivity.

I think it runs Fractal Mapper or something similar to generate random planetary textures, or you can import your own surface texture map so you can see your world how it might look from space. }}:P

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I have used NBOS's Astrosynthesis, and it bridges the gaps the OP spoke of when he mentioned Pro Fantasy's Fractal Terrains. The two actually work in conjunction; with Astrosynthesis allowing for the creation of entire universes — if you were willing to spend that much effort — and Fractal Terrains allowing for the creation of realistic worlds based on planet data generated in Astrosynthesis. Astrosynthesis also fits his bonus criteria of keeping it all organized.

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Astronsynthesis is supposed to be good. While it is not world builder software, you might find it a useful helper app for the very big picture.

That site offers Fractal Mapper, as well. However, it is not a simulator or guide.

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My advice? Skip the world building.

Focus instead on your characters. Tell the story as it happens to them. Invent the world around them as you need to in order to tell their story. If you introduce inconsistencies, clean them up in a later draft.

Focusing on the axial tilt of the planet your characters live on rather than who your characters are and what they want is a great way to never get any actual writing done.

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Depending on where you live you might want to consider going to Life The Universe and Everything @ BYU. I've gone to a few and they have an excellent World Building track.

A warning, world building can be so fun that you forget to write your story and that would be a shame.

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Regarding climate:

I struggled with climate on a fictional world for a long time. What I eventually realized is that all the climate models we have are generated in reference to a single example. In other words: things like albedo effect, cloud cover, precipitation and seasonal weather patterns are entirely dependent on the specific shape and configuration of the earth's landmasses, it's size, density, orbital characteristics, and the current position of our single, relatively large moon. Change any of those and you radically change the weather systems. Some general rules hold true (like the Coriolis effect), but only the most general. Everything else is interdependent--and interdependent in ways that we don't precisely understand because we only have access to a single reference. So unfortunately, if you want a realistic fictional world that isn't merely an alternate Earth, there are no existing models that are capable of generating even moderately detailed climate systems: you have to figure it out (or make it up) yourself.

Which, of course, isn't necessarily a bad thing.

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SimEarth might work well for you. As I remember, in addition to the Earth simulation, there was Martian terraforming as well. It is an old DOS game; I wish Maxis had updated it for modern computers.

Something that might also be interesting is EdGCM, the only global climate model I know of that will run on a PC. Changing the forcings in model can provide some interesting effects - global cooling, global warming and so on. For science fiction scenarios set in the distant past, (try the Iceball Earth scenario) an alternate present, or set in the future, it should provide some climate related ideas.

Although they are not software, older RPGs like Traveller and Space Opera included systems for generating solar systems and planets.

For terrain, try VistaPro. Also an older program, it works quickly and can use real-world DEM data (sections of the Earth and Mars are included) or randomly generate landscapes. Try using something like part of the southern US and raise the sea level a hundred feet or so for an interesting effect.

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It is not really software, but a good guide. If you want something to do a lot of it for you, this open source project is a good place to start.

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