Genetic Modification

[Borealis4x (OP)]

The only technology I have even touched in the biology branch has been the terraforming rate tech. I have no idea what I am supposed to do with the genetic modification technology. To my knowledge, it allows you to create a different subset of a species which are able to flourish on different planets, but this seems like a bad long term investment as I would rather terraform those planets so that any normal human could live there.

PS: Are terraforming fleets better than terraforming installations? How many moduals/installations do you need for a good terraforming rate?

[ty55101]

First off, using a combination of genetic modification and terraforming allows a quicker way to get the colony cost to zero. Say the atmosphere is heavy and you have to take gases out. If you were to put a population on the planet that is modified to be accustomed to higher atmospheres then it would require less terraforming.

Another thing is the fact that you cannot change a planet's gravity. To my knowledge most people only use the genetic modification for different gravities.

[Haji]

As far as genetic modification of oxygen goes, you're right. It's much better to terraform a planet than to dabble in genetic engineering, mostly because modification rate is just so slow (250k people per year per installation isn't really that great). However genetic engineering allows you to settle planets that would otherwise be out of your reach. Most importantly if you invest reasonable amount of RP you can colonize really, really cold planets that would otherwise not be habitable. For me it's also good as I play most of my games with human gravity tolerance set to 70% which means I cannot normally colonize bodies like Luna or the Galilean Moons.

[GodEmperor]

Gene modding  is highly situational tool.
Changing oxygen requirements is actually less useful, what gene modding is really about is its ability to produce humans who can live in really cold places ( since safe green house gas has the upper limit of effectiveness ) and what's more important - in high/low gravity because planets gravity cannot be changed.

Primary example in Sol system would be Titan - planet that can't be heated enough to allow for default human habitation.