What is your process to efficiently explore and colonize a and terraform a system? I've been trying to use the civilian industry to move things like terraformers and infrastructure around but it has proved quite inefficient as despite having buttloads of civilian vessels they all seem to be colonizers that just want to make my colonies overcrowded. I can't even stop them...
Once a pop hits 25 millions, you can set it as "stable", which will prevent civilians colonizer from bringing in civilians. Also, there are two ways to get infrastructure. You can produce and move it yourself, or you can let the civilians bring in free infrastructure. Part of the issue may be that your civilians are too busy moving terraforming installations to bring the infrastructure.
So crowding is inevitable, but it shouldn't be too much of a issue, especially if you can deploy a few ground troops to maintain order.
I ask because I am twelve years into my game and have only colonize two planets outside Sol, and Mars and Luna aren't even fully terraformed yet, so I feel like I'm not doing something right.
Hey, that's not too bad, quite fast honestly. I tend to turtle for much longer.
If I set a geo survey team in Sol to explore all bodies will it automatically go through jump gates to do so once all bodies in Sol are surveyed? That would make my life much easier.
Geoship you mean? You can set it to survey all body in sol, and to transit to another system if the primary default order (survey bodies in sol) isn't possible.
And once you have explored and colonize a system, how do you "lock it down"? So far, I can't really station anything outside of Earth because it is the only place with any manufacturing, the 11 elements, and fuel. I guess you would have to set up the system capital to be the place where all the fuel, elements, and factories are put, but if it doesn't have the 11 elements nativley then you would have to set up a whole distribution chain, and that would be super annoying and something I am not at all good at managing...
Not sure what you mean by "lock it down". As for distribution chains, you can use mass drivers to move minerals within a system without any input.
Finally, I can't help but think terraforming ships are kinda useless compared to installations. The moduals are very large and it seems better to just invest in a large freighter that can carry planetary installations.
That's funny, I never use installations because I consider them useless. They simply need too much labour, and in hostile world, much of the population is too busy keeping the rest alive. If you want to quickly terraform planets, you need dozens of installation. I just dedicate a shipyard to terraformers generally. You could also consider using Orbital Haibtat to manufacture a gigantic terraforming station.
