Colony Sector planning

[fodazd]

Hello.

So far, I am a big fan of the new update, particularly the residential sectors. I can now build my colonies to be quite tall and expansive economic power houses, which I really like. However, there is a downside to it from a user experience perspective: If I want to make sure that every colony ends up with exactly 6 sectors, all of which are on appropriate terrain, then I have to keep notes on which colonies will eventually get which sectors, which is quite a hassle... But if I don't, then I often can't keep track of what my original plan was when founding the colony, and I end up with colonies that can't get 6 sectors, or with unused sector gaps between my colonies, which is frustrating.

In other games, there is the option to place markers on the map, which can help you with your planning and reduce the need to take notes outside of the game. I posted a suggestion-thread about this a while ago, which did not get many responses: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/custom-map-pins.1399850/

So I was wondering the sector planning experience of other people here: Do you take notes about which sectors will go to which colony like I do? Do you just not care that much if your colony-layout ends up being inefficient? Are you just that much better than me at remembering what sectors you wanted to give to each colony?

 

[LikeAFred]

I place my cities at the location that i want them to and where they best fullfil there purpose. I want the HQ to be a nice Unit producing city so 2 sciens-sectors + 1 production and the other one doesnt matter to much and other cities are normaly just science and energy producing cities so they get the sectors which best suits there surroundings and if the surroundigs are not fitting for the purpose then i dont place them there.
So i usally plan out my cities before constructing them. But needing a planer or note for that seems useless to me, because anomalies often accure around my cities so my plan would get thrown off quite sometimes. And just going with what you need in the near future seems much more useful to me then determine how they looklike before hand.

 

[HousePet]

I can usually remember my plan fairly well. As long as I don't take a big break between playing.
That has required some practise to be able to do this though.

 

[springel]

Do you plan for the endgame, or do you build opportunistic, where gain now is worth much more than the same amount later. Random loot can offer an opportunity to grab something now that will be suboptimal in the end, but the opportunity creates its own dividend as well.

 

[LikeAFred]

Do you plan for the endgame, or do you build opportunistic, where gain now is worth much more than the same amount later. Random loot can offer an opportunity to grab something now that will be suboptimal in the end, but the opportunity creates its own dividend as well.

who do you asking or is it just a general question?

 

[springel]

who do you asking or is it just a general question?

I mean that long term plans are projected on an uncertain future, so I don't value remembering my plans too much.

When a decision comes up, the conditions for the planning may have changed sufficiently to require adjustments to that plan anyway.

 

[fodazd]

I mean that long term plans are projected on an uncertain future, so I don't value remembering my plans too much.

When a decision comes up, the conditions for the planning may have changed sufficiently to require adjustments to that plan anyway.

I don't think like this at all, at least not in this game. Most of the time, the sectors in the lategame will be the same as in the early game... And if you have terraforming, then you can factor that ability into your plans from the start. In my personal opinion, developing a plan of how you want to place your colonies and how you want them to expand later can help you a lot in the long run, because you can end up with pretty inefficient layouts if you don't.

Of course it could be the case that maximizing the long-term economic output of your colonies isn't a high priority for most people, but it is for me.

 

[Melikat]

I too would like the ability to mark sectors in some way to plan out colonies, especially now with Residential sectors. City plans can get a little complex when you're trying to use Residential sectors to link as many compatible production bonuses into one city (and more-so when you're also trying to make use of the space in between and may be using 3-4 other colonies to do so).

On the topic of Short term vs Long term, I tend to agree with fodazd that sectors in the early game are the same as late game. The main distinction I make is in which order I will annex the planned sectors (and more broadly, which order to settle colonies in). I will occasionally take a sector early that I don't plan to keep in that colony (Food for a planned production colony or Production/Energy landmark for a planned resource colony) if I can make use of its benefits now and plan to settle a nearby colony that I can transfer it to.