Some basic questions

[Apheirox]

Apologies in advance if these questions are already answered previously but search function on this board seems slightly broken.

1) The percentage (%) tag on ressources (such as Polymer (49%), Gold (13%) etc) - what does it mean? I assume higher is better, but what does it in fact do precisely?

2) The AI often doesn't put shields on warships. Isn't that incredibly dumb? Isn't armor good?

3) Planet quality percentage - higher is better, but once again - what does it do, exactly? How is my 85% quality planet different from my 50% one?

4) Can somebody link me to an in-depth explanation of the economic system? There's real world concepts like supply and demand in place (which is a nice touch) but how does it work, exactly? I would like a guide that answers questions such as whether it still makes sense to settle gas planets for caslon fuel even if your empire and the galaxy has much higher supply than demand - or, put another way, whether you gain nothing by by grabbing ressources that are not in demand at all.

5) Research locations - does it make sense to build more than one research station at these, or does the bonus apply only to the first one built?

[Data]

1) if affects your mining speed for those resources - this combines with the speed of your extractors

2) I haven't noticed this but yes, it would be dumb

3) planet quality determines the population cap on that planet, check two worlds of the same type (ocean let's say) and with different quality %

4) there are two pages on this in the game's galactopedia and in the tutorials as well. There are also a couple of good threards here but you have to search for them; just use "economy resources" in the search window

5) it applies to all of them, it depends on how you design them...more labs on one and only one station or less labs and more stations; you have to weigh the maintenance cost as well

there is more than this, obviously, just wanted to give you the basics....more of us will jump in, clarify much more

have fun and welcome to the game and community

[Apheirox]

Thanks for that!

About issue 3) : Isn't it planet size rather than quality that determines pop cap, and then it perhaps gets modified by quality? I kinda figured total pop cap = size x quality or something like that.

[Data]

i also thought so, being a MOO2 die hard and all [:)]
but I never saw this explicitly said anywhere so from what we actually know the planet size may have no relevance on the pop cap....I even tested it at some point looking for the same planet type and quality (this can be set now through the editor, btw) but different sizes; no relevant results
also, this is not like MOO2 where you knew from the start the max pop supported by that planet (influenced later by tech like terraforming and such)

[Deomrve]

I'm going to ask this here instead of starting a new thread. I remember reading in a thread long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away that space ports got their resources from the planet they orbit, so therefore didn't need a lot of cargo storage. Well I started placing only one cargo unit in each space port and then recently noticed that my ships weren't refueling at the space port but would travel to gas mining stations and resupply ships even if they were right next to the space port and the planet had plenty of fuel. Has something changed so that ships will only refuel at places that have a lot of fuel stored on station itself?

[Raap]

Well, ships can refuel at planets. Maybe there was just a lack of fuel in your empire?

*edit*

Sorry, didn't see you mention the planet had fuel on it. I assume it was the right type for the reactors you were using? If so, then I'm at a loss really. What if you order them to refuel at the planet instead of the space port?

[Deomrve]

Haven't tried that, I only found out that you could tell the ships where to refuel this week and I haven't played since finding out.

[Lord_Astraios]

3-  If i can remember clearly,  apart from population limits,  i think it determines the morale of the planet too,  ive seen in the morale list saying about the quality and development of the planet makes people happy.  Is like a bonus so you can increase tax higher so it wont revolt i guess.   Also people hate when you bombarded the planet and then invaded it, it gives you a negative value.

5 - Yes,  it applies to all,  What i do is redesign them,  get one station,  set it as a High Tech research station,  change the rule for it,  place 5 labs of each,  put weapons in it,   and deploy,  it costs more and to maintain too ,  but for me its worth it,  so i cover all bases in one shot.

[Data]

just found it in the pedia

"Colony populations eventually reach a natural limit, at which point no further population growth will occur. This limit is determined by two factors:
· Quality of world: more hospitable worlds with higher quality allow for higher maximum population levels
· Size of world: larger worlds allow for higher maximum population levels"

"· Low planet quality – if the planet or moon has low quality (either naturally or due to enemy bombardment) then the citizens of the colony will be unhappy"

so it does affect morale also, good call Lord_Astraios

[unclean]

ORIGINAL: Data
i also thought so, being a MOO2 die hard and all [:)]
but I never saw this explicitly said anywhere so from what we actually know the planet size may have no relevance on the pop cap....I even tested it at some point looking for the same planet type and quality (this can be set now through the editor, btw) but different sizes; no relevant results
also, this is not like MOO2 where you knew from the start the max pop supported by that planet (influenced later by tech like terraforming and such)

Okay, I just tested that by setting max population on about a dozen worlds in my empire, and it looks like max population is something like Quality * Quality * Size/16. I'm sure that isn't exact but it came really close for all of them. Not sure why it turned out differently than yours. [&:]

ORIGINAL: Apheirox
5) Research locations - does it make sense to build more than one research station at these, or does the bonus apply only to the first one built?

Have to set this one straight - you can only have one station at a location, and you only get the bonus once no matter how many labs you.

ORIGINAL: Apheirox
I would like a guide that answers questions such as whether it still makes sense to settle gas planets for caslon fuel even if your empire and the galaxy has much higher supply than demand - or, put another way, whether you gain nothing by by grabbing ressources that are not in demand at all.

Someone can school me here if I'm wrong, but as far as I know it only makes sense to mine for something if there's demand. So if you do something like make a huge custom mining station for dilithium crystals early on you're just going to run up huge maintenance costs mining something that no one wants to buy.

Whether you make money or not is pretty hard to tell, but it's all about location and demand. The private sector doesn't care what empire they buy their resources from, they just go for whatever's closest since the price of resources goes by galaxy demand, meaning it's the same everywhere. So if you build a mine on a planet with tons of luxury resources in the middle of another empire it'll see a hell of a lot more trade than one on the ass end of the galaxy (same goes for resort bases, too).

All that trade stays in the private sector though, and you can only get it back by taxing colonies (trade is added to GDP) and selling ships. Free trade agreements and defense pacts can be huge too, but those work a little differently and respectively generate a 20% or 30% bonus based on your trade that gets added directly to the state.

Also, if you want to see exactly what's being traded double click on the name of a planet or mine. In "Cargo" if there's a flag next to a resource it means it's getting traded. To check the price though you have to go to the expansion planner, but it's not all that important. Basically the biggest ticket commodities aside from luxuries are whatever's being used to make fuel, armor and blasters, and if you go for those you'll do fine.

That's pretty much it, hope that made sense.

[unclean]

ORIGINAL: Data
"Low planet quality – if the planet or moon has low quality (either naturally or due to enemy bombardment) then the citizens of the colony will be unhappy"

so it does affect morale also, good call Lord_Astraios

Weird, I've never actually seen that. My T-rex guys on a 15% quality world seem just as happy as the ones on a 90%.

[J HG T]

I'm quite sure the planet quality only affects the max population from what I've seen. Low-quality planets can have very small populations leading to minimal taxes, thus making spaceports on these planets costly.

[Data]

Maybe the effect on happiness to to low to notice but since it is in the pedia I tend to think there is an effect on it....or so it was desired [:)]

[Spacecadet]

Planet Quality and planet Size determine the maximum population for the planet.

Planet Quality and planet Population also affects the income I believe.
A 50% planet should basically have a net income of 0.
Less than 50% will cost you.
More than 50% will generate income, and I believe it is a factor on top of or in addition to the Population - say two planets of the same size and population, the higher quality planet will have more income (I believe).

[Data]

it will indeed have more income because it will have more population
income is calculated based on pop and development afaik

[Tehlongone]

I think Spacecadet is right, quality is affecting income, at the very least it affects it severely if you go below 50% (how else would it go negative?). If it didn't then while it might not add anything to the empire there would be no reason NOT to colonize a low quality planet, if nothing else then for strategic reasons.