1-The stellar cartography tech says it allows me to see planets on the minimap. So, this tech's sole purpose is to put the little planet dots on the minimap next to the star dots? |
In a nutshell, Yes.
2-Population growth: Aside from the galatic wonder that increases population growth, is there any other way to increase population growth? Does more farms help? Does more food surplus help? |
By default I think that Torians are naturally horny to the tune of +20% pop growth, However in the manually selected racial abilities you can get up to +80% pop growth bonus (The title "Dont Ask" is a clue)
The universalist party comes with a +10 pop growth bonus too.
Also I think that morale has an impact on it too..Plus there may be an anomaly that helps..
3-Population max: Is population max on a plan determined solely on its food production? Or are there other factors, like planet size or quality? |
Planet quality may be a factor, But food production is by far the major..
By building a basic farm you get an extra 5 billion minions..Err I ment taxpayers..Umm..Valued Citizens extra on the base population cap of that planet, The fact that it says "5 Million" is a typo.
When you get to the end of the Xeno Farming tree you get some 15 million people per farm.
Add that to food production bonus tiles and you have yourself a pretty large planet.
Building morale improving buildings is highly reccomended.
4-Some seemingly special starbase modules "come with milestone technologies". Example: Fighter drones. According to the manual this adds ships to defend the starbase. I have the activating tech, but i didnt have the option to add fighter drones to my mining starbase, which has every other defensive and offensive module already on it (that i have access to). Are fighter drones just automatically installed on all my starbases once i get the technology? Or do I have to do something special to get them on my starbases? Maybe they only are an option on a particular type of starbase? |
Try building "Battle Stations MKI" first
Starbase modules work in a tree like pattern, You cant skip places in the branch.
5-Is there any way to get ships to directly defend a starbase? Like, I have ships in orbit of a planet. Can I do the same for a starbase? |
Yep! In the starbase defence and starbase fortification tech trees there are offensive and defensive modules for the starbase.
The defensive modules let it soak up damage, The offensive modules let it bite back.
The afore mentioned modules are avaliable in all 4 starbase types.
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Hope that helped