Thanks for the insight oldschool. I especially like the idea of building 'specials' on smaller planets in order to maximize production on the larger planets.

My point about upgrading was more of a question of whether it's worthwhile to remove a couple factories and use the tiles for something else once you have factory enhancements. My assumption being that two enhanced factories can work as well as four basic factories, so you keep about the same production while freeing up a couple sectors for something else. Now, the factory enhancements may be less than a 100% improvement in which case I guess my plan wouldn't be feasible.

I will replace one building type with another on a case by case, as needed basis. I find its a very fluid process. If my cash flow starts its inevitable dwindle or I am not leading in research, I examine my planets to see if the requisite structures are in the pipeline. If not, I look to my smaller worlds to see if there are any that can build/convert.

Here is my Planetary Planning during different game phases:
During the Colony rush
-- queue up 2-3 Factory buildings
-- any planet larger than ~7 queue up a Starport
-- -- Any small world with research tiles then specializes.
-- Planets with Research/Manu bonus tiles get queued up appropriately.
-- All Farm bonus tiles are ignored until much later
-- All Influence tiles are ignored unless needed much later
-- Happiness tiles queued as needed, dictated by Morale (Party affiliations, starting abilities and tax rates can make these more/less important).
-- Planets with strategic value get Starports, even if quite small (they can be refit later).

After the rush:
-- The 3 largest planets are examined and selected for their fitness as Capitols.
-- The smallest planets are geared to be research only, over time their factories will also be refit into Labs.
-- Mid size planets will be manufacturing, financial and research labs, with focus on any bonuses those worlds provide.
-- PQ 12+ will gravitate to financial planets ([Money] comes from [Taxes] comes from [Population]), where farming is more viable to get the population numbers up.
-- Add Factories to larger planets to speed up social production, then refit factories as desired.
-- Find mid to large planets with hi frequency of Manu bonus tiles and gear them toward additional ship production and wonder/trade goods/etc.

Other things to consider:
-- There is no need to build Farms until a planet is nearing capacity, build a factory on that land until needed.
-- when building farms, build Happiness structure first
-- If seeking a Military Victory, a high manu planet with farms and morale will make an excellent troop transport planet.

Cheers,
Reaver

v1.20.035 PlanetImprovements.xml (Tuesday, June 13, 2006, 2:31:40 PM)

Building	Production	Cost+Maint
Basic Factory	7	50+1
Factory	9	75+2
Enhanced Factory	11	100+3
Manufacturing Center	12	200+3