AIs ignore PQ 1 planets

Really? Do they grow to be that big?

I dont see these planets being colonized too, and I dont colonize them. Never thought of them as bugs, but ways to show that they are quite useless.

Also, it takes quite a while for the techs to be allowed, and once they are, its much easier to just capture enemies planets.

I agree, they seem to ignore class 1 planets, now I don't remember lower than a class 4 planet in DL but, they could have just been very rare.

However, the computer at varrious intellagence levels seem to also know exactly where the high class planets (such as 19 or higher) are as well, and sometime seem to ignore a high class planet fly their colony ship right by and colonize a class 5 planet in the same system.

So who, knows this is one of the reasons I hope they eventually come out with a multiplayer expansion.

Planets can be lowered from invasions and if you "destroy colony" so they can still be in DL.

I think they colonize the closest ones first.

Class 1 planets are among the best in the game once you get the terraforming techs. Any neutral civ should be clamoring for them.




There were no PQ1 planets prior to DA.

Really? My bad. Well, to be honest I hadn't played GC2 in ages prior to DA. I assumed they were there and everyone ignored them.

Cheers

h

It's an easy enough mistake to have made. Prior to the way terraforming now works for low PQ planets there wouldn't have been much point. Who'd waste a colony module on a class 1 that would only become a class 4 or 5, after all? I think the lowest used to be PQ3. Regardless, the point here is that it's not a new bg, it's the AI failing to react properly to a new feature. It still needs to be fixed, of course.

I've been banging on about PQ1's for weeks in a variety of threads. Now that they have a thread all to themselves it would be nice if Stardock commented on them.

It's not fair that the player should have such a big advantage these planets exist on all levels of difficulty. I'd love to know what Stardocks intention was with PQ 1's. I would like a fair playing field in my games ethier the AI should colonise them or they should not exist (at least at certain difficulties).

Well, keep in mind that planets of that quality tend to take a very long time to develop unless you are rush buying the terriforming techs, redirecting a HELL of a lot of asteroids, or your have a neutral alignment in xeno ethics. In other words, these planets tend to start as an economic drain and remain that way for a long time.

Yeah, the AI should grab 'em... but the additional colony maintainence could catch up to you!

I´ve seen the AI colonize PQ 2 planets, which is something I wouldnt do.

Now, I guess Ill go even for the PQ 1, just to see how they end.

Sometimes I even think if its worthy to colonize Mars, that is such a shitty planet.

Or if you have orbital terraforming, or if you add cheap midrange factories to the first 5-6 tiles immediately after each one is soil/habitat improved. And especially if you have the Super Hiver special which lets you lay down factories very quickly and develop new planets fast.

The secret to developing high PQ planets quickly is just building a lot of factories (like 6-8), if you have industrial sector build older ones because it's hugely overpriced. Then once you've filled all the tiles, build over some of the factories if you don't want it to be a factory world.

At the same time you can have more established planets throwing out constructors to set up economic starbases.

Unless you're the Thalans...then these planets are a total bonanza. Even if you're not the Thalans, the factory spamming approach mentioned above is fairly effective at getting a planet up to speed (with some prudent cash injections).

Anyway, I really like the whole dynamic of crap PQ planets becoming the best planets by mid-late game (although they tend not to have bonus tiles). It adds yet another aspect to the colonization rush (one that is rarely mentioned). Do I settle the PQ 3 planet and take the economic hit or should it settle the decent but minimally improving PQ 8 sitting next to it? It just annoys me that the AI categorically ignores PQ 1.

Cheers

h

Early neutral helps a lot with PQ1's as with just about everything else...

Going neutral and researching up to habitat improvement will turn PQ1'S into ethier PQ11 or PQ13 in no time at all at normal tech rate early 2nd year in my games. Takes a bit longer to get terraform tech but I almost always risk going for it at maso level before I spam factories and build military.

Actually anything PQ4 or less (including Mars) got a big boost in improvement tiles in DA, so they're all worthwhile. The worst planets in the game now, really, are the PQ5 and 6's.

I haven't paid attention to which particular low PQs the AIs favor or ignore, but I can also confirm that the AIs colonize *some* very low PQ worlds.

I suspect that the underlying gripe here is about the fact that the AIs are still way behind strong human players when it comes to building infrastructure. Things are much better in this regard than they were when GC2 first shipped, but IMO the AIs have gained much more strength in fleet design and use than they have with colonization and colony development choices.

Really? I've found their development strategies to be far improved... they certainly aren't doing the boneheaded things they used to do, like putting a technology capital (or any other unmovable building) on a precursor mine...

You don't colonize Mars? It is generally the first thing i do. Fill it with research techs, and save Earth for Eco/Manu buildings.

Works well for me anyway....

I usually end up with Mars as a production world, actually... it'll eventually terraform to a high quality planet, but until then... it needs the factories to actually DO anything (especially if you want to use that later space), and while you're at it, why not just make it BETTER at what it does?

Well, if I'm Terran, I take Mars early because I like to play with Rare habitible planets, and so far I play tiny or small maps because of my computer, so I have to take what I can get.

Your right with the factories....I usually rush buy one, then let it build 3 research buildings. I go for the 1st research tech straight away, so it works for me. Once I have NLC's i replace the factory with one of them to.

But, there are no right or wrong ways of doing anything, Mars is shitty, i agree. When playing out of the Metaverse i always mod it to be about a class 12 anyway. Cheese i know but I'm trying to win above painful with a military victory!

I agree I want to know the reasoning if this is a design in the game or if this is something that they've been looking at but, just haven't had a chance to take care of this issue being of more pressing bugs in the last few weeks.

Well I'd imagine the hierarchy of defects goes something like this:

1) Crashes.
2) 'Show stopper' gameplay issues - like the fog-of-war.
3) 'Not working as designed' gameplay issues - like the defence issue.
4) Gameplay issues: PQ 1 planets, endlessly rebalancing tech trading, etc.
5) Stuff that can be fixed/tweaked by modifying the xml.

So most likely they're aware of the issue but just haven't gotten to it yet. Maybe they never will. But at least you can 'work around' the issue by ignoring PQ 1 planets as well.

Cheers

h

Well, it looks more like a "propaganda"-style thread than anything else. If they have been taking notes from the forums all along, and they have tons and tons of ideas for GC3, I really don't see the point of such a thread. Except to get players talking that is. All of it has already been repeated countless times.

PQ1 planets becoming very good planets is weird. Doesn't really make much sense. Maybe they'll tone them down...

This point depends entirely on the fictional technology you prefer. From some technological points of view, olives and apples are basically the same thing. But when your primary need is either fats or carbohydrates, apples and olives are very different fruits.

But habitability is a very different issue. If you'd say a planet was PQ1 for humans but PQ5 for thalans, that'd be one thing. Different temp tolerance and gravity, environmental conditions, etc. But that's not the case. All of a sudden, with only Soil Enhancement (we're not talking terraforming) you get a *huge* boost in habitable/building space.

One possible way to look at it: With a planet already at a certain state of development, there's a lot of interconnected systems and rules that have to be taken into account... but with a low quality planet, it's a blank slate. You want a continent here? No problem, there isn't a trans-atlantic current to mess up, do with this ground as you will!

Of course, take that idea far enough, and evil civs should be willing to try and geoengineer their high quality planets as well. Might be interesting... perhaps might give additional tiles to your planet, but at the risk of messing up a preexisting system in the environment... reckless terraforming!