More detailed planets ? Planet habitability below 12 ?

More detailed planets? Explain please.

Just don't bother with level 12 planets since it's very hard to get them going. During the game these planets can get slowly better though so it might be worth to colonize them after all later in the game.

You can set the number of habitable planets to abundant in the setup screen. Just depends on the type of game you want. Do you want lots of planets to colonize, choose abundant. Do you want a race between all the races for those few habitable planets, eg in a huge galaxy, then set habitable planets to rare.

Remember, this isn't MOO2, this game handles planets differently.

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Well, at least the MOO classics: mineral rich or poor, agricultural rich or poor, research friendly or not, size, gravity...

You could add a lot to the game by refining the habitability to specific subclasses: hot, cold, no atmosphere, high pressure... and having specific techs to bypass these specific problems. In turn, this would make initialy unfriendly systems new targets for colonization later in the game. Such possibilities can offset some starting position disadvantages.

I have seen systems with 5 planets, none of which above 8 habitability... With the current system, why bother at all in showing this system ? I also note that the game sometimes generates stars with no planets... How am I supposed to use them ?

It seems to me that the game is somewhat lacking in the areas of terraforming and other technologies to get a system friendlier.

Yves

There are random events that change the classes of planets in 9 sectors by up to +14 (or even more?). If one of those occurs, you'll suddenly have a whole bunch of highly wanted planets around, so having "useless" systems makes sense and having control over large clusters of rocks could even make you win the game.

I don't think diversifying planets would do the game much good. It would surely add a whole bunch of clutter and pseudo-complexity. The way it is, you go for a single criterium (planet class) knowing that higher is better. It's beauty in simplicity IMHO. Perhaps per-governor spending ratios would be good so that you could have planets close to enemies produce military units while planets "back home" do more research.

Seems to me you're looking for a copy of MOO2. This isn't MOO and I wouldn't want this to become MOO. Far too much micromanaging for my taste in MOO2 late game.

I like it that GalCiv keeps the whole planet classes plain and simple, but tastes differ of course.

I don't know what the devs have planned, but I don't think they have these features in the pipeline.

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I don't see how adding such features to planets would add to micromanagement. On the other hand, knowing that a bunch of rocks could sooner or later be colonized by anyone would give you new difficult choices:
- do I colonize these rocks, knowing that if I don't somebody might do it ?
- if I decide that I must colonize these rocks, when do I do it ? Too soon and sustaining these colonies is going to blow my tight budget, not to mention the cost of building that colony ship too early. Too late and someone might take them before me.

Yves

I see your point, but I just don't think it fits this game. But I'm no dev, so maybe they want to do something with your ideas.

Planets do get better during the game BTW. More planets become colonizable later in the game, just not all of them.

Hey, moi-même!

Tu serais pas québecois ?

If you have the +15% Planet Quality racial ability, those Class 12 planets can be very dang useful to colonise. They still won't be fantastic planets, but each one of them you colonise gives you a chance for a random colonisation event.. So if you know a planet can be viable with some work, it can actually turn out to be worthwhile putting in the work.

~SDC~

Well, the reason that it exists planet below 12 in GalCiv is becuase.. well it ACTUALLY exists planets in space wich are very hostile of nature and with no use at all, how fun is a space game where you can colonize every star and use it? It would hardly be re realistic.

Humans may be a race capable of enduring many hardships, but land a colonyship on a planet where the surface temperature is 1000 C and I bet they wouldnt survive long, and planets like that exists in our universe.

"Well you could just land some equipment and mine the planet"

That wouldnt be realistic, lets say a planet has a temperatue of -240 degrees, the equipment would break due to the cold almost immediatly.
And on a planet with a temperature of >1000 C all of the equipment would overheat and fail within hours.

/Andreas

>>>

Ben non, simplement Français (désolé, c'est pas à la mode!)

>>>

The game hardly shows all systems and all planet, does it ? if that were the case, Sol should have a host more of available planets (count all planets, plus all the big moons of Saturn and Jupiter... that's a lot, believe me!). So I assume that the game only shows the planets which give some chance at colonization. Unfortunately, planets of class 9 or below have no chance at all, except if an unpredictable event occurs...

1000 C all of the equipment would overheat and fail within hours.>>>>

That's not a good answer within the scope of the game; don't forget we are speaking Science Fiction, were anything is supposed to be more or less possible through scientific achievements. Is it realistic that the basis of the game are hyperdrives ?

Yves

I think moi-meme has a good point - and it wouldn't be hard to implement.
How much do you like the random events that give, for instance, +18% production to a new colony (assuming you're evil). Planet types could add modifiers to a few planets (too many and it loses appeal), so that, for instance, that class 12, morale +120% planet (the atmosphere is 10% nitrous oxide) is worth your time to develop.
From the look of it, adding modifiers (positive and negative) to individual planets in any of the standard categories would be pretty easy. Adding a way to tell you about the modifier might take a little more time.

"Humans may be a race capable of enduring many hardships, but land a colonyship on a planet where the surface temperature is 1000 C and I bet they wouldnt survive long, and planets like that exists in our universe."

1000°C ? It can only happen if the planet is really VERY close to the star or if there is a huge "greenhouse effect" - Venus being a good example. BTW, the greenhouse effect is mainly caused by gases like CO2 so in theory it could be reduced by terraforming operations (ie : "heat-proof" bacteries converting CO2 in O2 & Carbon).

For planets like Mars - too cold for humans - I urge you to read the Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson. It is really very instructive in how such a planet could be terraformed.

Moreover, in the game, all Gas Planets are not usable (PQ of 3 for Saturn). In reality, these planets are not usable (no real surface !) but their satellites are. For instance, Europe & Titan are almost the size of a real planet and could probably sustain life with the right technology ...

>>> Ben non, simplement Français (désolé, c'est pas à la mode!)

On peut pas être parfait (c'est une blague... en fait je travail à Paris depuis un peu plus de 2 ans) ;o)

moi-meme:
I never said the game shows all planets. I am just saying that there actually exists planets besides those ho are earth/mars/venus like, you must also think of the planets/colonizing out of a gameplay perspective.

French:
A planet does not have to be close to the sun for the temperature to be that high, the inner core temperature of a planet also effects temperature and the atmosphere (as you said).
In a lecture at my Astronomy class here at the university they recently told us that a planet with an atmosphere just been discovered. The surface temperature was about 1000C and the atmosphere was made up of hydrogen mostly, the planet was quite large and it was about earths distance from the sun.

I have read that book, its a good Sci-fi book. His whole idea is based on that there is huge amounts of water on Mars, and a planet without water or hydrogen and oxygen would be hard to sustain life, of course, you could always take some ice-asteriods and hurl into the atmosphere, but that only works if the planet HAS an atmopshere, wich most planets dont have.

Others:
All im saying is that a game were you could colonize all planets are boring and unrealistic, I know its a Sci-Fi game (duh!), but I wouldnt think it was a very fun Sci-Fi game if that was possible.

/Andreas

btw, your right about Europa and Titan, but I think any real production/colonization of these moons would be to small to notice. Jupiters moon Europa for example is about the same size as our moon, and Titan is about the size of Pluto, and Pluto is not even a planet.

Small notice
Here in Europe the scientist have decided that Pluto is acctually to small to be called a planet, its more like a larger asteriod in the Kuiper Belt.

/Andreas

Sorry, just re-read my post. The word "decided" is not quite accurate, its more like that they have "agreed on" that Pluto is not a planet.

Cheers!

/Andreas

I think being able to colonize every planet is a bad idea. However, is it possible to somehow mine uninhabitable planets for resources?

No its not

/Andreas

Actually, when looking at 'artificial planets' tech, I was kinda hoping to send a constructor ship to /collapse/ a gas giant and maybe get a class 10 planet out of it.

Also would like to see 'gas-mining' colonies or the like which are made with constructors.

Hey, the worst part is bypassing a low level system (i.e. level 8), and a few turns later the I-League forms there and it's a level 17!

I want their terraforming tech!!!

Their god is better than yours... they're the chosen people.

~SDC~

One bastard problem with this idea is that with the computer knowing where all the planets are, they will benefit much more greatly than the player.

It may not show by much each game, but in the long run they will. And I would think that in a larger map it would be worse.

Maybe just me.

A planet does not have to be close to the sun for the temperature to be that high, the inner core temperature of a planet also effects temperature and the atmosphere (as you said).
In a lecture at my Astronomy class here at the university they recently told us that a planet with an atmosphere just been discovered. The surface temperature was about 1000C and the atmosphere was made up of hydrogen mostly, the planet was quite large and it was about earths distance from the sun.

Are you sure it was a planet with a "real surface", not a gas giant planet like Jupiter or Saturn ?

Planet type should become LESS of an issue the higher the tech becomes. (this is sci-fi!! And if you can make a terror star you can make just about anything! Floating cities in the Jovien atmosphere harvesting the gases or deeper chemical processes. Giant domed or underground cities on “dead” worlds . . People will go where the resources are . . and how about Ring worlds or Dison (sp) spheres for planet less stars! The could be created just like a terror star.
A really easy fix would be allowing habitation of lower planets with the right tech but strictly limiting the population. Another modification could give these colonies some great military construction (for there population) but poor social.
Also it would be great to use these as military bases not just cultural habitats. (And the Ring worlds or Dison (sp) spheres the opposite?)

French:

Yes it was a real planet, you could clearly see the solid surface and the huge atmosphere surrounding it. It was a very cool picture
It was the first planet with atmosphere ever discovered!
Very neat

/Andreas