[grumbler]

One of the things to keep in mind as you design facilities is that you need the AI to use them sensibly. Creating a large production facility, for example, does not work if the AI ends up spending a huge percentage of resources and time building it on planets where it will not do any real good.

The AI cannot tell what size planet (and therefor how many facilities and how much total pop is possible) it is building on. Therefor, the key is creating a build queue that makes sense.

My solution was to create a "spoke and hub" plan for colonies. Every colony would build, as the first thing, a "colony hub" that had a spaceport, resupply center, shipyard, and some storage. No specialization here, and the shipyard in fact had the same build rate as the colony without one (just the ability to build ships and bases).

After building the colony hub, the colony specializes in mining, research, etc. Only on the larger planets does it bother with medical centers, training facilities, depots, and the like. When well-designed, the facilities system results in AI colonies that are as efficient (or very nearly) as human-made colonies.

The key to successful facility design, then, is to always keep in mind how you want the AI to "blindly" use them. Know the AI_C_F well,and know what effect any change in facilities has on it.