Just a note: Don't buy from Mitrosoft. It is a money-leaching force of nature from which there is no escape (and it does, now that I think about it, sound REALLY familiar). Leases will kill your economy faster than anything else in the game. If you buy, buy direct. Plus, economy works only because the people are creating it. I've read alot that people don't bother too much with farms and entertainment to raise population. But this is critical. More people, more taxes, simple as that. Smaller PQ planets don't have room but your big ones (class 16 to 26) should have at least a population of 10 billion tax-paying citizens. My best so far was a class 36 planet. I found a 26 orbiting a purple star, got the ethic dilemna of the giant worms and despite my trying for good, had to choose evil to get a 31percent boost to PQ. With terraforming, it was class 36. And it was nothing but farms and entertainment. Population was 41 billion and growing before the Drengin came along and smeared me like cream cheese. Don't underestimate a good population but please oh please don't forget to park a Defender or 10 in orbit!