So, an opinion about Terraforming and its’ effect on the game…
FWIW, I’ve turning the guaranteed nearby habitable planets off so it can sometimes be a struggle to find habitable worlds now. So far in 3 games I’ve managed to find a few in close enough but in my last game the only ones I found that were green were Holy Worlds of a nearby FE (which I decided to leave alone…).
Instead I concentrated on developing my homeworld and taking nearby space-based resources. Eventually I colonized a yellow (65% Hab) planet close by and started it to develop it in parallel to my homeworld. It was expensive, but it worked.
Then I discovered terraforming….and within a few years I now have a dozen fully green habitable worlds in my territory. The cost is negligible by that time (I have plenty of energy and even 5000 a shot is a steal for an ideal world).
And shortly thereafter I lost interest in the game and saved it off for the night. At that point the only thing holding me back was how many colony ships I wanted to bother to queue up and how many of these ideal planets I wanted to manage. In the space of 1 tech the game went from an interesting struggle to develop a few less than optimal spots and being more or less equal with the nearby AIs (except that I was way ahead and tech) to a soon-to-be blowout as my econ will easily crush anyone in the area.
To me it seems that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ terraforming tech is too game-changing. If I was able to terraforming ONE type with that tech and then needed later techs to continue to convert different types of worlds it would be more of a slow-burn. But as it is, within a few years of getting a mid-game tech, I’m flooded with world choices and there is no incentive or push to need to expand my borders for a LONG time.
What are other people’s thoughts on Terraforming? Is it too game-changing/early/cheap? Or do you find that you need all of those worlds by the time you get the tech?
FWIW, I’ve turning the guaranteed nearby habitable planets off so it can sometimes be a struggle to find habitable worlds now. So far in 3 games I’ve managed to find a few in close enough but in my last game the only ones I found that were green were Holy Worlds of a nearby FE (which I decided to leave alone…).
Instead I concentrated on developing my homeworld and taking nearby space-based resources. Eventually I colonized a yellow (65% Hab) planet close by and started it to develop it in parallel to my homeworld. It was expensive, but it worked.
Then I discovered terraforming….and within a few years I now have a dozen fully green habitable worlds in my territory. The cost is negligible by that time (I have plenty of energy and even 5000 a shot is a steal for an ideal world).
And shortly thereafter I lost interest in the game and saved it off for the night. At that point the only thing holding me back was how many colony ships I wanted to bother to queue up and how many of these ideal planets I wanted to manage. In the space of 1 tech the game went from an interesting struggle to develop a few less than optimal spots and being more or less equal with the nearby AIs (except that I was way ahead and tech) to a soon-to-be blowout as my econ will easily crush anyone in the area.
To me it seems that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ terraforming tech is too game-changing. If I was able to terraforming ONE type with that tech and then needed later techs to continue to convert different types of worlds it would be more of a slow-burn. But as it is, within a few years of getting a mid-game tech, I’m flooded with world choices and there is no incentive or push to need to expand my borders for a LONG time.
What are other people’s thoughts on Terraforming? Is it too game-changing/early/cheap? Or do you find that you need all of those worlds by the time you get the tech?
