What do you think plasteel is in reality?

[Laurie]

My guess is that plasteel on Earth is known as Ilmenite. It is iron (which makes steel) with titanium in it that can be mined.

Of course in reality it needs to be worked with to get the impurities out, but in Rimworld they ignore the refining part when getting metals.

The "pla" part definitely doesnt stand for plastic as that does not occur in nature. Of course I know its only a game and things are made up, but its fun to speculate how different the game would be like in real like. For example, I'm not sure about the whole mechanoid thing; stick a computer in the ground for a couple of thousand years and it probably wont still be running.

[whatamidoing]

It is lighter and stronger than steel, and is described as having a unique molecular structure. If there's something like it, we don't know about it.

[di eshor ribly]

Originally posted by Laurie:

The "pla" part definitely doesnt stand for plastic as that does not occur in nature.

Plastic doesn't occur in nature *on Earth*, but the game doesn't take place on Earth. The universe is a big place. We're engineering plastic producing bacteria, maybe some of those naturally exist out in the 'verse.

It could just be the name attached to the ore due to some plastic-like properties. That's where I put my money anyway: just an exotic ore with a familiar sounding name.

It could be a product of archotech metallurgy, or the remains of some long dead planet core. Maybe it's a... secretion of the insect geneline.

[VoiD]

I'm guessing it's just the usual "exotic material" found in scifi themes, the "alien alloys" from XCOM, or the metal alloy used in the invader's ships in Terra Invicta.

Basically it's the "I don't have to explain ♥♥♥♥" material.

[Dagoth Earth]

I've always assumed plasteel was a processed material, and thus that the plastic component wasn't necessarily organic in nature.

But then, I've also assumed that I can co-exist with the ant hives in my local area, and Rimworld logic seems to disagree with that assertion, so...

[The Yeen Queen]

Originally posted by di eshor ribly:

Originally posted by Laurie:

The "pla" part definitely doesnt stand for plastic as that does not occur in nature.

Plastic doesn't occur in nature *on Earth*, but the game doesn't take place on Earth. The universe is a big place. We're engineering plastic producing bacteria, maybe some of those naturally exist out in the 'verse.

It could just be the name attached to the ore due to some plastic-like properties. That's where I put my money anyway: just an exotic ore with a familiar sounding name.

It could be a product of archotech metallurgy, or the remains of some long dead planet core. Maybe it's a... secretion of the insect geneline.

Or, just like most other resources we dig up in the game, it's "man" made remains of the Ancients' tech and structures that have been compacted under rock over the millennia that have passed since their civilization on the Rimworld was destroyed. Steel and Machine Parts don't occur in nature either...

[eMYNOCK]

machine parts.. no.. steel like iron deposits... not commonly but it also not unheard of.

what if the "plas" in plasteel refers to its elasticity and formability and not to the other material commonly known as plasitc?

[Nathanese]

I have no Idea, if there is something like that on earth.
But I always thought, the material came from the "Dune"-Books.

[Wasted]

their are some metal composites out there like Magnesium Alloy for example that is very light , about 30% lighter than aluminum and structurally stronger. I have a laptop made of this material, it kind of feels like plastic/metal when i bang on the material

[Security Cam #7]

From the rimworld wiki:

The term "Plasteel" has been used in sci-fi as early as 1942 to describe materials with properties of both plastic and metal, including seminal works such as Dune and Star Wars.

[Garatgh Deloi]

Plasteel is a common name in science fiction (Often used to describe a material displaying some properties of plastics but with the hardness of steel).

I wouldn't put that much importance in the fact that you can dig it up, considering that you can also dig up components.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Laurie:

My guess is that plasteel on Earth is known as Ilmenite. It is iron (which makes steel) with titanium in it that can be mined.

Of course in reality it needs to be worked with to get the impurities out, but in Rimworld they ignore the refining part when getting metals.
..

In my head-canon, it's nothing like any naturally occurring mineral - It's a material that can't be produced on Rimworld, but it is often found in the remains and detritus left by crashed ships and the left-over bits of an advanced civilization. It can be worked and made into other items, but it can't be manufactured itself due to... reasons involving tech/equipment the Rimworlders don't have access to.

Rimworld has bunches and bunches of the left-over remains of prior civilizations and advanced visitors embedded in its surface, maybe all the way through its crust and beyond. When a Mining Drill is used, it can reach deposits that those just mining the easy bits on the surface couldn't reach. That's why so little of such a desirable substance can be found on the surface - The surface has been picked over by generations of cast-aways and crashed ship survivors. (Even Mechanoids, perhaps, have scoured parts of Rimworld's surface.)

Plasteel is composed of Unobtanium and "Silly Putty" ™. :)

[BlackSmokeDMax]

I always think of plasteel as the same "fake" stuff as transparisteel from star wars universe. Minus the transparency I suppose, lol

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Laurie:

The "pla" part definitely doesnt stand for plastic as that does not occur in nature.

Plasteel doesn't occur in nature. It's a manufactured spacer tech alloy, as stated by the in game description. There is no "plasteel ore" in game, what you dig out of the ground is "compacted plasteel" which if you inspect tells you it's "Ancient compacted rubble rich in plasteel."

As for "why plasteel," it's one of several direct references to Dune. The Dune version is: "Extremely tough form of steel, "stabilized with stravidium fibers grown into its crystal structure."

[Ferigad]

Originally posted by Astasia:

Originally posted by Laurie:

The "pla" part definitely doesnt stand for plastic as that does not occur in nature.

Plasteel doesn't occur in nature. It's a manufactured spacer tech alloy, as stated by the in game description. There is no "plasteel ore" in game, what you dig out of the ground is "compacted plasteel" which if you inspect tells you it's "Ancient compacted rubble rich in plasteel."

As for "why plasteel," it's one of several direct references to Dune. The Dune version is: "Extremely tough form of steel, "stabilized with stravidium fibers grown into its crystal structure."

This. Except for gold, silver, uranium etc. the Rimworlds in Rimworld, haha, are old battlegrounds and you basicly dig up old stuff from old wars, like the steel, components and plasteel. Could be Mechanoid tech trash, could be old glitterworld tech trash, useally it´s leftover from both I would say.

[Vagineer1]

I'd like to imagine plasteel is actually the long lost Damascus Steel, rediscovered by accident in the modern day.