Hi,

1. According to the release notes for Reloaded universe up to 19 planets are allowed. However, you can also get extra planet slots by colonization technology. Does that technology just cap at the appropriate level to prevent you from getting more planets than that?
2. Is it possible to send resources using some large cargoes with a colony ship, with the mission set to colonize so that I can start development of the new colony more quickly?
3. How many slots should I be looking for ideally?
4. What's the maximum field size, and is there existing research done on the min, average and largest observed field sizes and temperatures per slot, similar to what is on the --- wiki? Based on browsing galaxy view, it seems that people like slot 14 - haven't seen a colony at slot 15 used as a deuterium planet.
5. Is a distinction made between your starting planet / homeworld, and additional colonies you get? For example, can you abandon your homeworld?
6. Is there a cooldown time between abandoning a planet, and trying the position again?

Hellooooooo!! Glad to see your taking an interest in Zorg! here are some quick answers, I hope i can help!

1. 18 colony slots are allotted to each player plus 1 extra if you pay 100 rubies to unlock it. You can only colonize an additional planet after upgrading your colonization technology. after level 1, you gain an additional slot per tech level increase.
2. Resources will need to be sent after colonizing a new planet, any sent with the colony ship, via an additional cargo ship or loaded in the colony ship itself, will either be returned with the cargo or consumed with the colony ship. I suggest waiting to see the size of your colony prior to sending res to it. It may be too small to develop.
3.Slots as in fleet slots, expedition slots or colony slots? In any case, the more the merrier!
4. 350 is the current maximum colony size. the smallest I have encountered is in the low 80's and goes up from there to 350.
Temperatures and size vary depending on proximity to the systems star (which i imagine is at slot 0) the closer, the hotter and smaller, further the colder and larger (<---up for debate) Hot equates better solar energy output for plants and satellites, cold equates better deuterium output. slot 14 has proven to be the best for size, and colder temperatures. Slot 1 will be best for solar energy benefits. (apologies for the long winded answer on that one)
5. Your homeworld you are stuck with, its location is stated on the player tag window when someone selects your name. all others do not have this feature and need to be searched for manually via galaxy view or searched by name.
6. There is a 24 hour cooldown per slot once a colony is abandoned.

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask any further questions you may have, If anyone reading this has more to add or corrections on any errors i may have made, please let us know!

@Overdose Thanks!. I didn't realize that planets also got larger the further away from the sun, in addition to being colder - thought they got smaller instead. So wouldn't 15 be theoretically better? Also, what's the lowest temperatures seen at slots 14 and 15?

For the third question, I mean how many slots do people use practically? Based on this rough estimate below, this setup only takes up 264 slots, are there people who have built higher than these?

Since colonyships are really expensive at my level, also can't waste too much trying for a perfect one at this stage. Settled for 268 slots, -3°C to 37°C for second planet.

Once I can afford the ships, is it best to colonize as many as possible and develop in parallel, or concentrate on one colony at a time for fastest growth?

metal mine 33
crystal mine 33
deuterium synth 33
solar plant 25?
fusion reactor 25?
robot factory 10
nanite factory 10
ship yard 15
metal storage 10
crystal storage 10
deuterium tank 10
storage den 15?
research lab 15
teraformer 0?
acs depo 5
Missile Silo 15?

Total: 264

I think the sizes are slot-specific and aren't in a perfect small to large order, this is what i have collected from experience but am not 100% positive of the accuracy:
small @ slots 1-3
med/large @ slots 4-6
small/med @ slots 7-12
small/large @ slots 13-15
Temperatures swing from hot to cold(1 to15) from what i can tell.
my coldest is -94c to -54c @ slot 14 i don't pay too much attention to temps so someone else may need to step in for that information.

The bigger the better, if you end up addicted to the game (much like i am) you want 325 or higher. although terraformers can be used to gain 4 extra fields per level they just become less and less economical for the price. Some may claim that you will never fill a colony with 300 fields, but it really depends on your strategy. maybe you have gigantic storages, dens, missile silos, ect. and still want room for all your labs, plants and mines. Either way, you cant go wrong with more fields.

As for slots, it really depends on your play style or strategy. Some bolt for as many as they can get and occupy several slots in one system for temporary resource gain, then later ditch them and expand to other locations. Others take their time developing one or two at a time while being spread out. If you raid, you will have more resources to support more colony development at one time, if you are a miner, it will be a slower process having to rely on the colonies own mining capabilities for independent growth.

Wow, that's cold, didn't realize that you would need so many more fields. What did I miss in that list?

Any planet with 300 slots or more is a keeper, imo. It depends on your strategy, but keeping anything below 250 would likely be a mistake for most playstyles. However, even if you do become one of the most developed players, there are clever ways to economize when you begin to run out of fields (e.g.: delete robot factories after your nanite is as high as you'd like, only build research labs on n planets, where n is the level of your IRN, etc...) The typical player will never have to deal with these issues as long as he/she only keeps planets above 250 or so fields, but players at the highest/most develped level might.

In terms of fast growth, I can tell you the best strategy for colonization: unlock colonization tech and develop permanent colonies as fast as possible. Lower level mines are much more efficeint than higher level mines, so you really want to get all your colonies set up quickly and develop relatively evenly. Colonizing one system is not something I would recommend, as it gives you less mobility and also makes you a target for easy farming.

Will work on getting permanent colonies. Once I place a colony near the centre of each galaxy, I'll have some slots left. Where do people usually place planets once they have one in each galaxy?

Dendrite wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 17, 2017 4:20 am

Will work on getting permanent colonies. Once I place a colony near the centre of each galaxy, I'll have some slots left. Where do people usually place planets once they have one in each galaxy?

This depends on your playstyle:
Raider? You might want to scope out the good farms and place colonies by them
Fleeter? You might want to scope out potential targets and put colonies by them. Or you might just divide galaxies into thirds and put one in the lower portion of the galaxy and one in the upper portion. You might also leave your final level of colony tech unutilized as a permanent planet so you have a roamer
Miner/turtle? (who doesn't raid or fleet much) You might want to colonize out of the way areas and place your colonies farther away from large active fleeters

I've been getting big planets recently (>= 325 fields). What is the highest max temperature planet that you'd keep? Since every decrease of 10 degrees is an extra 2% of free deuterium production. Have been seeing like -30 to -25 max temps.

Also, are there particular places that active fleeters like to check?

Coldest I have is -98 to -58.
It mostly depends on your play style. Deuterium synthesizers are cheap but they need a lot of energy. Solar plant and Fusion reactors both loose efficiency on higher lvls (fusion at a slower rate with energy tech).
Solar sats depend on how hot your planet is and never looses efficiency. If you rarely get attacked, the higher energy yield of solar sats on a hot planet will offset the benefits of a cold planet.

Dendrite wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 18, 2017 4:57 pm

Also, are there particular places that active fleeters like to check?

Active fleeters check everywhere.