PQ Concerns

Supreme Shogun

Join Date 11/2005

PQ Concerns

I've been playing several games now with the latest release of the beta. A number of concerns irk me. The recent change PQ to 5 - 10 from what it was.

Thalans have a size 17 planet at the beginning of the game ?!? pls tell me theres some kind of bug there. Largest planet I've owned was a 12 ( I colonized a pq 9 and thru event I chose evil choice and took the 39% PQ ) What wouldn't anyone do for a few more tiles, eh? Since the change, I've noticed one thing. Planetary improvements are stronger.. don't need 30 factories.. There's no room anyhow. The other things that are important to every colony, markets, happiness, wonders/special projects ... There's just NO room. 5 tiles meh. I hope Stardock considers raising the tiles on planets is how I feel about it. Even if we're not putting in tons of labs and what not, don't think there's enough space for essential things. You're going to have some angry people without entertainment centers. 7 - 12 maybe ? Not as high as I'd like it but there's some more room.

I also think it should be possible to find 'Gaia' planets or planets that are higher pq than your starting colony. Also makes for good conversation ( and wars... )

From my experience with the game so far, looks like the choices concerning events and PQ are balanced. However, the racial choices in custom races. 5% won't even get you one tile will it ? Can we adjust the % up a bit ?

OR how about +1 tile per planet ( 5 pts ) ? OR yielding an extra tile while terraforming..

Locked Post

Advanced Search

Watch this post

Do not email me updates for this post Email me updates for this post

Successfully updated karma reason!

Star Pilot, you're making me feel like a lucky man. One time, it's so late in the game that I'm throwing around my speed 15, sensor 20-someodd, range 5.(something) scout ships all over to make sure that if there's anything left anywhere that I could want, I know about it. There's a small bunch of stars along one side of the map, about a quarter of the way out of hte corner, with no ownership colors, so I figure there's nothing of value there, but as soon as I can get it in range, I'll visit.

A few turns later a superscout arrives and I notice a solid dot planet. So, I'm thinking the AI got a little sloppy. While I'm thinking of which colony should produce the colony ship (based on location, production, and such, I do a mouseover just to see what my prize is, provided the AI doesn't suddenly wake up and send something. My girlfriend must have thought I devolved when I suddenly started going "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!. BUY BUY BUY!." as I found an uninhabitted PQ 26 planet. went to the nearest planet I had, created a colonizer just for that trip, and bought it for cash. How many times do you see speed 21 colony ships in game? I think they threw in the flames on the paint job for free just to get to trick out a colony ship.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Cool! See? I told you researching all those "go fast" stripe technology would really help.

But I'm very jealous. The RNGods haven't seen fit to bless me such.

Well, one day... one day.

Successfully updated karma reason!

To quote a true (mad) genius "ship not white, no go fast." For those that don't get that admittedly obscure reference, I can only feel sorry for you and point you at "Illegal Aliens" by Nick Pollotta and Phil Foglio. Not a masterpiece of a book, a little shakey in parts, but there were certainly moments of stunning brilliance in it.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Just a note that in the new version I'm still seeing the same PQ issue. Habitable planets set to abundant, yet there are still systems with 5 useless zero planets. The lowest PQ I've seen is 5. I've seen a few 7's also. I would think "abundant" would mean few zero planets. I've never seen PQ 1-3. Mars is the lowest I've seen with 4, but it's the only 4 I've seen.

Successfully updated karma reason!

They took the 1-3 out deliberately at some point a few beta releases ago.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Then why not make 4 into 1? Sounds a little like an "it goes up to 11" situation.

Was there a reason for taking 1-3 out? I wouldn't mind settling on a class 1-3 planet just to throw down a few extra labs or something. I could see us putting a research station on mercury in the future, for example. It wouldn't be a thriving colony, but it would be something to cut down on the useless planets.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Was there a reason for taking 1-3 out? I wouldn't mind settling on a class 1-3 planet just to throw down a few extra labs or something. I could see us putting a research station on mercury in the future, for example. It wouldn't be a thriving colony, but it would be something to cut down on the useless planets.

I think the reason for removing 1-3 level planets out WAS to remove useless planets...

Successfully updated karma reason!

Yup. a class 1 planet would be nothing but the colony tile, and class 2 would be that and a starport, if you insist on one of those on all your planets.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Yep 1-3 planets don't makse sense. a) Too many colonies to manage

what additional gameplay would it really add?

I also play on gigantic maps and find that 12+ planets are commonish. 16,17,18 etc. Not seen many 20+ yet but that's probably a random thing.

Successfully updated karma reason!

And don't forget that any colony cost at least 25 BC in maintenance. So 1-3 planets are pretty useless if you aren't at 100% spending rate.

Successfully updated karma reason!

It just seems like we are getting class zero planets instead of 1-3. Why not just lower the PQ numbers so 4 is 1?

If habitable planets are abundant, there should be an even spread of PQ from 0-whatever. Instead it's most planets are zero, and usually one or two 10+ planets in a system. If 1-3 were removed to get rid of useless planets, why are there so many zeros? They are just an annoying decoration.

Here's an idea, maybe for an expansion pack:
In addition to colony ships, there could be base building ships. If a planet is too crappy for a colony (1-3), you can still plunk down a base for either research, mining (generates cash), or culture. There would be no colony on the planet, so maintenance costs would be greatly reduced. The bonus to these areas would be small, but could add up over time. Not to mention, you can build out farther to reach systems that do have colonizable planets.

All class zero planets would be 1-3. Even with a gas giant, there should be a way to set up gas mines or something.

Successfully updated karma reason!