Dev Plans vs. General Empire settings

[Kinjiru]

First, I apoligize that I will likely not get the terms correct, as my comp has been down for days now and details get fuzzy over time.

I am curious about the effect of your settings in the Empire tab regarding general development when speaking about usage of development plans.

As I recall, the available settings within the Empire tab are Specialized, Natural and Balanced or somehting like that.

Do your set development plans work out better when using a Specialized empire-wide setting? I would think this is the case. And if so, would be another instance of being able to effectively delegate to the viceroys.

Secondly, I am curious if a change in the empire-wide setting, mid-game, would cause the viceroys to revaluate thier DEA choices. My logic here is that Natural setting may be appropriate in the early game, but once the techs are available to allow you more complex DEA choices, then perhaps a switch to Specialized is better. Of course, if the viceroys don't reevaluate what has been placed then it doesn't matter.

Anyone have enlightenment to share?

[Arnelos]

I've noticed the same thing you have and have the same questions

My suspicion is the same... I've been using "natural" early in the game and switching to "specialized" once my empire is reasonably stable in terms of supplies of food and minerals.

I have absolutely no clear idea exactly what impact such a change has, however.... I have the same curiosity you do

[bakalov]

It impacts only the DEAs that are built after the moment of the change ...

[Calorman]

Yes. As far as I can tell the Viceroy doesn't remove existing DEAs in favour of new Dev plans, which can be a big problem.

It's also slightly annoying if you have, say, surplus minerals but not enough food but the VR isn't smart enough to replace unwanted mineral DEAs with bioharvesting ones.

[Kinjiru]

So then, to yank the thread back to the central point...

IF specialized terrain maked for smarter DEA choices and thus better use of dev plans than natural or balanced would

THEN it makes sense to always change to the specialized setting at the outset.

So, do terrain use choices impact the viceroys choice of dev plan implementation?

[Alex-C]

In my Empire i have the specialised setting and a fairly comprehensive (12 or so) development plans for planets, and i am finding that the viceroy's are doing a very good job of building worthwhile DEA's in the right places. Seems to work for me at least!

[Master Marcus]

Originally posted by Alex-C
In my Empire i have the specialised setting and a fairly comprehensive (12 or so) development plans for planets, and i am finding that the viceroy's are doing a very good job of building worthwhile DEA's in the right places. Seems to work for me at least!

Well for my part, the AI actually zones correctly according to the plans - but since I want all kind of DEAs ( of course with an emphasis of Industry and science on productive planets ) on bigger worlds, even with 12-15 different plans the AI WON'T ZONE more than 3-4 different ones since no more than 2 plans are applied ( + All Planets): that's why I "microzone" myself most of the new colonies. Otherwise, I experience something like 2 mining- 12 industry - 3 science - 1 gov or none, and NO military, rec, bioharvest.....and I want at least 1 Gov and 1 military on each - recommended and useful.

[Harry Seldon]

Watch for the colony landings on the SitRep. I always click on it when it's established, delete the industry dea, and allocate a recreation then military dea usually in the harshest terrain. That helps keep unrest down. You can plan the whole planet that way if you want.

Watch your planet types as they grow. The secondary classification won't change, I think (like high biodiversity or mineral rich) but the main classification will. So your planet will start out as a frontier, change to a secondary, then to a primary as time goes on. So, depending on how you lay your development plans down, you could end up with a bunch of military only planets or ones that are otherwise unbalanced for no apparent reason..

[Master Marcus]

Originally posted by Harry Seldon
Watch for the colony landings on the SitRep. I always click on it when it's established, delete the industry dea, and allocate a recreation then military dea usually in the harshest terrain. That helps keep unrest down. You can plan the whole planet that way if you want.

Watch your planet types as they grow. The secondary classification won't change, I think (like high biodiversity or mineral rich) but the main classification will. So your planet will start out as a frontier, change to a secondary, then to a primary as time goes on. So, depending on how you lay your development plans down, you could end up with a bunch of military only planets or ones that are otherwise unbalanced for no apparent reason..

Like Lore Weaver said, "mineral rich", "New", "mineral poor", "core", are important to fill in dev plans. So far I noticed how regularly the domestic AI change a planet classification for/to "Secondary" ( surprising ), "Primary", so I fill these ones too. I scarcely saw so far most of the rest ( occasionally unrest, frontier, biodiversity ) and never saw "red" or "Yellow" which I would very much like for terraforming - but anyway it's done well and rapidly even with a small 1%-3% for reaching an upper circle.

For something more specific the player should fill a couple of "player defined" plans, but requires to manually list it at the desired planet.