I've played 3 different matches with the Lumeris now, and while their home planet stays the same, the other planets in their system vary wildly each time. In my first two matches, they were Lava & Ash planets I had no hope of colonizing before the turn limit was up, but for my 3rd match I got 2 Jungle planets I can easily colonize during Era 2 for a massive boost in this system. It's offputting to me that your home system can vary so much between near-useless and vital.

So what if the whole Home System was predetermined instead of just the Home Planet?

It's a good idea and great way of tweaking the start of particular races without having the affect the race it's self.

To me this random generation of the universe (including the home system) is not a problem, it is even a good thing.

Indeed having a bad starting point can create a lot of frustration, early in the game. However, I prefer to take it as a chance to change my playing style; adapting my strategy to what is surrounding me.

If you lack of resources, you might be willing to colonise quickly other systems. If those are even lacking of the same resources, you might prefer a more aggressive approach and start chasing other empires.

I'm a bit afraid that having a predefined home system will result in having always the same first 15 turns.

I think the system's star method of determining the planets types is not working in EA, I remember reading about a lot of systems having nonsensical sets (lava plus ice for example). I think the home system should have at least 1 era 1 colonizable planet, and the rest determined as normal game rules tho, not having a complete system, but a little space to improve a system that is most important to most races

XR17 wrote:

I think the system's star method of determining the planets types is not working in EA, I remember reading about a lot of systems having nonsensical sets (lava plus ice for example). I think the home system should have at least 1 era 1 colonizable planet, and the rest determined as normal game rules tho, not having a complete system, but a little space to improve a system that is most important to most races

Lava + ice is reasonable, but it does seem like the star's type has no bearing on the types of planets ATM. I keep seeing all-Hot planets around a star that's supposed to prefer Cold planets.

I think, that even home planet shoud have some random generated traits, like random anomaly or curiosity.

It could be added as a Start Game option like 'Strategic Balance' in the Civ series. Maybe give the capital system planets that would take the same amount of research to unlock each game. Would definitely make multiplayer fairer when it comes.

Why not make it an option in the galaxy setting before the game start ? That way you could play a standardise game or let more randomness occur to force you to adapt

On a somewhat tangential note, the star system generation system seems to be just completely random at the moment regarding what kind of systems end up in an arm. I've had starts on a small galaxy where I had maybe 2 systems in the whole arm that I could usefully colonize whereas at other times I've had half a dozen good ones. When you have under 10 systems in the arm and center of the galaxy, having the misfortune of starting in an arm with a bunch of asteroid fields, gas giants and lava planets, with half of the rest being era 3 planets pretty much ruins your chances. Especially when the other races won't have equally terrible starts.

I think it's more of a tech cost increase problem than different plant types in your starting system.

I had a game with basically all different types in my closer systems which made this round rather tedious to play.

Since there are 12 different techs in 3 eras right now you have to decide which types you want to colonize.

That's kinda difficult to balance especially if you get unlucky with the more difficult planet types.

MikeLemmer wrote:

I've played 3 different matches with the Lumeris now, and while their home planet stays the same, the other planets in their system vary wildly each time. In my first two matches, they were Lava & Ash planets I had no hope of colonizing before the turn limit was up, but for my 3rd match I got 2 Jungle planets I can easily colonize during Era 2 for a massive boost in this system. It's offputting to me that your home system can vary so much between near-useless and vital.

So what if the whole Home System was predetermined instead of just the Home Planet?

I voted for home system, but rather if there were certain predetermined elements to the home system, but some degree of randomization. Basically, home systems should be predetermined insofar as they should be roughly equivalent, but not necessarily having to be the same for each faction and each game.

Voted for planet only.  I like the randomization of the rest.

I think it shouldn't be predetermined exactly, but have some sort of consistency to it. Like, always have two Tier 2 colonization tech planets and one Tier 3. Resources and anomolies can be random, but given how important being able to colonize multiple planets in a system can be, I think having it be totally random can be simply too large of an early game boost.

I like the idea of keeping the planets the same with some change in Anomalies. But considering your Home System can have such an impact on your game as a whole (especially on smaller maps), than I think more consistency is a good thing. The fact you could completely colonize your home system in game 1, and not colonize a single other planet until Tier 3 in another is too much of a difference to me.

I would have to agree with some in this threat. It should be partially determined.  Like having a set tier world in Home systems. Like a guarenteed  tier 2 or something along that nature. 

Tho right now the Universe generation needs to be tied down. Played a game just recently as the cravers where every world within two lanes was all tier 2 or higher, except for one planet and it was a unique. This is a relatively big problem as I was basically forced to attack a faction as soon as I saw them to get any real expansion.