How important are Soil Enhancements?

Very important. PQ means everything. I admit that full terraforming late in the game is very expensive, but there is no excuse not to put soil enhancement and habitats on every planet. More PQ means more income and more people. More people means more taxes and more influence. Exception: smaller maps. There, the war path is quite important and one can be forgiven for bypassing this kind of tech in order to pursue the enemy. But, those two early PQ techs means more people, which means more invaders to put on the transports! So, I would conclude that on a small map where you need to rush an enemy immediately to gain an advantage that will last all game, by all means skip most social projects and put the money into military and research to get that early rush. But, if no immediate rush is necessary (or you have already built a solid position after a rush) then there are no excuses not to build at least soil.

well. to quote the F___ing People's Judsean Front:
"ALOT!!"

You get this for free, so im not sure what you mean
by you research it first.

If you build it first, depending on map conditions
this is wrong, generally the first step is to expand.

Once expansion is complete and tech is doing ok, then
I start building improvements, and soil is always the
first, it is very important, but not more important
then expansion.

People's Front of Judea, f-ing splitters!!

~SDC~

Cheer up Vern. Ya know what life is just a bowl of!

I crossed a picket line to see that movie, about 8 people protesting the sacrilige. I couldn't do the whistling part of "Bright Side of Life" for a month without busting a gut! LOL

"Well it's true, you have got a big nose."

~SDC~

Oops, I didn't mean researching it, I meant putting my sliders/money into doing those improvements.

Soil enhancement is critical, as is Habitat Improvement, and Terraforming, when you get to it.

First three builds for me: soil enhancement, habitat improvement, and bank. All three boost your income, none of them have any maintenance cost, and the first two boost your PQ which means money, production, population, ability to set higher tax rates, research, harder-to-invade, troops to invade with, etc., etc.

In other words: extremely important.

PQ is golden, just golden