Since it takes long to research each colonization tech i sometimes wait until i have all the basics. You may find it irritating but it was added to DA for the purpose of slowing down the colonization phase. So you'll be colonizing for some time to come. DL doesnt have it if you really don't want to play with it.

And I never have a problem with trading with the AI. i know i've seen a few posts where people have said it needs to be fixed but i think its fine. The more valuable the tech the harder it is to get them to trade, just as i would do if i had that tech.

I delay it as long as possible due to the expense. I think researching it in the early part of the game would put me too far behind in other techs. If I can hold out to the mid to late game, I flip (or invade) the planets and then research the tech within a few weeks instead of months.

Of course, I just started a game where it looks like I've only got 2-3 usable planets nearby, so I'll probably have to focus on this sooner than I'd like. It'll depend on how fast the AI expands; I may take the approach of letting them colonize and improve a bit, then buy the planet before the population increases too much.

Maybe they should call this game "No one strategy"...

Actually, (and you probably know this) you don't need X Colonization to invade X planet - you can invade any planet - you just have 0 production until you get the X Colonization tech.

True, but if you don't have the colonization tech, you can't build factories and such, which is usually what I want to do: that planet is usually the advance base for my next wave of invasions.

Sometimes I don't research those techs at all. I trade for them. Not always a good solution, but most of the planets from other races planted in my territory flip over to me before too long anyway.

You should be build up the planet, but very slowly. There may be another factor here.

If you are in debt, and are below the -500 BC threshold, that turn will not allow production anywhere, forcing maximum BC revenue to fix the deficit. So that is a possibility.

Remember though: you can always build something, even if production time is 'Never'. Though expensive, you can always buy an improvement outright. One key item however is the 'focus' of each planet. You probably already know that with the Domestic Stats screen, you can use the sliders to change the proportion of focus (instead of 33% each, you could have 75% research, and the rest divided among Military and Social production. Using the sliders is essential to better results, but you can and must also do this on a planet-to-planet basis.

If the planet's screen shows Social Production with a a nasty '0' (zero), click on the little symbol next to the zero, on the right, focusing the planet on Social Production. You will immediately see the value change. Using this planetary focus is essential to maximize your results. For example, if a planet is for research, and you have nothing to build or upgrade, click on the Research focus to increase the planet's research contribution. If that same planet suddenly acquires the possibility to upgrade the Xeno Labs to Research Centers (for example), you might want to focus on Social production to build the upgrades as quickly as possible, knowing the lowered research output will be compensated once the labs are all upgraded, substantially increasing the research thereafter. Do remember to reset the focus to Research once done.

One last thing, though this probably wouldn't cause a zero production on a planet: still in the Domestic Stats screen, remember that the Production slider below the Tax slider, also affects the overall production on all planets.

Albert

i've occasionally seen that the planet screen doesn't update during the curent week that a research item comes into effect. If you click on focus on something it should recalculate. You can then turn it off focus and it'll still have some time on it. True i've only seen this when having a 1-99 strategy and a queued social and military item. Remove the social item and the military still says never even though the shields and hammers recalculate. Click focus and then turn it back off and it'll let you build the ship.

Brian

No new tiles appear but when you only have 1 tech, production on the planet is half what it should be.

I've read all the post and have a slightly different approach to extreme colonization. Recently I have been playing as either the Altarians and maxing out my tech advantage. I have largely ignored the toxic, aquatic and barren worlds in my area of the galaxy. Quite honestly, I use them as bait. Invariable Yor or Iconians will colonized them. Sometime the Iconians flip from cultural advantage but I play attention to how the Iconians, Korath and Yor are building there militaries and I design my first generation of warships to counter them.

I tend to play on maps that are as follows:
Gigantic
Tight Clusters
Rare Stars
Common Planets
Common Habitable Planets

I don't like games where the are huge numbers on planets or fleets very often.

I use my tech advantage to race up the soldiery techs and invade the Yor, Korath and Iconian worlds early on. Usually picking up a tech or two, hopefully the extreme colonization techs each already possesses. When I do start extreme colonization research I focus on heavy grav and radiation worlds to max my colony grab.

The only downside to my strategy is that you quickly become involved in 1-3 wars. Fortunately since I play the Altarians, others typically become involved in the wars as well against the other empires. Sometimes I'll hang back until a large scale war starts against one of the other races as well.

Vuk-