Matrix Games Forums

Yes, but it won't have +10-50M extra people on it from landing your colony ship. If you land your colonists on an inhabited world, you will collect tax income from them immediately as the preexisting population boosts the development level. If you land them on an uninhabited world, you get zilch for some time, and when you invade the other planet, income across all planets may suffer from the morale penalty of increased rep loss.

None of this is enough to stop you from doing it if that is the only way to GET the planet reliably in the first place, but it's not not enough to justify doing it needlessly, as the rep penalties mount rapidly if you invade every single two-bit indy world.

ORIGINAL: Fishman

Yes, but it won't have +10-50M extra people on it from landing your colony ship. If you land your colonists on an inhabited world, you will collect tax income from them immediately as the preexisting population boosts the development level. If you land them on an uninhabited world, you get zilch for some time, and when you invade the other planet, income across all planets may suffer from the morale penalty of increased rep loss.

it will have the tax income of ~500 million people who were the original colonists...
you are better off not wasting those 10-50M colony ship and landing it on an uninhabited planet. the chance of colonizing is too low, the loss too expensive; even of success you have destroyed a valuable colony ship. A 10M colony ship costs 6000+, a 50M costs 12,000 to 200,000 (depending on how strapped for resources you are at that point). Which means the extra money you make for landing it on such a planet will not cover its own cost in the short term, and in the long term, it certainly wouldn't because you will have 1 less planet.
Landing it on a planet with a luxury resource is great for your economy as it effectively makes it a free mining station for a luxury resource; even a planet without resources is better, because it sets a seed of population on that planet that begins to grow. It is better to have 2 planets then maybe one planet with extra 10% populace or maybe no planets at all if you are unlucky.

ORIGINAL: Fishman

Yes, but it won't have +10-50M extra people on it from landing your colony ship. If you land your colonists on an inhabited world, you will collect tax income from them immediately as the preexisting population boosts the development level. If you land them on an uninhabited world, you get zilch for some time, and when you invade the other planet, income across all planets may suffer from the morale penalty of increased rep loss.

None of this is enough to stop you from doing it if that is the only way to GET the planet reliably in the first place, but it's not not enough to justify doing it needlessly, as the rep penalties mount rapidly if you invade every single two-bit indy world.

Basically, if the chances are likely or possible, it's worth taking the chance with 1 Colony ship to try it. IF that fails, then use the hostile take-over method.

ORIGINAL: Shark7

ORIGINAL: Fishman

Yes, but it won't have +10-50M extra people on it from landing your colony ship. If you land your colonists on an inhabited world, you will collect tax income from them immediately as the preexisting population boosts the development level. If you land them on an uninhabited world, you get zilch for some time, and when you invade the other planet, income across all planets may suffer from the morale penalty of increased rep loss.

None of this is enough to stop you from doing it if that is the only way to GET the planet reliably in the first place, but it's not not enough to justify doing it needlessly, as the rep penalties mount rapidly if you invade every single two-bit indy world.

Basically, if the chances are likely or possible, it's worth taking the chance with 1 Colony ship to try it. IF that fails, then use the hostile take-over method.

Which means you wasted a colony ship that could could have colonized another planet for you...
In mid game I have about 50 colonies and HUNDREDS of known planets... the problem is finding enough money to afford enough colony ships to rush those planets. wasting ships on something like that is not a good proposition.

ORIGINAL: taltamir

ORIGINAL: Shark7

ORIGINAL: Fishman

Yes, but it won't have +10-50M extra people on it from landing your colony ship. If you land your colonists on an inhabited world, you will collect tax income from them immediately as the preexisting population boosts the development level. If you land them on an uninhabited world, you get zilch for some time, and when you invade the other planet, income across all planets may suffer from the morale penalty of increased rep loss.

None of this is enough to stop you from doing it if that is the only way to GET the planet reliably in the first place, but it's not not enough to justify doing it needlessly, as the rep penalties mount rapidly if you invade every single two-bit indy world.

Basically, if the chances are likely or possible, it's worth taking the chance with 1 Colony ship to try it. IF that fails, then use the hostile take-over method.

Which means you wasted a colony ship that could could have colonized another planet for you...
In mid game I have about 50 colonies and HUNDREDS of known planets... the problem is finding enough money to afford enough colony ships to rush those planets. wasting ships on something like that is not a good proposition.

And this is where you and I disagree. When you are already in diplomatic relations with other empires, getting that reputation hit is more significant than you think. Not to mention that you get +10-50m population with the colony ship, making that already established colony even bigger. And I don't know why you have so much money problems, I'm able to expand easily and still have money left over. Perhaps its the fact that I'm currently playing Human with a Republic style government.

ORIGINAL: Shark7

Basically, if the chances are likely or possible, it's worth taking the chance with 1 Colony ship to try it. IF that fails, then use the hostile take-over method.

If you go to the planet and look at the planet details at the lower left of the screen, it will tell you the likelihood of colonizing the indies.

ORIGINAL: Axefire

ORIGINAL: Shark7

Basically, if the chances are likely or possible, it's worth taking the chance with 1 Colony ship to try it. IF that fails, then use the hostile take-over method.

If you go to the planet and look at the planet details at the lower left of the screen, it will tell you the likelihood of colonizing the indies.

Yep, which is what I use to base my decision to colonize or invade.

ORIGINAL: Shark7

Basically, if the chances are likely or possible, it's worth taking the chance with 1 Colony ship to try it. IF that fails, then use the hostile take-over method.

Pay no attention to the "chances", they are meaningless, especially when your lander race is not your own. If you are colonizing a planet with more of its own people, even odds that report as "very very bad" pretty much always work, because what matters is not your race, but the landing race, yet odds reported will always be your race. It is possible to reliably take even "very unlikely" as if it were "very likely" if you are landing with more of their race, which would you have if you conquered the first one with a troop.

ORIGINAL: Fishman

ORIGINAL: Shark7

Basically, if the chances are likely or possible, it's worth taking the chance with 1 Colony ship to try it. IF that fails, then use the hostile take-over method.

Pay no attention to the "chances", they are meaningless, especially when your lander race is not your own. If you are colonizing a planet with more of its own people, even odds that report as "very very bad" pretty much always work, because what matters is not your race, but the landing race, yet odds reported will always be your race. It is possible to reliably take even "very unlikely" as if it were "very likely" if you are landing with more of their race, which would you have if you conquered the first one with a troop.

I think the whole issue here is that everyone has a different way to play the game. Some are more diplomatic, while others are more agressive.

And you are correct, if you have your own small population of the alien race already, they can almost certainly colonize the planet with no problems. But for your first few colonies, that will matter.

ORIGINAL: Shark7

ORIGINAL: taltamir

ORIGINAL: Shark7




Basically, if the chances are likely or possible, it's worth taking the chance with 1 Colony ship to try it. IF that fails, then use the hostile take-over method.

Which means you wasted a colony ship that could could have colonized another planet for you...
In mid game I have about 50 colonies and HUNDREDS of known planets... the problem is finding enough money to afford enough colony ships to rush those planets. wasting ships on something like that is not a good proposition.

And this is where you and I disagree. When you are already in diplomatic relations with other empires, getting that reputation hit is more significant than you think. Not to mention that you get +10-50m population with the colony ship, making that already established colony even bigger. And I don't know why you have so much money problems, I'm able to expand easily and still have money left over. Perhaps its the fact that I'm currently playing Human with a Republic style government.

This is what I THOUGHT based on theory, it took me forever to actually TRY it out in real gameplay... then I found out I was wrong. I told people how rep is sacred! it is far too valuable to sacrifice one iota of (don't get me wrong, it is very valuable, but there are cases where small sacrifices of it are worthwhile)... my experience from playing the game, especially on max difficulty, has been that it is worthwhile to send troops.

Early in the game, it's perfectly fine to trash your rep if you are a war race like Dhayut or Boskara. Everyone you meet will probably declare war on you anyway, but since no one at that point in the game can effectively wage meaningful wars (Boskara torp shreds everything, Dhayut can reinforce quickly anywhere in your early empire), and they probably have no idea where you live, the war weariness will rapidly hurt the AI more than you. Later on in the game, the savings of one colony ship simply isn't worth the bother, and it's nice to have a nice rep while everyone else is Diabolical.