Mapping out a planet

[Dvil]

So, the co-GM of a Rogue Trader game I'm in has mentioned that soon the party will likely get an opportunity to gain control of a planet. Since I have AUTORealm installed on my PC, and I know how to use it, I suggested that if I get bored I may map out the planet for him. Unfortunately, most of the times I've mapped out an area I've had only a vague idea of details and I've made it up from there. What sort of questions should I be asking him, in order to make sure that my map fits with his ideas?

I was thinking along the lines of:
How many continents exist on the planet?
What life is pre-existing on the planet?
What is there by way of natural resources?
How varied is the climate?
How far is the planet's axis of rotation tilted towards/away from the local star?
What sort of wind speed is normal?
How long is a day?
How long is a year?
Does it have moons?
If it has one moon, how long is a month?
If it has more than one, how is a month defined?

It's worth mentioning that the planet was uninhabited until recently, and we're currently overseeing the formation of a settlement there.

Have you guys got any advice for me regarding this?

[Dead_Jester]

It depends really on what you have to do, and what you want you to do;

Does he have a predefined idea of what his world should look like, or is he giving you free reign to design it, only following a few parameters?

Are you mapping the cosmology around the planet? Does your co-Dm have a particular cosmology in mind?

As this is Rogue Trader, what kind of planet is it? Hive World? Forge World? Death World (the best...)?

If it has a moon, what kind of moon is it?

As far as stuff like wind, precipitations, and geology, that stuff only needs to be added later (when it's required), and can be mapped when the actual world is finished.

As for time, this is Rogue Trader, time would be calculated using solar cycles, and years would be based on the normal imperial dating system or solar rotations.

[Dvil]

Does he have a predefined idea of what his world should look like, or is he giving you free reign to design it, only following a few parameters?

I actually haven't asked this yet. The entirety of the communication is "I'll ask you some questions, you give me the info (By me) (not verbatim)"

Are you mapping the cosmology around the planet? Does your co-Dm have a particular cosmology in mind?

I hadn't thought about cosmology, actually. I'd mainly been thinking about the land of the planet, but I suspect he was too.

As this is Rogue Trader, what kind of planet is it? Hive World? Forge World? Death World (the best...)?

It's False Hope, which was a Dead World. It's now being repopulated, overseen by our party.

If it has a moon, what kind of moon is it?

I'm not sure I understand this. What 'kinds' of moon are there?

As far as stuff like wind, precipitations, and geology, that stuff only needs to be added later (when it's required), and can be mapped when the actual world is finished.

ok, that's brilliant. The easier my job, the better .

As for time, this is Rogue Trader, time would be calculated using solar cycles, and years would be based on the normal imperial dating system or solar rotations.

Yeah, I understand each month/year/whatever would be based on Terran time. It's just a question of how many Terran days does one False Hope year/month last? That's what I was wondering.

[Dead_Jester]

For the moon thing, it's just that the planet doesn't necessarily have satellites, and, even if it does, then they aren't necessarily rocks (think Jupiter here). If the planet is big eought, than it probably has a few moons, and some of them could be gaseous, or artificial (ork hulk, dead tyrannid hiveship, necron tomb world, etc)

The time in a day should be proportionate to the planet's size (bigger planets need more time to turn), and to it's proximity to the sun (sun's attraction can have wonky effects on a planet's rotation, and so can xeno experiments), although it could theoretically be possible for a planet to be tidally locked on one side, kind of like the Moon in relation to Earth. You'd definitely need to consult with your co-dm about this, as it could have a serious effectson the biomes of a planet (especially if only one side gets light).

And as for repopulating a dead world... let's say that it rarely ends well...