Is it worth it to take improved planet quality as a skill?

Yep, this helps unlock new building tiles not otherwise available even after all terraforming upgrades. The bonus gets better the higher PQ you get. Lets say you find a class 5 planet, if you have the full 20% it would only rise to class 6. But if you capture/colonize a class 15 planet you get a class 18 planet. I found a class 26 planet, and ended up with a class 32 after the 20% addition. So yes it's worth it especially for higher class worlds. It sucks for anything under class 7 though, as not much if anything is opened up, and class 4 or lower it does nothing really notable. It also depends on your stratagy. If you want big capital coruscant like planets then find a class 26 and upgrade it assuming you have the bonus 20% PQ skill, and with all upgrades you'll have a class 36-39. It caps at class 39. finding any event bonus for these planets assuming you haven't picked an enthic yet will increase this farther, so class 39 can be in your reach which is the maximum.

he's exactly right. if you want to experiment, write a race you like playing a 25% custom bonus and watch what happens (if you want to try to keep something like that balanced i also recommend reducing home system PQs to 8 and 4 or 3 even and nerf starting techs).

like many of the bonuses, it has a much more significant impact on very large, lush galaxies.

I think the +10% is worth it. If you think about it, the three points can get you a lot. You can build an extra moral structure or stock market, and for three points that is, in theory, a better deal than just going for the +% bonus during race creation. The +20, however, gives me pause, simply becuase 8 points means good planets is really the only thing you'll excel at, and on common setting you're not likely to find enough high PQ planets to make it worthwhile. If you play with abundant, however, it's probably a great idea.

How do you reduce the home planet quality?

How do you reduce the home planet quality?

you will need to edit the custom planets.xml in your Galciv files to achieve this....

in the files you can edit the class of the planet by going to the planet and looking at the text below the planet maybe Earth.. should say class and a number change that number to a number lower and you have a reduced planet..

there are no planet quality reducers other than invasion tactics otherwise... i.e. Mass Drivers or Gas Warfare..

The PQ is definately a good investment. Higher PQ increases the inhabitants morale, population growth and I believe economic output. That and you get extra tiles.

The cap is 44, by the by.

The PQ is definately a good investment. Higher PQ increases the inhabitants morale, population growth and I believe economic output. That and you get extra tiles.

It only increases morale if the planet is over class 16, Population growth has to do with your current morale on the planet if it is high enough then you get a bonus, Has nothing to do with economic output..this is your tax income x the bonus of the enhancement buildings on the planet.. Extra tiles will give you the ability to expand in any of these areas..

I think that the extra tiles can prove most usefull if it is the only improvement given..

The cap is 44, by the by.

Actually, in version 1.11, I found a planet that was a class 26 to begin with, 29 after +10% PQ Bonus, 39 after +32% PQ bonus from Evil selection during event at initial colonization. 6 more with all of the Terraforming techs finished it off at 45. I don't remember if it did actualy have 45 tiles, but it was a class 45. I turned it into my Research planet. Having a neutral alignment and using Neutrality Learning Centers, I think it produced around 6000 Research points with 2 full econ. starbases (Back when they were +33%, and not the nerfed +24%)

Current single planet research point best is 11098. Assisted with 20 Econ. Starbases back when we could exploit the starbases and get more than 4 in a sector.

Hi!

Is it worth it to take improved planet quality as a skill?

At the beginning I thouhgt it was, but recently I'm building my races without it. IMO I can get more from those 3 points spent elsewhere (like morale, production, economy...).
BR, Iztok

eerrrmm...

great...new idea for my next game, going to take the 8 pt quality bonus and play as neutral...lets see how many mega PQ planets I can end up with...

I found out a sneaky tactic to take advantage of this. Mars is usually an awful planet, so I always let the AI take control. Meanwhile, I have built one or two influence starbases right next to it. The planet revolts, I give it back to that civilisation in return for money/tech/influence, the planet revolts again, etc etc. As you get the bonus each time you capture the planet, you can end up with Mars (or any other low PQ planet) being PQ 30+. My highest to date is PQ 32

Thats clever

It may get a higher class rating with each influence reconquering, but do the number of free tiles increase?

I usually use the reconquering methods for stealing techs. Have a lot of transports in orbit, leave a few of them empty, conquer the planet, steal a tech, move in an empty transport, remove population, give planet back to previous owner, or anyone else you want to steal a tech from and are at war with, unless you want to start a new war. Rinse and Repeat!

In other words, conquer planet, remove remaining population, give planet away, conquer planet again, etc... etc...

The 20% one takes too many points better spent on influence, diplomacy, or something else. It costs EIGHT for something that doesn't really make much of a difference in the game compaired to what else you can get with 8. ohhh wow, one or two more tiles on a planet! Thats unless you exploit it:

I found out a sneaky tactic to take advantage of this. Mars is usually an awful planet, so I always let the AI take control. Meanwhile, I have built one or two influence starbases right next to it. The planet revolts, I give it back to that civilisation in return for money/tech/influence, the planet revolts again, etc etc. As you get the bonus each time you capture the planet, you can end up with Mars (or any other low PQ planet) being PQ 30+. My highest to date is PQ 32

That is the only way that its worth anything. Otherwise it isn't worth it.

This is obviously an exploit that they should fix by having a flag for each planet that says if the bonus has allready been applied.