I haven't played Stellaris so completely new to Paradox games. Excuse the stupid question but I can't figure out how to expand my space borders in the tutorial. There are planets that are colonizable that I've surveyed but I can't colonize them because they are outside of my borders. I've tried building starbases and upgrading them and it hasn't expanded my borders, how can I expand them?
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You need to build an outpost with your construction ship after exploring the system
A mechanic to be aware of is that building outposts consumes influence with the cost being higher the further away the system is from your borders. This can be a bit tricky to see on the galaxy map in Infinite compared to stellaris but it's important because if there's a distant system you want (perhaps because it has an inhabitable planet) it can be cheaper to progressively expand there. In other words build an outpost on a system just outside your border on the way to the system you want, and keep going until you get there.
Thank you very much for the extra information, really helpful. Coming from BoTF I find the level of detail quite high, this was partially what deterred me from getting in to Stellaris and I was hoping Infinite wouldn't be quite as difficult to step in to.
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No problem. Infinite has a lot of similar fundamentals as Stellaris (though some notable differences too) but yeah it is simpler. At least compared to stellaris with all the DLC.
Can I ask you for a bit more information on what/how districts work? I'm getting confused between pops, districts and buildings. I believe the buildings provide straight modifiers but don't impact pops or districts right? Do districts just provide additional jobs?
Sure. Districts and buildings both provide jobs. Different jobs produce different resources and require a pop to work them (so if you have a low population planet having an excess of districts won't help). Districts also provide housing, you need to have a surplus of housing for better population growth and stability. A planet can have as many city, industrial, and culture districts as it has space for (larger planets can fit more). The basic resource districts for energy, minerals, and food have limits depending on planet features. Some planets have features like fertile soil that mean you can build more agriculture districts, while others have rich ore veins for mineral districts. In the expansion planner you can see the maximum number of each district a planet can have. The last important thing to note is that city districts unlock building slots.
Most buildings provide jobs with these jobs typically being more productive than district jobs. Entertainers working in the holodeck centers produce more amenities for a planet than city district clerks for example. Some buildings provide jobs that no districts do, and other buildings don't add jobs directly (or only add 1/2) and instead buff district jobs. There are buildings like the forge which are limited to 1 per planet but make all of your industrial district jobs more productive. Buildings can also be upgraded once you have the right technology.
So you want to build a mix of districts and buildings depending on what the planet is good at and what you need. You can specialize the planet explicitly by changing it's designation (the button to the bottom left of the picture when you've got the planet menu open). This is really good to do because designations provide buffs to those jobs. E.g. a planet with lots of mineral districts should be designated as a mineral world to get the most benefit. You can always change designations later, so if you really need a resource but don't have a perfect planet for it just use an imperfect one for a while and change it's designation later when you've got one that's better.
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That's amazing thank you again for taking the time to explain this. So basically build districts to ensure there is always some level of surplus housing to help pop growth but focus this in an area the planet is rich in that particular resource of. I believe this is also shown simply by the number of a specific available districts of a resource compared to others? The buildings seem a bit more specialized to focus on certain aspects. Regarding colonizing a planet are there circumstances where you wouldn't want to colonize one, like are there stats for planets that make some more desirable than others, other than maybe wanting a specific resource at that time? Not sure if you ever played BoTF but some systems had very low max pops which didn't make them very valuable. I can't seem to find a similar stat in Infinite.
No problem. Yeah there's a housing stat that you always want to have positive. Most districts don't produce much housing with the exception of city districts which are great at that. The number of districts is important but you can also click the planetary features button to see if there's anything special. I'm not 100% sure how much infinite makes use of planet features (I've played for about 12 hours so far compared to 100x that in stellaris) but planet features can sometimes give a bonus to districts or certain jobs. E.g. features that boost any researcher jobs on that planet.
I'd say the only reason not to colonise a planet is that you're saving resources to colonise a better one soon. Otherwise it's always good to colonise. There's a saying in the stellaris community that pops are king, and infinite has the same pop system. Pops are what drive everything and the more you have the better. Pop growth is per planet so even if a planet is small and lacking in resources it's still worth colonising it so that your empire's population grows faster.
I'd say the only reason not to colonise a planet is that you're saving resources to colonise a better one soon. Otherwise it's always good to colonise. There's a saying in the stellaris community that pops are king, and infinite has the same pop system. Pops are what drive everything and the more you have the better. Pop growth is per planet so even if a planet is small and lacking in resources it's still worth colonising it so that your empire's population grows faster.
So I just got to playing again and my construction ships don't even have the option to build an outpost. I am playing through the tutorial, is this why or is it based on something I need to research first?You're welcome
I haven't played the tutorial (seasoned Stellaris player) but I presume that is why. Select a construction ship on the galaxy map and right click on a system not within your borders, there should be an option to build an outpost (it costs a variable amount of influence and 100 alloys)
Also, note that the star system must be considered fully surveyed, which is typically done by one or more of your science ships. It's probably easiest to order outpost construction from the galaxy map by selecting an available construction ship and then right-clicking on the desired system; this opens a menu that includes the option to build an outpost in the target system.
It was not mentioned here but you should hardly ever build your infrastucture very far in advance. Don't just build 8 city districts when your planet has a population of 3. This is because districts and buildings never (or almost never) give their bonuses unless fully staffed, but you still pay upkeep. And the upkeep costs are likely to strangle your economy if you let them baloon with no purpose.
For basic planetary management, do 3 things. Is housing positive? Are amenities positive? Is unemployment between 0 and -1 (That is, no unemployment, and maximum 1 empty job)? Then that is a well-run colony. (There is quite a book on advanced planetary management, but if you keep the above 3, you are doing better than average).
As to what to colonize, it is true that you, in general, want to colonize everything. But there is a nuance. Planets are divided into habitability classes. Without getting into the really gritty underbelly, there are 3 types you care about at the start. Of which, two are your targets, M class and L class.
M class have a habitability of at least 80% and are shown on the galaxy map as a green dot. These should be your first priority.
L class have a habitability of between 50% and 80%, and are shown as yellow dots. These should be your second priority.
Brown dots and under should be avoided until you finish with the rest, though there is an argument to just wait for Terraforming technology instead.
Reason is that habitability impacts pops in negative ways. They eat more amenities, more housing, reproduce slower, and suck at their jobs. Even an amazing planet in theory with good synergic features, with low habitability, will struggle and barely plod along. Even with mountains of focused investment, you are likely to maybe break even with upkeep, if that.
In short, I would say that if you build a colony on low hab planets, give them some basic med clinics or smth, and once it grows, relocate extra pops to more productive planets, and make investments on those instead. Any investment you make on an even amazing low hab world will take ages to recuperate, assuming it gets recuperated at all and not just eaten up by upkeep.
For basic planetary management, do 3 things. Is housing positive? Are amenities positive? Is unemployment between 0 and -1 (That is, no unemployment, and maximum 1 empty job)? Then that is a well-run colony. (There is quite a book on advanced planetary management, but if you keep the above 3, you are doing better than average).
As to what to colonize, it is true that you, in general, want to colonize everything. But there is a nuance. Planets are divided into habitability classes. Without getting into the really gritty underbelly, there are 3 types you care about at the start. Of which, two are your targets, M class and L class.
M class have a habitability of at least 80% and are shown on the galaxy map as a green dot. These should be your first priority.
L class have a habitability of between 50% and 80%, and are shown as yellow dots. These should be your second priority.
Brown dots and under should be avoided until you finish with the rest, though there is an argument to just wait for Terraforming technology instead.
Reason is that habitability impacts pops in negative ways. They eat more amenities, more housing, reproduce slower, and suck at their jobs. Even an amazing planet in theory with good synergic features, with low habitability, will struggle and barely plod along. Even with mountains of focused investment, you are likely to maybe break even with upkeep, if that.
In short, I would say that if you build a colony on low hab planets, give them some basic med clinics or smth, and once it grows, relocate extra pops to more productive planets, and make investments on those instead. Any investment you make on an even amazing low hab world will take ages to recuperate, assuming it gets recuperated at all and not just eaten up by upkeep.
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Thanks for all the replies and information, I will test out the outposts again and see if I can get it to show up.
It looks like amenities are system specific unlike all the other resources is this correct?
It looks like amenities are system specific unlike all the other resources is this correct?
Amenities and housing are planet-linked resources, yes. You can't make life better on Denobula by building houses on Earth.
Again as someone who didn't have access to the tutorial (crashing on Mac) - how do I increase influence?
I seem to be stuck at being able to build 7 or so starbases... are you guys saying I should be just building outposts rather than starbases to expand the borders?
I seem to be stuck at being able to build 7 or so starbases... are you guys saying I should be just building outposts rather than starbases to expand the borders?
Influence is a resource that ticks up over time. I'm not sure what ways infinite has to increase the monthly influence income, but it can be decreased with things like treaties between nations. If you have research, commercial, defense or similar pacts it will cost you a small amount of monthly influence. If you hover the mouse over your influence income you'll see a breakdown.
Correct, starbases have nothing to do with borders. You have to fully survey a system with a science ship and then use a construction ship to build an outpost. You can have an infinite number of outposts but there's a limit to how many you can upgrade to starbases.
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