Terraforming

[Chrispy (OP)]

Hi!  I am playing 5. 2, and I'm messing around, trying to terraform a high colony cost planet.   (~45).   I've got the population up over 10m, but I've got no manufacturing sector, and thus no workers.   How can I terraform this planet?

[Vynadan]

You could send orbital habitats to the planet, which house population going to the manufacturing sector directly, or send orbital terraformers (ships designed with at least one terraforming module) to the planet, terraforming the planet without a population needed at all.

[UnLimiTeD]

Given the high cost, Orbital Habitats are probably cheaper than Infrastructure per population on this planet.
Terraforming ships can be commanded by an officer with a skill bonus to speed stuff up, maybe a governor could help as well.
Seeing the high cost, whats the reason to try and terraform it at all?

[Chrispy (OP)]

It's the only planet that's colonizable within ~6 sectors, and the systems nearby have a decent amount of resources.   (My race has very high gravity requirements, 2. 5-4. 5 so colonies are not the most common things to find at the best of times at any rate. ) I was under the impression that orbital habitats contributed to the population in a way that corresponds with the colony cost?  If not, excellent, kinda.   Good to know if I need the option in the future.   I guess most of my misconceptions were that I thought that orbital terraformers required free manufacturing population.   They don't, so I'm slowly on my way to make a second bastion of civilization.

[UnLimiTeD]

Orbital Habitats give shelter to 50k people no matter the colonization cost.
Given their size and prize, you can easily mass-produce them once you got the shipyard.

[Chrispy (OP)]

My proportion to the colony cost, I meant that I've read on the forum that the percentages of people living in the orbital colony match up with what the planet's colony cost.   I'm still going to run tests and see if this is true for myself.

Sadly, they still won't really work as the tonnage of shipyard required would beggar me for several years.   So orbital terraformers it is!

[UnLimiTeD]

Well, upgrading a one slipway Commercial Shipyard isn't that expensive, and you can do it in two years or so.
But your call. 

[Brian Neumann]

You can also prefab the orbital habitat using your construction factories.  This will speed up how long it takes to build one dramatically.

Brian

[Chrispy (OP)]

The big matter is moving it all there.   It takes me nearly one year to get there in a reasonably fast craft.   Orbital habitats might take a while longer. . .

[UnLimiTeD]

That is true.
But will your terraformers really be that much faster?
Maybe just wait for the next level of Engine Technology, and build a tug?

[Chrispy (OP)]

Perhaps.   At any rate, I shudder to think how much fuel I'll need.   

[UnLimiTeD]

Commercial Engines shouldn't need that much fuel.

[sloanjh]

Another subtlety to remember: the higher the colonization cost, the lower percentage of population is available to work on manufacturing.  I'm not sure how this effect interacts with orbital habitats.

John

[Brian Neumann]

Another subtlety to remember: the higher the colonization cost, the lower percentage of population is available to work on manufacturing.  I'm not sure how this effect interacts with orbital habitats.

John

My understanding was that the population in the orbital habitats are treated as if the colony cost was zero for this sort of purpose.  A really large set of habitat's with hundreds of millions of people would have a significant portion in the service industries and supporting the total population, just like if it was an ideal world.

Brian

[Steve Walmsley]

The big matter is moving it all there.   It takes me nearly one year to get there in a reasonably fast craft.   Orbital habitats might take a while longer. . .

Your best option is to build Tugs and tow the orbital habitats, or tow the slow-moving terraformers

Steve