All races begin colonizing the same types of planets?

[mllange]

It seems that all races start the game colonizing the same planet types; my experience in the game reflects this and the Galactopedia seems to confirm:

To create new colonies you must build colony ships and send them out to claim planets for your empire. When a new colony is established the colony is consumed and disappears.

As your technology levels increase through research you can progressively colonize more types of planets:
1. Continental worlds (Basic Colonization Module CL-100)
2. Marshy Swamp worlds (Enhanced Colonization Module CL-130)
3. Sandy Desert worlds (HostileWorlds Colonization Module CL-200)

I don't understand why we can't mix it up a bit - why not have some races who begin the game on Marshy Swamp worlds, who can't colonize Continental or Sandy Desert worlds, and others who begin on Sandy Desert worlds, etc? The way it is now detracts from the who 'Alien' species feel somewhat since all species seem to prefer the same type of planet. Don't some of these creatures eat rock excrement and dissolve in water? [:D]

[Wade1000]

I like it how it is. There are 3 other planet types(Ice, Ocean, Volcanic) that some races can colonize from start but the other races can never colonize, unless they have and use those races. Other planet types and objects(Asteroids, Barren Rock, Frozen Gas Giant, Gas Clouds, Gas Giant) can't ever be colonized by anyone but can be mined.

I think of it as, Continent planets have all environments thus it is the standard for most races. Marshy Swamp and Desert are extreme versions that need more technology to colonize.

According to the manual the planet types have percentage bonuses for maximum population. I'm not sure if this is applied to a race native to the three special planet types(Ice, Ocean, Volcanic).

Continent: 100%
Marshy Swamp: "...almost as high as continental planets." (70% ?)
Desert: 40%
-----
Ocean: 20%
Ice: 15%
Volcanic: 8%
-----
Asteroids: NA
Barren Rock: NA
Frozen Gas Giant: NA
Gas Clouds: NA
Gas Giant: NA

Though, I do hope an update adds the ability to research further high terraforming technology to allow colonization of water, ice, volcanic, barren and gas giant by all races.