So if I am terraforming alot should I start with infrastructure

[leonidas1283 (OP)]

So if I am terraforming alot should I start with infrastructure so I can expand faster or should I stay to terraforming I have 17 1 mil ton terraforming 25 modules each I have terraforming 2 planets so far Luna and Mars with three more coming

[Odin]

I prefer to create huge fleets of terraformer, so i don't have to bother with infrastructure.

[leonidas1283 (OP)]

Thats what I'm doing but should I use infrastructure? To make it go faster?

[Erik L]

Thats what I'm doing but should I use infrastructure? To make it go faster?

Infrastructure is only needed to support population on a planet with a colony cost greater than 0.0.

[Odin]

Terraforming installation require population on the planet that need to be terraformed, so make sure you have enough population to run them at 100%, check the summary of the colony to see if have a worker shortage.
If you are using ships with terraforming module then you don't need population on the planet.
Using officers and civilian administrators with good terraforming bonus will help.

[misanthropope]

if you're starting with the generic TN start, you get better early development if you start a colony on luna right away, and delay your terraforming fleet for the time it takes you to put down maybe 2 or 3 thousand infra on luna.   getting the population capacity means revving up your civilian shipping, and a few early liners, and the extra trade income (*especially* the magic duranium-from-nowhere civilian infrastructure) makes a pretty big difference in your early wealth.   

you dont really want to systematically have infrastructure builds be part of your plan, because that stuff is 100% duranium, which is already a giant limiting resource (since it's about a sixth of all the TN resources by weight found, but many things you build are half duranium by weight).   Dur budgeting is *the* biggest big-picture problem, but wealth is the limit you run into *first*.

by the same token, though, a terraforming fleet (and yes, terraforming ships are the only plausible option) represents a lot of duranium and wealth.   dont go crazy with it- i personally like to stop once i have . 06 or . 08 atmosphere per year capacity in total, including tech and leaders; YMMV DYODD etc.   remember, stomp an NPR and you get a zero cost habitable world (maybe not to *you*. . . ) AND a half billion souls to mine it for you.   doing well by doing evil, s'what it's all about.

[leonidas1283 (OP)]

I'm talking about should I colonize other planets with infrastructure while I am still terraforming sol and should I colonize the other star systems with infrastructure to get more people to gain my wealth

[ExChairman]

I would say, it depends on:
- Pop surplus
- Freighter surplus
- Colony ships surplus.

I always build a lot of terraformers and invest a lot in terraforming technology. But there is always a lot of planets can support a population. I usually put down 1 million colonist and 20% more than needed infrastructure on any planet with water/ice that are terraformable then let my entrepreneurs take the colony up to the 10 million, unless its a planet with a good mining or strategic position. My terraform fleets will then move around and terraform whats most important then down the line, but usually there will always be better candidates as your empire grows...

[misanthropope]

yeah generally if you're terraforming a planet you dont want to put infra on it.   

being in too much of a hurry to colonize outside of sol will, again, slow down your development, because of all the shipping capacity that the extra hauling distance entails.   make sure you've got big fat colonies on mars and luna first, IMO- 100 million each isnt too big at all, ive delayed expansion til ive had the human population almost evenly divided into thirds (which IS too big, but not terrible).   a nice simple model to play with is this:

colonize luna with magic free infra while you work on terraforming mars.   luna will grow at something like 8 million per year in the first decade, but once mars is colony cost zero it will grow as fast as heck owing to the short round trip distance.   

the moment mars is 0. 0 is not a bad point to start exploring extra solar.   if you get yourself a nice war, hooray, you win!  if not, find two new worlds at 2. 0 colony cost, one is your new luna, one is your new mars.   

this is a "heavy colonization" strat, albeit a tolerably economical one.   you will reach a point where facilities need to be shipped off terra because you dont have the manufacturing sector to support them.   you will need to manage your colony worlds with respect to "source of colonists/ destination of colonists/ stable".   you will reach a point where the utter stupidity of the civilian sector will prevent you from getting your magic infra where you want it.   this is a recipe from the internet; it probably wont be exactly to your taste as is but isnt a bad starting point.

[Michael Sandy]

I often colonize Luna and Mars, and use them to generate infrastructure, then terraform them.  This frees up all that infrastructure, and I will have enough civilian shipping to move all that infrastructure.  Making use of that infrastructure is faster than terraforming.  I don't colonize a new world until I can get enough infrastructure to support 25 million pop, so that I can STOP colony ships from going to that new world to their deaths.

The reason to start with infrastructure is because a terraform heavy strategy requires you to have a lot of civilian shipping, period.

[leonidas1283 (OP)]

I should have mentioned this before but eh
I'm using sm mode for all
Should still use infrastructure
I think so, I want to expand as fast as possible

[Barkhorn]

If you're using SM mode it makes no difference.  You could just SM the colony to whatever size or terraforming level you want.

[leonidas1283 (OP)]

For what I'm doing I want a limit to how much sm I want to use