[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

One possibility for a tide-locked planet that is not often talked about is a planet with a 90-degree axis that 'rolls' as it revolves around its star (the north pole is always pointed at the star, the south pole is always pointed away, and the equator is the terminus).

No, that is not a possibility, because it violates conservation of angular momentum.

Another thing to consider is the placement of continents.

Yes. Hu & Yang acknowledged that in their paper, and I mentioned it in my original post. You will have continents and oceanic ridges and shallows deflecting currents, and mountain ranges deflecting winds, besides a patchwork of land where the models assume water. It's hard, perhaps impossible, to estimate the effects at the level at which the Space planet generator works, but I suppose that one near-universal is that geographical features will result in a greater variety of surface conditions than the models indicate.

A 'polar' ocean would moderate day side temperatures through evaporation and reflective cloud cover, as well as being an effective method of transferring heat to the night side. Conversely, a 'polar' continent would be an inferno, and the rest of the planet would likely be uninhabitable outside of the terminus because there would be insufficient heat transfer.

According to the modelling by Hu & Yang that I linked in the OP the westerly current at the equator is most important for advecting heat from the light side to the dark side. Flows in the polar regions are much less significant.

Of course, the tidal bulge caused by the tide locking would likely result in a polar continent

The mantle material conforms to the same geoid as the oceans do. Water conforms more quickly than mantle material does, producing the tides where applicable, but the mantle goes to the long-term average equipotential surface. You don't get a band of continents around the equatorial bulge of a planet like Earth, and you won't get continental bulges at the subsolar and anti-solar points on a tide-locked planet. Remember that tides affect the oceans.

meaning that most tide-locked planets are likely uninhabitable outside of the terminus.

What do you mean by "outside the terminus"?

I really don't believe that the twilit band near the terminator is likely to be highly habitable, for reasons that I have explained at length. That area is going to be poor in light to drive photosynthesis (a problem exacerbated by the low photosynthetic efficiency of the light from cool stars). And the modelling all shows that it is likely to be arid, too.

The results of global circulation modelling suggest to me that the best prospect for settling on tide-locked worlds is on the sunlit faces of comparatively cool ones.