I've been doing a huge amount of updates to one of the ES2 wikis; documenting all the minor civs, all the ship loadouts, all the population collection bonuses.  Most of this is complete, and I've got a few things I can't figure out - some of them I probably can't even figure out in testing, because the situations that involve them are rare, other ones I just haven't gotten around to (I barely play Cravers, so I haven't looked at their numbers in depth).

Here's the list:

• The Vodyani have a "-50% food production malus".  Is this cumulative within a system?  I.e. if you've got two Vodyani pops in a system, is your food growth reduced by 75%?  And then 87.5% for 3 Vodyani, etc, etc?   Or is it just a one-time 50% penalty, and that's it?

• Similarly, the Cravers have a "150% FIDS bonus" - firstly, does this affect all FIDS produced on the planet (the final sum of all the population and building modifiers), or does it just affect the "base" production of the planet itself?   That is to say, you may have a "forest" planet that produces 8 food per pop, and additional buildings giving a 12 food per pop bonus.   Does the Craver bonus give (8 * 1.5) + 12, or does it give (8 + 12) * 1.5?

• Similarly, Cravers have a Malus when a planet is depleted.  I know it affects the base per-pop yield from the planet type itself.   I think that depletion has no effect on "system"-based food boosts (like the basic Sustainable Agriculture building that gives +10 food on a system), but it's not clear to me if it reduces "per pop" bonuses like the +4 food per pop benefit from "Epigenetic Crop Seeding".  Could you clarify that?

• The Z'Vali custom law is listed in the game files (thank you so much for using an accessible format like XML rather than binary files!) as causing a system to have a "0% blockade impact factor".   What does this do?   I expect this prevents FIDS from being lowered, but the really important thing I'm trying to figure out is - does this prevent manpower from being lost?  I.e. enemy ships in orbit will gradually sap your garrison strength, and they can do it quickly with Titanium A2S Slugs, but does the Z'Vali law prevent that?  If it does that's really awesome, because that justifies it balance-wise;  otherwise the "preventing a minor and negligible FIDS loss upon blockade" is very underwhelming.

• When you conquer a system, at what level of ownership are you able to start refilling your fleet's manpower when orbiting the conquered system?  It seems like you can't immediately do this (your ships will get the immediate refill from any of your surviving assault-troops, but then they'll sit there without refilling any more).  Obviously if you own the system completely, it refills just fine, but, what's the cutoff? - is it just a 1-2 turn thing after their influence-ring disappears, or does it take a certain percentage before you're allowed to refill manpower?
  
  

Thanks in advance for all the help!

I'm sorry about pointing this at the Devs in particular, I just wouldn't be surprised if some of these things, like the Z'Vali law, are unknown to the entire playerbase or are just "wild guesses" on everyone's part.  I'd love to hear answers from anyone, I'm just hoping to have someone answer it with certainty so we can permanently document it for the playerbase, and put any 'urban legends' about how it works to rest. 

Okay, I fired up my PC and loaded my Cravers save game to hunt down a system with and without depleted planets.

The 221 industry tooltip from the Lupus I planet which is not depleted shows a 104 base.  Since there are four population units on the planet, that means the planet does 104 / 4 = 26 industry per population.  This 26 comes from:

10 from Gas Warm Planet

1 from Quadrinix Deposit

0 from Edenization Specialization (always remember to double check the planet specialization)

1 from Interplanetary Transport Network (base)

3 from Interplanetary Transport Network (strategic deposit present)

2 from Microwave Pipes

4 from Fabrication License

5 from Hazardous Mining Facility

10 + 1 + 0 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 5 = 26

Now note that the tooltip has 78 from enslaved populations.  On that particular planet, there are three enslaved population units.  Since slavery is a 100% bonus, 3 * 26 * 1 (1 = 100%) = 78 industry.

Also note that the tooltip has 39 from craver depletion.  On that particular planet, there is exactly one craver population unit.  The craver FIDS (doesn't include influence) bonus is 150%, 1 * 26 * 1.5 (1.5 = 150%) = 39 industry.

The 74 industry tooltip from the Lupus III planet which is fully depleted shows a 40 industry base.  Since there are five population units on the planet, that means the planet does 40 / 5 = 8 industry per population unit.  This eight comes from:

0 from Gas Temperate Planet

1 from Quadrinix Deposit

0 from Edenization Specialization

1 from Interplanetary Transport Network (base)

3 from Interplanetary Transport Network (strategic deposit present)

2 from Microwave Pipes

4 from Fabrication License

5 from Hazardous Mining Facility

0 + 1 + 0 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 5 = 16

So it turns out that the malus for depletion is indeed applied at the planet level, but it isn't explicitly called out on the tooltip.  You have to do the math for 16 * 0.5 (0.5 = 50% depletion malus) = 8 industry per population instead of the expected 16.

Observe that even though there is a single craver population on the planet, there is no tooltip callout for craver depletion -- this makes sense since the planet is fully depleted.  Looking at the 34 industry from enslaved populations, there are four enslaved units -- 4 * 8 = 32.  Of the enslaved units, one of them is a pulsos which gives +1 industry.  So it turns out that the contributions from specific population units got rolled into this entry -- 32 + (1 * 2) = 34.

Pretty sure my math above is correct, but if I made a mistake, please post a response.

-HP

By the way, I double checked by swapping out the pulsos unit for a deuyivan (which has no industry bonus) on each planet.  The enslaved population tooltip on the partially depleted planet went up to 80 from 78.  The enslaved population tooltip on the depleted planet went down to 32 from 34.  So I suppose to answer the original poster's questions:

The craver 150% FIDS bonus is applied at the per *craver population unit only* level at the planet level only on undepleted planets.  This does include modifiers applied at the per population unit level -- it does not include percent modifiers applied at the system level.

The craver 50% depleted malus is applied at the per population unit level at the planet level only on fully depleted planets.  This does include modifiers applied at the per population unit level -- it does not include percent modifiers applied at the system level.  It also does not apply to the minor/major faction specific unit bonuses even though the slavery bonus does still apply (maybe this should be considered a bug?).

-HP

NB:  I've documented the Vodyani  food mechanic.  Thanks again.

I'll get the craver stuff in the wiki tomorrow (it's late and I need to not rush it, so I don't screw it up).

One thing I'd need to start a new game to test, but wouldn't mind if you know the answer to offhand:  I know you cannot get the benefits of, or appear to 'have' planets which you don't have the colonization tech for, as Vodyani.  I know also that such planets "instantly" get utilized if you own a system with them and learn that tech, without you needing to spend industry to colonize that additional planet.   What I don't know is - are you even allowed to dock an Ark if the whole system is uninhabitable with your current tech?   I think the answer is "no", but could you corroborate that?

Well, I've just gotten the Craver pop mechanics documented.  That was ... complicated.  http://endless-space-2.wikia.com/wiki/The_Cravers

One thing I'm hoping to track down is whether "the number of depletion points" is fixed per planet, or if it varies by size.  Or even type (though I find that unlikely).

Also what the hell is the Virtual Dustalyzer?  You've actually got that in your production queue - I've had that drop multiple times in multiple playthroughs (I've discovered it on a curiosity), but it's never appeared in my construction queue or anything.  I wonder if it's appearing for you because you're playing as Cravers (since they have that unique turn-a-pop-into-mountain-dew™ construction queue option)?

It's supposed to give something like 500 dust, at the cost of destroying a pop unit?  I think? 

hp2 wrote:

Unfortunately, I don't know much about the quest rewards.  Since I was doing each empire one by one, I only did one path through the faction quests for each empire.  How heavily do the faction quests branch?  Are there 2^n nodes in the quest string, or does it duplicate/reconverge in places?

They branch pretty heavily;  I think there's a little "reconvergence" - for example, when you're playing riftborn, you can choose to kill or recruit Anax-Jink, and there's a brief bonus-quest-thread if you keep it alive, but regardless of your decision the main storyline reconvenes afterwards.

However, most "big decision" quest threads are permanent and include completely unique bonuses.  For example, as the riftborn, you have several quest threads - one ends up giving you +3 influence on every riftborn population;  one ends up giving you +4 dust on every riftborn;  another ends up giving you +4 industry on every riftborn.   A fourth one gives you an empire-wide +3 strategics on every deposit.   Each of these has other bonuses on the quest thread leading into it - the one with the influence bonus also has a -50% pop construction cost on riftborn earlier in its thread;  the one with the +4 dust has a "-25% pop construction cost and +25% industry->manpower conversion bonus, and", and then the two with +4 industry/riftborn-pop and +3 strategics both come from the "+50% industry->manpower conversion bonus" plot thread.

Gathering some data for "one craver on a planet" depletion stats:
Speed:  Fast

Huge: 100 turns
Large: 90 turns

Medium: 75 turns

Small: 60 turns

Tiny: 50 turns

I've fully documented the Lumeris and Vaulter ships, now:
http://endless-space-2.wikia.com/wiki/The_Lumeris

http://endless-space-2.wikia.com/wiki/The_Vaulters

@ RE Traitor's Reach - it's not a unique building system.   It does do the Heartfire/Radiance thing where it creates a new system "ex nihilo"