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I like to play completely random planets. I've been playing on normal but upgraded to Hard for my latest game. The planet I generated looks like a ton of fun with forests, giant squids, sentient life, and lots and lots of ruins. However, the start location has two slaver factions immediately adjacent and my capital is surrounded by slaver armies by like turn 5. Additionally it's in the middle of a radiation hazard and any unit outside of my capital hex starts taking rads. I've tried a bunch of times and don't seem to be able to make any headway at all for obvious reasons.

I want to play on this planet but this start location is basically impossible. However, loading "last planet generated" obviously starts in the same spot every time. Is it possible to load this planet but with a completely new start?

ORIGINAL: dtbilek

I like to play completely random planets. I've been playing on normal but upgraded to Hard for my latest game. The planet I generated looks like a ton of fun with forests, giant squids, sentient life, and lots and lots of ruins. However, the start location has two slaver factions immediately adjacent and my capital is surrounded by slaver armies by like turn 5. Additionally it's in the middle of a radiation hazard and any unit outside of my capital hex starts taking rads. I've tried a bunch of times and don't seem to be able to make any headway at all for obvious reasons.

I want to play on this planet but this start location is basically impossible. However, loading "last planet generated" obviously starts in the same spot every time. Is it possible to load this planet but with a completely new start?

Increase recruits generation on turn one (or two) and crank it up from 500 to like 1500. Start spamming independent infantry battalions from turn one. You have only one objective: secure 2 hexes from your city (if the enemy captures hexes closer than 2 to your city you will start generating unrest and eventually you will lose that game because population will start leaving), 3+ is better when you have enough units to fill the hexes. The raiders usually wont straight up attack you (they will just grab land) and dealing them when they behave like that is easy, you just need units on hexes.

The only way you should be in trouble is if both of them attack you same time (declare war). Another thing you can do is only add military council on turn one, research automatic rifles and combat armor, add model design council, and start making fairly decent infantry around turn 20.

Basically appease one raider and focus on thrashing the other one around, and then repeat the process when youre done.

You might think that this is a bad start, but actually if you manage to pull yourself out of that uncomfortable situation, you should have a kick ass infantry based army that can take on almost anything early to mid game.

I'll give it a shot, thanks!

The bottleneck isn't the number of recruits though, it's the IP isn't it? Without Industry I you're stuck with the trickle of industry points from service tax and you can't spam infantry battalions while building Industry I, which takes quite some time without metal production. But you can't get the metal production while spamming the battalions either...

Or is there a way to produce more IP early that I haven't noticed?

Oh, another problem with securing 2 hexes out from my city is the radiation. I can't leave the infantry out there very long or they get irradiated. I'll have to try cycling them in and out of the capital hex.

There is a planet generation Save. It is automatically created and can be shared. Do note however that a bulk of the game data is carried in the savegames, so very old bugs can come from using saves from old versions.

Additionally it's in the middle of a radiation hazard and any unit outside of my capital hex starts taking rads. I've tried a bunch of times and don't seem to be able to make any headway at all for obvious reasons.

How much Radiation?
Radiation Hazard is generally the least dangerous Hazard in the game. If you do not get at least 400 past protection, it does not even cause Losses. There is still a relevant morale and Readiness impact, but no losses.

But for the cases that they are, there are workarounds:
Being on a asset is a massive reducer, at -400 Rad per asset.
But usually a bit hard to do, as it also means the asset can be damaged in combat. Nevermind the part where you propably lack enough assets to use them for more then a rest-stop.

You should start with the Tech for Environmental suits, wich gives you -100 Rad (200 with the Filters passive Tech). At combat Armor we are at -300 Rad.
Battledress and Vehicle are -500 Rad.
Basically Environmental Suits and better negate any hazard but the most severe radaition.
If your units are not euqipped by them, get a Model Council ASAP to change that. I equip them on all my guys anyway, unless I get better armor (wich gives more Rad and same Environmental protection).

The bottleneck isn't the number of recruits though, it's the IP isn't it? Without Industry I you're stuck with the trickle of industry points from service tax and you can't spam infantry battalions while building Industry I, which takes quite some time without metal production. But you can't get the metal production while spamming the battalions either...

Unless you do something wierd like giving other units less armor then your Infantry, Infantry is the cheapest Model. By a long shot.

You do get some IP from Private Economy and the Service Tax. And some metal from the Recycling asset. Wich you should nationalize ASAP - the Rare Metals sell for 5 each!
Personally I started starting on Techlevel 4. It gives you a lot more Weapons Tech, a private light Industry and a already nationalized Recycling asset.

ORIGINAL: dtbilek
The bottleneck isn't the number of recruits though, it's the IP isn't it? Without Industry I you're stuck with the trickle of industry points from service tax and you can't spam infantry battalions while building Industry I, which takes quite some time without metal production. But you can't get the metal production while spamming the battalions either...

Or is there a way to produce more IP early that I haven't noticed?

You can try to incentivize the private economy to build a Light Industry 1.
And then if you got lucky upgrade it to lvl2 using the "Industrialist"(?) Fate Stratagem.

ORIGINAL: zgrssd

There is a planet generation Save. It is automatically created and can be shared. Do note however that a bulk of the game data is carried in the savegames, so very old bugs can come from using saves from old versions.

This generation save you mention is this saved just before you actually load the map to play? and is it a separate file? or is the main gamesave which perhaps saves before the first turn? which i suspect is the latter.

It's called "lastplanetgenerated.se1"

Thanks for the info. I just loaded up the latest lastplanetgenereated and it loads up the starting phase of choosing your Regime name and flag etc. Nice.

I suppose one could take screenshots of the setup phase and map of the planet and then place those in a folder along with the file for future play or replay.

It is a pity one cannot use the same planet but re-roll where the other regimes start and player as i think the OP was hoping to be able to start somewhere else on the planet. Perhaps in time Vic will add this option. Personally i hope we can manually configure a planet setup too, this could save players a lot of time to fine tune a challenge or make things easier for themselves to learn the ropes.