Ministers - which are the safe bets?
 

I'm growing weary of micromanaging. I am consitently forgetting to manage some of the staggering number of population transports I have getting overpopulated planet's races to the proper underpopulated planets with proper atmosphere.

I've seen ministers... and really dont know what to trust. Ive read before ministers suck... and to do it all yourself, then read exactly the opposite where ministers are the way to go. So... if I were to turn over population transports to the ministers, what would happen to my empire? Would sparsley populated planets be sent the proper race from over populated planets by my transports?

And what other areas of ministers are a sure bet? I'd like to focus more on just production and fleet placement and battles than on worrying about all my transports....

Any help would be appreciated on that and any other areas where ministers excel.

Re: Ministers - which are the safe bets?
 

I think the minister can actually handle population pretty well.

I wouldn't worry about population in the stock game, though, as it doesn't have *that* much of an impact, and implies micro-management hell. You will need to move a bunch of people (at least several hundred millions) before you have a marginal increase in production and construction rates, but that won't really happen. If you do want population without micro-management, the Organic tech tree might interest you, as it has a facility that automatically increases population every turn in a system.

Of course, if you aren't playing stock but rather Proportions, or a similar mod with a heavy focus on population, it will be a bit harder... though again, you can get away with skipping the micro-management, and just getting twenty or thirty million settlers on most of your planets.

Re: Ministers - which are the safe bets?
 

I disagree. Especially if you have more than 1 population / bretheable type. IMO all ministers will be dissapointing in there performance for all but the newest of players.

Re: Ministers - which are the safe bets?
 

I do agree about the other breathers; in this case, you shouldn't be trusting any minister to get the job done, and you just need those extra facilities.

As for quantity, other breathers are also not going to reach high numbers anytime soon, unless you are lucky to find a player with billions of undefended breathers... I wouldn't hold my breath for that.

Re: Ministers - which are the safe bets?
 

Or you have organic manipulation trait. [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Envy.gif[/img]

Re: Ministers - which are the safe bets?
 

The colonization minister isn't TOO bad. Usually by the time I turn it on, I'm bringing in so many resources that it doesn't really matter what I colonize. Rather than spend inordinate amounts of time scouring the galaxy looking for good planets, I just flick on the AI for colony ships, and try to make the best of whatever planets it colonizes. It's still incompetent (colonizing small, resource-poor worlds with the wrong atmosphere, even though huge, resource-rich worlds with the right atmosphere are just 1-2 systems farther away) but so much easier than manually directing 2-5 colony ships somewhere every turn.

Re: Ministers - which are the safe bets?
 

Indeed.
You're gonna colonize everything anyways, so might as let the minister work out the fine details and make sure nothing is missed.

You can always divert a colony ship to those big breathables manually, and let the minister "fill in" your secured territory.

Re: Ministers - which are the safe bets?
 

I have lots of methane, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and oxygen planets and 4 races I've assimilated/captured. Are these minister population transports gonna transport the right races to the right planets?

Re: Ministers - which are the safe bets?
 

Not only no, but he will transport non-breathers to your undomed planets so that they will become domed. Don't use the population transport minister once you have more than one kind of breathing population.

Re: Ministers - which are the safe bets?
 

Ahhh, Slick, cool, what I needed to know, ty.

So what other ministers could I use to cut down on micro management? Which ones are the best to use?