Board Thread:Warhammer 40k Novels/@comment-206.174.85.16-20131013234929/@comment-27890440-20160304180557

Just how close to real world science would you want this to be? Is the life on it indiginous and how similar to our own ecosystem would it need to be?

The primary problems I see would be a light source and lack of consistent rhythms. Light is required for photosynthesis and therefore plant life, which in turn is required for animal life. Not necessarily a problem if you postulate sufficiently alien life forms. Equally we (and all organisms) are surprisingly reliant on cycles and rhythms within the ecosphere, which in turn are largely based on things like lunar cycles, planetary rotation, etc. Even if these things are provided by the various stellar systems the planet passes through they would be inconsistent over time, leaving organisms adapted to one set of conditions non plussed in the next.

As for the plundering systems they pass through, they'd have to be travelling awfully fast to make that feasible, even at a significant fraction of the speed of light it would likely be centuries between contacts, and at those speeds the contacts would be fleeting at best, with massive catastrophic consequences to the eco system from things like shifting gravitational conditions leading to tectonic activity, sudden drastric non seasonal temperature shifts damaging organisms on every level, etc.

Basically I'd say for this idea to work the indiginous lifeforms would have to be extremely alien in make up, the planet would have to remain pretty much isolated from other natural space borne bodies and any space faring colonists would have to rely on technological means to support life.

Within those sorts of parameters, I'd be interested to see what you came up with