do factories help a new planet in social production?

Generally speaking, yes.




Of course a starport only helps build ships, not social buildings, but the other two yes.




I would argue yes, build a starport anyway, but that is a matter of opinion and your economic situation. If you're poor, don't build a starport--you're wasting 1bc/turn maintenance and you have to sink yet more bc to put the starport to use. But if you're not that poor, well--you have to build a factory anyway. Might as well invest a little bit into ships whenever your military slider is turned up.




Production is not tied to population. Only money-making is.

My answer is yes, build the factory. Try queing up several different buildings like, moral or science building and notice the time it takes to build them. Now Rush build a factory (even a basic one) and note the change in build time. It will be a significant difference.



This depends on if you EVER plan on building a starship there. There is no reason that a pure economic planet would need a starport. Personally I build one on every planet as a part of my stratedgy. I find it useful to have the ability to rush build a ship or transport.

I suggest as a new player to build a factory and starport on all of your plants to begin with. As you become more adept with your planet building and stratedgies then begin to decide which planets really need what.

Good luck!  

I always build a Market myself, then a Factory. I like to have my planets paying for themselves as quickly as possible in order to finance further expansion.



I build a starport on every planet I control myself. In fact I rush build it as soon as I colonize it and start building a ship right away. That way if a war ever breaks out every planet has the ability to defend itself in a pinch, instead of having to wait for reinforcements to arrive from somewhere else. By then it might be too late.

Thanks. This helps.

If you have a world you intend to use for money its still a god idea to build a starport initially if you have trade researched so that you can build a freighter. Trade on planets with stock exchanges produces even more money. Also, you just decommission the star port when you don't need it any more and build a stock exchange or such. After I finish building on my planets I like to decommsion the factories too, so I can build more stock exchanges.

I usually build 3 factories first. On the first planet I quick-build a factory. Then a starport at the beginning. Starports I build later after a while. Then usually a morale building. Then market centers.

Factories eat up money. I have to look for anomalies with money to keep me going.
Work my way up to stock exchanges. The higher govt. gives you more money.

Ultimately, if you are playing a military game, it is higher production that is the most important. Early in the game, I may be behind AIs in tech and economy, but if I am ahead in production, ultimately I can make more ships and they are toast.

My planets all start the same way..
1st i build a factory (or equiv tech) and then 4 economy buildings, keeping the planets focus on industry to do this.

The reason i go for the economy buildings is twofold. 1st they cost next to nothing to keep but increase the amount of revenue you receive and 2nd, at an early age the planet cant support many other types of buildings unitl the planet hits its base max for peeps without hitting a minus bc/turn. Once its hits the max i then add further buildings etc.

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