Posted 17 September 2008 - 01:06 AM
Terraforming is not only fun but rather important for the abilities it will later open up and for the all important spice production.
One thing to be absolutely clear about first though - there is no T rating associated with plants or animals, ONLY planets. So many people believe they have to hunt around looking for a T2 Megasaurus, heh.
Right, the nuts and bolts.
You can take a T0 planet all the way up to the lovely paradise of a T3.
You can start this even before you plonk down your first colony and some might say it is best that way since your colony can't do much until you have raised the T score.
See that little blue button in the bottom left which shows you the map of the planet? If you click on that it will change to the plant and animal map.
On the left side of this box you will see a graph showing the current conditions of your inhospitable world. The end goal is to get the little dot as close to the centre cross-hairs as you can.
On the left and right you will see the axis focuses on the temperature of the planet, top and bottom is the atmosphere level.
If your dot is too far over to the left then you need to purchase a tool which will warm the planet up. If the dot is too close to the bottom then you need to raise the atmosphere level.
When you first start you will only be able to purchase one-shot tools. That means you plonk it down on the planet or fire it off and it is done.
A lot of the time, that one-shot will be all you need to make the adjustment you need. Just keep an eye on the graph and you should see some arrows appear, showing you the direction of your change.
Once the change has progressed far enough into another T rating you will see a flash and get a message.
Now the VERY important part.
Do not just up and leave with a big grin on your face. I assure you, you won't be grinning when you come back to find that the planet has reverted back.
You now need to stabilize your changes. To do that you need your friendly planets and animals to make a new home.
All you need are:
1 small plant
1 medium plant
1 large plant
1 herbivore/omnivore
1 herbivore/omnivore
1 carnivore/omnivore
As long as these are all different to any already on the planet and you place them down in that order, you will see another lovely message saying that you have now stabilized the planet and your colony button will unlock.
The higher your planet rating, the more colonies you can add (up to 3 for a T3) and the more you can add TO the colonies.
Cheers.
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Terraforming Ah, so many people having problems with this one.
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#2
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Posted 17 September 2008 - 04:41 AM
Just to clarify, omnivores tend to only fill the carnivore slot. so you may need to make sure that you have 2 herbivores instead of 3 omnivores. This may not be the case, but I have yet to see anywhere that has more than 1 omni/carnivore for every 2 herbivores. This is one of the things that kinda urks me when using mostly maxis content, there is not enough variety of herbivores, and I often have to madly hop between several different systems to find one that isn't present on that planet. Have the same issue with flora, but that is a bit easier to manage since plants load a bit faster than creatures.
It should also be noted that you can lower a T3 planet back to T0 if you happen to want to kill off everything on a certain planet to start over. This isn't such a bad thing if you can manage to fit 1 of everything within your cargo bay, or don't care about making the planet barren. This method works wonders on both planets with sentient life, which might anger some neighbors, as well as other empires.
If an opposing empire has only 3 planets, buy up several of each droppable terraforming tool, go to one, drop 2 of one tool, hop to the next system, drop two more, hop to the next system, drop 2 more. This should kick most planets down to T1 or T0, and although it will make them really unhappy with you, all three of their planets should be down to 1 lightly defended colony (or none at all for T0), and be ripe for the taking. Fewer colonies also means fewer defending craft. Even if they attack your planets, you should be able to conquer them before they get anywhere near close to taking one of your planets. This method can also be rather effective on those already hostile, Just drop 1, hop to another planet, drop another, hop to another planet, rince and repeat. If you have allies, the skirmishes in space shouldn't be anything but a minor annoyance by the time you can afford to do something like this. Just remember that you will eventually need to undo the damage done. Afterall, it works for the Grox.
And speaking of the Grox, well you should be able to figure out that part... Terraforming or Unterraforming planets can do real wonders if you can afford it. It's often less costly than trying to conquer outright.
It should also be noted that you can lower a T3 planet back to T0 if you happen to want to kill off everything on a certain planet to start over. This isn't such a bad thing if you can manage to fit 1 of everything within your cargo bay, or don't care about making the planet barren. This method works wonders on both planets with sentient life, which might anger some neighbors, as well as other empires.
If an opposing empire has only 3 planets, buy up several of each droppable terraforming tool, go to one, drop 2 of one tool, hop to the next system, drop two more, hop to the next system, drop 2 more. This should kick most planets down to T1 or T0, and although it will make them really unhappy with you, all three of their planets should be down to 1 lightly defended colony (or none at all for T0), and be ripe for the taking. Fewer colonies also means fewer defending craft. Even if they attack your planets, you should be able to conquer them before they get anywhere near close to taking one of your planets. This method can also be rather effective on those already hostile, Just drop 1, hop to another planet, drop another, hop to another planet, rince and repeat. If you have allies, the skirmishes in space shouldn't be anything but a minor annoyance by the time you can afford to do something like this. Just remember that you will eventually need to undo the damage done. Afterall, it works for the Grox.
And speaking of the Grox, well you should be able to figure out that part... Terraforming or Unterraforming planets can do real wonders if you can afford it. It's often less costly than trying to conquer outright.
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Posted 17 September 2008 - 04:49 AM
Vagrant0, on Sep 16 2008, 09:41 PM, said:
Just to clarify, omnivores tend to only fill the carnivore slot. so you may need to make sure that you have 2 herbivores instead of 3 omnivores. This may not be the case, but I have yet to see anywhere that has more than 1 omni/carnivore for every 2 herbivores. This is one of the things that kinda urks me when using mostly maxis content, there is not enough variety of herbivores, and I often have to madly hop between several different systems to find one that isn't present on that planet. Have the same issue with flora, but that is a bit easier to manage since plants load a bit faster than creatures.
It should also be noted that you can lower a T3 planet back to T0 if you happen to want to kill off everything on a certain planet to start over. This isn't such a bad thing if you can manage to fit 1 of everything within your cargo bay, or don't care about making the planet barren. This method works wonders on both planets with sentient life, which might anger some neighbors, as well as other empires.
If an opposing empire has only 3 planets, buy up several of each droppable terraforming tool, go to one, drop 2 of one tool, hop to the next system, drop two more, hop to the next system, drop 2 more. This should kick most planets down to T1 or T0, and although it will make them really unhappy with you, all three of their planets should be down to 1 lightly defended colony (or none at all for T0), and be ripe for the taking. Fewer colonies also means fewer defending craft. Even if they attack your planets, you should be able to conquer them before they get anywhere near close to taking one of your planets. This method can also be rather effective on those already hostile, Just drop 1, hop to another planet, drop another, hop to another planet, rince and repeat. If you have allies, the skirmishes in space shouldn't be anything but a minor annoyance by the time you can afford to do something like this. Just remember that you will eventually need to undo the damage done. Afterall, it works for the Grox.
And speaking of the Grox, well you should be able to figure out that part... Terraforming or Unterraforming planets can do real wonders if you can afford it. It's often less costly than trying to conquer outright.
It should also be noted that you can lower a T3 planet back to T0 if you happen to want to kill off everything on a certain planet to start over. This isn't such a bad thing if you can manage to fit 1 of everything within your cargo bay, or don't care about making the planet barren. This method works wonders on both planets with sentient life, which might anger some neighbors, as well as other empires.
If an opposing empire has only 3 planets, buy up several of each droppable terraforming tool, go to one, drop 2 of one tool, hop to the next system, drop two more, hop to the next system, drop 2 more. This should kick most planets down to T1 or T0, and although it will make them really unhappy with you, all three of their planets should be down to 1 lightly defended colony (or none at all for T0), and be ripe for the taking. Fewer colonies also means fewer defending craft. Even if they attack your planets, you should be able to conquer them before they get anywhere near close to taking one of your planets. This method can also be rather effective on those already hostile, Just drop 1, hop to another planet, drop another, hop to another planet, rince and repeat. If you have allies, the skirmishes in space shouldn't be anything but a minor annoyance by the time you can afford to do something like this. Just remember that you will eventually need to undo the damage done. Afterall, it works for the Grox.
And speaking of the Grox, well you should be able to figure out that part... Terraforming or Unterraforming planets can do real wonders if you can afford it. It's often less costly than trying to conquer outright.
Good points too.
Aye, as soon as I had the space I made sure to carry enough variety to take a planet from T0 to T3 with me at all times. I slot them in order too to make it easier. When you're looking around to fill your hold just go to a T3 planet or two.
Someone created a poll on the Sporum about whether there ought to be negative consequences for using terraforming tools as a weapon. I voted a definite yes. It is absurd that it isn't already the case.
Cheers.
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Posted 17 September 2008 - 05:50 AM
Michlo, on Sep 17 2008, 04:49 AM, said:
Good points too.
Aye, as soon as I had the space I made sure to carry enough variety to take a planet from T0 to T3 with me at all times. I slot them in order too to make it easier. When you're looking around to fill your hold just go to a T3 planet or two.
Someone created a poll on the Sporum about whether there ought to be negative consequences for using terraforming tools as a weapon. I voted a definite yes. It is absurd that it isn't already the case.
Cheers.
Aye, as soon as I had the space I made sure to carry enough variety to take a planet from T0 to T3 with me at all times. I slot them in order too to make it easier. When you're looking around to fill your hold just go to a T3 planet or two.
Someone created a poll on the Sporum about whether there ought to be negative consequences for using terraforming tools as a weapon. I voted a definite yes. It is absurd that it isn't already the case.
Cheers.
It is the case, actually. When you drop a planet down, the people who own that planet start to like you less. If you don't take over that planet (which would be war anyway) they'll eventually demand money to pay for the ecological damage you caused. Refusing this will lower how much they like you even more. And I believe that dropping the T-rating on a space faring planet will cause immediate hostillity on that planet until you leave. Really though, you probably wouldn't want to do anything like this on any planet that you don't intend to conquer, which in itself will make that race hate you.
Inversly, terraforming planets up on those who already like you (blue or green smiley) can increase their reaction toward you.
Don't really see why any sort of additional correction is needed, you are already having to either spend money buying the tools to drop, sit there using the tools while being shot at, and have to go through the trouble of trying to raise everything back up later. In some cases, yes, it's easier to conquer, but you are limited to how large of an empire such tactics will be effective on. Empires with 20+ systems would probably be easier to just bomb them to hell. Lowering, conquering, raising, takes quite a bit of time to do as well.
Art tools can also be weaponized in a similar manner, and if you have enough that work well, a planet with 3+ colonies can be taken out while you're running.
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Posted 17 September 2008 - 06:21 AM
Vagrant0, on Sep 16 2008, 10:50 PM, said:
Michlo, on Sep 17 2008, 04:49 AM, said:
Good points too.
Aye, as soon as I had the space I made sure to carry enough variety to take a planet from T0 to T3 with me at all times. I slot them in order too to make it easier. When you're looking around to fill your hold just go to a T3 planet or two.
Someone created a poll on the Sporum about whether there ought to be negative consequences for using terraforming tools as a weapon. I voted a definite yes. It is absurd that it isn't already the case.
Cheers.
Aye, as soon as I had the space I made sure to carry enough variety to take a planet from T0 to T3 with me at all times. I slot them in order too to make it easier. When you're looking around to fill your hold just go to a T3 planet or two.
Someone created a poll on the Sporum about whether there ought to be negative consequences for using terraforming tools as a weapon. I voted a definite yes. It is absurd that it isn't already the case.
Cheers.
It is the case, actually. When you drop a planet down, the people who own that planet start to like you less. If you don't take over that planet (which would be war anyway) they'll eventually demand money to pay for the ecological damage you caused. Refusing this will lower how much they like you even more. And I believe that dropping the T-rating on a space faring planet will cause immediate hostillity on that planet until you leave. Really though, you probably wouldn't want to do anything like this on any planet that you don't intend to conquer, which in itself will make that race hate you.
Inversly, terraforming planets up on those who already like you (blue or green smiley) can increase their reaction toward you.
Don't really see why any sort of additional correction is needed, you are already having to either spend money buying the tools to drop, sit there using the tools while being shot at, and have to go through the trouble of trying to raise everything back up later. In some cases, yes, it's easier to conquer, but you are limited to how large of an empire such tactics will be effective on. Empires with 20+ systems would probably be easier to just bomb them to hell. Lowering, conquering, raising, takes quite a bit of time to do as well.
Art tools can also be weaponized in a similar manner, and if you have enough that work well, a planet with 3+ colonies can be taken out while you're running.
Ah sorry, I didn't mean for the inhabitants but the rest of your friends / allies. Unless you're already at war with the species I believe there ought to be a penalty for such a brutal act.
Cheers.
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