Colony Development Speed?

[Dray Prescot]

There are several techs that increase colony development speed. Do they only affect the speed at which a colony ship turns into a colony or do they also incease the speed at which a colony can build buildings? The first possibility is of limited value and is probably not worth the research costs for the later versions that increase colony development speed, unless they also help the development speed of colonies, i.e. speed of constructing buildings. But even then population growth and mineral costs for new buildings are more of a bottle neck on colony development than speed of construction (unless you are bringing in population from offplanet).

[Mountain King]

I always assumed it simply meant the time it takes for the colony ship to "unpack", because after that it simply becomes normal pop growth which is called exactly that. It seems more useless than terraforming, since with zero research a colony still doesn't take very long to establish itself.

[Sathra]

Its just how long it takes a colony to set up. Faster means it drains less EC and produces faster.
Building construction speed is affected by other things (edicts and governer/ruler traits mainly).

[Dray Prescot]

I suspected that it only affects how long from colony ship landing on the planet and when the colony is up and running, and waiting for orders. If that is the case, I don't see wasting my research points on such a small gain, particularly if it is for a 2nd or 3rd increase in the speed of colony development. I was asking the question just in case I was misunderstanding what the tech did for me. (apparently not much)