Social production on low production planets

from Stardock Forums
The way I set up my social production is I delegate 3-4 planets with the highest pq to be my production core. On these I build pretty much everything. The rest only get morale, economy, and pq buildings. If I rush to Dreadnaughts with this strat, I find that after habitat/soil/banking/entertainment are built on my secondary planets, I have nothing for them to build. However, my core planets are still building tons of manufacturing buildings. If I understand correctly, this means that a good deal of my social spending is lost on the planets with nothing to produce. What do experienced players reccomend building on planets with lower pq? Researching advanced trade for economic exchanges is what I usually do, as they take a lot of time to build on lower pq planets. However, I'm not sure how much of an effect they have, and if it's worth wasting the research. Are there any other good options that aren't too far off the dreadnaught line of research?
386 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
This is kind of general advice. You have three basic choices:

1. Have the planet build nothing. That is throwing the planet's share of money down a pit.

2. Have the planet build something, anything. The problem here is that if the anything that is built has a maintanence cost, then you are out more money in the long run for a building that may have little use at that location. One does not need medical centers or news networks everywhere.

3. Research something that leads to a project that has no maintanence cost, takes a while, but gives you good benefits. (Like economic exchanges and terraforming.) Or something that costs a little, but has immense benefits, like stadiums, stock exchanges, and teleporters.

If rushing to dreads is vitally important, then do not sidetrack the research. War is war, and survival comes first. But, if the dreads are just icing on the cake and not really needed, take some time. Research some other paths, spread out a bit.

In the end, the best overall advice I can give for idle planets is that if a planet has to go idle, let it. Research an alternative building if you have time to, but do not let the path you need to take for a particular situation get sidetracked unless something more important interferes.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
One popular option is to have the planets build everything, *almost*. The idea is, you let it build all the secondary buildings until there's one turn left, then have it do something else instead of completing the building. It takes a bit of micromanagement (you have to keep your planet list on "social turns left" all the time)...but in exchange, you then have the option of "turning on" any of those buildings you like at a rate of 1/turn.

Then if you all of a sudden need a News Network, Harmony Generator or a Starship Foundry on one of your border worlds, just select it and finish it off. You don't waste the production unless you never use those buildings, and you don't lose maintenance because you never technically put them into operation until you need them.

-EtherMage


~SDC~
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion