Um, yes kinda. I completely understand about the tiles, no brainer there. BUT, you do get certain things from more pop. Such as TAX INCOME!!!!! INFLUENCE!!!! Those are based off of population.
But that really wasn't the point of the post. The point was why do all 4PQ planets have an INITIAL 8.00 pop cap (do not figure in Farms, racial bonuses, etc). I'm just say all planets are different like cities in the U.S. Take Vegas for instance. At any given time there are millions of people there BUT the percentage of people who actually LIVE there is a fraction of that population. That goes back to my desert planet reference.

Because the galaxies are random enough without needlessly handicapping a player just because they got a bad string of planets. Tiles are an exceedingly precious resource; I'd hate to have to waste one just because the planet rolled low during galaxy creation.

Basically, all you're doing is turning a PQ10 planet into a PQ9 with a Farm.

Thank you for a reply that wasn't just a "your an idiot" response. I've never played any GalCiv games until like 3 week ago.

That it is. I don't know if I should thank the poeple at Stardock or give them the finger for keeping me up all night playing this game. Is there any kind of 12 step program for this game?

Hehehehehehe.......did you think I meant a 'strategy guide' when I posted "12 step program"? I meant something like 'drug counsiling' by that post. I'm addicted to this game, dammit!!! I dont even want a manual or tech tree any more...just....more.....play. I need help.

Hey I now know by your post that they considered things like the topic of this thread

Q: "can you change it so that after the last terraforming tech we can click on a planet, see what we are going to get and plan?"

A: "We debated that one, but we thought it better to give you guys a surprise when you get there".

Maybe they debated a random pop cap.

Good point!
But, if you have my mod you know that i extensively use this factor to *alter* the gameplay dynamics for a reason or two;

1- If an AI must go out (by leasing a huge number of ships) during colony rush to grab as much as it can from anyone else, including you, then your tiles count would certainly be lower than if you were using a similar tactic.

2- My Homeworld systems are all stacked up to the rim **because** of #1 above. If the AIs are sort of restricted for at least the time it takes to crank out FIVE ships and only then, should go out to pick everything else nearby... it means YOU can also.

3- Defensively, a higher count of startup available tiles will always result in a tougher core network of planets. Which you would only get (anyway) by going far & wide.

Thus, a low number of tiles equals expansion aims while *much* higher amounts equals delay, solid local development and... lots of possibilities which you couldn't get otherwise. Far from boring, in my mind.

Such evil thoughts

Look under the Twighlight subdirectires in the "Program files - Stardock" part of the disk. You'll see a multitude of them - all over the place. Do NOT mod an inplace one, if you want to mod one, make a copy, do the changes, then put the altered one into the "Mods" folder, and most important leaving the original in place. Then check mark "use mods" in the game options screen. The ones you are looking for are those with ".xml" extensions

Be very picky with yourself on this, else you will as sure as night follows day end up forgetting you changed one, and you'll wonder why something is happening. The main reason though, is when an update happens, original files in the main directories can be overwritten by the update destroying your modification, the MOD folders are left untouched. Always, always, always, keep separate copies of heavily modded files on a removeable storage media - lots of effort can go into these (small simple changes are easy) and its a bummer to loose hours/days/weeks of work when the disk crashes ......

On my PC the directory for the file dealing with the config of Homeworlds is:
C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\Twilight\Data\English\CustomPlanets.xml

The modded file (leave the original in place) goes into:
C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\Mods\Default\

Below "default" in the MODs directory are a series of sub directories for specific modding files, I dont bother as I have no need with my simple tinkering. The Modding community will lead you on the proper use of those.

Never touch the ones under the Metaverse Directory, they are exclusively used in the Metaverse games, meticulously checked for illegal modding, and will result in a cheat flag appearing in the respective Metaverse game record if they are changed in any way

There's a thriving MOD community here who do doubt will launch copious "welcome to the true way" statements hot on the heels of this reply. There's also a thriving MOD forum section here

I just tinker around the edges of modding for a bit of fun, those guys do it for the survival of their Souls

Regards
Zy

Yep... and, that's exactly what i meant.

The whole balance issues are something of a magic wand held either by true SD developers or tricky modders.
I won't go as far as to say my experience or knowledge of most features is beyond what (say) Frogboy and/or Carielf (+++, many more!) but, basicly, it is a matter of having or using the opportunity to "adapt" some factors to one's personal opinions or wishes.

To me, modding is much more of a supplemental asset given (entirely free, i might add) to an already balanced game; but, ya know, even as of today these devs DO continually re-think the wheel.
Just the predicted *Enhanced Espionage* system will probably completely reset the clocks on a few principles. Good, i say - since real replayability is way more than some provided context (by me or anyone else, btw).

I guess we're all caught up in the same strange but challenging loop -- Fun!