Do any of you use the Colonization range limitations?

[Shark7]

Yes I do. In fact, I set it down to 1.00 sectors. It tends to slow the pace of the game, but also keeps the AI from expanding out farther than they can effectively defend.

[Lucian]

Yes I use it too. I started off with 2 sectors and now play at 1.5 sectors. I like the way that it makes empires look like well defined units instead of a chaotic, spidery mess.

[WoodMan]

Has anyone thought about the strategic consequences of the feature? Colony techs are much more important if you play with a 1 or 2 sector limit... or improved invasion troop techs perhaps? While massing explorers and maybe even researching hyperdrive or fuel storage techs may be more important with the feature off or set to a larger distance like 5.

Or do you think it doesn't really make a difference?

[scotten_usa]

I've always used it. Pre-Shadows, the AI was normally slower to expand than me, so it's a good mechanism to slow ME down.

I'm not sure if Shadows improved the AI colonization speed. I'm in my first game and some empires ARE larger than me, so maybe things are better.

[Numdydar]

I find colony techs a lot more important when having the range set. Especially if I find a good quality planet nearby [:)]. Of course I never thought about invading a planet in order to increase my range so i will need to try that one now [:D]

[Larsenex]

Invasion! Join us at Dubious Dot Com!!!

[Larsenex]

Ok Shark and Wood, if you do use Colony limits which sounds good, what is 'colony' prevalence? I like to limit things as I believe life is precious, I will put it down to scarce.

That couple with 2 sector seems like the game would grind to a halt.

[Tree Dog]

ORIGINAL: Larsenex

Ok Shark and Wood, if you do use Colony limits which sounds good, what is 'colony' prevalence? I like to limit things as I believe life is precious, I will put it down to scarce.

That couple with 2 sector seems like the game would grind to a halt.

Oh yeah, I meant to ask that too.
I use the 2 sectors limit with normal/normal, 1400 stars, 15x15, it often happens that I can't expand at all early on because there's no continental planet in reach. I have to find an independent world, hope I'm the first there and invade it before any other AI settles down there. (With the independent world often being out of my colonizers' reach.)

[WoodMan]

Colony prevalence is how rare or common colonizable worlds are.

Set it higher and you will see higher quality planets set it lower and a lot of worlds will be lower quality. Even on the lowest setting which I always use I have never seen a continental planet not worth colonizing, which is great because they are so very rare on that setting, but lots of ocean/ice/volcanic (the more common worlds) are lower than 50% quality or around the 50% mark.

If you use colony prevelence on the lowest setting *and* put a low colonization range limit prepare to research colony techs as a priority, especially if you have continental worlds as your native homeworld, you will only find 1 or 2 in a sector, and thats if it is a dense sector and your'e lucky. I have on several occasions as Humans not been able to colonize any world at all with a 2 sector range limit until I research a new colony tech.

The reason i set the limit to 5 is because I play in a spiral, start on the edge on a spiral with low range and low prevelence and continental native and your gonna have a very difficult start! Add harsh homesystem and high research cost and thats basically as hard as it gets starting off!

[FerretStyle]

Makes me wonder if the AI takes these setting into account when deciding what to research?

I use "occasional" colony prevalence with no range limits and the AI almost never researches colonization techs.

[WoodMan]

Unless Eliott changed it the AI focuses on colony techs no matter which race it is.

As far as I am aware the AI focusses on the things it is set to focus on by race (I haven't modded for a while,*I think* it used to be 3 things but it may be more now) and on top of that all AI players also focus on colony techs and construction techs (the construction size limit line of techs).

However, the colony techs are more expensive than the other research of the same level, so they take longer to research, which may be why it seems like the AI is getting other techs first.

I always keep research on manual though, so I don't know exactly what the AI researches and how well it follows it focusses.

[solops]

I always use it, with a setting of 2.25 to 2.75. It is a great feature, one of the best add-ons since the game came out. Different ranges result in totally different games.

[FerretStyle]

ORIGINAL: WoodMan

Unless Eliott changed it the AI focuses on colony techs no matter which race it is.

I haven't noticed, but it could be that I use the most expensive tech setting. With that, I don't see any colony techs available from other races until like 150 years in.

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Larsenex

Ok Shark and Wood, if you do use Colony limits which sounds good, what is 'colony' prevalence? I like to limit things as I believe life is precious, I will put it down to scarce.

That couple with 2 sector seems like the game would grind to a halt.

If you are going to use limits as low as I do, (1 sector) you almost have to have colonizable planets set to abundant. Also, it doesn't necessarily work out well with cluster galaxies.

It also helps to have independents set to at least normal, as the AI empires will invade independents and be able to expand a bit better that way as well.

The way I play the game is not for everyone...

Sandbox, 15 x 15 map, 1400 stars, research set to 999k, colonization limit 1.00 sectors, many nearby pirates, many monsters, unstable and very hard or extreme difficulty. My games last a very, very long time, so the colonization limit isn't so bad, almost all the races will get their research done and be able to colonize most planet types.

[AminMaalouf]

The default research setting has been around 450 points. Is this correct?