Gas planets vs rock planets???

[FadingSuns]

I have to admit that I like Rock planets with no atmosphere. Almost every moon is prime even with limited cargo space. Once I get Ice tech it usually gives me the rest of the moons as well as larger planets to easily colinize.

[DavidG]

I pick Rock or Gas. I like Gas because the planets are always medium or larger. Thus less micromanagement. I think Rock are more numerous but lots of small planets (I believe in terms of Facility space things are pretty much equal)

What I like about Rock is that it is easier to find a sector with a rock planet and a rock moon. Very usefull for training ships.

[Gryphin]

I like the Gas Giant / Storage.
Things like Robotoid Factory have more of an impact.

I never thought about that, but yes, less micro managment.
Thanks David.

[Grandpa Kim]

The Iceman cometh!

Yes, I take ice! Contrary to popular opinion, they are as numerous as rock. And having it makes me a valuable commodity. You will pay big time for my ice tech!

[Cyrien]

I also prefer ice. It is slightly less common than rock but when you take that in with the fact that everyone knows that and then takes rock you actually wind up with far less competition and more space to grow. And of course everyone wants what you have and so few others have!

I ussually take none as well and live off of the moons mostly.

One weakness to this strategy is of course in order to get the same level as others you have to produce more colony ships since each small planet has less space.

One advantage however is that you finish building all your facilities on them and if you work like me and on anything with 6 or more facility slots (Oh how I love you Advanced Storage Techniques) you build a space yard... well you get some massive ship output capacity really fast as well.

Really I think they are all just about ballanced in the early game. Late game anything/none may be at a slight disadvantage being unable to terraform gas giants but this is easily countered by simply gaining another races population. Or worse case scenario having to blow up all the Gas Giants and remake them over and over till you get what you want(flash backs to SE3 anyone?)

[Aloofi]

I always take rock, cause there are greater chances of getting a breathable planet per system, thus allowing for stronger and more defensible Capital System Colonies.

[Dingocat85]

At least from what I've noticed:

There are more Ice planets than all others, but the planets tend to be pretty small. I loaded a Large map, and only counted 7 different types of Huge Ice planets.

Gas planets are obviously the biggest, none being smaller than Medium. However, there are fewer Gas planets than all others, and no moons are ever Gas planets.

Rock planets are an average - Average amount of them, average size.
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In Single-player SE4 (and I imagine in PBW aswell), Rock-planet Empires are the most common choice - so competition for planets can get rather fierce.

Because there are so few Gas planets, you could probably have just as fierce competition for them, if only half as many players started on Gas planets.

With Ice planets, not only are they the least favorite of the 3 (meaning more planets for you), but they're the most numerous. More planets also means greater chance a planet will have your atmosphere - with an Average Environmental Resistance, A Tiny planet with a breathable atmosphere is exactly as good as a Huge planet that's not breathable. Since there are more Ice planets (or so I think), there's a greater chance that one will be strategically placed within a Galaxy (i.e, right next to a Warp Point). Lastly, more planets means more Space Yards - No matter how advanced or fast your Space Yard is, the cheapest ships will never be built in faster than 0.1 years. But if you have, say, 6 Spaceyards in a system, you could build 6 ultra-cheap ships in that system in 0.1 years!
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And there's my completely unbiased comparison of the three planet types

[ May 08, 2003, 17:25: Message edited by: Dingocat85 ]