I've been thinking of this idea for a new race that could be added to the game. While I haven't put much thought into the background, story, or ship design, my motivation behind this is in part because I usually get the shaft when it comes to planet layout in the game. I'm usually the one with nothing but Lava planets and Gas Giants in my starting areas :P



So my idea for a new race (or more importantly, racial trait) are people that specialize in Terraforming. The exact details in regards to balance would of course have to be worked out via voting/dev testing, but something along the lines of "Planets under the control of this race will be automatically terraformed 1 level every 25 turns." This would assist of course in happiness and food production without much needed from the player. Of course, this isn't to say the Terraforming would be the only trait this race could get. I'm open to ideas and suggestions on this. I'd like to get thoughts from the community on this to see if I'm just crazy, or if others have a desire to see something like this added eventually. Thanks for any feedback guys

Of course, there are already too many races (devs still cannot complete automatons models), but the idea is interesting.



I suggest, you implement this feature in special mod.

I rather like the sound of this, and it would fit into the tech tree still quite well in the same way that 'tolerant' trait still means you need to research to colonise properly but gives you an edge. This way if you wanted to terraform ahead of schedule you'd still need the research, but you could end up with a lovely "core worlds" feel as the development of those systems builds up naturally.

Interesting idea, you could even have them start out on a barren planet as their starter location, but with anomaly/perks to balance.



Technically it's what I thought the sowers were at first but it's not quite how they turned out to be.



I also regularly suffer from the same issues with starting system as you, every other planet in the system is lava, barren, asteroids and/or gas giants. usually without beneficial anomalies too.

Terraforming one level every 25 turns sounds a bit...Broken, to me. You'll be getting for free what most people won't get until mid- or late-game. By Turn 75, most of the planets in your starting system should be Tier 1 worlds, with any systems you colonized following in the next couple of turns.

Sounds like an awesome idea, I would love a terraforming themed race, but the numbers need some tweaking. What if upon acquiring the technology auto-terraforming would begin? That way it wouldn't cause early/late game terraforming balance issues in terms of getting tech too early, but would have the same effect and be motivation to get those techs quickly.