Terraforming before colonization?

I think colony ships should be needed even if it's for a simple planet hopping. I mean, except the hyperdrive, there is no difference between ships ferrying billions of people between to planets in the same stellar systems and two planets at the other end of the galaxy... Besides, the price of the colony ships reflects, IMHO, the materials needed to begin the colony (housing, manufacturing centers, robots...) so it would not be easier to ferry the billions of people in multiple trips.

But I agree with the fact that terraforming should be done without a colony established... it would not really imbalance the game since as of now, you cand found a colony of very little population, quickbuy soil improvement, habitat improvement and terraforming, and launch a second colony ship. It costs only a colony ship more...

Ah, speaking of billions people, have you noticed that you become evil when you slaughter errmm, semi-sentient earthworms, but nothing when you slaughter billions of very sentient people during the siege of a planet ?

Teraforming a planet before starting a colony is a great idea.

KILL Earth Worms you Monster !

The risk of terraforming a non-habitable planet before colonizing it is that another race will grab it up before you can get your colony ship there. But there are possibilities built how about a terraforming colony ship that is more expensive that is designed to improve a planet at the time it is colonized? The more change required the more expensive it should be. That is, to terraform and colonize a class 9 planet to a class 10 planet might cost 500 shields but to terraform and colonize a class 0 planet into a class 20 planet might cost 10,000 shields. And I think the cost of such ships should be quite high. It should not be easy to build a ship that gives a planet a 20 class increment.

I would also suggest that this is something for a future release, not for GC/Win 1.0.

That last post got completely garbled. My appologies, and a new request for the ability to edit one's own posts. Here is what I was trying to say:

The risk of terraforming a non-habitable planet before colonizing it is that another race will grab it up before you can get your colony ship there. But how about a terraforming colony ship that is more expensive that is designed to improve a planet at the time it is colonized? The more change required the more expensive it should be. That is, to terraform and colonize a class 9 planet to a class 10 planet might cost 500 shields but to terraform and colonize a class 0 planet into a class 20 planet might cost 10,000 shields. And I think the cost of such ships should be quite high. It should not be easy to build a ship that gives a planet a 20 class increment.

I would also suggest that this is something for a future release, not for GC/Win 1.0.

The risk of it being grabbed by another race is why I think that it would be most valuable when used to bring other planets in a system you already hold up to more habitable levels.

In every game there are strategic systems that have perhaps one good planet and three or four useless ones (class 1-5). It would be very useful to be able to bring those planets up into the habitable range.

Mind you this is only useful once you have some pretty advanced tech.

"pretty advanced tech"

Yes, along with the terraforming research topic you would get to build "terraformers" and apply them to uninhabitable planets. The more you apply, the higher you can get the class.

-Robert

Any thoughts or comment from anyone at Stardock?