Why is Caterium not just called Gold?

[Nitsujy12345]

I have seen many discussions on this is in the past, but all point to being named after the CEO of FICSIT. However, she was said to be removed in the 1.0 update as it didn't pertain to the story line anymore. All other materials seem to be ones that exist on Earth, such as Iron, Copper, Oil, Coal, Quartz, Etc., so why is Caterium the only one that is different? It is even stated by ADA to have so much in common with Gold.

[Huren Ogeko]

Publicado originalmente por Air Bear:

I mean, Fixit probably routinely disguises the name of the valuable stuff with names that nobody will think is valuable. Like, imagine you're a space pirate hacker who intercepts the messages from ADA to Fixit HQ - you see messages saying the world has large Caterium Ore deposits and SAM ore deposits and HQ will be recieving shipments of those for processing. Those are meaningless. You arent going to think "I should steal that", you're going to prioritize the dumb competitor corp who lists "gold" and "mysterious alien material with very interesting properties" in their shipping manifests.

That doesnt make sense because the properties of Caterium make it a million times more valuable then gold. They would be better off disguising Caterium by calling it Gold

[God of Snacks]

doesn't ADA say it's a "highly conductive gold-like substance", meaning it's not gold?

[Huren Ogeko]

It isnt gold. ADA states its a super conductor with gold like properties. Gold itself is not a superconductor but this material is. And whats better someone above said its not only a superconductor material but its also a super conductor at normal temperatures which is unlike any material in real life which normally only exhibits super conductivity at near absolute zero (ceramic not withstanding)

So its a whole other material then gold it just has some similarities to gold..possibly just its color or gold may be part of its make up. But its far better then gold could ever dream to be and far more valuable just because its a high temperature superconductor. high temperature meaning doesnt require to be below 100k to be a superconductor.

[Huren Ogeko]

I looked up what ADA actually said. She says this:

It has been added as a viable alternative to golf in industrial applications

1So there its not gold its something else.
She goes on to say

due to its superconductivity, malleability and corrosion resistance

and gold only fits two of those three above qualities. It doesnt say its superconductor at normal temperatures so it may just be near absolute zero

In

Tier 5 Petroleum Power

milestone she says the following:

Due to a lack of gold in your sector, Caterium will serve as a suitable replacement to construct the Fuel Powered Generator

Again this shows that Caterium is not gold its just a suitable replcement.

When you first find caterium she says this:

Unknown metal collected.  This metallic element is showing properties similar to those in group 11 of the periodic table.  Such as high conductivity and malleability.

Here we see that ADA cannot identify caterium as gold but is unknown until you do MAM research on it.

That is all I can dig up within the game. There may be more within other lore sources or on the wiki page. I am only on Tier 6 at the moment so maybe ADA says more on the subject. In searching this I cannot find any evidence that this metal is superconductive t any normal or high temperatures so I have to assume its only superconductive near absolute zero which means we may not be making use of its superconductive properties in many instances.

[Ryzilynt]

Publicado originalmente por Iacton Qruze:

Publicado originalmente por Ryzilynt:

I heard that back in the beginning it was called gold and that players would horde it as if it had some intrinsic value instead of using it for the intended purposes.

Thats my head canon now

Trivia
Caterium was originally named after Caterina Parks, the retconned CEO of FICSIT Inc.[1]
It very likely replaced gold before the game entered closed alpha, as gold was mentioned in a dev highlight but was never seen in-game.[2]
It is named OreGold in the code, while Caterium Ingots are named GoldIngot, which, also used to have gold purity markings on them, until an Update 3 patch.
Stockpiling ~500 Caterium Ore is highly recommended at the beginning of the game, which is enough to unlock the Zipline for early exploration.

https://satisfactory.wiki.gg/wiki/Caterium_Ore

[Doc✪Hollywood]

Publicado originalmente por Huren Ogeko:

In searching this I cannot find any evidence that this metal is superconductive t any normal or high temperatures so I have to assume its only superconductive near absolute zero which means we may not be making use of its superconductive properties in many instances.

I don't find any reason to assume that it is a superconductor only at very low temperatures. Much more things are possible than 21th century scientists are thinking.

[Huren Ogeko]

Publicado originalmente por Gordon✪Gekko:

Publicado originalmente por Huren Ogeko:

In searching this I cannot find any evidence that this metal is superconductive t any normal or high temperatures so I have to assume its only superconductive near absolute zero which means we may not be making use of its superconductive properties in many instances.

I don't find any reason to assume that it is a superconductor only at very low temperatures. Much more things are possible than 21th century scientists are thinking.

I dont see any reason its not at only super cold temperatures since just about everything I know of is only superconductive at super low temperatures even ceramic is very cold when superconductive.
I see nothing to indicate that caterium is special in terms of temperature range where superconductivity exists.

I am open to debate but I dont see what evidence or even a hint of anything that indicates its all that different then the average superconductive materials we have discovered so far other then that this material is unique to this planet so far.

[Doc✪Hollywood]

Publicado originalmente por Huren Ogeko:

I dont see any reason its not at only super cold temperatures since just about everything I know of is only superconductive at super low temperatures even ceramic is very cold when superconductive.
I see nothing to indicate that caterium is special in terms of temperature range where superconductivity exists.

I am open to debate but I dont see what evidence or even a hint of anything that indicates its all that different then the average superconductive materials we have discovered so far other then that this material is unique to this planet so far.

You look at it with a ancient 21th century perspective when humankind was restricted to one single planet and didn't swarm out to new galaxies.

[Huren Ogeko]

Publicado originalmente por Gordon✪Gekko:

Publicado originalmente por Huren Ogeko:

I dont see any reason its not at only super cold temperatures since just about everything I know of is only superconductive at super low temperatures even ceramic is very cold when superconductive.
I see nothing to indicate that caterium is special in terms of temperature range where superconductivity exists.

I am open to debate but I dont see what evidence or even a hint of anything that indicates its all that different then the average superconductive materials we have discovered so far other then that this material is unique to this planet so far.

You look at it with a ancient 21th century perspective when humankind was restricted to one single planet and didn't swarm out to new galaxies.

That doesnt really establish the superconductive temperature of a raw material found on the ground of a single alien planet being more far off what all the other superconductive materials up to this date have been.

[Doc✪Hollywood]

Publicado originalmente por Huren Ogeko:

Nothing you argument can prove that it is a low temeperature superconductor, as well as I can't prove the oposite. Talking about proving makes no sense. When looking at the whole history of humankind the phenomenon of superconductivity was discovered very recently (1911). Only 75 years later a high-temperature superconductor was discovered in 1986. Given that this is a sci-fi game some centuries or even milleniums in the future, where scientiest had a lot more time to research and gained new knowledge and developed better methods in virtual every physical and chemical field, and Ficsit is now operating far away from our homeworld where environmental conditions have been different the last 13.8 billion years since the big bang, I prefer to believe that Caterium is real breakthroug for humanity regarding supercondivity. You don't and that's okay. It's a game. We can believe whatever we want, whatever makes the game better and more interesting for us. Whatever gives our mission and gameplay meaning.

[Huren Ogeko]

The only point in my argument is that typically superconductors are low temperature and this game provides no evidence that there is anything different here. If ADA had said something hinted that I would be on board with the possibility but there not even a scrap or anything that points that way,

Now you mention high temperature superconductors but even that is not even close to normal room temperature as those so called high temperature superconductors are still very very cold. The only materials that come close to normal atmosphere is temperatures can only do so under extreme pressures that you wont find in any normal human survivable atmosphere.

its possible the game intents this to be a super conductor that can exist at normal temperature and pressure that humans and other fauna can exist as well but there is nothing within the game to suggest its any different then any other superconductor already found in the universe as we know it so far. The only thing mentioned is that this is a unique material so far only found on this planet that is a gold like material with superconductive properties. And the as far as I can tell the only thing gold like happens to be its color as the properties ADA does mentions are far beyond anything gold can do.

[Doc✪Hollywood]

Publicado originalmente por Huren Ogeko:

Typically superconductors are low temperature

What do we know? When the history of humankind is a full day, then the dicovery of superconductors was made during the last second before midnight.

Publicado originalmente por Huren Ogeko:

There is nothing within the game to suggest its any different then any other superconductor already found in the universe as we know it so far.

I agree, just that this "so far" isn't far at all. Neither time-wise nor space-wise. We humans think we are the crown or creation, civilized and with great knowlege, when in truth science is a new thing after over a millennium of suppression by the catholic church. What we know now will be like a joke for people and scientists in a few thousand years. In 20'000 years. In 300'000 years. The 21th century was barely more than escaping the dark age.

[Ryzilynt]

Publicado originalmente por Huren Ogeko:

The only point in my argument is that typically superconductors are low temperature and this game provides no evidence that there is anything different here. If ADA had said something hinted that I would be on board with the possibility but there not even a scrap or anything that points that way,

Now you mention high temperature superconductors but even that is not even close to normal room temperature as those so called high temperature superconductors are still very very cold. Thee only materials that come close to normal atmosphere is temperatures can only do so under extreme pressures that you wont find in any normal human survivable atmosphere.

its possible the game intents this to be a super conductor that can exist at normal temperature and pressure that humans and other fauna can exist as well but there is nothing within the game to suggest its any different then any other superconductor already found in the universe as we know it so far. The only thing mentioned is that this is a unique material so far only found on this planet that is a gold like material with superconductive properties. And the as far as I can tell the only thing gold like happens to be its color as the properties ADA does mentions are far beyond anything gold can do.

If we were on an alien planet physics may behave differently ?

checks out.

[Huren Ogeko]

Publicado originalmente por Ryzilynt:

Publicado originalmente por Huren Ogeko:

The only point in my argument is that typically superconductors are low temperature and this game provides no evidence that there is anything different here. If ADA had said something hinted that I would be on board with the possibility but there not even a scrap or anything that points that way,

Now you mention high temperature superconductors but even that is not even close to normal room temperature as those so called high temperature superconductors are still very very cold. Thee only materials that come close to normal atmosphere is temperatures can only do so under extreme pressures that you wont find in any normal human survivable atmosphere.

its possible the game intents this to be a super conductor that can exist at normal temperature and pressure that humans and other fauna can exist as well but there is nothing within the game to suggest its any different then any other superconductor already found in the universe as we know it so far. The only thing mentioned is that this is a unique material so far only found on this planet that is a gold like material with superconductive properties. And the as far as I can tell the only thing gold like happens to be its color as the properties ADA does mentions are far beyond anything gold can do.

If we were on an alien planet physics may behave differently ?

checks out.

they may be different but there is zero support of hints of any sort that indicate this particular thing is different. One coudl argue that anything different in this planet, we could say that the planet is actually made of cheese but if there is nothing in the game or in the lore or any thing ada says does that make it true? no...possible yes but nothing point or even hints so it and in the end Occam's razor is the only thing we can rely on.

now if they add in anything that indicates that this material is a superconductor at normal temperature and pressure then yes...but so far there is nothing that even hints of this. The issue it just left open and I generally will fall back on plausible physics as we know it unless the game says otherwise.

[Maehlice]

I like both of y'all's approaches.

One is based on current knowledge, and the other is based on current progress.