I hope I'm not wearing out my welcome to this forum by asking so many questions, but at least they are generic and maybe helpful to Newbies. I wouldn't be asking so many questions if I didn't appreciate having this game so much, if that helps.

Anyway, can we square away a couple of basic things about planets?

If a planet is originally Class 9, does that mean that it forever will have just 9 tiles (counting those that have to be terraformed etc. to be made usable) that can hold improvements? There is no tech that will make any of the other 63 tiles usable?

Secondly, is it true that there is no direct relationship between the maximum population of the colony on a planet and the class of the planet? A Class 9 planet might have a population of 24M thanks to Xeno Farming to supply enough food?

Thanks for your replies, they are much appreciated.