First I would like to commend Egosoft on a good release standard for X4 4.0 but...
Terraforming needs work... and a non-spoiler piece of advice, save BEFORE starting any terraforming project just in-case the results are not as expected. Failing to do this cost me 2-3 days of letting X4 run in the background.
The main issue is feedback and information, when engaging in the different projects it is not 100% clear what the consequences of the project are. The main problems being Air Pressure and Temperature and the prime example being
I got rid of the radiation, restored the local flora, then decided to deposit some black dust to increase temperature on the assumption that reducing carbon dioxide could potentially decrease ambient temperature (it is a green house gas after all) and thought that starting the Forestation project would be a good idea to ensure the oxygen levels were good and to ensure stability of the biosphere (c/f the project's description)... big mistake!
There I was happily plugging along waiting for the forestation project to complete and when done all seemed good - Oxygen levels were in the green with room to spare, and Carbon Dioxide was in the clear... then I started the
Looking through the projects, there are projects to introduce Methane into the atmosphere, but no apparent means to decrease atmospheric pressure nor seemingly temperature for that matter. The natural assumption is that as carbon based life forms (c/f Humans and seemingly Teladi/Paranid/Split) convert Oxygen to Carbon Dioxide as part of their natural respiration processes.
BTW based on real world science...
- Methane (CH4) is a climate change factor (it is known to be a heat absorption agent), and is a natural by product of food consumption by carbon based life (cows and pigs are the two most advertised producers of methane, but humans and other animals produce it naturally too). It poses as much of a direct toxicity risk to carbon life as CO2 (i.e. pure suffocation due to gaseous displacement of oxygen which we can process) but is also known to be explosive/flammable unlike Carbon Dioxide.
- Carbon Dioxide (CO2) simply can not be processed except by plant life (via photo-synthessis but plant life can also produce it when in the dark) and is a known factor in global warming due to it contributing to the retention of planetary heat (effectively reducing the planet's ability to dissipate it's own heat as I understand it).
- Carbon Monoxide (CO) on the other hand is poisonous to animal life as it is absorbed by Oxygen carrying red cells and kills them - effectively reducing the ability for the animal in question to process oxygen. It is nominally only produced as a by-product of inefficient combustion (e.g. burning Methane and other hydrocarbons in conditions where the released Carbon cannot effectively bond with the available Oxygen)
- Stop hiding information that has a range of values such as atmospheric pressure.
- Ensure that the secondary effects (e.g. on atmospheric pressure and/or temperature) are made explicitly clear in the same place as the primary effects.
- Update the descriptions to be 100% clear on the potential consequences
- Projects to explicitly reduce temperature (may be already covered)
- Projects to explicitly revert a project (e.g. if forestation increases air pressure, deforestation should be able to reduce it again).