Wreck
Posts: 49
Joined: 2/8/2011 Status: offline
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quote:
4. Should I be colonizing EVERYTHING...or just planets that have 50% or more in quality? I seem to have alot of things i can colonize with 25% or less in quality and I am currently just ignoring those planets. Everything that is 50% or higher quality, yes. These planets are essentially pure profit. (Most players build a small starbase at every planet to get the happiness/growth bonus from it, and so they do pay a modest amount of maintenance there. However, the planet should easily pay for itself by trade.) Low-value planets should be colonized if they are in some way special. Colonizing any planet in a system with no colonies claims ownership of that system. AIs will (mostly) honor ownership and not colonize in yours, nor build (new) mines. So, by settling a low-value world you can grab some valuable systems. Systems with value are those with lots of planets (including moons), particularly if the planets have valuable resources. Also grab any system with a planet that will, at higher tech, become colonizable, unless you are absolutely certain you will win the tech race to that level. And finally, sometimes you'll want a system for strategic reasons -- i.e., to claim a place you can build up deep in enemy territory. Colonize any planet, no matter how cruddy, with any of the relics that give you whole-empire bonuses. Also grab the Fortress of Torak (2x strength for troops), and turn that planet into your empire's training planet. I will sometimes colonize low-value planets in the 40+% range in contended areas (i.e. where lots of pirates are operating, or hostile empires). I don't have any numbers to prove it, but my feeling is that the money you lose on the colony is made up for by the trade from the resources, and not losing bases (or having to build big ones). One other reason to grab crap planets would be to cheese the AI with them. I.e., settle a planet with very low quality in an enemy system. Then sell it to the AI for whatever you can get for it. (This is taking advantage of the AI overpaying for stuff.)
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