Gaia world start any good?

[PK (Pronagade)]

about to jump back into this after a couple of years with a big group of friends. just wondering if the gaia world start is good? looks interesting, but having gaia as your prefered world seem's like it might be too much of a downside. What do you guys think? Thanks

[Terijian]

It *is* good, but it exists more to be a challenge than a benefit I think. Its a great homeworld but having no habitability is a big hit. Best option would be to get migration treaties or slaves and settle with them

[Azunai]

having a slightly larger planet with some rare resources doesn't make up for the crippling gaia preference. it's a challange start, not a bonus.

[PK (Pronagade)]

Thank's guy's. not played in ages so i'll give it a miss for my first game back with all the changes

[MMR Thief]

gaia start lithoids ftw, u still can colonize stuff without a big problem, the pop growth speed will be slow but u dont really care, u want to steal slaves from other empires for ur gaia and when u have t2 research/foundries u start sending pops from ur colonies back to gaia. gaia can be very effective when u have 200 pops on it

[Astasia]

If you have nearby habitable planets turned on it can be a very strong start, assuming the mechanic hasn't changed recently. Three gaia planets, and usually 1-2 relic worlds, is more than stable enough of a foundation for an empire. But ya probably not a good start if you are still relearning the game.

[CrUsHeR]

Originally posted by Astasia:

If you have nearby habitable planets turned on it can be a very strong start, assuming the mechanic hasn't changed recently. Three gaia planets, and usually 1-2 relic worlds, is more than stable enough of a foundation for an empire. But ya probably not a good start if you are still relearning the game.

That's not how it works. There are no guaranteed habitable Gaia planets, it's just you on this one 25-Gaia planet with three strategic resource nodes.

[EleventhStar]

there are ways around the habitability penalty, you just gotto make a plan.

robots, rushing techs, species perks, stealing/buying/invading/migrating other species, probably some more.

[CrUsHeR]

Either way, it seems just one category above Doomsday.

Example Remnants also have a 100% habitable world of 20+ size, get plenty of free tech from clearing blockers - plus two guaranteed habitable worlds with more special features, and one tech-blocker each. So that's at least twice as good.
Shattered Ring and Void Dwellers are so much stronger that you had to express this in several magnitudes.

Unless Life Seeded always comes packaged with Baol as precursors, i had them with both the Gaia- and Tomb World origins while testing. This would clearly make up for the poor starting conditions, since you can turn any planet instantly into Gaia with ~10 years cooldown.

[Lady Crimson (RIP)]

The biggest issue actually is that it's just the 1 planet. It provides no benefit for the empire as a whole.

You can bypass the challenge of it by colonizing with other species, so in a primitive heavy one, or using migration treaties, or early conquering, you're fine.

However I don't know if it's worth the downside for a single planet.

Ringworld (the more of the broken of the origins) is the same thing, except it's really, really good, and you don't lose habitability.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by CrUsHeR:

Originally posted by Astasia:

If you have nearby habitable planets turned on it can be a very strong start, assuming the mechanic hasn't changed recently. Three gaia planets, and usually 1-2 relic worlds, is more than stable enough of a foundation for an empire. But ya probably not a good start if you are still relearning the game.

That's not how it works. There are no guaranteed habitable Gaia planets, it's just you on this one 25-Gaia planet with three strategic resource nodes.

Except it did for a while and most certainly wasn't just me, thanks. Apparently it was changed in 2.3, here's the patch note:

"Picking life seeded will no longer grant neighboring Gaia worlds, but rather a randomized starting planet class"

[climbingeastofwinter]

Life-Seeded is pretty great, especially if, as Astasia mentions, you have guaranteed nearby habitable expansion worlds set to 0 in the galaxy generation settings.

Just having a (nearly) max size world is a good enough reason to do it in my book, but having the rare resources on your starting planet may make it a little simpler to hunt down those specific techs on the tree, and additionally, as a gaia world, your capital will be fully habitable for any slaves (or guests) you add to your empire from neighbors or pre-FTL civs.

In the end though, results are going to vary with RNG and whatever your preferred playstyle is though, I imagine. If you get lucky and start with a 20 tile gaia world nearby anyways, then you may have just been better off with the standard Unification start which would have started you off with 4 extra pops, or mechanist for the robot upkeep perk, tech and building.