hello all 

i have played over 100 hours on this game, i really like it. but i'm a bit confused about the terraforming system in this game. 

1. question regarding Larva and Ash planet

why do you want to terraform these planets? larva planets provide the highest production value in game, and with my play style which is lots of warmongering, i really need all the production i can get. under what circumstances would a player give up production and go for food? 

2. do you always terrafrom ice, snow and barren?

sometimes it is kind of hard to take advantage of the snow, barren, and ice planets in the early game, because these planets give so little food and production, despite the fact that they provide lots of science, you simply do not have the population to take advantage of  that. under what circumstances would you colonize these planets? late game? 

For my part I have two main reasons for terraforming :

I want more pop slots, for influence base planets, more rarely to increase the living space of a minor specie i want to get bonus from.

I want to have planets with two types (i call types fertile, sterile temperate etc...) so my improvements based on attributes are optimised.

That's all for me

hp2 wrote:

1) Terraformation can add population slots.  Going from lava/ash to desert can add +2 population slots (off the top of my head).  Therefore, you can compute the industry per population on the planet (due to planet specialization + system improvements + population traits, etc.) before and after the terraformation and multiply each by the maximum population before and after terraformation.  In some cases, you end up with more industry by terraforming to desert.  You can also save a little on system upkeep if going to desert allows you to scrap food improvements and happiness improvements.

2) An uncolonized planet produces zero food, zero industry, zero dust, zero science, and zero influence.  While food and industry stand out because population growth and building stuff in the system development queue is noticeable, science/dust/influence aren't worthless.  It's all about tradeoffs.  Even if I colonize them in the early game, I can ship in population from off world and build food improvements on the system to increase the equilibrium point.  I usually bootstrap the system by installing a system governor with talents to help get things up and running.

-HP

great point, system upkeep is indeed a concern, however, when i play as the Cravers, i never feel money is a problem. next time i will have to do the math and find out if i'm getting more production when i terraform Ash into desert.