Magnate Civs

[Armchair Shark]

How frequently have people found the magnate civs ? In my first game I have a huge three arm galaxy with 15 AI players, I'm on
turn 95 and still haven't seen any magnate civs yet.

I have read that once conquered the magnate civs then go on to
expand into the galaxy. But can you use them in things like spying. My Raas spies are lousy, perhaps if I had some Darloks
my spying ability might rise, anybody know ?

[Harry Seldon]

You can't use the nonempire magnates to spy. It'd definitely be nice, though. Imagine training some noncorpreal spies and dropping them into enemy territory.

I didn't find my first magnate until around turn seventy-five. Have you checked your planets in awhile? You may have some and not know it.

[Armchair Shark]

As I'm at work I can't check I don't suppose there are any
demographics on the empire screen, I know you have them on
individual planets. This would be really good to see the ethnic
mix of your empire.

[Sujanix]

Thinking more about spies...

I have seen other playable races show up as spies once you've conquered them... (I was playing Tachidi and I took over the Human and Sakkra, and they showed up as spies later on) I was all happy with that.

It would kind of make sense to see magnate races show up as spies, but maybe they dont even have the pictures of the magnates to do that. Or maybe I need to have a bigger percentage of the magnate race.

[Harry Seldon]

I agree with you on that score. One thing I've noticed is you magnate civs colonize like there's no tomorrow, especially if their ring of habitibility is different than yours because there's more planets for them. One way to check is to select yellow items in SitRep and look for new colonies. When you see one's established and awaiting your orders, open them up and check the demographics. I usually check for new colonies because some are more prone to unrest (like those damn fungus creatures) than others and I need more rec DEAs.

[Cat Lord]

I am in a game where I have already found 3 different magnate civ at around turn 75.

Having a world only populated with them is very usefull as you can produce ground troop of their type.

So, if I am playing the tachidi, and want to conquer a martian world (best environment for the Mshraan), I send Mshraan troops instead of mine.

I suppose you may get their leaders/spies when you beat the Guardian in their home system ? (I have found Fieras, home of Mshraan, but the Guardian is too much for me for the moment )

Cat

[Harry Seldon]

I beat five guardians in a game, maybe it was four, but all I got was one Antaran X and I had many other things going on at the time so I'm not even sure that's where I got it from.

[Eric S]

One important thing to remember when looking for magnate civilizations is that their idea of a green/sweetspot planet probably isn't going to be the same as yours. I find it best that every time I pull up the planet screen to find a new place to send colonies, I turn off "similar environment", turn on "uncontrolled", and then sort by population. This will generally pop the magnate civilizations right up to the top.

Alternatively, you can sort by terraform, but pick "dominant species" (?) for the terraform target. This will move the magnate civs up towards the top, as they will appear as green planets, but then you don't know how many colony ships you need to send in order to get a full population point.

[Grumbold]

I usually find one or two magnate civs I can colonise early in the game when set for a normal occurrence of specials. On the frequent setting you can get lots.

[Daz]

I find a lot of magnates. From about 25 to 30 explored systems i have found 4 magnates. They spread and I love it.

One thing that bugs me though. The terrraforming rings are those of my people, so its not possible to tell if its a sweetspor for the magnates.

Also, if I terraform a planet with majority magnate population, will it be terraformed for my folks or for the magnates?

[Grumbold]

Terraforming seems to go toward the majority pop sweet spot. Certainly makes more sense than terraforming your magnates away from their favourite world type.

[Daz]

You, as the rest of us, assume thats the way it works. But, thats all we can do. Assume. I kinda doubt they thought of that...

[BobD]

Yes, it would be nice if there was a way to view the habitability of a planet depending on which race (in your own empire) would settle there. I doubt if this will be done in the patch though, as I haven't seen it discussed much.