Colonization

[scbfromnc]

I don't understand the research area "Colonization" vs "Continental Colonization" (CC). I just tested in my current game and I can build a basic colony module for my colony ships with "Colonization". I can then colonize a continental planet in my system -- without the need for CC. So then I repeated by waiting until I had CC tech before designing and building my colony ship. Gave me the same basic colony module and after I colonized the planet, I observed that the population amount was the same, with the same growth rate, as when I built with just the "Colonization" tech. So I guess CC just puts an extra barrier in the tech tree before you can research other colony types?? Should have at least given you a population advantage. Am I missing something?

[Aeson]

The Colonization technology unlocks the Colonization module, allowing you to build colony ships. You can colonize worlds of whatever type your main species (Human, Kiadian, Sluken, Ackdarian, Mortalen, etc) natively inhabits. As a result, if you're playing as Ackdarians, who natively inhabit Ocean worlds, you will not need to research Ocean Colonization before you can colonize ocean worlds; your species natively inhabits that planet type and can thus make use of any such world they come across. Native planet types are listed in the species description.

You can also acquire the ability to colonize worlds which your main species cannot natively inhabit by acquiring worlds with sufficiently large populations of species which natively inhabit planet types which your main species does not; as long as you have a colony where the dominant species is Human and the population is greater than a few hundred million, you can build colony ships at that world to colonize whatever world types Humans natively inhabit and whatever world types for which you have the appropriate colonization technology.

To answer your question more directly: You started the game playing a species that can natively inhabit continental worlds. Then you researched Continental Colonization, which means that if you find a sufficiently large independent colony of a species that cannot natively inhabit continental worlds, you can now use that population to create continental colonies, in addition to using population from worlds dominantly populated by your main species. Continental Colonization is also required for some more advanced colonization technologies; the most immediate one that comes to mind is Desert Colonization, so you may want to keep an eye out for good desert worlds because those and marshy swamp worlds are your next most easily researched colonization techs. I don't know that researching Continental Colonization provides any benefit for species that can natively inhabit a world, but then, species that can natively inhabit a planet type have spent the past hundred thousand years evolving to make good use of their native planet type anyways, and to reflect that they already have a 10% bonus to the maximum population on their native planet types.

Another thing that you're missing is that not all species can colonize continental worlds from game start. Most species, in fact, cannot do so; of the 20 playable species in the unmodded game, only five species (Atuuk, Humans, Ikkuro, Kiadians, Zenox) can colonize continental worlds from game start. This is the most common native planet type, but three quarters of all the species in the game still have to research Continental Colonization or conquer an independent world to acquire a population that can natively inhabit continental worlds before they can colonize such planets.

In case you're interested, the other native world types are as follows:
Ocean - Ackdarian, Quameno, Wekkarus
Volcanic - Boskara, Gizurean, Shandar
Desert - Dhayut, Mortalen, Securan, Teekan
Marshy Swamp - Haakonish, Ketarov, Sluken
Ice - Naxxilian, Ugnari

One more thing - continental worlds tend to be among the highest-quality worlds you can find but also tend to be relatively rare. They also tend to have sources of polymer, chromium, and carbon fiber, which are relatively rare and important resources for your empire.

[scbfromnc]

Wow, really useful! Thanks Aeson for the quick and thorough reply.

[corwin90]

This is some great info I hadn't realized before. I was thinking the races starting on tier 2 (ocean/desert) and tier 3 (ice / volcanic) should have a significant tech advantage because they could gain access to more world types early in the tech tree. But if the tier 2 and tier 3 world types are lower quality, then that definitely puts a different spin on things.

[Aeson]

But if the tier 2 and tier 3 world types are lower quality, then that definitely puts a different spin on things.

Which is counterbalanced by the Volcanic/Ice/Desert/Ocean worlds being generally more common than than the Continental/Marshy Swamp worlds. Maybe I can only find Volcanic worlds in the 50-65% quality range, but I can probably find a lot of them and I can spread my empire influence out over more territory than that guy who's stuck looking for the Continental worlds. Economically speaking, yes, that one 90% Continental world is worth about four 60% Volcanic worlds and costs me less to colonize (1 colony ship rather than 4), but those four 60% volcanic worlds probably claim a lot more territory for me, at least initially, than that one 90% continental world, and losing any one of those volcanic worlds is a lot less of a problem than losing that one continental world is. Beyond that, since the volcanic worlds are more abundant, that can give me an edge in the colony rush phase over someone competing for continental worlds because it lets me create big blocks of territory that no one else can establish colonies or mining bases within.

There is also the consideration of how much competition you'll have for a given planet type. No one but Naxxilians and Ugnari are even in the running for ice worlds unless they manage to find an independent colony or abandoned colony ship with one of those species present (and if they found an abandoned colony ship, it'll take them a fairly long time to get to a point where they can start founding additional ice colonies, while an independent colony is likely to have relatively little population compared to an imperial homeworld, which keeps that option as a bit of a poor second in a colony race). It's not entirely clean-cut because colony influence allows you to stake a claim to worlds even if you cannot colonize them currently, which prevents me from setting up a brand-new Naxxilian colony in that system next to your homeworld that only has an ice planet in it, but given the relative prevalence of certain types of worlds, some species have an easier time staking out their claims than others do.

[corwin90]

I hadn't even considered that Continental worlds are less common than Volcanic/Ice/Desert/Ocean. That plus the quality difference is very significant info. Thanks, much!