Specialized Planets vs General Ones

[I_AM_King_Midas]

I have seen many people talking about food, mineral or enegy planets. Is there a reason why you would do this vs just going with the resources provided on the tiles? If I build a different building on the tile, I will loose the resource. Also if someone conquers my planet and it's specialized, I could loose a huge part of one resource causing my people to starve or other problems.

Which way do you think is right and why?

 

[Aries666]

I do a mix, I respect tiles and then fill empties with whatever the planet is producing the most of to maximise the % bonuses on that resource.

 

[BetrunkenerSeamus]

Some buildings like the energy grid give a flat increase as a percentage of the planets production. For that reason many prefer to specialise planets to reap the biggest reward. However, balancing this system can be quite hard, especially if you need energy but have no spare planets left. It can take a while before a new planet contributes substantially to counter any expenses.

I prefer to play with planets adjusted for specialisation but with some respect for resource tiles. I won't ignore resource tiles if they are needed and good (+2 stay most of the time, +3 always). I don't think that I lose to much if I replace a +1 mineral tile with a power plant if it's next to the energy grid/planetary administration.
I also try to produce at least some amount of energy on mineral and research worlds. If they are big enough (>15) they get 3 power plants sourrounding an energy grid (this format is easy to squeeze into the remaining tiles in comparison to the cross you get with 4 power plants). This tactic is really helpful to lessen the need for huge energy planets to fuel the economy.