Colonisation - Cherry pick, or settle everything ?

[Rob'sEvilTwin]

Has anyone tried just cherry picking the best planets and leaving other races to take the crap ones ?

If so, does the diplomatic bonus for having less colonies outweigh the diplomatic penalty for settling too close to other races ?

[Mansen]

Early on I definitely cherry pick based on my race traits, because the AI will do the same. If I get lucky with scouts and the starlanes, I will happily colonize a barren planet if it means locking down one or more systems from being accessed by AI at all.

And since the AI doesn't particularly go heavy on warships early on, you can push a homeworld to push out tons of colonizers early and keep them ready for when you have the power to defend yourself.

[ShiroiAkuma]

First cherry pick, the best and most far away Planets from your homeworld. Then every other planet.

Is there something like a penality for having much Planets in research like in Civ 5? Do I need more points in research having more Planets?

[Stelar Seven]

Cherry pick with an eye to controlling territory, then back fill and upgrade. Resulting empire will crush ai.

[Silversata]

Originally posted by Apostate:

Cherry pick with an eye to controlling territory, then back fill and upgrade. Resulting empire will crush ai.

Exactly. Colonize and block off choke points that ensure I can take as much territory at my own pace as I want. If I can block off 1/3 of a galaxy with 2 or 3 colonies..I'm gunning for that.

[Captain_Brian]

Cherry pick the first 2 or 3, then just colonize everything.

[Detektor]

I colonize only the best planets, maybe it is a mistake..

[Gespenst Gaming]

Terraforming turns all planets pretty much into the near best planets eventually, so cherry pick the first ones, mainly to make sure you actually get the terrans and gaias, and then when you get a planet that's developed and can repopulate before another colony ship is built, start spaming colony ships and get everything up and running sooner rather than later.

[Drefk2000]

Since every single planet is self sufficent and the colony ships costs peanuts and dosen't have any pop impact on the planet of origin I pretty much settle everywhere. I would love for this to change

[Captain_Brian]

Originally posted by Drefk2000:

Since every single planet is self sufficent and the colony ships costs peanuts and dosen't have any pop impact on the planet of origin I pretty much settle everywhere. I would love for this to change

Yeah I miss the food system of Moo2, I liked having planets rely on others.

[Necroscourge]

Some races like the Klakkon are capable of swooping up every planet they can; but most others have to wait for some time before they can reasonably colonize planets not fit for them. Some races have low or high gravity tolerance which cuts down the amount of unfit planets there are and toxic/radiation planets are fairly easy to fix.

You should be looking for planets that have great resources, are preferably big, and you have a terraforming plan for. You ideally want to get as many planets you can terraform into uber planets as possible.

[Hans Lemurson]

There is only "Colonize Now" and "Colonize Later". You just take the best planets first.

[Tzyder]

I find that if i colonize normally everyone hates me for colonizing too fast. Its not clear where the threshold/magic number is.

[Dark Fire]

Originally posted by Tzyder:

I find that if i colonize normally everyone hates me for colonizing too fast. Its not clear where the threshold/magic number is.

It's a ratio of new colonies:number of turns mixed with number of colonies a race has. If you colonize a planet every 10-20 turns or so, the AI tends to be ok, if you colonize every other turn they say you're going too fast.

[Rob'sEvilTwin]

Originally posted by darkfire2012df:

Originally posted by Tzyder:

I find that if i colonize normally everyone hates me for colonizing too fast. Its not clear where the threshold/magic number is.

It's a ratio of new colonies:number of turns mixed with number of colonies a race has. If you colonize a planet every 10-20 turns or so, the AI tends to be ok, if you colonize every other turn they say you're going too fast.

If they are going to complain unless I slow down that much, I will just obliterate them ☺ Who wants to go that slow ?

[Dark Fire]

Originally posted by Rob'sEvilTwin:

Originally posted by darkfire2012df:

It's a ratio of new colonies:number of turns mixed with number of colonies a race has. If you colonize a planet every 10-20 turns or so, the AI tends to be ok, if you colonize every other turn they say you're going too fast.

If they are going to complain unless I slow down that much, I will just obliterate them ☺ Who wants to go that slow ?

You can counter the annoyed "you're going to fast" with keeping up treaties and just paying them off to keep them happy as well. From what I've seen, it's not the biggest hit to your diplomacy rating. The only time you get a big hit is when you do something they've asked you not to do such as make deals with enemies or colonize too close to them. Or if you decline a proposal outright.