Choosing Planets to Colonize

More about Colonization

Playing Stars!

Planets come in three basic flavors:

♦        Planets you can inhabit immediately. These have a positive value, and appear green in Planet Value view in the scanner. The better the planet, the higher the value, and the larger the green dot. The higher the value, the faster your colony will grow.

♦        Planets that have a negative value but can be terraformed by you. These planets appear yellow in the Planet Value view. The larger the yellow dot, the better the planet will be after you finish terraforming. 

Races based on the Claim Adjuster trait terraform automatically as soon as they land.

♦        Planets that will just plain kill you. These have a negative value, and appear red in Planet Value view. The bigger the red dot, the more deadly the planet. You don't have the ability to terraform these planets, although, if you can increase your level of terraforming technology, you may see that red dot change to yellow.

Two items in the selection summary pane can also help you determine which planets are good candidates for colonization:

Habitability Value: Two numbers will appear here if you have the technology to terraform the planet. The first number is the planet's current value. The second number (in parentheses), is the potential value of the planet if it were to be terraformed to the extent your current level of technology allows.

If you don't see the second number, you either can't terraform this planet or the selection summary pane has been narrowed too much for it to display.

The Environment Graph: Click on each of the three variables displayed  in the environment graph. A popup will tell you the potential increase in planet value if you modify that variable to the limit defined by your current level of technology.