Class 15 Planets

from Stardock Forums
What's the deal with only colonizing class 15 planets as the manual decribes (pg. 5) . I colonize 14 or 13 then use soil enchanment and habitat improvement , and then I have my 15 class? Playing the AI on small map hardest level and he is flying right by many class 14 planets. I only own 2 planets above 14 (sent pre-bought colony ship out immediately) all the others are already taken..

I realize that this will lower your overall moral, but if you keep the population small, it doesn't effect that bad. Also, so what if overall moral is bad as long as my nice planets have good morale, or what am I missing here. Even these poor class planets with low moral will produce some decent ships and add a little research...

Vanz
436 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
The manual says if you colonize a 14 or below, the colony will require upkeep and won't (net) contribute to the empire.

If you go to the planet screen it will show you the net economic loss.

And it won't change untill you get your planet above 15. Even a 15, if you have to have alot of improvements to maintain morale, will lose money. So early in the game, you cannot afford many 14 or lower right off the bat.

Try to get all the 15+ systems you can first, then go for the 14 or 13....

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
If you colonize a planet and immediately go to the planet screen and click on details, you will find a planet 14 or above requires no maintenance. Planet 10 to 13 require maintenance of 5 bc per month and below planet 10 requires much more maintenance costs.

There is no hurry to colonize PQ 14 planets because as you say, the AI usually overlooks them.

My recommendation is to colonize the yellows first in a way to maxmize colony count (for example try to get that colony before your nearest neighbor). After that you can colonize the 14 PQ even with 1 colonist and let them vegetate for a while for no cost. I only colonize PQ 13 when they are in a multi-planet sector that I intend to build a production starbase in.

The lower PQ planets don't do much for income and can be a drain on cash if you don't use them wisely. On the other hand, they can really be helpful production factories particularly for less expensive ships like constructors. A production starbase in the sector really can help production too.

Different players have different approaches but this works for me. Finally, some like to colonize the 10 to 14 PQ planets inside opponent AI sectors when they start to culture bomb (after getting many cultural influence techs, trade goods, and resources). If you are going to colonize the lower PQ planet, you can always park your colony ship on the doorstep and wait until you are ready to go "social" with the PQ boosters (like soil & habitat). That way you can minimize maintenance fees.

Otherwise as per PontiusBruinPilot. Good luck & hope this helps. :)

Rick
Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I have only done this a couple of times, and its usually because I need to increase my range on larger maps to reach some PQ15 planets before the AIs are able to. I realise a star base would also increase range, but early in the game I am full out on colony ship production, and constructors are that much more expensive that its cheaper and easier to use a handy PQ14 planet if there is one. Even rush buying a soil improvement. The first time I did this I got lucky and had one of those +35% PQ events pop up, and being evil, of course I took it! Sadly it hasn't happened again yet, but I'm sure chance will come round again...

One downside I have noticed is the planets with a starting PQ below 15, is that they have a much lower natural 'influence', so if you have no other planets in the sector, and an AI has more planets in a neighbouring sector, or worse the same sector, then it is very vulnerable to flipping to the AI, even early in the game.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Vanzagar,
I have been taking the opposite approach with great success. I read in the encyclopedia somewhere that volume of planets wasn't as important as quality. two PQ18 planets in one sector with a half dozen starbases is far better than a whole bunch of 15's and 16's IMHO.

I started a gigantic maso game stuck way in the corner with 6 planets in 2 sectors. I cheated a little and got two PQ random events and had three 18+ planets in one sector. After maxing out 9 starbases I had mega production, and was able to keep taxes and expenditures at 100%.

So, I often look for a starting position (save, ctl-u, reload if I like it or ctl-n if I don't) with a few close, good planets for a really quick start. I often start with only 7 or 8 planets.