Mars

Not that long ago they seem to have found water welling up from under the earth, so if that's found to be true, then no - Mars isn't a barren planet.

It is also believed that Mars originally had a thicker atmosphere (from its vulcanism) that it lost due to its insufficient gravity. It is therefore theoretically feasible to terraform the planet for short term (geologically speaking)use. It also is a much more habitable planet for the use of domes than say our moon as its atmosphere provides a layer of protection from cosmic rays.

the martian poles have water ice

Didn't you see Total Recall?

Quaid! Start the reactor!

Stardock compromised.
They made it a PQ 4 planet that can become a PQ 10 with a lot of TLC...
as opposed to a standard PQ 4 that eventually develops into a 13 or 16, or a PQ 3 that becomes a 15 or 18. (DA values.)

drrider

Speaking of which, who wants to join my campaign for Earth to become a PQ 11 in the next revision? I think its a pretty good place, all things considered, and all that liquid water...mmm, mmm, good!

In context, it hasn't been used nearly as hard as Iconia, or Arcea, or Drengin. Look at Altaria, for goodness sake; the Precursors used it to develop not one but two sentient races, civilization of some sort on it for at least a couple million years, and its a 12! And Toria! - we haven't even had one small invasion here by nuclear-equipped aliens, and that's leaving aside the whole "steal everything extractable, enslave everyone exploitable...and then eat their brains" attitude of the Drengin.

Besides, the Terran Alliance could use the 10% Morale boost at game start, and Mars IS a rather su...er...sickly secondary planet.

Now, if anyone could just figure out how to fix the Iconians...

drrider

QUATO was the bomb in Total Recall. Ugly little mutant sticking outta that guy's belly. He had one hell of an "outtie"

What's this? Earth as a PQ 11? I'd have to respectfully disagree. How can intelligent, much less industrialized life exist on a planet that's made up of about 70% water? And 97% of that is salty? A PQ 8 at best.   

How about this?
A new, one-tech branch directly off of Xeno Engineering called Post-Industrial Waste Management. It would be good for a one PQ bump for homeworlds under PQ 11 only.
Cost: about 1/2 to 3/4 of whatever Planetary Improvements costs now.

drrider

Do low PQ planets ALWAYS wind up with the same ultimate PQ? or is this just throwing out numbers?

Planet Quality upgrade will net you a twelve won't it?

it's predictable based on starting PQ and upgrade potential, a value given in planetdescriptions.xml (i think that's the right file). in DA, lower PQ planets get higher multipliers in addition to the upgrade potential. i don't know the mathematical formula offhand, but end PQ (after terrforming) isn't random.

Right now the only value I see in mars is waiting for some dumb Ai to put a colony there and wait for it to revolt (Normal)

Mars is a good money maker. A farm, happy building and six stock exchanges.

I did a LOT of empirical testing which was detailed in another thread.

Bottom line is this:

PQ1 always get 6 new tiles per level of terraforming, finishing as PQ19.
PQ2 don't seem to occur naturally (without +PQ ability), so I didn't test.
PQ3 get 2,4, or 5 new tiles per level of TF, maturing to 9, 15, or 18.
(I forget the exact percentages, but 9 is least common.)
PQ4 gets either 3 or 4 tiles per level of TF, maturing to 13 or 16.
(16 is considerably more common.)
PQ5 gets 1 or 2 tiles per level, maxing at 8 or 11. 11 is more common.
PQ6+ gets 1 new tile per level of TF.

Mars (which seems to be unique among PQ4 planets) gets 2 tiles per level, reaching 10.

PQ 1-4 planets don't seem to ever have bonus tiles, nor do they gain any as they are improved (though it would be an interesting mechanic to eventually FIND a precursor mine or library, buried under the slag.)

Also, planets with PQ less than a base of PQ6 don't seem to ever benefit from the +PQ racial ability, i.e. when they grow to a larger PQ where a 10% benefit might mean a tile increase, they do not get an extra tile.

drrider

Wow, thanks for that info.



I guess thats due to rounding of the PQ bonus at the time you colonize it. It would be good if the formula would include something that gave yopu a minimum of +1 tile regardless of the rounding. I mean that bonus takes a lot of points.

And the idea of "finding" a bonus tile after its been terraformed (or whatever tech is required) is pretty cool. I think that would be cool for all planets actually. A nice surprise.