Quote Originally Posted by jbgibson View Post
Ooooo, cool caveats, Hawksguard. Porklet, if you need things to be AS THOUGH the circumference were half that of Earth, how about if you leave it earth-sized, and make your people (and critters, and plants) twice the size? :-) I mean, that has its own problems, but at ~6ft tall humans aren't at the theoretical limit of bio structures, right? Time could be local, with twenty-four (or whatever desired) parts of whatever the rotation period needs to be.

Or hmmmm..... core has more lead than iron (pick magnetically inert heavy-ish metal), atmosphere is denser than earth's, yadda, yadda. Or it outgases nitrogen and oxy at a rate that makes up for increased loss from somewhat lower grav..... there's AlWaYs rationalizations, even if they may not be proven rational, ifyaknowwhattImean.

What have you done? Created parameters for a delightfully complex puzzle. If it gets to be a harder puzzle than you wanted, cheat. Or redefine success. :-)
I'm OK with a larger earth like planet. As I was designing the land masses (even at double the distances) I had found that over the course of 2,000 years (roughly) my cultures would become a lot more intermingled than I had originally anticipated. I don't mind that, but I want a majority of it to happen in story or game. With more land there's more elbow room, and "we got ta got ta git cha some elbow room," to quote Schoolhouse Rocks.

I'm still looking over the vast amount of information you provided. Will post tonight.

One question, when the wind patterns reverse themselves from winter to summer and back again (if I am understanding this correctly) I am sure they don't just wave at each other and start running back the way they came, right? Is there a gentle transition?