Matrix Games Forums

I took a break from Shadow Empire for a couple years, and upon starting a new game after Republica launch found that the planets have shrunk. What the game seems to consider a standard planet size now is more what used to be planetoid territory - roughly half a diameter of Earth and gravity in 0.25 - 0.5g range - rather on the low end of what could be called a planet. Even the colossus type which is supposed to be... big is now consistently smaller than Earth and with less gravity - not even justifying its name. Considering larger planets are generally better for longer games that see higher tech in use, this is a rather unwelcome change. It also means that if you want to have a planet of half-decent side at all, you must select colossus, which means you give up the customization that the other types provide.

Is it a permanent change or something temporary to fix an issue, and is there a way to get the larger planet sizes back?

+1
I am not sure about all that, but I spend more time trying to get the planet size I want more than anything else. The second most troublesome parameter is native life levels. Third is rainfall.

I've never understood why the planet generation process had to be fully randomised. A series of slider bars for each characteristic alongside a tick box for optional randomising would allow for the testing of different strategies on similar or identical planets. When undertaking a detailed planet generation, multiple re-rolling until you get close to the parameters you want is a bit of a buzz kill, it might be detailed, but you have no control on the details.