Meagre Homeworlds? minimum/maximum planet points...

[W.i.n.t.e.r]

Its kinda frustrating that all races' home star systems are so meagre- I mean, there are such cool (level 20+x) planets out there and systems with up to 5 habitable planets to be found, but the great race's homeworlds are rather randomly medium (not to say 'mediocre')

Why not give all home worlds a power-up in average stats? I'd say that 22-24 points should be the minimum for any home world.

How many minimum/maximum planet points should the home system have for distribution, IYO? Suggestions greatly welcomed....

 

[Sahkuhnder]

It's the home system, I don't see any problem with it being special.

 

[Paradigne]

I agree that the homeworld should be above average for start...

 

[Berrie]

It would indeed be more logical if the homeworlds of the different races were above average. I guess intelligent life is more likely to evolve from high quality planets...

Not sure what to vote, though. I think I will vote for the first 3 options...

 

[Tboy]

I'd just like to point out that almost all home planets are better than average, and those that are about average generally have another semi-decent planet in their home system.

 

[W.i.n.t.e.r]

the usual home system is made up by the homeworld with around 10 points (with significant boni, of course) and the "semi-decent" one mentioned is usualy merely size 4* (which makes this latter one almost useless). With one or two exceptions most mayor races have 14-15 points assigned to their home system.

In contrast to these I found another system with 2x 12, 1x 9, 1x 5 and 1x 32 - thats the best I have ever seen, with 70 points. Hence I made this poll to find out about your opinions

EDIT: *[I never really got the point why Mars is so much less than Earth once humanity start to colonize it. It is far larger than Terra, has more resources- one should expect humans to get more out of Mars than Earth by the year 2225, right? IMO]

 

[ToV]

EDIT: *[I never really got the point why Mars is so much less than Earth once humanity start to colonize it. It is far larger than Terra, has more resources- one should expect humans to get more out of Mars than Earth by the year 2225, right? IMO]

Not neccisarily. But Mars should at least have squares to terraform. Speaking of which, we probable need to keep terraforming into acount when we are talking about the system quality.

 

[Farae]

Most homewolds end up with 14-17 tiles when all terraforming is done. The Iconians, I believe, end up with a much better homeworld.

 

[Outlaw_Rudy]

the usual home system is made up by the homeworld with around 10 points (with significant boni, of course) and the "semi-decent" one mentioned is usualy merely size 4* (which makes this latter one almost useless). With one or two exceptions most mayor races have 14-15 points assigned to their home system.

In contrast to these I found another system with 2x 12, 1x 9, 1x 5 and 1x 32 - thats the best I have ever seen, with 70 points. Hence I made this poll to find out about your opinions

EDIT: *[I never really got the point why Mars is so much less than Earth once humanity start to colonize it. It is far larger than Terra, has more resources- one should expect humans to get more out of Mars than Earth by the year 2225, right? IMO]

Mars is about half the size of earth.

 

[W.i.n.t.e.r]

Doh- you are of course certainly righ- there was supposed to be a "despite of not being (larger)" in that sentence *blushing*- nonetheless more resources (metals et al)

 

[W.i.n.t.e.r]

Right, 7 votes went to a value lower than a "maximum of 20", 6 votes to a value higher than a "minimum of 21"... So the general feeling seems to be that home star systems should be somewhere 20 (+- 1). Departing from most of the races starting out with and average of 14 points [Earth+Mars=14], I'd suggest to give every major civilization 6 additional points to be distributed within their home system.

 

[Symphony D.]

I'd say 21 - 24. Mars should be at least a five, preferably six and given far more slots that it currently has. Earth is rather special near as can be told and should probably be an 11 or 12 instead of 10. Mercury should either be capable of being colonized or rotated out for Venus, which would require a lot of effort to terraform in reality (deporting or transmuting the atmosphere, constructing a solar-shade) but would, sufficiently conquered, be a rough parallel for Earth. Then bump the rest of the civs up to match.

Too bad the "Planet Quality" statistic is pretty much useless, especially for the amount of points it costs. It doesn't improve anything smaller than a five by a single point, even at the higher, 8-point setting (no rounding up). If it added a straight increase of one for 3-points, or two for 8-points, it might be worth something.

 

[Perfection]

EDIT: *[I never really got the point why Mars is so much less than Earth once humanity start to colonize it. It is far larger than Terra, has more resources- one should expect humans to get more out of Mars than Earth by the year 2225, right? IMO]

Ummm, Mars is much smaller then Earth, we're talking about a quarter of the surface area. As for resources Mars it's not significantly richer either.

 

[W.i.n.t.e.r]

@Perfection: Thank you for rubbing it in. Unfortunately you didn't read post #10 before posting, right? Besides, the darn thing is red for a reason - how about the iron oxide and sulfide, Mars primarily consists of, with about 15-17% of it being sulfur. "This iron sulfide core is partially fluid, with twice the concentration of light elements as exist at the Earth's core." Ergo: Mars has an amazingly high concentration of metaloid resources.

 

[Perfection]

@Perfection: Thank you for rubbing it in.

You're welcome, I try Unfortunately you didn't read post #10 before posting, right?[/QUOTE]

Besides, the darn thing is red for a reason - how about the iron oxide and sulfide, Mars primarily consists of, with about 15-17% of it being sulfur. "This iron sulfide core is partially fluid, with twice the concentration of light elements as exist at the Earth's core." Ergo: Mars has an amazingly high concentration of metaloid resources.

Iron and sulfur containing compounds are quite common on Earth too.

 

[W.i.n.t.e.r]

Common Shommon

On mars you can pick up Iron with your bare hands (well- bare hands in a space suit that is), while on Earth most high quality resources within reach have already been used up and we have to dig deeper, and that is of course ever more costly. I wouldn't mind if Mars stayed at half earth size (points wise) if one can tell me how to place a +300 industrial bonus tile to symbolize the relatively higher concentration of metaloid resources compared to Earth.

But since it is not possible to place bonus tiles, even Mars deserves more tile points relative to planet Earth... "Earth" hmm- I think I'll rename that rock: Since its people are called the "Terrans" it should be named "Terra", right? ... btw. I tried it with the mentioned 6 additional points per system: Works very smoothly without being over the top

 

[Supreme Shogun]

I too, would like to see more in the home systems. Slightly more so they are above average PQs (13 - 15 ), however the great gaia planets like 26'ers are still out there to be found and colonized.

 

[Perfection]

On mars you can pick up Iron with your bare hands (well- bare hands in a space suit that is), while on Earth most high quality resources within reach have already been used up and we have to dig deeper, and that is of course ever more costly.

Certainly in a space economy iron is not going to be your primary resource. We're talking elements like carbon nitrogen hydrogen gold and titanium being some prorities here. And the thin layer of rust dust isn't going to be particulalry helpful given the fact that you have to scoop it up in huge swaths (the dust is rather thin) and I'm betting the grade is much lower then say your standard taconite mine.

I wouldn't mind if Mars stayed at half earth size (points wise) if one can tell me how to place a +300 industrial bonus tile to symbolize the relatively higher concentration of metaloid resources compared to Earth.

I'd put Mars at 1/5 maybe it's only got 1/4 the surface area and is not nearly as habitable, frankly I'm baffled why the gave mars points and not the other terrestrials. Building a colony on Mars would only be a smidge easier then doing on the moon (negating the moon's distance advantage)

 

[W.i.n.t.e.r]

1) Picking something up from the floor is perhaps a smite more simple than digging it out through rocks via uncounted kilometers worth of tunnels! besides- are people in the future going to build their cities on Titanium, Gold, etc? No Sir!

While fancy star ships may require such, planet dwellers will certainly still depend on far less advanced resources- especialy since Earth is running low on quality ore within reach.

Think wood: What are your kitchen chairs made of? The kitchen itself, the roof, the table, the doors, the garden shed, the dog house- its not something fancy such as Platinum or Silver- Now think iron... and all those Martian resources we still haven't discovered yet.

2) You are "betting"? Wow- science at its best- or should I say 'Perfection'? (BTW- you are wrong with your 'taconite mine', Nitrogen and traces of Titanium have already been found on Mars, as well as higher quality Hematite and Goethite.)

3) Surface Area? So you suggest that a Space age economy uses highest quality resources but is limited to a life on the planetary surface of a planet that is just around the corner, merely one of a vast number of planets within the huge space empire? Not that I would like to start adressing the wonders of terraforming (which is an almost nonexistent feature in GalcivII- in fact i would welcome it, would Stardock implement a more elaborate resource system into the game), but has it ocurred to you that Mars features a vast sub-surface system of canyons, caverns and the like? Since you like mining for resources that much a bit of digging for habitat shouldn't be a problem, right ?

4) Actualy now I am baffled at such suggestions. - First you adress the relatively small size of Mars (compared to Earth) and now you want to build colonies on the Moon? How many points would you give that little barren rock then?

Mars as oposed to the precious little Terran moon has also got
a) Polar Ice Caps (i.e. Water),
b) an atmosphere- and this one consisting of CO2 (95&#37 Ideal (!) for microbes and plant life
c) posesses an active core
d) an earth like seasonal system
e) weather comparable to that of earth (clouds, etc)
f) a more humanly adaptable gravity
g) a day-night circle of almost identical length of Earth... and so on...