[Rexxx]

Originally posted by Master Belisarius:
WEIRD!!!!!!! but the EEE had lot of available planets to colonize into their own systems, but are not colonizing the Rock/Ice planets!!
Turn 398.
Finally the EEE has decided to colonize the rock/ice planets, and now are in the first place.

Just checked the savegames and I think I found the explanation:
Around turn 55 the EEE discovered rock planet colonization. They didn't start building rock colonizers because - at this point - they already had the maximum number of colonizing ships the contruction file called for (5). They couldn't use their available ships because all colonizable gas giants were in "friendly" systems and having only a military alliance made it impossible to use them.
Till turn 263 - when they finished their Create Planet ship - nothing happened, no new colonies, just an endless stream of retrofit activities. At some point even the orders from the construction unit file run out. No more construction at all for years and years and...
It took them until turn 325 to create the first Gas Giant, before that they created 12 rock and 9 ice planets (!!!).
At Last they could use one of their colonizers, their empire awoke. At turn 400 they had 88 colonies (from turn 55 to 325 there were no less than 29).
I think the Toron basically had the same problem. They developed Ice Planet colonization around turn 50 but had - at this point - one open colonizer slot and could expand further but very very slow. (At least that's what I'm guessing)

That's why I fear peaceful opponents, the AI respects friendly borders which could be annoying, actually it can kill expansion at all.

If someone has an idea how such a "dead end" can be avoided, please let me know. Researching Stellar Manipulations earlier would reduce the problem but not solve it. The ability of calling for different types of colonizers would be a solution, but that is impossible so far.

Did somebody find a pattern behind creating planets activities? A 12-9-0 result is terrible, at least for Gas Giant races. I asked this question already in http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=23;t=007536 but make assurance double sure...
Have to admit that I never tested any kind of stellar manipulation techs so far.

This contest is just great: it leads to questions I never would have thought of.

Very interesting results. The Toron and the EEE defeated the Vikings, were defeated by the Pyrochette who lost their game against the Vikings.