Planet abilities from upgrades?

Generally speaking, an ability can easily be made unlockable through research, however planet abilities seem to be kind of an iffy thing. Uzii knows more about them than I, I don't know if he tried to make any of them open up through research, I think so far he's been leaving them as inherent.

Yep. Planets are a real grey spot with most things. They technically exist as a unit, hence they can be given abilities, and effects applied to them. But their upgrades are a seperate system, and I strongly doubt they can be linked to their own abilities. There are various ways to simulate certain things that can't normally be done, but these are very limited. Can I ask what you are trying to achieve?

I was actually a little confused when I read the post first (what I get for trying to think at 7:30 in the morning). Anyway, like Uzii said, it will most likely be impossible to unlock an ability through a planet upgrade.

I was thinking more of unlocking an ability through tech tree research, which in theory should be possible if abilities are applied even though the "colonized planet" UI takes over and the ability button doesn't actually show. Next best thing to per-planet upgrades, if it works

Uzii, when doing planet abilities can you restrict it to "Friendly" ownership only? Otherwise, researching an unlock that can't be ownership restricted would open it up to all your enemies' planets too

Okay, it's possible to have abilities unlocked through research. Is it possible to have those abilities restricted by the planet's upgrade levels? For example, only a planet that has at least level 2 population might have an ability?

The idea was to give special abilities to upgraded versions of the capital city. One would be activated, one would be passive, and another would change global states (the way research would do).

Mmmm... Once again, a grey spot. The friendly ownership with planet abilities is fine, if it is owned. When it is neutral, the ability is applied to everyone. So, it could go a few ways:
1. Only planets you own, once the research is done, get the ability.
2. Neutral planets get the ability when anyone gets the research, and owned ones get it once you have the research.
3. All planets get it after anyone gets the research (Enemy, Neutral, Friendly, Owned).

Would be one to test and play with though.

Edit: You cannot activate abilities on planets, at least not with user input. Passive works ok, but Global effects are another thing that won't work through planet upgrades, or abilities.

Hmm. Damn. I wanted to do something like this:

The first capital upgrade is the same as default. It forms the cornerstone for allegiance in the empire.

The second capital upgrade provides defensive bonuses. Extra health, the ability to recover under siege, passive culture generation, and a central PJI covering the system.

The third capital upgrade provides expansion bonuses. More health, extra logistics slots, some tac slots, and "Empire's Reach". This ability would colonize neutral planets under the influence of your culture every 5-15min. Local militia would probably make the ability pretty useless, so it'd wipe them out as well (but not pirates or players). This would enable a culture based expansion for the middle stages of the game. Advent can synergize the ability with their culture cannon late game, and it could find use for planets lost to the Novalith Cannon (though the capital is likely to go first).

The fourth capital upgrade provides empire bonuses. More health, a massive number of tac slots to fortify the world, extra fleet slots, extra cap ship slots, and an amazing 5% reduction in fleet upkeep. At 75% upkeep, the 5% reduction bonus would make up 20% of your income, from the capital alone(though it would be a much smaller relative impact at lower upkeep levels). The total upgrade path to here would be VERY expensive, and would be unlikely to pay off for all but the largest empires.

Since planets exist as a unit, I wander could we make the planet moving around solar?
Em~~ I means revolution.

The Planet is a unit, not the gravity well, sorry.


And those ideas are nice Bob, but I don't think they could be achieved at the moment.