[MegaTrain]

Actually, the population of a planet can be a pretty substantial bonus to construction rate. Here are the numbers (population figures are minimums for that bonus level):

Pop - Bonus %
100 - 5%
500 - 10%
1000 - 20%
2000 - 30%
3000 - 40%
4000 - 50%
5000 - 60%
6000 - 70%
7000 - 80%
8000 - 90%
(8000 is the max pop on a huge native-atmosphere planet)

It's awfully hard to get several thousand on EVERY planet (unless you've got incredible reproduction rate), but in my Last game I had several "super construction" planets, which were constructing at over 4500/turn (in NON-emergency mode!). And that was with just 6000 pop and a Spaceyard II. Not too shabby.

Here's a full chart I just whipped up in Excel:
[ 29 December 2001: Message edited by: MegaTrain ]