Quote:
Originally Posted by Agemegos
It's meant to be flux per unit area in the visible band at ground level, but in fact I didn't make the correction for scattering, haze, and cloud cover. So it's actually flux per unit area in the visible band at the top of the atmosphere, wearing a false nose.
Would "visual illumination" be sufficiently explicit?
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A minor tangent, but some years ago, I did a tiny bit of worldbuilding for my space opera setting, and I arrived at the conclusion that for a Human-habitable planet orbiting an F-type star, i.e. radiating much more energy than our Sun and therefore needing the planet to orbit father away, it would create the effect of shadows being more sharply defined, less blurred.
That's a minor but interesting visual effect.
And it might have RPG implications too. For all I know, it might mean that it's easier to use a skill such as Disguise. Or it could beharder. I'm not able, at least right now, to fully visualize the consequences.
Also, of course, the mid day sun is punishing for Humans who don't have very dark skin, so buildings are often made tall, tower-like, not just "because we can" (gravity on that one planet might be a bit less than 1G) but also to provide shelter for the homeless or those who lost track of time and find themselves far from home. Tall buildings do nothing exactly at noon, but of course in the minutes before and after, the shadow they provide is very welcome.
That's just my take on it. A focus on the "what is it like"-aspect of things. What is it like being on this planet? What tells, signals, sensations, does the planet give me, as a visitor? What do I notice? What's unfamiliar? What creates a strong and powerful
sense-of-place?
Maybe you can do that with coded tags, inventing convenient shorthand tags for whatever planteary features you deem to be sufficiently relevant?