Terraforming (Some) Dead Worlds

This was a feature that was added into expansions of GalCiv II if I remember correctly. There were certain techs and racial abilities that made certain planets habitable. I think that keeping the number of habitable planets low is important to the feel of the game, but advanced techs that make a few more planets habitable would be cool.

Yes I kind of agree with the ParagonRenegade on this, but also think it's a fair point that competition over rare habitable worlds helps drive conflict.

It's the reason why giving different races different sorts of planets they like while probably a more realistic model doesn't make for a good game because it removes competition.

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

(Sorry...I couldn't resist.)

I remember watching that when I was little, and having nightmares about being stuck on Ceti Alpha V and getting a parasite to lobotomize me.

Truly the stuff of the darkest pits of hell. 

I wouldn't mind seeing the ability to send a terraformer ship to one of these planets (Shake and Bake Colony) with a percentage chance of success. Something around 5% chance of successfully terraforming a dead planet. Building these terraformers shouldn't be cheap and you would fill these things up with colonists .5 billion, with the planned effect of them possibly dying on the planet. Brings a little gamble in the game. Once terraformed you can transport colonists to this newly created world.

The terraforming should take time, and the terraforming while being done is a economic burden.

My StarTrek mod for GalCiv3 will rename all planets to Ceti Alpha V, they will all be desert planets, and when you click on the only usable tile, it will make a squishy worm sound.

Do it.

I dare you

and I dare you, also.  (is this now a double dare?)

Like many others I really like the idea of terraforming and it should be slow and/or expensive. This thread has dealt mainly with dead planets - what about opening up more tiles on habitable planets? You settle a planet and have the area around your outpost cleared, and you gradually open up more sectors to build in. Then planet size will matter far more. A large habitable planet on which you can open up the full planetary map for exploitation (after a lengthy investment) would be hugely valuable. And it's planets like that which provide a focus for war and combat. While it may add in a level of micromanagement or delay that some might not like, I think there would be plenty of turn based strategy players that would love the long game. Perhaps a special game mode for an expansion?

I like this idea--have the terraforming process be one that involves ships, colonists, time, and money. In the short term, an expensive proposition. In the long run, however, you could really strengthen the core of an empire (whereas it may be too risky to terraform planets on the border of your control, your central systems could be bolstered by the added production/research/economy output)

I think that from what the devs have shown in the alpha thus far, and from what they've said, any terraforming/special planet modifications would need to be a DLC or expansion--this way it could be refined and perfected as an added element for the game. I don't think it is necessary for the base game, and I'd rather the devs focus on making a killer base game (which they certainly are doing) that can then be modded and expanded for years to come.

I don't want to derail your OP, and I agree with the "habitable zone" limitation, overall, but think it would also be interesting to make some planets, like gas giants, be able to support a colony plus a few tiles. Perhaps these would have to be specialized buildings specifically for gas giants--i.e. a cloud city for colony/capitol & airborne equivalents for manufacturing, research, economy, influence, etc.

This could also be adapted to planets that are too cold, too hot, have no atmosphere, etc. via biodomes and other artificial life support mechanisms. This isn't technically terraforming, but it relates to the use of "dead planets" and those that have a planet class of zero.

Again, I think more options for developing infrastructure is a good thing, but I'd rather the devs focus on the core game first. Terraforming and colonizing other unusable planets could be a DLC or a really cool feature of an expansion.

From what has been said in dev streams, it sounds like the current plan is 2 kinds of mine-able planets (gas giants and small, rocky planets similar to Mercury) Paul said this outright last week. I also think some of the things he has said in the past suggest terraforming in the form of unlock-able planet types like we saw in GalCiv 2. I think this is a good move. Habitable plants should be rare, but with some work more should be habitable, and many others should be exploitable. Personally, I hope there are still some useless hunks of rock out there because I think they add to the atmosphere of the game, but we'll have to see.

I don't remember that from the stream, but I had to get up a couple times, so I must've missed it. Thanks perigrine23.

He also mentioned it in a post over on Steam a while ago.