Colonize
 

Sorry for the dumb question, it has probably been discussed here before. I was wondering, I have been colonizing planets but there has been no population growth on any of them at all for a number of turns. Do I have to transplant a percentage of my existing population from the planet(s) I start out with to the new colonies for the population to start growing? Or is there something else that I am missing or doing wrong?
Thanks for any replies

Re: Colonize
 

you need to pick up population with your colony ship

Re: Colonize
 

The number one question asked is a varation of this question. Its not dumb at all.

When colonizing, you must be sure that your colonizers have population on them. Otherwise they will colonize a planet, and no growth will occur.

You can manually load your colonizers, or use the Colonize button on the upper icon tray.

I use the colonize button my self.

Also, only build and load colonizers from planets that can handle them. IE you don't want to build a colony ship at a newly colonized planet and then tell it to colonize another planet as it will take all of your population say for 1 million and go and colonize that planet.

Right now if you have planets with Zero population, you can colonize them simply by transfering population to them from a cargo ship or another colonizer.

I hope this was a help.

Re: Colonize
 

Definitely not a dumb question. I always put a cargo component on my colony ships. If the ship is starting out at a planet with a decent amount of population I'll just hit the colony button and tell it where to go. Population automatically loads.

If you're starting out on a planet with a low population level or sending the colony ship to a war zone, manually add a few million citizens to start the colony. Move the ship to the colony and manually hit the colony button. You can use population transports later to add populations if necessary.

One Last tip: beware building colony ships and moving them without population. You'll be very unhappy five turns later when your planet colonizes and there are no people to produce anything.

T-

Re: Colonize
 

Tezzezar and Atrocities have some good advice for you. I would add that if you're moving into a possible war zone with your colony ship:

1. Be careful how many colonists you load. Use the manual load command to control exactly how many millions of people you are willing to risk.

2. Send escorts with your ship! Pretty obvious, but easy to miss in the heat of battle.

3. Don't hit the automatic colonize button if your ship will be traveling across most of a system to get to the planet you want to colonize. It will plow ahead, no matter what, and may well end up in a combat situation. Control the movement manually, in short command steps.

Re: Colonize
 

And one final hint: Anything in the cargo storage of your colonizer will be deposited in the cargo of the planet when it is colonized. So if you build larger colonizers out of transports later on, you can build a WP or two and include it in the colonizer to give your new colony 'built in' defenses when it lands.

Re: Colonize
 

I'm still learning, Thanks Baron M.

Re: Colonize
 

Another couple of neat design ideas:

1. Use light cruisers for colony ship hulls when you research them. They allow more components and six engines. The added speed is worth the cost in the mad rush to gain territory.

2. Stealth armor is cheap and gives you the ability to cloak. A great addition for a CL colony ship that allows you to enter many war zones unescorted.

3. Extend the range with solar collectors.

4. Beware of mines. The bane of all ships.

T-

Re: Colonize
 

Later on when you can afford it, make ships with all three colony components. This will save you a lot of time, as you can send this ship to colonize any world.

Re: Colonize
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hmmm. This may not be a bad idea since - I believe - each colony component has space to store population - you get 2 extra pop regardless of planet type. That's assuming that you're using the Colonize button which loads population automagically. In which case it should fill each colony module.

The only downside is that extra population 'storage' is a helluva lot more expensive than one storage crate.

This is almost as good as the Universal Colony Module (component) I devised to colonize 'any'. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ September 12, 2002, 07:40: Message edited by: Elowan ]

Re: Colonize
 

Time is one of the most important resources of the game.
I always consider build time and travel time when choosing from my colony designs. I also consider my shipyards build time to be valuable.
I end up building very simple colony ships until later in the game when I might build a few specialty ones that are faster, longer ranged, or stealth.
In the early game I want to crank out colcony ships fast. Typically I can build a colony ship with 4 engines in 2 shipyard turns.
I will even build them without engines if it saves shipyard time. BUT... beware, an engine retrofit does not add fuel. A supply storage retrofit does have fuel. So do this at or near a planet with a resupply base.

Re: Colonize
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I must be doing something wrong. I can turn out a colony ship with 5 engines and a cargo pod in 2 turns.

Re: Colonize
 

Excellent point about different designs based on the stage of the game.

If you start with multiple homeworlds and have racial bonuses to consruction try setting one of the worlds to emergency build. It can often shave off a build turn. One of my favorite racial designs can build one colony ship a turn early game! I find that the sooner I get other planets producing the greater accumlation of resources.

Make sure to build some shipyards on those newly colonized planets. Never neglect defense when expanding.

T-

Re: Colonize
 

Especially not a dumb question if I read this right:
Instead of using the Cargo Transfer button
All I have to do is hit the Colonize button and even if I don’t specified a planet to colonize it will still give the, "Load Population" order.
Hence, the only reason to use the Cargo Transfer button is if I want to control the amount of population or if I want to load units.
Figure out something every day. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif (somebody remind me how long I’ve been reading this forum)
Thanks guys and thanks for the question, you have just saved me at least 3 mouse clicks per colonizer.

Re: Colonize
 

No Gryphin, you must designate a planet after the "colonize" command for the population to be loaded. However, a trick I sometimes use is to "colonize" a planet that already has a colony. This will load population and move the colony ship to the designated planet. When it arrives, I get an "unable to colonize" message and know that I can give the ship new orders.

You can also change the orders of the ship while it's moving, but in turns after loading, and give it a new destination if you wish.

Greybeard

Re: Colonize
 

Sometimes I do use emergency build to crank out a complete colony ship every turn. I have also built colony hulls and ship yard stations in one turn.

Just what I do depends on the race setup and it's construction bonuses. There can be some real balance issues for construction, maintenance, resource, combat and ecetera. The home planet type and universe type is also considered.

I generally do not include a cargo pod. Draining the homeworld population can reduce your population build bonus. DOH!!!, been there, done that. What a way to ruin a plan.

Re: Colonize
 

Population will also automatically be loaded if you use the "Send Colony Ship" button on the (F4) Planets screen.

Re: Colonize
 

Greybeard, capnq
Thanks, you just saved me from disaster.
Hm, Like the others said, it ain't a dumb quesiton.
BTW: I do appriciate folks not pointing out how long I've been reading this board.
Wonder if I will ever loose my newbie edge.
Edit:
WarDad,
I have to dissagree with ommiting the Cargo hold. I tend to have my home worlds hover around 1/2 max while I build up my Breath Type Huge worlds. I take the long vew when comes to that.

[ September 13, 2002, 02:34: Message edited by: Gryphin ]

Re: Colonize
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I concur. It is foolhardy (in my view) to send out a CS to a breathable without including a cargo pod for extra pop for that needed production/pop burst.

If I get what you're saying - you've been able to reduce your HW pop from - say 4800 to 2400 - without a loss of productivity and or research?

Re: Colonize
 

It seems to me that trying to keep your homeworld maxed out is less productive than filling colonies.

If your homeworld can hold 4800M, it will still have the same +40% production bonus down to 4000M. The "extra" 800M could be getting a +5% bonus at each of eight other colonies.

Even if you're not playing a race with Advanced Storage Techniques, your choices are one homeworld with 4000M at +40%, versus one homeworld with 3000M at +30% and ten colonies at 100M and +5%.

Re: Colonize
 

Thanks for all the replies gentlemen, I really appreciate it.

Re: Colonize
 

Of course don't do what i did, creat all 3 colony designs each with the same colony module lol, or forget to put engines in lol, god i hit myself when this happened to me, IN THE SAME GAME!, Lol i'm an idiot

Re: Colonize
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">For some bizare reason, I did that often when I buildt Stellar Manipulation ships. Nothing like paying a turn of maintenance on an immobile behemoth that eats 33,000 minerals in maintenance