Worth taking this Zentabia Fluid?

[tppytel]

Usually I'd target super lux planets without any questions, but in my current game I'm not so sure. I've got a stretch of two sectors of almost empty space between a central colony of mine and Zentabia, which belongs to the Boskara. There are no quality planets of any type in that stretch, but I could settle a low quality volcanic world about halfway across with my Shandar and build an unprofitable spaceport there to support a future Zentabia invasion. But then Zentabia itself is also a low quality world that's already colonized and hit its max pop of only 104 million with the Boskara.

My understanding is that resource extraction at colonies is tied to population and will be limited to something like 6 units per second at a poor planet like that. I'm not sure that's worth the expense of all the infrastructure I'd need to get there and take it. I already have Korabbian Spice as a diplomatic tool. Will the benefits (domestic or diplomatic) stack if I have the fluid in addition to the spice? I guess I could nuke the population from orbit so that I could settle a different crappy planet in the system and build a proper mine at Zentabia? I've yet to try bombarding civilians yet, but is it possible to completely eliminate a colony that way? How bad would the rep hit be for exterminating "only" 104 million bugs?

[Aeson]

I've yet to try bombarding civilians yet, but is it possible to completely eliminate a colony that way?

Yes, as long as they haven't built a Planetary Shield Generator at the colony.

How bad would the rep hit be for exterminating "only" 104 million bugs?

My guess would be no more than one or two points, so you'd probably not even see your reputation category (e.g. 'satisfactory') shift unless you were already borderline.

Will the benefits (domestic or diplomatic) stack if I have the fluid in addition to the spice?

I think the diplomatic effect is binary; you're either trading restricted resources (in which case you get the bonus) or you aren't (in which case you get the penalty). Pretty sure that the domestic bonuses don't stack either, but having more superluxuries floating around makes it more likely that more planets will have enough of them in stock to get the bonuses in the first place.


As far as whether or not control of a low-quality Zentabia is worth a war and a couple of low-quality colonies when you already have Korrabia, I'm somewhat doubtful. However, the Boskarans aren't exactly a group you're likely to be friends with, and taking away their Zentabia Fluid will weaken them. You can also claim one or more of their higher-quality colonies instead of founding your own lower-quality colonies in the region as part of your campaign to take Zentabia.

As far as whether it's better to hold a low-quality colony or a mining station at a superluxury planet, my personal preference is to have a colony. Colonies tend to be much easier to hold than mining stations are, due to being able to build as big a station over them as you could desire, and even after they kill the defensive stations they have to defeat the garrison (unless you've neglected to build a planetary shield generator). I will also add that extremely low-quality colonies are not actually as bad for your empire as moderately low-quality colonies; the colony revenue function has a local minimum at a planet quality of about 33% and so the further away from 33% quality the colony is, the less costly it is to have, and while I cannot be certain, if the Boskarans have a maximum population of only ~100 million on a volcanic world, chances are you're at the very low end of colonizable planet qualities.

[Guardian54]

Best advice I can give?

Bring lots of RAID... I mean, dreadnoughts... er, I mean, resupply ships.

Yes, you have to micro the shit out of them to get best value, as they don't auto-attack (hence put in garrison/blockade fleets for systems you've cleared) but they will wreck any defensive counter-attack with only a small fleet of them tasked to assault a world, due to 3x the size limit of standard ships, with 20% dedicated to storage. Only 3-5 fuel cells are needed to prevent auto-refuel hell if you have fusion reactors and deploy at a hydrogen cloud, at size 1500 that ends up being >10000 fuel in storage that it draws on whenever it runs low i.e. most of the rest of the game before your new Dreadnought Mk3 fleets (e.g. I believe it's 2400 size as the increment between 1950 and 3300?) take over and the Mk 1s can go refit (and then gas up some more).

Then pound the shit of these insect scum. They betrayed the galaxy long ago to the Shakturi so to merely genocide them is far, far too kind. Nuke their worlds to ash and then resettle them with the sane races of the galaxy... now if only we could set policies by specific race groups instead of "all others"... I'd Assimilate all groups except insectoid. Those I would Exterminate gladly.

[Chris21wen]

ORIGINAL: Guardian54

Then pound the shit of these insect scum. They betrayed the galaxy long ago to the Shakturi so to merely genocide them is far, far too kind. Nuke their worlds to ash and then resettle them with the sane races of the galaxy... now if only we could set policies by specific race groups instead of "all others"... I'd Assimilate all groups except insectoid. Those I would Exterminate gladly.

Chirp shrit insecta tsuym. Translated 'Same to you, you non-insect %$£^&*&^%.[:D]