Plz help me understand sectors

[Jean-Luc]

So how do Terrain/Clime affect the central Colony Sector? Should I have all my colonizers settle on junk sectors?

The colony sector doesn't get exploitations and doesn't produce resources that way but it can still be relevant. For example if the colony sector has a forest it will still provide +10 production via the Ecological Construction doctrine. It's also nice to settle in sectors with Cosmite nodes so you can start getting the Cosmite immediately instead of having to wait for the node's sector to be annexed.

I have a Colony in which I already have 2 food sectors. I just added my 3rd sector to that colony, and it wont let me choose food. Is there any way to exploit more than 2 food sectors per colony?

You can only have up to two of each land based exploitations but you can add a "third" via aquatic sectors. 2 energy exploitations + aquatic sector with Hydro Battery = massive energy income. Same with food and research.

 

[Ironman_Mk11]

The resource icons can be a bit misleading. For example some geographical features like rivers or lava flows provide a flat income of certain resources and produce those "resource icons/pips" on the zoomed out map but that doesn't necessarily mean those sectors are best candidates for exploitations of those resource types.

What you need to look at are a sector's terrain and climate. Each of those has two resources associated with it.

Terrain:

Forest - Food/Production ; Mountain - Production/Energy ; Ruins - Energy/Research ; Fertile Plains - Food/Research

Climate:

Arcadian - Food/Energy ; Arctic - Production/Research ; Fungal - Food/Research ; Arid - Energy/Production

Every sector exploitation starts at lvl 1. Research provides 2 more generic level upgrades which can take your exploitation to level 3 regardless of terrain or climate. Then you have the terrain and climate based upgrades that each provide 1 level. So if both terrain and climate are suitable for a given resource you'll be able to get a lvl 5 exploitation for that resource, this is the best outcome. If only terrain or climate are suitable you'll be capped at lvl 4. If neither, lvl 3.

So an Arcadian Forest can get lvl 5 food but only lvl 4 production or energy and lvl 3 research while a Fungal Mountain is very flexible and can get lvl 4 in any resource type but never a lvl 5.

It's important to note that terrain upgrades come much earlier in the tech tree than climate ones so always look at terrain first unless you're in the late game.

Then you have the resource nodes for each resource which provide +10 of that resource and an additional +5 if your exploitation type matches that resource. So for example if you have a Derelict Power Plant in an Arcadian Mountain not only can you reach a lvl 5 energy exploitation you'll get a total of +15 energy from the Power Plant as soon as your lvl 1 energy exploitation is complete.

These resource nodes sometimes cause the game to give kinda bad recommendations like advising you to make a food exploitation in an Arctic Mountain because it has an Overgrown Biodome so it'll give you that additional +5 food even though neither the terrain nor the climate are suitable for food. That +5 is nice in the very short term but overall it's better to avoid limiting yourself to a lvl 3 exploitation just to get 5 more of a resource unless you have no better alternatives.

This was extremely informative. Thanks for writing it up.

One thing I'm still a bit unclear on, and that's if a sector's Terrain/Climate adds anything to production before any exploitation is built? I understand sector "features" like Rivers grant bonus to a resource per turn regardless of exploitation, as do "Locations" (like Research Stations, Abandoned Quarry, etc). But does a sector's Terrain/Climate effect a sectors production in any way aside from adjusting the maximum potential exploitation levels? For example, does a sector without any non-Terrain/Climate features, and without any Locations, add anything to a colony's production before it's exploited?

 

[Ethorin]

This was extremely informative. Thanks for writing it up.

One thing I'm still a bit unclear on, and that's if a sector's Terrain/Climate adds anything to production before any exploitation is built? I understand sector "features" like Rivers grant bonus to a resource per turn regardless of exploitation, as do "Locations" (like Research Stations, Abandoned Quarry, etc). But does a sector's Terrain/Climate effect a sectors production in any way aside from adjusting the maximum potential exploitation levels? For example, does a sector without any non-Terrain/Climate features, and without any Locations, add anything to a colony's production before it's exploited?

AFAICT, nope. Also most exploitations are pretty weak before you can stack levels on them.

btw, does anyone know what happens if you annex a landmark and dismantle the pre placed exploitation?

 

[Jean-Luc]

Yeah, terrain and climate don't provide any resources on their own.

btw, does anyone know what happens if you annex a landmark and dismantle the pre placed exploitation?

Never thought to try that tbh but I'm pretty sure it can't be done. Those exploitations are tied to their landmarks and can't be changed.

 

[Jean-Luc]

Yeah, terrain and climate don't provide any resources on their own.

btw, does anyone know what happens if you annex a landmark and dismantle the pre placed exploitation?

Never thought to try that tbh but I'm pretty sure it can't be done. Those exploitations are tied to their landmarks and can't be changed.

 

[Ethorin]

Never thought to try that tbh but I'm pretty sure it can't be done. Those exploitations are tied to their landmarks and can't be changed.

Imma have to try it at some point I guess... early game any landmark is great no matter where it is but later on bronze landmarks in bad places are... well, bad.

 

[Scottgun]

Very interesting. I did a summary table:

where:
F:Food
E:Energy
R:Research
P: Production

Bold is when suitable for terrain.
Non bold when suitable for climate.

Awesome. Thanks.

 

[Scottgun]

It's important to note that terrain upgrades come much earlier in the tech tree than climate ones so always look at terrain first unless you're in the late game

I agree. The overview map can be misleading. You see that giant food icon and a bunch of tiny energy icons and think, Ooo! I gotta those big icon sectors.

I'm away from the game for awhile, but does a map overview (or some other means) provide info on the max upgrade potential of a sector? If not, is it worthy of the suggestion box?

 

[Ethorin]

it does... kinda... but rivers and chasms both show up on the same place while providing only flat income so sometimes I'll settle somewhere only to realize "that sector I want can only go to lvl 4 but I'm going to need the level 5"

 

[derbius]

This shows me I thought that I have energy exploitation active in Crux but I could be getting something more from ruins or rivers etc if I knew what building to build or tech. But do I need to dismantle energy exploitation and choose, say, ruin exploitation instead to do that? Is that why there are locks there? What do the locks signify? I have the ruin and river exploitation techs but if I need to build an additional exploit alongside the energy one I am not (seemingly) able to find where in the interface to add them for a sector...

as you can see here

https://photos.app.goo.gl/6Ed2QtBFvcy6cop49 I have built the ruins sector upgrade in this colony. Yet if I look at the colony zoomed out in "economy" view, the ruins all seem to still be locked. And I can't find a way to build river exploitation at all even though I have researched it. I have another colony without the ruins sector upgrade as far as I can see and I am not offered the option to even construct it!

 

[Jean-Luc]

Ruin Exploit simply adds 1 level to whatever exploit type you have in a sector with ruins so if you're using energy exploit there you'll get +1 level to that. River Exploitation's a bit confusing maybe because it uses the word "exploitation" but you don't need to build anything to make use of it. All sectors with rivers will automatically provide +10 food when you research Environmental Conditioning regardless of their exploitation type, you'll even benefit from a river in your central colony sector which can't have exploitations on it.

+20 food from Environmental Conditioning because of the river going through the central and energy sectors.

 

[derbius]

Thanks - but when I zoom out and look at my colonies with the "economy" tab, it shows me that the terrain is "locked" which makes me think that I have not "unlocked" that improvement even though I have the necessary tech!

 

[Jean-Luc]

Not sure what's up with the economic overlay, maybe it's bugged, I've never relied on it.

Sector analysis gives accurate information.

No Ruins or Arcadian exploit tech so you get the red notification. Environmental Conditioning has been research so there's no notification and the river is providing its bonus. But yeah, the overlay is showing the river as "locked" but that's wrong.

 

[Arduano]

Great thread and very helpful! I am an experienced Age of Wonders player but I am still in the process of getting used to Planetfall. Altough Planetfall is obviously an Age of Wonders game it is nevertheless an entire other game.

One question: what is the precise effect of Landmarks on sector exploitation? Does it work the same way as with other locations?

 

[HousePet]

I think it either locks the sector to one prebuilt exploitation, or has its own special exploitation in built. Different Landmarks will do different things.

 

[Rulin]

Not sure if this has been said before, but you can only build 2 sectors away from the colony center.
This makes it even harder to get multiple bonuses from special buildings on the map like +evasion or +experience for infantry units built.

 

[Mauer]

Can each colony have only two of am exploitation type, or is there a way to increase this later on? Can I build a colony on a tip of land and surround it with coast sectors or not?

 

[Jean-Luc]

Can each colony have only two of am exploitation type, or is there a way to increase this later on? Can I build a colony on a tip of land and surround it with coast sectors or not?

You can only have up to two of each land based exploitations but you can add a "third" via aquatic sectors. 2 energy exploitations + aquatic sector with Hydro Battery = massive energy income. Same with food and research.

You can also have a max of 2 aquatic sectors.

 

[Mechalibur]

I thought I understood how sectors work, but I ran into a situation that left me completely confused. I have a claim on a sector, but I'm unable to annex it for some reason. I have an adjacent colony that has a sector slot open (it has 9 population and has only annexed 1 sector so far), and I have units on the center of the sector.

Another player has a claim as well, but I have no agreements with this player. In the past this has never stopped me; the game would just send a notification that there would be diplomatic repercussions to taking it. All I get when I double click the sector is the below message:

 

[Jean-Luc]

Pretty sure that one's just bugged. It's filled up with a mountain so should be uninhabitable. It's a known problem with the random map generator. Sorry about the Cosmite.