Getting more information on an alien colony

[Foolcow (OP)]

I found an alien population on a planet, and all I can see in the system generation screen is the Thermal and EM signatures (1514 and 14862, respectively)  How can I see what their actual population is, what installations they have, etc?

I've just established my own colony there, with 250k Humans.  I see that my pop growth rate is 10%.  I guess this growth rate is based on the per species population, and not the total population?  That seems a bit screwy.

[Hawkeye]

I found an alien population on a planet, and all I can see in the system generation screen is the Thermal and EM signatures (1514 and 14862, respectively)  How can I see what their actual population is, what installations they have, etc?

Basicly, you can´t. Compare the EM and Thermal emission with some colonies of your own, so you can get an educated guess on their population and industry. After all, looking down on earth from orbit won´t get you a headcount either

I've just established my own colony there, with 250k Humans.  I see that my pop growth rate is 10%.  I guess this growth rate is based on the per species population, and not the total population?  That seems a bit screwy.

Why? Look at earth. Growth rate in western/central europe is damn low if not even actually a shrink, while in India/China it is pretty high (not that they are a different species). So different groups/societies/nations on a single planet can easily have different growth rates.

[randal7]

You can if you cheat a little. Back up your save first (so you can restore your game to its original condition after you cheat). Put a colony on the planet. Go to SM mode. Give yourself a ground force training center there. Give yourself a ridiculous amount of ground troops. Invade. Collateral damage will occur, but you can get a good idea what the planet is like.

If you have gotten close enough to the planet already for an active sensor scan, and don't see any ships or shipyards, you may have a non-technological race.