Colonization

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Colonizing a desert planet

Planetary survey screen

The planet view gives you pertinent information about the selected planet and if colonized access to colony development and production (build) queues.

Un-colonized planets and non-player colonies

In this view, you are provided with an information panel about the type and 

generic conditions of the planet. This information allows you to assess whether it’s a good planet to colonize. Some information may require you to survey the planet to find out.

Additional information about the planet is available through surveys which you can order a task force to do from the Galaxy Map. These reports can be video, planetary, mineral, biological or archaeological.

Player colonies

This is where you make choices on the development of your colonies. Your first and most important colony is your Homeworld with a vast population as a resource.

The screen is divided into several panels:

The system panel at the top-left provides you immediate information about the type of colony and its role in your empire. Other important stats such as your population, treasury and so on are displayed here. You can rename your colony if you so desire by clicking on its name. You may also switch to other planets in the same system by clicking on the planet icons at the top.

The (6) building panels provide you with the level of colony development in each category. You can build or upgrade by clicking on each provided you meet the minimum requirement in cost. Right-clicking or holding the shift key provide you more information.

The ship build queue panel allows you to manufacture ships. There are 4 queues: one for each size of ship. You may click on the ship names to change designs or right-click to view and modify the design.

The Orbitals panel lets you build non-mobile structures in orbit of the planet such as Shipyards or a Starbase.

The Defense panel lets you build ground defenses such as Barracks to house soldiers or missile launch bases.

POPULATION

A planet’s population is its most important resource. You must always keep an eye out for any factors that may affect it negatively such as food shortages. Fortunately colonists have a strong survival instinct and will always try to adjust to ensure their survival.

WORKFORCE

The workforce is the part of your population contributing either as farmer, worker or scientist. For humans typically this is around 33% of the total population. You should always aim to keep the workforce as high as possible to get the most out of a planet’s population.

Your workforce distribution between farmer, worker and scientist is automatic but it’s based on the planetary structures and the conditions of the planet.

Food production (when possible) always takes precedence. Enough farmers will be assigned to produce food to keep a colony self-sufficient. The rest of the workforce will be split between workers and scientists based on the level of industry and research structures. If no research and industry buildings exist, your workforce will be 100% farmers.

GOVERNMENT

The Government panel is what defines the type of colony. When a planet is first colonized, it defaults to a listening post.

A listening post is a small base or installation built on a planet often designed to gather intelligence in an area of space. It is strictly a military operation and thus cannot build any civilian structures until you upgrade to an outpost government.

An outpost is a fully fledged colony with a government to handle a civilian population. All colony structures become available and population growth becomes possible.

Each empire also starts with a capital on their Homeworld.

FARMING

Farming is the food production of a planet. Your population needs food to survive and grow.

26 Food structures help farmers produce food more efficiently, thus increasing output. They are also required on environmentally hostile planets before any food can be grown.

Excess food is sold to traders so long as you have trader traffic on a planet. Traders will also sell you food (at a cost) if your colony cannot produce enough to feed its population.

INDUSTRY

Industrial structures serve two purposes. First they reduce build times, allowing you to build ships or other planetary structures in fewer turns. And second they produce goods that can be sold on the trade market which generates income.

TRADE

Trade is a common thing in the galaxy. Once your planet becomes known, traders will start appearing and try to do business. You need trade traffic before your colony can buy and sell.

Trade structures facilitate trading between planets. The amount of traffic is shown in the trade panel. As traffic increases you get better trade rates when buying or selling.

As an added bonus if you have a trade structure, you collect docking fees (seen as trader income) from all traffic.

Races good at trading get preferential rates when buying or selling.

ENTERTAINMENT

Entertainment structures make a planet more appealing not only to visitors but also to the local population.

As an added bonus if you have an entertainment structure, you get tourism revenue from space tourists visiting your planet.

THE BUILD QUEUE

This is where you can build ships by selecting the design type and the number to build.

A planet has four ship build queues, one for each ship size. Clicking on a ship name switches between designs. Right-clicking on a ship name will take you to the ship design screen where you can view or make changes to the design.

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ORBITALS

The orbitals panel shows the structures you can build in space around the planet.

 Shipyards Orbital shipyards significantly speed up ship build (and repair) times.

 Starbase / Space station A starbase built in orbit of a strategically positioned planet acts as a military base to re-supply starships. A starbase also acts as an orbital weapons platform with an array of weapons and defensive measures.

 Stargate A stargate is a powerful device in orbit of a planet that can create an artificial wormhole tunnel to another stargate. Travel time between two stargates is almost instantaneous. Stargates must be discovered before they can be built.

DEFENSE

The defense panel shows the defense structures you can build on the planet.

▪ Barracks A planet will be able to train soldiers once you build barracks. Soldiers are your last line of defense in case of an invasion. Also a planet with barracks can supply troop ships (in orbit) with replacement soldiers.

▪ Missile Defense batteries Missile batteries are an effective defense vs. most enemy ships approaching a planet.

▪ Beam defense Energy defense platforms are very powerful weapons that add to the defenses of a planet. Beam defense must be discovered before it can be built.

POLLUTION AND WASTE

Industrial production inevitably creates waste products that need to be cleaned up. By default, pollution control is enabled and your workers will automatically divert production resources to the cleanup effort. You can choose to disable pollution control per colony basis, this will increase production at the cost of environmental damage.

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Each unit of production creates half a unit of waste by default. Research in advanced waste disposal can improve waste management and increase your production without causing damage to the environment.

By default, pollution cleanup is enabled. Workers are automatically diverted to the cleanup effort. Neglecting pollution can be beneficial in the short term but will have a serious impact and the clean-up cost later will be more expensive.