Stupid Newbie Question(s): Yes, I'm the one doing the asking. =)

[taterbill]

Hi,

Welcome to the game and one of the nicest forums around. Don't be afraid to ask questions, though I will say that if you had performed a search, you probably could have found the answer to this question, as it has certainly been asked before.

The answer is, there is indeed a colony on the planet, but population does not appear there automatically, as in Civ or SMAC. You need to either move some population there, or load some on the colony ship before leaving your homeworld and it will then populate the new colony.

You probably used the move button to navigate the ship to where you wanted to go, then used the colonize button to actually order the colonization.

In the future, use the colonize button while still in orbit around your homeworld, and the population will automatically board the ship before it leaves orbit. Or manually load population, and then use the move button.

I hope this makes sense. Try it in a game, and if you still have questions, let us know...

Bill