Planet Development (SEV)
From SEWiki
- Introduction
- 5.1 - Exploring the Quadrant
- 5.2 - Colonization:Expanding the Empire
- 5.3 - Planetary Development:Construction and Facilities
- 5.4 - Managing the Masses:Happiness and Population Growth
- 5.5 - Protecting your Assets:Planetary Defense
- 5.6 - Improving Planets
- 5.7 - Planetary Engineering and Artificial Worlds
- 5.8 - Master of your Universe:Altering the Quadrant
- FAQ:Planetary Development
Introduction
At some point in the game, every empire wants to know what is around them. Many empires will have the need to expand in order to grow economically, technologically or militarily. All of these require exploration. After all, you can't properly defeat your rivals if you don't know where they are. This article goes into the intricacies of exploration and expansion, as well as the needs and basic strategies of each.
5.1 - Exploring the Quadrant
Exploration in Space Empires V is performed with ships. When you start the game, often you will start with no ships. Exploration is best done early so that you know where your rivals are and have enough information to begin your expansion when ready. These means that one of your first tasks should be to design and build a ship for scouting the outer-lying systems. Once you have at least one ship, you may begin exploration.
Exploration begins by directing your ship through a Warp Point. Warp Points are indicated as blue balls of light on your system map. To do this, select your newly built ship by pressing the 'Space bar', then press 'W', then click on the Warp Point you wish to go through. Once the ship has gone through the Warp Point (this may take a few turns), a new sector will appear on your Quadrant Map and you may issue movement orders to explore the sector.
The first thing you'll notice is that your ship cannot see the entire System at first. This is because ships have a limited sight range. This means that you will have to move the ship all over the sector until it has found the Planets, Stars, and Warp Points for that sector. Once you find Planets, Stars and Warp Points, you do not have to remain near them. They will remain "memorized" for you so that you can continue to explore. Other ships, however, do not remain in memory and must be within your sight range to see them. Once you see another ship (or an occupied planet, you will have made contact with an empire and Diplomacy and Intelligence will become a factor in the game. Occupied planets are very easy to spot as they will have a flag that is not yours above them. All other planets are unoccupied and ripe for colonization.
Tips
- Sight Range is affected by the Sensors on your ship. By Researching Sensors, you may upgrade your Sensors components and increase your sight range. This can dramatically reduce the amount of movement required to fully explore a sector.
- Movement is affected by the number and type of engines on your ship. You may either upgrade your engines or place more on your ship design in order to increase your movement points.
- At the beginning of the game, it is often best to stick close to home. Doing so will insure that you have the maximum number of fastest possible options with regard to early colonization.
5.2 - Colonization:Expanding the Empire
After you have found some unoccupied worlds, you may begin colonizing them. In the early game, it is unlikely that you will be able to colonize a lot of worlds. To be able to colonize a world, you must be able to build a ship with a colony component of the same physical type as the world you wish to occupy. For example, a Gas Colony component can only colonize Gas Giant type planets. Similarly, Rock and Ice planets can only be colonized by their respective colony component types. Additional colony component types can be acquired through research or technology exchanges with other empires. Additionally, some worlds may be more beneficial than others.
Choosing your Planets
In general, it is beneficial for an empire to colonize as many planets as possible, provided they can be defended. In practice, though, several factors may give some planets a higher priority than others. The System Map view provides a convenient visual method of letting the player know which plants can be colonized. Planets which appear with a green or red circle above them can be colonized. A green circle denotes a breathable atmosphere (by the player's primary race, but not necessarily by subjugated or migrant populations). A red circle indicates the atmosphere is not breathable by the primary race and therefore the colony will need to be domed. This will reduce the maximum population and available facility space on that particular planet by 80%. As additional colonization technology is acquired (for different planet types), more planets will be indicated as colonizable.
Once it has been determined that a planet is colonizable, there are two other factors which indicate is potential economic value. The first, and possibly most important factor, is potential space for facilities. A colony will be much more valuable if it has lots of buildable space for facilities. Even if the planet has poor resources, the facility space can still be used for research or intelligence operations - which are at least as important as economic resources. Larger planets obviously have more room than smaller planets, so if possible, grabbing these first is a good practice.
The second factor is the potential resource generation which is indicated by the planet's value. Planets with a higher value for a particular resource indicate a higher resource yield and, therefore, faster resource gathering. You may view the Planet Value of a planet by selecting it on the System Map and looking at the appropriate resource.
Tips
- Although initially an empire will only have one race available to it, more races may be added later either through migration or conquest. These new races can improve an empire's facility space on both new and existing colonies, if they breathe a different atmosphere type.
- Colonies which were previously domed can be turned into undomed colonies (increasing facility space by 5x) by removing the old population and importing a new race which can breathe the atmosphere. Similarly, new colonies can be created with different races on planets which are not breathable by an empire's primary race.
How to Colonize
There are two requirements to forming a new colony. First, an empire must build a ship with a colony component (Gas, Ice, or Rock). Second, the ship must be loaded with some population and given the order to colonize an uninhabited planet. The colonize order will automatically attempt to load population if the ship is in a sector with an existing colony. Therefore, it is not usually necessary to manually load population onto the colony ship. There are, however, exceptions to this rule.
If the colony ship is going to be doing exploration before being given the colonize order, then population must be manually loaded onto the ship (since it likely won't be in a sector with a colony when the colonize order is finally given). Also, it may be preferable to manually load population if a specific race is desired.
Tips
- Colonizing requires population from one of your worlds. At first, all of your colonists will come from your home worlds. Later, however, you may choose to build colony ships at any of your other worlds. Even then, you will often want to send your colony ship to one of your most populated worlds to obtain the population necessary. (see 5.4 - Managing the Masses:Happiness and Population Growth)
5.3 - Planetary Development:Construction and Facilities
A colonized planet does nothing without Facilities with which to give it the ability to contribute to your empire. Without these Facilities, your colony will stagnate and it may grow, but with no benefit to you. The information in this section is pertinent to several areas, but this article is focused on Planetary Development, and hence, Facilities. For more
Production
Production refers to the population's ability or willingness to construct facilities, build ships, or use the facilities that they have. A higher population naturally has a higher production value. However, other factors such as Happiness will increase or decrease production.
The Construction Queues
Each colony has two queues for production. The first is the Planet Queue for constructing and upgrading Facilities. The second is the Construction Queue for Ship Building. These are referred to, jointly, as Construction Queues. Whenever you add an order for a colony to build something, it goes on one of these queues. Your population will work on each item, in order from top to bottom, until the list is completed. Orders from one Queue do not affect or inhibit the orders for another Queue.
When adding orders to the Queues, first you choose what you wish to build, then you choose how many you wish to build. Multiple items are entered as a single item if you chose a quantity. Otherwise, they will be listed as separate items. The Queues are also arranged in such a way that orders on them may be reorganized, added or deleted at will. You cannot change the Quantity of a order without deleting and re-adding it.
Tips
- Building multiple items of the same type is actually faster if you enter them as a single item. Entering them individually means that you will lose production when the facility or ship is completed. This is especially true if the item in the queue is fast to build.
- You may increase (or decrease) the Quantity by intervals of 10 if you hold Shift while clicking the appropriate arrow.
Facility Abilities
Some facilities say only "one per planet/system effective". When you see this, this does not mean the facility itself, but refers instead to the ability of that facility. For instance, the Medical Lab and Gestation Vats will not work together because they actually use the same ability. Some abilities are different in that they seem to have the same ability but do not. Solar Power Generators use a different ability from the Mineral Extraction Facilities. This example was an illustration as there is no real benefit to having both.
Emergency Build and Slow Build
There are times when the normal speed for construction will either be not enough or too much. In these cases, you may set any colony to Emergency Build or Slow Build. Emergency Build increases the production of a colony to 1.5 times normal for (up to) 10 turns, but afterward, the colony is set to Slow Build for same number of turns, after which it returns to normal. This can be a great way to respond to a territorial conflict, or to simply get high priority ships and facilities built quickly. During Slow Build periods, your colony's production is halved.
Tips
- Setting Emergency Build affects both Queues. If you can, set Emergency Build at a time when you can get the most out of both Queues.
- Turn off Emergency Build as soon as you don't need it anymore. Slow Build continues for as long as your Emergency Build lasts.
Upgrading Facilities
As your empire advances technologically, most of your facilities will get better as well. In the stock game, most facilities gain a level when the technology that controls them also gains a level. The is obvious as you build new facilities, but your old facilities will have to be upgraded in order to gain the additional bonuses from the research you have done. Similar to building new facilities, upgrade orders go onto the Planet Queue and you may upgrade more than one facility at a time. To upgrade a facility, select Upgrades at the top right and a list of facilities that can be upgraded will appear on the left. Upgrades cost 1/2 or 50% of the original facility cost, and you will not gain the benefits of either facility once the upgrade starts until the upgrade is completed.
Tips
- If you have more than one facility of the same type, upgrade them at the same time. This is done by setting the Quantity and will save you a lot of production time.
- If you are researching the same technology very quickly (a level or more per turn), wait until research in the technology is slow before you upgrade again. This will save you a significant amount of resources.
Special Facilities
While some facilities are important based on a given strategy or during different phases of the game, there are also some of particular note that should be considered immediately upon colonizing a planet. Additionally, some facilities have special properties or ways of working that are mentioned here as well.
- Space Port - This facility should be the first built in any System that has a colony which gathers resources, generates research, or gathers intelligence. Without a Space Port, those points do not get added to your empire. Mind you, there only has to be one per System and multiple Space Ports are not beneficial in a single system.
- Space Yard - A Space Yard allows the colony a Ship Building Queue. You cannot build Ships, Bases or Units without one. There needs to be one of these on every planet you wish to build ships. Furthermore, upgrading a Ship Yard has the additional benefit that it will allow more production to be devoted to the Construction Queue each turn.
5.4 - Managing the Masses:Happiness and Population Growth
Your empire's people have a strong effect upon how fast you will construct ships and facilities. As such, it becomes important to first make sure they are growing as fast as they can be, and second that they are happy with their ruler. A happy population is more productive than an unhappy one, just as a larger population can produce more than a smaller one.
Population Growth
Population Growth is very easy to manage with Space Empires V. Simply put, larger populations grow (in numbers) faster than smaller populations. Their relative percentage growth is the same, but 5% of 5 million is much bigger than 5% of 1 million, plain speaking. By taking colonists from heavily populated worlds to your lightly populated worlds, you are insuring their growth is as quick as possible on all worlds, hence increasing productivity everywhere. There are a number of ways to augment your natural population growth.
Some facilities will help your population grow. The most common is the Medical Lab which increases population by lowering the death rate of your population. Additionally, when starting your game, you may choose racial traits and government types that will increase population growth. For example, empires with the Organic Manipulation trait will have access to two facilities that can further help the population growth.
Tips
- The Medical Lab, Gestation Vats and ... all provide a System-Wide bonus to Population Growth. This means that you only need one in each system.
- The ... also increases Happiness and if you have access to it, is generally better than the Medical Labs.
- You don't have to move your population through a colony ship. Freighters can transport population as if they were cargo. This means that you can keep your colony ships light and fast to build, while supplementing the new population after the colony is built.
Happiness
Your Population's Happiness level is another factor that determines their productivity. An unhappy population results in lower Production levels, hence reducing Resource Gains, Population Growth, Research Point Generation, and Queue Build Times. If a population gets too unhappy, they may even riot, stopping all production from a colony until the situation is resolved. If the situation gets even worse still, they may revolt and secede from your empire causing you to lose all the benefits that the colony provided to your empire. By keeping your people happy, you can easily avoid these potential happenings.
There are a number of ways to keep your people happy. The primary way to keep them happy is through Research. There are a number of Facilities and Cultural Achievements which will help with this.
Tips
- For a quick boost in happiness, win a battle anywhere. This has a particularly strong effect in the system the battle is in (if its one of your own).
5.5 - Protecting your Assets:Planetary and System Defense
As your empire grows, you will generally encounter at least some military conflict. Whether you instigate it or are the target of another empire, a fight will probably occur and at some point, these fights will move into your own Systems and Colonies. The most obvious way to counter these attacks is by having enough ships to fight off the intruders. The game also has a lot of other options for surviving combat that has reached home, sometimes stopping it entirely.
5.6 - Improving Planets
After you have been playing for a while, you may gain access to the Planet Improvement Technology. This technology is a boon to long games as it allows you to improve the colonies that you already have, making them even more beneficial for your empire. Planet Utilization gives access to 3 facilities that, when built, will improve your planet over time. Time, until this technology is fully researched, often means many years. Despite how long it may take to improve a colony with these facilities, it is often still worth the temporary sacrifice in facility space.
- Climate Control Facility - Improves the planetary condition making it more hospitable to your people. The best condition a planet can have is Optimal.
- Value Improvement Plant - Increases the planet resource value of all of your resources, thus increasing the resource yield of your colony, to a maximum of 250%.
- Atmospheric Modification Plant - Alters the atmosphere of a planet from one that is non-breathable to one that is breathable by your population (when you first get this facility, it will take 10 years). This will remove the necessity for the colony to be domed and when completed your facility space and maximum population on the colony will increase by 4 times. Needless to say that this has a more significant impact on larger worlds than on smaller ones, but is still beneficial even there.
Tips
- Once you decide to improve your colonies, it is a long term commitment. The easiest way to expedite the process is to research Planet Utilization fully and upgrade your facilities.
- Multiple Climate Control Facilities will work more quickly on the same Colony. This is not true for Atmospheric Modification Plants.
- Once a facility is done improving a planet, you may scrap the facility. Unless an event occurs that changes your planets, the changes are permanent.
- When Planet Utilization is fully researched, the Atmospheric Modification Plant will only take 1/2 a year to complete.
- Unlike Climate Control Facilities amd Value Improvement Plants, it is advised to not upgrade Atmospheric Modification Plants unless there is a significant decrease in the amount of time required to completion.
5.7 - Planetary Engineering and Artificial Worlds
Once you are sufficiently technologically advanced, your options for colonization grow substantially and you are no longer bound to the worlds that the universe placed for you. Through the Stellar Manipulation Technology, you may build your own special worlds. There are two types of worlds that may be built: Ring Worlds and Sphere Worlds. Both types are considerably better than the worlds the universe started with as they hold more population and facility space than you can generally fit in an entire sector's worth of planets.
How to Build a Ring World
How to Build a Sphere World
5.8 - Master of your Universe:Altering the Quadrant
| Preceded by: Economics | Manual (SEV) Section 5.0 | Followed by: Ships and Bases |
