Are gas giants really an advantage?

[Lisif Deoral]

I joined an ongoing PBW game as a replacement player and... well, most other races hail from gas giants. Is there an advantage in being able to colonize large planets only, or is this offset by the fact that large planets are rarer than small ones?
I suspect that in multiplayer games there could be a small drawback: in this particular game I happen to have an ice-based race and I'm happily colonizing the galaxy while the gas empires fight over colonization rights...

[Suicide Junkie]

It may have been that everybody thought
"Hey, I'll take gas giants, and be able to colonize freely while the rest of those fools compete for puny rocks. BwaHaHA."

[Wardad]

Gas giants have more facility and cargo spaces.

1. Facilites: An expensive Robotoid factory could bonus more facilities on a gas giant. Same for Value Improvement Plant and other planetary bonus facilities.

2. Cargo: More space Weapon Platforms, units, and the new DRONES. I suspect the drones would require lots of room.

3. Preference: Since the AI seems to like the rocks, I pick the gas.


---------------------

Upgrades Happen!!!

---------------------

[Quikngruvn]

Gas giants have more room, but the advantage is offest by the fact that there tend to be fewer gas giants than rocks.

I'm in a PBW game (Diplowar 2) where all eight players chose gas giant races. It certainly made things interesting.... There were two distinct land grabs: one at the start (when borders were pretty well defined), and the other when everyone developed/traded for Rock and Ice about at the same time.

Quikngruvn

[ 26 March 2002: Message edited by: Quikngruvn ]

[PsychoTechFreak]

The rock riders have got a sometimes decisive advantage: RUINS, RUINS , RUINS !

Try the following: start a test game with omnipresent view of all systems, or setup a race with ancient race trait. Then count the SPECIAL planets for Gas, Ice and Rock, you will find about double as many ruins on Rocks than on Gas or Ice.

Oftentimes you will find another Colonization Tech in one of the ruins, and if you find them early in the game, you will rule it.

But it is a matter of taste, as everything in SE4.

[Lisif Deoral]

Has anyone a clue about how the game generates planets?
For example, it might:

• First determine size, then atmosphere, then composition (ice, rock or gas): in this case small and tiny planets can "get" only rock or ice compositions, or
• First determine composition, then atmosphere, then size: in this case we have a minor number of planets without atmosphere since gas giants must have one, or
• Determine all stats of a planet according to a single "table" (e.g., 1% of all planets are huge methane gas, 0.5% are huge methane ice, 1% are huge methane rock, 1% are large methane gas, etc.)

Can the planet atmosphere and composition types be modded, by the way? (I seem to remember that the size classes may be altered...)

[Phoenix-D]

The game generates planets based on the text files.

An example from sectype.txt:
"Physical Type := Planet
Picture Num := 10
Description := Moderate planet with dense cloud cover.
Planet Size := Medium
Planet Physical Type := Rock
Planet Atmosphere := Carbon Dioxide"

That's one possible planet.

From Systemtypes.txt:
"Name := Standard 1
Description := Standard solar system.
System Physical Type := Normal
Background Bitmap := Starmap.bmp
Empires Can Start In := TRUE
Mask Background Objs := FALSE
Non-Tiled Center Pic := FALSE
Number of Abilities := 0
WP Stellar Abil Type := Normal Warp Point
Number of System Objs := 12
Obj 1 Physical Type := Star
Obj 1 Position := Ring 1
Obj 1 Stellar Abil Type := Normal Star
Obj 1 Size := Any
Obj 1 Age := Any
Obj 1 Color := Any
Obj 1 Luminosity := Any
Obj 2 Physical Type := Planet
Obj 2 Position := Ring 2
Obj 2 Stellar Abil Type := Normal Planet
Obj 2 Size := Any
Obj 2 Atmosphere := Any
Obj 2 Composition := Any
Obj 3 Physical Type := Planet
Obj 3 Position := Ring 3
Obj 3 Stellar Abil Type := Normal Planet
Obj 3 Size := Any
Obj 3 Atmosphere := Any
Obj 3 Composition := Any
Obj 4 Physical Type := Planet
Obj 4 Position := Ring 3
Obj 4 Stellar Abil Type := Normal Planet
Obj 4 Size := Any
Obj 4 Atmosphere := Any
Obj 4 Composition := Any
Obj 5 Physical Type := Planet
Obj 5 Position := Ring 4
Obj 5 Stellar Abil Type := Normal Planet
Obj 5 Size := Any
Obj 5 Atmosphere := Any
Obj 5 Composition := Any
Obj 6 Physical Type := Planet
Obj 6 Position := Ring 4
Obj 6 Stellar Abil Type := Normal Planet
Obj 6 Size := Any
Obj 6 Atmosphere := Any
Obj 6 Composition := Any
Obj 7 Physical Type := Planet
Obj 7 Position := Ring 5
Obj 7 Stellar Abil Type := Normal Planet
Obj 7 Size := Any
Obj 7 Atmosphere := Any
Obj 7 Composition := Any
Obj 8 Physical Type := Planet
Obj 8 Position := Ring 5
Obj 8 Stellar Abil Type := Normal Planet
Obj 8 Size := Any
Obj 8 Atmosphere := Any
Obj 8 Composition := Any
Obj 9 Physical Type := Storm
Obj 9 Position := Ring 5
Obj 9 Stellar Abil Type := Normal Storm
Obj 9 Size := Any
Obj 10 Physical Type := Planet
Obj 10 Position := Ring 6
Obj 10 Stellar Abil Type := Normal Planet
Obj 10 Size := Any
Obj 10 Atmosphere := Any
Obj 10 Composition := Any
Obj 11 Physical Type := Planet
Obj 11 Position := Ring 6
Obj 11 Stellar Abil Type := Normal Planet
Obj 11 Size := Any
Obj 11 Atmosphere := Any
Obj 11 Composition := Any
Obj 12 Physical Type := Asteroids
Obj 12 Position := Ring 6
Obj 12 Stellar Abil Type := Normal Asteroids
Obj 12 Size := Any
Obj 12 Atmosphere := Any
Obj 12 Composition := Any"

That's one possible solar system. Notice that any planet can come up- I think some planet types are more common because they have more entries in the first file.

Phoenix-D

[Andrés]

Count planets of every type atmosphere and size in sectypes.
Count how many are allowes as any and how many are forced to be of a certain size and/or armosphere in every systemtype
Multipliy the resulting value by the times each system appears according to quadranttypes.
Compile everything in to a graphic (so no one understands it).
Post it here.

[Bman]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Andrés Lescano:
Count planets of every type atmosphere and size in sectypes.
Count how many are allowes as any and how many are forced to be of a certain size and/or armosphere in every systemtype
Multipliy the resulting value by the times each system appears according to quadranttypes.
Compile everything in to a graphic (so no one understands it).
Post it here.

---

Very nice picture. The only thing I cannot distinquish is rocks vs ice. But I will hazard a guess and say the rocks outnumber the ice so then I can tell which is which.
None has alot less than I thought. Did you include moons? I always liked None because there are always alot of moons littered around the galaxy. But according to your graphic, all the other atmospheres have more tiny planets than None does.

[LGM]

I have a spreadsheet someone put together, I do not remember who did it, but to summarize the results they are as follows: 48% Rock, 24% Gas, 28% Ice. Ice are clearly at a disadvantage because they get small worlds. Gas get half as many as rock, but the worlds are bigger. Rock have more chances at ruins than gas. I favor lots of small worlds over a few big worlds because that gives you more places to build shipyards early on so you can spend those resources building more colonizers. One element that favors Gas Giant races is they get more benefit from Industrial computers than other races because they can get 10 facilities on a planet more often so that a 10% computer is worth building. Another element that favor Gas races is they get more Population bonuses on their worlds. However, that bonus comes no where close to making up for half as many worlds.