Oceans and deserts everywhere? (and ice)

[Storper]

I´ve noticed in my games that one things tends to pop up every time and its starting to bother me. There are are too many worlds of a certain kind generated, usually oceans and ice worlds which are ungettable unless you are a particular kind of race. Of I do a mostly hands of kind of game on a huge map then open the editor to view the results its almost always the same, ocean and ice races spread out everywhere thereby gaining a critical advantage over all the others. If we were talking MOO2 here being able to colonize one of those would be an easy 15 pick points.

Its becoming increasingly clear to me that;

1. Do something about the formula used for generating the galaxy. That many ocean worlds is silly. I´ve heard others complain over the same thing.

2. Allow colonization on more worlds for all races either through tech or terraforming. The bonus several races have would be more adequate to be a headstart in certain areas rather than a game long one. Its clear to at least me that the AI are unable to cope with those races that gets the benefits because those races colonies looks like some kind of urban sprawl fairly early on while the non bonused races often have large distances between their colonies leading them to be a lot fewer and harder to defend as well.

Comments?

[tuser]

Might be a balancing issue there, not sure about it yet. However - it is also much too easy to obtain colonization capabilities now. Just take over an independent world, or some random ruins/abandoned ships give access to other races too.

[Storper]

Yes while I know how to get around the issue however the AI does not leading to loopsided games.

And dont get me started on the sillyness of the absurd advantages coupled with zero downsides of getting other races in your empire. [:-]

[Hard Sarge]

And dont get me started on the sillyness of the absurd advantages coupled with zero downsides of getting other races in your empire.

well, try going to war, with there Race, all of your worlds that have them, will start rebelling

[Storper]

ORIGINAL: Hard Sarge

well, try going to war, with there Race, all of your worlds that have them, will start rebelling

I never seem to have much of an issue with that tbh. War weariness is a much bigger problem in my games.

[vils]

So how do i colonize Oceanic worlds then? Playing as Human.. What must i research to get access to these worlds?
Not many planets out there that is habitable at the beginning.. or for me as a newbie not later on either hehe..

[Tree Dog]

ORIGINAL: vils

So how do i colonize Oceanic worlds then? Playing as Human.. What must i research to get access to these worlds?
Not many planets out there that is habitable at the beginning.. or for me as a newbie not later on either hehe..

With research, you can get the Enhanced colonization component, which gives you access to Marshy Swamp Planets, and later to the Massive colonization component, which gives you access to Desert Planets...
Otherwise, you need to capture/colonize/whatever an already inhabited Ocean Planet, then, building colony ships on that one, you'll be able to colonize others. Same with Ice and Volcanic.


But yeah, there are far too much Ocean Planets... In nearly every of my game, the biggest empire is one of those Oceanic races that can live on those planets. >__<

[Wade1000]

ORIGINAL: 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 to allow colonization of water, ice, volcanic, barren and gas giant by all races.

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2420461&mpage=1&key=volcanic?

[HsojVvad]

ORIGINAL: Storper

Yes while I know how to get around the issue however the AI does not leading to loopsided games.

And dont get me started on the sillyness of the absurd advantages coupled with zero downsides of getting other races in your empire. [:-]

Well I don't know how to get around these issues. Can someone explain how to do it please?