Terraforming catalog

The terraforming system is X4’s late-game economic+narrative content. The player invests massive ware quantities + research time across hundreds of in-game hours to transform planets. Vanilla ships 99 distinct projects across 13 categories.

This page is a player-facing catalog of what terraforming covers and where mods commonly conflict.

Project categories (99 total)

Category	Count	Theme
Xenon	15	Manage Xenon threats during terraforming
Biosphere	10	Forestation, fertilization, parasites
Training	9	Population training projects
Economy	8	Banks, campuses, clinics, nividium
Amenities	8	Resorts, temples, parks, fine dining
Cleanup	6	Methane/carbon/toxin removal
Events	6	Quakes, ice melt, global warming events
Housing	5	Population housing
Industry	4	Manufacturing projects
Water	3	Cloud particles, import, irrigation
Special	3	Moholes, blackdust, volcano caps
Power	3	Power infrastructure
Atmosphere	3	Methane/helium/nitrogen handling

Sample projects from each category

Water (3 projects)

ID	Display name	Effect
`tmp_cloudparticles`	Cloud Seeding	Triggers rainfall, increases water
`wat_import`	Water Import	Import ice/water from off-planet
`wat_irrigation`	Irrigation Network	Distribute water across surface

Atmosphere (3 projects)

ID	Effect
`atm_methane_import`	Increase methane atmospheric content
`atm_nitrogen_fix`	Nitrogen-fix bacteria, atmosphere balance
`atm_helium_import`	Import helium for atmospheric pressure

Cleanup (6 projects)

ID	Effect
`atm_methane_oxidizers`	Build oxidizer infrastructure
`atm_methane_oxidize`	Consume oxidizers to remove methane
`atm_carbon_mineralizers`	Mineralizer infrastructure
`atm_carbon_mineralize`	Consume mineralizers, remove CO2
`atm_toxin_cleanup`	Toxin removal
`ter_radioactive_cleanup`	Radiation cleanup

The infrastructure → consume two-step is a vanilla pattern — build the converter, then operate it. Modders adding terraforming projects should follow this.

Biosphere (10 projects)

ID	Effect
`bio_jumpstart`	Initial life seeding
`bio_cyanobacteria`	Atmosphere conversion via bacteria
`bio_reintroduce`	Reintroduce native species
`bio_cull`	Population control
`bio_tailored`	Engineered lifeforms
`bio_parasites_cull`	Eliminate problem parasites
`bio_toxicfruit_cull`	Remove toxic fruit population
`bio_toxicfruit_genemod`	Gene-modify toxic fruit to be safe
`agr_fertilize`	Agricultural fertilization
`agr_forestation`	Forest planting

Special (3 projects)

ID	Effect
`tmp_moholes`	Drill moholes for geothermal access
`tmp_blackdust`	Application of blackdust for albedo change
`ter_volcanocaps`	Cap active volcanoes

Events (6 projects)

These are NEGATIVE events that fire during terraforming — quakes, ice melt, runaway warming. Players must respond:

ID	Event
`evt_quake_mild`, `evt_quake_moderate`, `evt_quake_severe`	Earthquake disasters
`evt_icemelt`	Catastrophic ice melt
`evt_globalwarming_co2`	Runaway CO2 warming
`evt_globalwarming_methane`	Runaway methane warming

Economy (8 projects)

ID	Effect
`eco_bank`	Build banking infrastructure
`eco_bank_supply`	Run the bank (passive income)
`eco_campus`	Build campus (training capacity)
`eco_campus_supply`	Operate campus
`eco_clinic`	Build clinic
`eco_clinic_supply`	Operate clinic
`eco_nividium`	Build nividium-extraction infrastructure
`eco_nividium_supply`	Operate nividium mining

Amenities (8 projects)

ID	Theme
`ame_art_college`	Art college
`ame_finedining`	Fine dining establishments
`ame_resort_tropical`	Tropical resort
`ame_resort_winter`	Winter resort
`ame_temple`	Religious temple
`ame_themepark`	Theme park
`ame_venues`	Entertainment venues
`ame_zoo`	Zoo

Xenon (15 projects)

The largest category — Xenon-management during terraforming. Includes alertness mitigation, production reduction, defensive projects. (Details intentionally compressed — vanilla terraforming is THE place to look at how Xenon are mechanically integrated.)

Resource consumption — wares used

Terraforming projects consume a broad spread of vanilla wares:

energycells, advancedcomposites, advancedelectronics, antimattercells,
antimatterconverters, claytronics, dronecomponents, engineparts,
fieldcoils, foodrations, graphene, helium, hullparts, hydrogen, ice,
majadust, majasnails, meat, medicalsupplies, methane, ...

The ware consumption is massive — a single major project can consume thousands of advanced wares. This is the late-game economic gold sink.

Skipper NPC

The terraforming arc revolves around the Skipper NPC (also called the Skipper). Players interact via Skipper conversations. Vanilla has Debug_Skipper cues for testing — these show the conversation structure modders should follow.

Skipper appears in terraforming.xml (Debug_Skipper, Terraforming_Skipper_Project_StartedProduction, Terraforming_Skipper_Project_Finished).

Where conflicts arise

Economy-rebalance mods

Terraforming consumes the same wares as ship production. Mods that:

Make advanced wares cheaper → trivialize terraforming
Make advanced wares scarcer → make terraforming impossible
Add new “advanced” ware tiers → terraforming projects skip them (won’t auto-include in supply chain)

Test: open terraforming UI after enabling your mod. Are projected costs sensible?

HQ replacement mods

Terraforming gates on player HQ. Mods that:

Skip the HQ unlock
Replace HQ with a custom station
Move HQ to non-standard sector

…break the terraforming Skipper anchor. Specifically, Terraforming_Skipper_Project_StartedProduction listens at HQ.

Sector-replacement mods

Terraforming targets specific terraformable planets. Mods that:

Replace cluster/sector macros referenced by terraforming
Change planet macros (planet_X_macro)
Add new planets without terraforming registration

…break the project library. Your new planets won’t appear; vanilla planets may de-register.

Mod adding new terraforming projects

To add a new project:

Diff libraries/terraforming.xml — declare a new <project id=> entry
Add to a group= (or declare a new group)
Specify resource consumption (wares + amounts)
Set duration= and repeatcooldown=
Add text references (name="{20227,XXXX}" format)

The 99 vanilla projects show what’s possible; copy the closest pattern.

Engine-event conflicts

If your mod fires custom faction events at the player HQ, watch for Skipper conversation interruption — the Skipper steps through scripted dialog and ignores parallel events badly.

Common gotchas

⚠ Project repeats need repeatcooldown= — without it, players can spam-execute infinite times
⚠ resilient="true" flag — controls whether the project survives a save-load mid-execution
⚠ Resource caps — terraforming projects must respect station storage capacity; oversize requests stall
⚠ Debug_Skipper bypasses gating — vanilla uses Debug_Skipper_CheatHQStorage etc. for testing; don’t ship a mod that relies on debug cues
⚠ Group xenon projects have hidden activation conditions tied to Xenon threat — your mod making Xenon docile breaks these

Code references

Concern	Where to read
Full project definitions	`libraries/terraforming.xml` (99 projects)
Project state machine	`terraforming.xml` (5616 lines, Skipper + project lifecycle)
Resource cost pattern	Search `<ware ware=` in `libraries/terraforming.xml`
Test/Debug Skipper conversations	`terraforming.xml` `Debug_Skipper_*` cues
Project completion handler	`terraforming.xml` `Terraforming_Skipper_Project_Finished`
Schema	`libraries/terraforming.xsd`

Vanilla content index — landscape
Story arcs catalog — research arcs unlock terraforming
Architectural overview: Faction economy — economy interaction
Macro (data layer) — how planet macros work
Wiki: Mod compatibility — broader compatibility

Terraforming is the closest X4 gets to a Civilization-style late game. A mod that adds 1 new project gives players hundreds of hours of new content; a mod that subtly breaks vanilla terraforming silently ruins the late game and players blame X4, not your mod.