I must have made a mistake somewhere or I had an anomalous game because the pick worked fine again just before I upgraded to AP. I *swear* I was using the +PQ pick in a particular game but colonizing the 26 in my starting sector didn't do squat for it's quality.

Oh well probably an oops on my part.

I just played an all genius AP game w/o +5pq and during the culture bomb at the end I was wishing I had it

by the way, that +5% PQ is the difference between taking a late-game pq11 to pq16 or pq17 (assuming soil/hab/terraform +terraformer)

11 * 1.5 = 1.65 == pq16
11 * 1.55 = 1.705 == pq17

ecologists? I dont' see that option ..

The ecologists are one of three parties in a mod you have to download from the library on the website.

~SDC~

Have you guys seen purple stars b4? They usually have PQ 20 over planets in them. I colonized one once and i upped PQ to 36

Actually, purple stars give an influence bonus. You've been lucky that you've seen +PQ 20 planets in them, because they can have anything a yellow star can have.

Hey, I never knew that Theoden. Thanks.

I usually only grab a 13 or 14 if I want to mount a cultural attack - they seem to be a drag on the economy in the early game, and I haven't found it useful to start a new world later in the game when it's easier to simply conquer a system I want....

Is it just me or there more cultural resistance in AP? Before I could culture flip without cultural bases. Now it takes a while to even flip the Alexians... just curious.

~SDC~

The multiplier effect of multiple culture bases has been changed to an addititve effect instead. So it is more difficult to culture in AP.

I'd tried to colonize PQ13 and PQ14 in some of my very early games(when I was still learning the ropes) but, they just got turned over to I-league and other rebel groups
Your fellow player,
Jaxel


~SDC~

I usually go for most 13 / 14 PQs i can get and for the 12ers in latemidgame
Pretty helpfull

Later in the game is key for PQ13 I think... You need the PQ improvements to make them useful. You need soil to make a PQ14 useful.

A PQ13 or PQ14 later in the game can help to flip enemy planets near it, and colonizing them might trigger an event so you can change your morality. But as damoose said, you must build the PQ enhancing social improvements so they don't become a drain on yout economy.

Thanks for the advice LOL
Your fellow player,
Jaxel


~SDC~

Well I am amzed that that NONE of you discuseed the social project called the Terraformer whcih is a galactic achievement. I almost always go the cultural route until near the end of the game I go military. The Terraformer
is a great extension of cultural power as you can inhabit all those 13 and 14's in boderline sectors and tuen the whole area to your advantage. The Terraformer achievement is a key strategic resource in victory.

~SDC~

Only if your games last long enough to get there. I very rarely even get as far as building the terraforming planetary improvement.

Honor and Justice! http://guardians.galciv.org/index.html

You should always, always colonize PQ 14 planets. Once you get up to terraforming, grab those PQ 13 as well if you have the spare time. The terraformer is useful, but if your playing maso and going for an alliance victory you wont ever get that far into a game. If your going all out war with the AIs, you might be able to get it since those types of games usually last a while.

edit: and the AI does colonize 13-14 planets on Maso. In my last game, i Ctrl+U at the start to find out where my planets were, and how many the AIs would get. The Torians had 4 stars that they could get. 30 Turns later, they had 9.

[Message Edited]

In AP, I tend to get up to near Terraformer. In straight GC, I normally don't come close.

Heh, when I first played the game I grabbed EVERY planet regardless of PQ. I did kinda shy away from the lower numbers (1-5) but anything else I grabbed. I had close to 100 colonies by "mid-game" and yet as I looked at every UP meeting I had 1/5 the influence a culture with 6 planets had! I was like WTF!

Then I actually went back and read the manual and it mentioned planet quality and stuff.

Since then my strategy has been to grab every 15+ planet at first. Get my economy in gear to where I'm making 5-700 a turn and then I start cranking out the colony ships for 3 or four times a planet and I grab all the 10+ planets I can and only build economic/PQ projects unless morale is needed. Then they become some of my more profitable planets by the end because there's hardly any maintanence once the PQ gets up to 15 or close to it.

Of course, the only drawback that I've seen is if the AI decides to get into an arms race I lose out because my <14 planets can't produce crap and they're the ones the computer leaves me when it sneak attacks.

Lord Seyton, what is your difficulty level and your galaxy setting?

And for influence, be warned that every system has a base influence. It is 21 for Sol, greater than 10 for stars with class PQ 15+ (yellow and purple stars).
But for all others systems, it is generally 0 or 1 (but there are some rare exceptions). As improvements and empire influence bonus works in percentage, taking class 12 or below planets is rarely a good move for influence, especially at the beginning.

It is preferable for you budget to colonise low PQ planets after some of your better planets have been improved, in order to sustain a near 100% spending rate.

I would like to point out that when you colonise a planet there is a chance of a random event some of these (especialy ones from the mods) affect planet quality at a cost of aligment i once colonised a pq12 planet and an event gave me +37% pq bonus with my other bonuses it went from pq13 to pq20 alto my alignment shifted from good to neutral