What are some fun™ planet setups people have found?

[Mina]

Currently reaching the end of my first game, and I'm thinking about what I'd like to run next. Figured other people who've been playing longer might have some input on what they've personally enjoyed.

I just rolled a fairly standard Siwa with alien life and lots of regimes, but I found that having easy access to water, arable land, and especially Standard/Rare metals from ruin tiles (3 Billion pre-apocalypse population), removed any of the resource pressure that I enjoy in these kind of strategy games.
I also rolled 14% oceans though, which was definitely a good idea for adding natural barriers and chokepoints, mountains aren't as impassable as you'd like.

I'm thinking Cerberus might be fun. 0% water, hostile astmos/biosphere, and lava oceans instead of water ones. Otherwise Siwa with lower pre-apocalypse population and higher hazard ratings would be my pick. Oceans are just kind of essential in general, hard barriers to expansion make games more fun to me.

[newageofpower]

Arable land isn't a big deal once you get Hydroponics. Games on water starved worlds and water saturated worlds are dramatically different, this is true.

Ruins and deposits are only critical early game. Mid-late game, Demetallization produces enough that you are back to being IP constrained, even with Industrial Robotization.

The real limit is population. Once you vacuum up the Free Folk, its down to population hex perks, salvaged cloning facilities and natural growth, which is peanuts compared to the rate late game empires can throw up infrastructure and armies.

[stryc]

Any planet; forced wildlife; at least Hard; TL3.

The only thing that makes this a complete sod is the presence of the Absorption trait on wildlife with 300hp+. I've never had more trouble expanding - ever.

As soon as you roll out tanks with big howitzers you can suddenly blitz thru everything. The first nation to reach that tech essentially wins the game.

In many ways this combination is completely busted (because of the way Absorption currently works) but it's kinda fun painfully carving out every single inch of territory.

[Mina]

ORIGINAL: stryc

Any planet; forced wildlife; at least Hard; TL3.

The only thing that makes this a complete sod is the presence of the Absorption trait on wildlife with 300hp+. I've never had more trouble expanding - ever.

As soon as you roll out tanks with big howitzers you can suddenly blitz thru everything. The first nation to reach that tech essentially wins the game.

In many ways this combination is completely busted (because of the way Absorption currently works) but it's kinda fun painfully carving out every single inch of territory.

Yeah my first game rolled a few species with Absorption, with the caveat that they also had Polymer and therefore counted as hard targets with vehicle grade armor. Had to get tanks AND HV guns before I could begin to push through that.

Hard+TL3 seems to be not recommended based on a few comments I've seen. Is that solely due to the risk of getting roadblocked by aliens? Or can the AI better deal with a low tech start than humans.

[Twotribes]

TL3 the problem is getting a power tech as I understand it.

[Pratapon51]

The AI can pick techs it wants to 'buy' and doesn't have an 'attack me, non-aligned forces' sign taped to its back, unlike human players. [:D]

[nathanebht]

I find planets with lots of ruins, water and regimes to be the most fun.

Arid planets or metal poor planets, what is the fun in just waiting for the research you need?

[COOLGUY67]

Cerberus, 50-60C temp, 2 bil+ planet age, alien life enabled. Keep rolling biosphere until you get moss or shrubs for vegetation and good/full value from alien tissue along with no hazard from atmospheric farming. You will be able to plant alien crops on a world with no water