A colonization guide by StarForce

Colonization - what can be easier? This is what most newbies think. But actually it is a difficult issue that requires careful planning.
To colonize a planet you need a colony ship. It is slow, consumes much duet, and is rather expensive in the beginning - but despite that you have to expand your empire correctly, or mistakes of the beginning will result in serious problems later on.
Astrophysics is required to get a new planet. Level 1 allows for 1 colony, level 3 - for two, and so on. Saying in the other way, you can get a new planet with each odd level of Astrophysics.

There are different strategies for colonization. But no matter which you decide to choose, all your planets must be bigger than 200 fields. If it is smaller, delete without hesitation. You can do it in the same window where you rename a planet.
Planet has another important feature, temperature. The higher it is, the more energy will be given by solar satellites, but the less deuterium will be produced.
Best slots for colonization are 8-9. In these positions you will find large planets easily.

This chart gives info on fields, temperature and deuterium production (standard deut production is given, multiply by 4).


Coloizational strategies.
1. Placing all planets in the same or nearby systems.
This is a miner version. You will be able to transport resources quickly and cheaply, but there is a giant drawback (and in such a populated univese as Electra this strategy is realizable only in further galaxies). This drawback is farming area, No matter, a miner or a fleeter, but you'll have to raid inactives at least in the beginning. Besides, you can be easily farmed or IPMed by one player. Anyways, you can make totally uncatchable fleetsave if you got moons on all planets.

2. Spreading colonies across the galaxies.
This is what I do. Place two-three colonies in each galaxy, 100-150 systems distance from each other. Not very safe for fleetsaving, but when you get a fleet large enough so somebody starts thinking of destroying your moon, simply put one colony in the same system as another of yours.
Excellent farming possibilities, hard to be bashed by one player, but it will take more time and deut to transport resources (and fleets, until you get moons with jumpgates everywhere).

These are two basic stategies, if you decide to choose the first, go to the edge system of a faraway galaxy. For example, 9-1. That way you will be espionaged and raided much less. You can also spread your planets in a distant galaxy, i.e. 9-50, 9-90, 9-130 etc. This way you can farm too.
If you select the second strategy, be sure not to colonize the edges - you must have at least 70 systems on each side (so, you should colonize in systems 71-429). Putting a "fleetsave" works better in faraway galaxies, and it is good to have a few planets out there.