Question about manufacturing

Hey, crappy planets, like say, MARS, don't even generate income (just a little research). The only reason to own them is SPITE, I don't like the aliens in my neighborhood. "NOT IN MY HOUSE !!!"

Unused manufacturing do not go to another planet but back into your bank account.

If you don't have a starport on the planet then there's no reason to have factories. Research is probably the best thing to put on small planets because research output isn't dependent on population and there's no real advantage for it to be concentrated on any one planet.

For my PQ4's I build 3 research buildings and that's it. For PQ5's I might put three factories and a starport and use them to produce constructors or small fighters, but they're not much use for producing capital ships unless they have major manufacturing bonus tiles. With no manufacturing bonus tiles I'll most likely just put 4 research buildings on my PQ5's.

With no starport you could also fill the planet with stock markets but that's not real effective because of the population limits on small PQ planets. The one case where I did this was on a PQ5 captured from an AI that had their economic capital on it. Since I couldn't demolish or upgrade the economic capital to anything else the only reall thing I could do with it was to add 3 stock exchanges.

why not to have a starport?

starport should be on every planet you have, it's critical for smart-colonization strategy, if you want to have more planets in small time, that's what you should always do.
have a starport on your planet, then, buy a colony ship and start colonizing! and yes, remember that a 4 PQ planets and below are more for research then manufacturing, but the best should be like this:

-1. Initial Colony

-2. Starport

-3. Entertainment Center

-4. Research Center

then when you finish your tech tree or for some reason you need ships fast, just change it to a factory or something

Well, the starport on Mars would take so long to build a colonyship the entire galaxy would already be settled. As for BUY a colonyship, nah, waste of bc's. However, I do build starports on other crappy planets in my empire to make "defender" type ships to block any early invasions. Then build empty hulls with these crappy planets and upgrade them later.

Certainly you could add a starport (as I mentioned), but I thought the major point of the OP's question was what to do with small planets without a starport.

In no case I can imagine, would you ever need a morale building on a low PQ planet. The max pop is 2.5B for a PQ4 and 4.3B for a PQ5. The base morale at a pop of 5B is 91%. If you can't keep at least 5B pop happy without a morale building there's something seriously wrong with your strategy.

By the way the max pop of a class 4 planet is not 2.5B and is not 4.5B for a class 5 planet.
Those are just the population where the population growth stops.
So why not put down a farm and 3 stock markets and import the population?

Myself I like to crank out transports with 2K troops ; so a starport and 3 factories works just fine on a class 5 planet.
A class 4 planet, I just import pop up to 5B and crank out some constructors with a starport and 2 factories.

By the way the max pop of a class 4 planet is not 2.5B and is not 4.5B for a class 5 planet. Those are just the population where the population growth stops. So why not put down a farm and 3 stock markets and import the population?

Yes you could, but why would you bother? This point was in regards to putting an entertainment center on a PQ4 or PQ5. Do you put morale buildings on PQ4's and 5's just so you can import pop?

so a starport and 3 factories works just fine on a class 5 planet

I agree. I said pretty much the same.

Hi!

what's the use of planets without starports except that they generate income and research points?

In my games no other use. Because I rarely decrease research slider below max, there's alway lots of founds going to research, so those tiny planets got all research buildings and focus on research. In late game, when pop on bigger planets hits the food limit, I fill the smallest to their food limit to increase revenue. Oh, and on the conquered Wisp I just half-built-half-bought Harmony Crystals.

BR, Iztok

Byram wrote that small planets doesn't even generate income, why? They have population, don't they? Those people also pays taxes, don't they? Why shouldn't small planets generate income?

Anyway, thanks for all the replies!

Sorry Agashak, what I ment is a Mars type planet will acually lose money because the maintenance cost exceed the income generated. A little too much rant and not enough facts, my fault.

Why shouldn't small planets generate income?

They do generate income. They'll never be a true economic powerhouse but they do ok.

If you want a class 4 or 5 to generate some good income, put down a xeno or intensive farm to get max pop limit up to 10 or 11B and transfer population over to the planet with colony ships or troop transports. Buy stock markets on the other tiles or just take your time and build em.

I don't think it is the best use but definitely a workable strategy.

And even at 4.5B the base tax income before bonus's is half of a 18B pop planet.

Again thanks for the replies!

No hard feelings Byram

With my starting PQ 4 planet I just always build one factory, then a starport then the rest factoires. I then just pump out conturctors the rest of the game, they can pump one out fairly quickly.

I also always colonize it last of all planets. If some scum race comes around and colonize it first that is even better, I don't have to waste the time or money to build it up and it normally flips to me fairly quickly.