Habitable World Starvation

[Inkidu]

Even at 100% habitable worlds (I think the standard) I find the game doesn't really provide a lot of habitable worlds. Not just ones my empire can inhabit, but any. Also, Gaian worlds outside of Fallen Empire space don't exist anymore as far as I can see.

The game does seem set on giving me like two certain habitable worlds at start (the old Sirius and Alpha Centauri if you play Sol for example), but beyond that I've literally been screwed twenty planets in any given direction, and it's annoying when you find one and it's usually already inhabited some way.

Also I've noticed that there are almost no pre-sentient species anymore. I've not found one in several games. I'm probably going to bump up to 150%, but I can't reconcile whether it's making the game more fun or cheating.

It just doesn't feel very random. It feels like the game gives you a couple and then basically plays space super realistically (ie tons of useless rocks).

 

[NicoH]

Have you installed any mods?
In my last game of 1.4 i had plenty of habitable planets near my home planet with 100% in the settings and around 10-15 pre-sentient species in the galaxy.

 

[Inkidu]

Nope, mod free. I mean I have mods, but I haven't activated them since the most recent update.

 

[dying0d]

I usually go to 250/300 to get more interesting aI empires/colony choices and get loads of primitives

 

[prismaticmarcus]

I guess you'll have to pray to RNGesus and try to get some migration treaties happening.

 

[Ex Mudder]

I usually choose 125%, otherwise I need a lot of frontier outposts

 

[scaper12123]

Personally I feel like the base level of 100% gives too many planets, and doesn't make for very interesting colonization strategy. You can guarantee there will be some planets near you, but colonizing outward from there should be a tremendous challenge. You either have to conquer other aliens, make effective use of your frontier stations, or research terraforming or genetic modification. Besides, the mid-game is all about political challenges rather than colonization efforts.

 

[Mauer]

I agree that there are way too few pre-sentients, I have barely ever used the uplift technology. But habitable planets seems ok, I actually play with 50%. Though sometimes you get shafted with very few good planets nearby, you have to adapt: Make more frontier stations and gear you empire towards saving influence to use in these stations, make border growth technologies a priority, focus on energy production to be able to terraform sooner rather than later, inflitrate worlds you would usually keep as study only or go really aggressive on your neighbors.

 

[Almond_Brown]

125% or Bust.

 

[Endless Rain]

Am I the only one here who prefers to set it at 25%? I find having less colonizable planets makes each individual planet matter more, and it helps a lot in cutting down on colony spam. Even setting it at 50% feels like too many planets for me.