Colonisation clear as black tar mud.

[tonnyP]

So totally confused by colonisation suitability.

When it says Humans +10% Grasslands in the galactopedia, 10% of what? What base number is being increased by 10%?
Then when I look at planets, they have a wide range of suitability modifiers which are described as a flat +, again + to what, what number is being increased by a flat addition.

So if I am looking at Hywleiq 2, a forest planet, it has a quality of 51%, and a colonization suitability of +16 for humans

I dont get how this applies in anyway to the explanation in the galactopedia.

Suitability = (Planet Quality - Race Minimum suitability level for planet) + race suitability for planet.

I dont even see a flat base number for suitability just quality. I just dont get this at all. The 10% modifier mentioned above, again what base number is being increased by 10%, what base number is the +16 for humans being applied to. Where do I find the race minimum suitability number? Is that what the 10% is referring to, but then how is that a +10%???

I only see base numbers for quality (expressed as a %) nothing for suitability.

Help?

[Spidey]

The percentages aren't actually percentages. They're all just flat numbers treated additively.

I don't know how your humans get to 16 on a quality 51 forest planet, though. It should be 51 - 50 + 10, as I recall the human bonuses.

[tonnyP]

The percentages aren't actually percentages. They're all just flat numbers treated additively.

I don't know how your humans get to 16 on a quality 51 forest planet, though. It should be 51 - 50 + 10, as I recall the human bonuses.

So that would be suitability 11, not worth colonising, 17 if its +16, still not worth colonising.

[tonnyP]

Wait.

The +16 is the final sum of all the suitability calculations?

Why is it expressed with a "+" ?

[Spidey]

The percentages aren't actually percentages. They're all just flat numbers treated additively.

I don't know how your humans get to 16 on a quality 51 forest planet, though. It should be 51 - 50 + 10, as I recall the human bonuses.

So that would be suitability 11, not worth colonising, 17 if its +16, still not worth colonising.

The +16 you're seeing should be the final result. Thus planet quality (which was 51) - race minimum suitability level (which should be 50 for human and forests until you start researching forest colonization) + race bonus for that planet type (which is 10 for humans on forest planets).

Thus the final suitability should be 51 - 50 + 10 = 11. But if you've reduced minimum suitability level by 5 then final suitability becomes 51 - 45- + 10 = 16. Then the math works.

In my experience, you don't really want sub-20 colonies if it can be helped, but it's not like a single quality 16 colony is going to totally break everything, particularly not if it provides something useful, like control over a needed area or extending colonization range or key resources. But if you make a whole bunch of colonies in the sub-20 suitability range then they'll take a serious bite out of your your budget for quite a while.

[tonnyP]

The "+" really threw me.

Yea I have colonised a plenty of sub optimal worlds, because I was adding the number shown in the tab.

[tonnyP]

Also where do you get that -50 from?

All I see in the galactopedia is the +10%.

There needs to be some notational consistency in how this is expressed.

[Spidey]

The formula is as you wrote earlier.

Suitability = (Planet Quality - Race Minimum suitability level for planet) + race suitability for planet.

PQ is what you see on the planet.

Race minimum suitability level defaults to 50, but some races have suitability bonuses off the bat and the planet type colonization technologies offer additional bonuses to this. For humans and forests, it should default to 50, I think. But the first forest colonization tech will reduce that to -45, IIRC.

Race suitability is the "+10%" you see for Humans on forests.

Thus 51 - 50 + 10 = final suitability value, using default values.

[MichaelJ007]

All planets have a quality rating. Meaning explained below.

For colonization suitability, subtract 50 from the quality. So a 51 quality planet will have +1 suitability. For all races as a baseline.

Then add in the racial preference for the planet type. If your preference is +10, you end up with +11 preference.

Then add in any bonuses from tech. The final figure has to be over 20 to reduce the support costs to a base 1000 credits. +15 is not a train smash, but your support costs will be significantly higher than 1000.

==========

Quality relates to the max population and happiness. High quality planets can have high populations that are very happy. So you can sustain higher taxes and earn lots of revenue.

Your final racial suitability is a modifier to support costs. The higher your support costs the more difficult it is to get a profitable planet. The support costs scale with population, so it's very hard to get above it if your suitability is poor.

===========


The most correct formula (I think) is:

Suitability = Planet Quality - 50 + Racial Modifier for planet type + Empire Tech Modifier for planet type.

[tonnyP]

The formula is as you wrote earlier.

Suitability = (Planet Quality - Race Minimum suitability level for planet) + race suitability for planet.

PQ is what you see on the planet.

Race minimum suitability level defaults to 50, but some races have suitability bonuses off the bat and the planet type colonization technologies offer additional bonuses to this. For humans and forests, it should default to 50, I think. But the first forest colonization tech will reduce that to -45, IIRC.

Race suitability is the "+10%" you see for Humans on forests.

Thus 51 - 50 + 10 = final suitability value, using default values.

Yea but its not +10 "%" is it, and the game shows you the absolute suitability number but decides to put a "+" next to it. If race suitability was plus 10% and the base suitability was 20, you would get to 22, but you dont you get 30. Its just +10, not +10%.