Woe, to be an Ice-ish race...

[Desdinova]

the reasons listed for pbw work well in solo play as well. few of the races are ice so in early game when none/few of the other races have ice planet colonization you can populate without the others trying to compete. though i dont trade my homeworld type with other races i will trade the other (ice/rock, i prefer to play gas-hydrogen) to get the third if necessary. i usually trade starmaps for the colonization techs.

[ May 14, 2003, 01:31: Message edited by: Desdinova ]

[Joachim]

Despite all the strategy guides saying that you should not play icy planets, I for one like to. Just one of those wierd preference things I guess.

As for PBW advantage - that seems to be the case of most not taking and thus you can trade the tech at a premium. Of course this can be a little rock-paper-scissors at times....
Or like in a current game you choose Ice/Methane (cause the deep bluey/purple is pretty!)and discover that your nearest negihbour is also Ice/Methane and you are both trapped in a small cluster by another player.....

Lets not forget the roleplaying as well - do you play a race from a very cold, dark world differently to the squishy gas giant or hard rock planet?

Joachim.

[Taera]

ice is cool seriously though, ice is great for role-playing purposes as well as for the stated fact they are rarely picked (though as it seems this is soon to change).

Another point is that ice planets are commonly spread on the outer part of the system. this means a much better chair of protection. debatable advantage though.

one (two) Last thing is that ice planets seem to have better organic values and worse mineral values. also ice planets seem to contain ruins more often that other types.

on the cons though they seem to be usually of the smaller sizes.

overall i believe its a well-balanced type of a planet. it might give you disadvantages during early game but its all luck and chance - often enough i get ice/[breathable] planets in my homesystem. sometimes i dont. some systems only have ice planets, others have none at all. and so on.

[Dingocat85]

Originally posted by DESDINOVA:
I usually trade starmaps for the colonization techs.

Does the AI really value Starmaps so much, that you can trade just a few of them for a Colonization Tech - one of the most expensive techs in the game?

(Unless you have Ancient Race - but still, I'm surprised the AI values starmaps that much. Tech trading is too complicated for me, you never know what the AI wants...that's why I disable tech trading with all of my games. If I ever want to purchase a Gas/Ice Colonization Tech from the AI, I just buy one of their colony ships & analyze it )

[Desdinova]

i explore the starmap early. i dont know if they value it but early on in the game most of the races will trade once you first meet them. later on your reputation will affect trades.

[Suicide Junkie]

As I recall, the statistics compiled show that Ice planets will provide just as many facility slots as the other types.

Methane/Ice was only slightly disadvantaged in favour of Methane/Rock by something like 1%

[PvK]

People who worry so much about what planet/atmosphere type has an advantage are wasting too much of their attention on too unimportant an aspect of play, IMO.

PvK