Degree of Planet Specialization?

Personally.. I tend to do a little of both.

When I get a large planet (12+)..but it doesnt have any good special tiles.. ill usually turn it into either an economic planet (Starport..1 factory..lots of markets, and a farm or two with a multimedia center or 3) Or I will just turn it into a population planet (starport..1 factory.. lots of farms and multimedia centers)

Other smaller planets I will usually SOMEWHAT specialize with a starport, and then either lots of factories and a market or some special buildings (micro-repair bots and such).. or I will go with the starport and a few markets and a farm..and 2 or 3 factories.

The only time I really specialize is on planets where it will really become a "powerhouse" of a planet by doing so. So like If I get a planet with a couple of manufacturing bonuses..or one really good one..ill make it all factories and a multimedia center or two with a starport. Or if I get one that has some good approval tiles ill make it a large pop planet. Or one with research tiles...etc..etc..etc..

Usually I dont like to spread my research around too much.. this is because I like to be capable of building ships on almost every planet.. so i need a factory or two on most all of them...because of that I also need to really get a good economy going to pay for that manufacturing..so I need some high pop planets. Basiclly..I dont have tiles to waste on labs..so I will usually build at least one planet that is focused on research.

This was a needlessly long and drawn out post..but hopefully ya get my meaning.

I appreciate the info, it helps a lot. I am still trying to fine-tune my strategy, and your approach seems reasonable...I will give it a shot.

Anything above Class 10 gets a StarPort and 2-3 factories. Then 1 financial, 1 entertainment, 1 food, 1 reasearch builds.

Below Class 10 gets NO StarPort, 1-2 factory(ies), 1 entertainment, rest reasearch.

I actually lean towards the balanced planet tiles approach. I usually have half my planets with enough manufacturing to pump out the military ships, etc. The rest of the space and all small planets go with economy or research. I have had a couple instances where my manufacturing and economic capitals fell and it really put my plans back and with the second one I ended up losing because of it. Now I keep them mixed up with a heavier focus towards one or the other types, and small planets I just keep on one type. Some people say they have alot of success with specialized planets though.

All of my planets are research or economy keyed, except about 1/3rd which are factory pumped. I try to hunt down a good tile-bonus one for manufacturing capitol and tech cap. Usually my homeworld is one of the Manufacturing ones, although usually each type has a bit of bleedover (a lab or two for manus, and a couple of factories for most research).

Small Planets are usually entirely research or, rarely, economic focused, since there's little else you can do with them. I sometimes don't even bother with starports.

Oftentimes my homeworld actually becomes a menagerie of trade goods and Wonders, since it's usually my most industrialized and I use it to rush out goods I want.

My focus is on money. On all my worlds I place 2 factories, 1 farm, 2-3 morale boosters (depending on the planet’s needs to keep happy at 69% tax), and a market center or two. After that I pick what the planet is going to be based on special tiles and available space (ie a planet with a lot of spare tiles becomes a manufacturing world, or a planet with a 300% research tile becomes a research world). Ask for the worlds that can’t support all that I place a morale booster or two then solid research (buy the building rather than waiting years for the factory less planets to make them).


With this setup I have a very healthy bank account which I spend on buying techs I don’t care to research or bribing the Korx and others to fight wars for me, while circling my main manufacturing and research planets with Econ starbases to make them into powerhouses. With this kind of a base I can pick whatever victory is easiest to obtain, although in the end I usually build large swarms of tiny ships and start burning a path of destruction across any race that I don’t like.

I just cant wait to try a new strategy. I'm staring a new game right now !