Found a Gaia World ! (Very old thread)

[Dray Prescot]

This is the first time I found something this GOOD: I found a Gaia world a long way from my HW, just over 53,000 h u , it is defended by 80 Pirate figthers and had 8 Gravitonium, 2 Reidium, 5 Metals, 5 Organic, 9 Plutoniulm and it can do both Science and Research, I do not know what its population limit is. Unfortunately, another Race (the Drills) has a mining colony about 4 systems away.

I am playing on a clustered map with 900 stars at normal difficulty as the Erians. I never expected to see something like this. It even has its own neutral defense, the 80 Pirate Defenders. I would love to get it but I will/would have to build and send a fleet of several warships with tanker support along with the colony ship(s) and a passenger ship to take it, develope it, and defend it, as well as some colonies along the way to refuel at. My game date is around 2200. My nearest colony was 24,000 away, but I have built a new colony about 16,000 away after I found the Gaia World, I had colony ships going that way before I found it, but this will require a warfleet to even colonize it.

[DTDrain]

In my experience there is always this one single Gaia world and it's always defended by 80 pirate fighters.
I almost always get it too, despite the fact that enemy territory is all round it, because the AI for some reason seems to be scared to dispose of a few fighters.
Granted, I've never played 900 systems (nor will I), but in settings up to 400 systems that single Gaia world seems to be a staple.

Truth to be told, I see that as one of the weaknesses of this game, the lack of unique and interesting things to discover in the galaxy.
The research is intriguing, the ship customization is great, but the game really lacks all the monsters, anomalities and oddities that we see in many other 4x titles.

Play a round of DW:U with all storylines enabled and you'll run into something fascinating or dangerous every 5 minutes for the entire first half of the game.
Hopefully Polaris Sector's other qualities will generate enough of a fanbase that some talented modder(s) can add more flavor events and locations.

[Dray Prescot]

I am imagine we will see them added since DW:U came from the same publisher (not the same developer), although it took several releases to get to DW:U. I like DW:U in many respects, but the (mis)behavior of the private economy ships always drives me away after playing it awhile.

What are the population limit and the building slots like on the Gaia worlds that you have seen?

I would have expected to see something like this near the center of the map, but it is close to the edge. It is also the first time that I have noticed Polaris on the map, also on the very edge of the map. I suspect that it has something to do with the external threat that I have not seen personally yet, but I have seen some of the messages on this forum.

Whenever, I start playing a new game like Polaris Sector, I always spend a lot of time playing the early to early middle stages learning the game before I ever get to the late stages.

[DTDrain]

Originally posted by Dray Prescot:

I am imagine we will see them added since DW:U came from the same publisher (not the same developer), although it took several releases to get to DW:U. I like DW:U in many respects, but the (mis)behavior of the private economy ships always drives me away after playing it awhile.

We'll see if being from the same publisher will have any bearing on this.
I like Slitherine, they've been good to my niche, but they'll still go with sales numbers to decide about expansions, not with what they did or didn't do with Distant Worlds.

Then again the dev seems really responsive and ambitious, so we might get at least some more flavor entirely for free.

What are the population limit and the building slots like on the Gaia worlds that you have seen?

I just did a clean reinstall because I messed something up while playing with the modding tools, so I can't answer that right now.
As far as I recall they've all been top of the line though, with a large amount of slots and plenty of minerals.

Whenever, I start playing a new game like Polaris Sector, I always spend a lot of time playing the early to early middle stages learning the game before I ever get to the late stages.

Likewise, but for different reasons.
The early and mid game of any 4x is definitely the most enjoyable part to me, while the late game often drags on for far too long with far too much stuff to manage.
I probably haven't even finished 10% of all the games I started in various 4x titles.

[Ghostdragon]

The number of earthlike, ocean, gaia and so on does not depend on the number of systems you chose, but on the number of races. For every race there are the following planets are placed in the galaxy:

1 Gaia (25% chance - this means there may be no Gaia at all, or as many as there are races.)
5 earthlikes
3 ocean
1 active
1 super-earth
2 acidic
2 volcano
9 desert
9 frozen
9 hot

Once these planets are placed the rest of the galaxy is filled with planetoids, exhausted dwafs, corrosive planets and gas giants.
Gaias will always orbit G class stars and will also be protected by 80 pirate fighters, which are quite difficult to beat in the beginning of the game. The fighter fleet can be seen from adjacent star systems and is labelled 'pirate' rather than 'unknown' (which you'll only see for other races' fleets).
Gaias offer 30-40 Research slots, 20 - 40 production slots and 80 - 120 farm slots. They also come with huge food production and science bonuses (usually between 50 and 100%), but no production bonus.

[DTDrain]

Originally posted by Ghostdragon:

The number of earthlike, ocean, gaia and so on does not depend on the number of systems you chose, but on the number of races. For every race there are the following planets are placed in the galaxy:

1 Gaia (25% chance - this means there may be no Gaia at all, or as many as there are races.)
5 earthlikes
3 ocean
1 active
1 super-earth
2 acidic
2 volcano
9 desert
9 frozen
9 hot

Good to know... but damn...

Does that mean that a game with 8 races will have (for instance) 40 earthlikes, no matter if there are 400 or 800 stars?
If so I'm really not sure if I agree with that system, or rather I'm fairly certain I don't agree.
Seems like another area where sliders at the galaxy setup are needed.

[Ghostdragon]

Originally posted by DTDrain:

Good to know... but damn...

Does that mean that a game with 8 races will have (for instance) 40 earthlikes, no matter if there are 400 or 800 stars?

Exactly. Even with 80 star systems you'll have the same number - in this case every second star system contains an earthlike. It also means that you have 41 (or 42, if you get a gaia) planets per race that aren't gas giants, exhausted, corrosive or planetoid, which also explains why small galaxies have more planets per star system than large galaxies.

If so I'm really not sure if I agree with that system, or rather I'm fairly certain I don't agree.
Seems like another area where sliders at the galaxy setup are needed.

Agreed.

[Dray Prescot]

I was wondering about this 900 star game, it seemed like there were not any more worlds worth colonizing. Now I know why. So all I got for the bigger map was greater distances between the things that are worthwhile and between me and my neighbors. I would normally make the assumption that more stars meant more useful things to find. Well maybe that could change in future iterations of the game.

[Zankor]

I think I'm going to start playing on smaller size maps now, which I actually like the idea of. I only put the slider for planets way up so that there would be more density in the rings in the second spiral B type galaxy so that I could hope to make a reasonable foothold there.

[['w']]

love my 900 starsystem , even if its so small. thx to ocd I control everything, like in DW:U.

[Shards]

More customisation options for your galaxies are definitely on the list!

[Mr.Kill]

Let some other idiot take it than declare war, bomb and colonize the planet.

[Dampfnudel]

Originally posted by Shards:

More customisation options for your galaxies are definitely on the list!

I found a Gaia world too. The first system I explored contained it. Blocking any expansion or further exploration with 80 fighter. Can you add on your list that the home system has atleast 2 paths to leave it? Otherwise you can get stuck.

[Dray Prescot]

Now THAT (having a Gaia planet next to your HW) was pretty (un)lucky, depending on your point of view. At least it is really close, I have had Home Systems with only one way out. It all depends on how much time and effort it takes to kill the 80 Fighters next door. I have had HW with 3 systems out also. A lot depends on your game start settings and how close to edge or middle you are.

What really would ***** would be having the Gaia planet in your ONLY way out of your Home System ! (Hopefully the game program would not allow that to happen)

I can think of one (sort of) advantage to the present 900 star map I am playing, the AI Players may do a slow poor job of finding and colonizing the good planets nearer to them than to me, which leaves oppurtunies for me to grab them. I could see that even in the 360 Star Map in my last game start. This is only my 2nd normal difficulty game.

I have a question, will saved games from the present version be playable in the new (beta) version when it comes out?

[Sgt. Steiner]

I found the gaia and super-earth, but fortunately they were not defended! However, I did mod for more good planets using the rt file.

[Horus]

Originally posted by Mr.Kill:

Let some other idiot take it than declare war, bomb and colonize the planet.

Doesn't bombing permanently diminish the planet's slots, resources and overall quality?