Survey catalogue 0147
The world
Earth ran out of time. Nova Eridani has been waiting.
01How we got here
A question, not a colony
Nova Eridani was never meant to save anyone. It was somewhere humanity hoped its descendants might one day visit, until Earth ran out of time.
I · Earth
The first winter
A war that was over in less than a week left a winter of ash. The smoke from the fires blotted out the sun and the harvests failed, year after year. Then the power failed, and people began abandoning the cities, with launches for those who could leave.
People thought it was snow. I suppose they wanted it to be. 
Then the power started failing. II · Discovery
A candidate
The mirror that found Nova Eridani. Survey catalogue 0147 · Candidate
- Found by
- DEEP SURVEY 3, Sun–Earth L2
- Atmosphere
- Nitrogen–oxygen
- Surface pressure
- 0.9–1.2 atm
- Temperature range
- −41 °C to +31 °C
- Liquid water
- Probable
- Biosphere
- Indicated
Survey estimates, not confirmed values.
III · Genesis
More than a forest
Years before the war, while there was still time to be patient, Earth sent a ship ahead. Genesis carried no crew: seeds and frozen plant embryos, soil bacteria and fungi, algae and plankton for the sea and the rivers, and libraries of genetic records for anything too complicated to send alive.
Genesis Ecological Precursor
- Crew
- None
- Launched
- From Earth orbit, before the war
- Payload
- Seed banks and frozen plant embryos, fungal and soil cultures, marine and freshwater algae and plankton, mosses, grasses, shrubs and tree stock, and libraries of genetic records
- Craft
- Two landers, three atmospheric probes and a field station
- Trial
- Genesis Trial 01, Trial Site A: authorised, succeeded
Seeds and frozen plant embryos, soil cultures, algae and plankton. IV · The trial
That one lived
The machines started small, with test plots ashore and sealed enclosures in the bay, and most of the early trials failed. It was years before the field station at Trial Site A planted a tree outside: Pinus NE-4 “Founder stock”. That one lived.
That one lived. V · The forests
Planted by machines
The pines spread slowly, through sheltered valleys, among things that had grown there for millions of years: glowing native fungi and life older than humanity. Outside them, Nova Eridani is still very much its own world.
Not always the way anyone expected. VI · The Meridian
A freighter, taught to be a colony ship
A freighter still being built, taught to be a colony ship. ESV Meridian
- Formerly
- Kestrel-Haldane Freight, hull 2211
- Refitted at
- KH Orbital Works, Slip 4
- Crossing
- 84 years
- Incident
- Debris strike, six years before arrival
- Intelligence
- Melanie
The Meridian, side profile
02Epsilon Eridani · 10.45 light-years
A real star
Nova Eridani orbits Epsilon Eridani, one of the nearest stars to the Sun. The star is real, and so is one of its planets. Nova Eridani and its other neighbours are the game's invention, built to sit inside what astronomers have measured.
Schematic · distances on a logarithmic scale · sizes not to scale
Home
Nova Eridani
Invented for the game
A world of oceans, weather and air, with oxygen in its air long before Genesis arrived. Astronomers on Earth saw it, which is why the world was worth a ship at all. Where the oxygen comes from is unknown.
- Distance from the star
- 0.65 AU
- Year
- 211 Earth days
- Day
- 26 h 8 min
- Gravity
- 96 % of Earth's
Real astronomy from the NASA Exoplanet Archive. Every other world, moon and name is invented for the game.
03The planet
Warm enough with less light
Nova Eridani gets less light than Earth, so it relies on its air to stay temperate: a little more greenhouse warming than Earth has, a slightly denser atmosphere and darker seas.
Its star is a touch warmer than sunlight. It is not orange: white with a hint of gold. The gold and amber of mornings and evenings come from the air, as they do on Earth. By day the sky is blue, with the star slightly larger than our Sun.
Nova Eridani had oxygen in its air long before Genesis arrived. Where it comes from is unknown. Breathable is not the same as safe, so until the air, the dust and whatever lives in them are understood, suits and visors stay sealed.
| Quantity | Nova Eridani | Earth |
|---|---|---|
| Distance from its star | 0.65 AU | 1 AU |
| Year | 211 Earth days | 365 days |
| Starlight at the top of the air | 78 % of Earth's | 100 % |
| The star in the sky | 0.60° across | 0.53° |
| Size | 98 % of Earth's | 100 % |
| Gravity | 96 % of Earth's | 100 % |
| Day | 26 hours 8 minutes | 24 hours |
| Axial tilt | 18° | 23.4° |
| Ocean | About 62 % of the surface | 71 % |
| Air pressure | About 1.02 bar | 1.01 bar |
| Mean temperature | About 12 °C | About 15 °C |
04Day and night · in the build
From dawn to dusk
The sun crosses the sky of Nova Eridani over an hour of real time, and every player in a co-op game shares the same day.
A day on Nova Eridani lasts a little over 26 hours. You land at LZ-1, 42° north, in late northern spring on a clear morning, with nearly 15 hours of daylight ahead: about 34 minutes of real time to make camp before nightfall. The time of day is kept in your save.
26 h 8 min
A day on Nova Eridani
1 hour
Of real time per day, in the game
194
Of its own days in a year
The night sky, the moons and the seasons
In the test build: the real night sky as seen from here. Nova Eridani has two moons, which go through their phases separately and are seldom both full. The stars are the real ones, moved to where they stand 10.5 light years from the Sun: the far ones barely shift, the near ones do, and the Sun itself is up there, an ordinary star in the constellation Serpens. The Milky Way passes almost overhead at the landing site. An 18° tilt gives seasons milder than Earth's, each about seven weeks long; the seasons are not part of play yet.
- LumaA large grey cratered moon, 2,800 km across and nearly as big in the sky as our Moon. Its phases repeat every 28 days. It can pass in front of the star, but is just too small to cover it: its eclipses leave a ring of light.
- KestA small, dark blue-grey moon, 550 km across and not quite round, that hurries across the sky in under eight days and often slips into the planet's shadow.
After dark
Keep to the light
When the sun goes down, something comes out of the dark, and you cannot outrun it. You can hear it, though, and you can see it coming. Get to the light.
The survey beacon picks up movement and shows it on a disc in the corner of your visor, with its direction and distance. Melanie counts down to nightfall.
New in the test build0516 × 16 km · World Partition
The surface
The surface is 16 × 16 km, streamed with World Partition around the coastal landing zone. The story stays near LZ-1 for now; the wider world has places to find but no quests yet.
Schematic · not to scale · positions approximate · north up
LZ-1
The landing zone
A coastal landing zone on a bay: grassland, pine forest, rock and beach. The drop pod comes down in the meadow, and the colony's first industry is built here.
Above the landing zone.
06Lakes, rivers and the sea
Into the water
Wade out into a mountain lake or the sea and swim: float with your head above the surface, or dive to see what the lake bed holds.
The plateau and foothill lakes and the sea are deep water. Wade in from the shore and you swim, with your head and shoulders out; look down as you swim and you dive. The rivers are shallow enough to wade.
Swimming is new: there is no underwater view or breath limit yet.
07Genesis on the ground
What is left of Genesis
The precursor ship lies on the plateau at the end of its 1.2 km impact furrow, with seed canisters strewn along it. Its two entry vehicles and three probes are scattered across the land, and Field Station 01 stands powered down, ringed by the pines it planted.
The wider world has places to find but no quests yet, and resources beyond the landing zone are still to be placed.
Private testing · Steam page later
Follow the expedition
A private beta for a small group of testers is being set up, and the store page will follow. Until then, every change is written up in the development log, with an RSS feed so you never miss one.
Nova Eridani is in development. Showcase 01 — “Arrival” is in private testing. Screenshots are from the in-development build.