Capturing planets, a question of practicality.

[tbontob]

Assume a standard unmodded game with all racial traits "average".

In such a scenario and no events (winning a battle, ships in sector, etc), this is what I understand will happen:

1) A planet with our race will tend to move towards "indifference"
2) A planet with an alien race will tend to move towards "angry" and will eventually "riot".
3) Troops will help to keep the planet with an alien race from becoming angry.
4) The troops can be be "bare bones" with no weapons and will be just as effective as troops armed to the teeth in keeping an alien population on a planet from becoming angry.

Question: Is there a "rule of thumb" which can be used to keep a planet with an alien race from getting angry?

For example. 1 medium troop will keep a medium planet with an alien population in a standard unmodded game with average traits from becoming angry. <=== This is just an example to give an idea of what I am asking for and may not be true at all.

Anybody care to share their experiences?

EDIT: Rearranged a couple of sentances to make this posting easier to read.

[ February 09, 2003, 09:14: Message edited by: tbontob ]

[Fyron]

I think alien races just go to indifferent more quickly, not start being angry and riotous.

[tbontob]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
I think alien races just go to indifferent more quickly, not start being angry and riotous.

You are probably right as I have had little experience in this.

So, I am not in any way suggesting that you are wrong, but in my limited experience, alien planets will eventually become angry and later, riot.

Could it be that your experience predicates that maybe happiness was boosted as a trait when the race is created or maybe there are a large number of ships in the sector which are sufficient to stop the alien race from becoming angry? Or some such thing?

I am just trying to reconcile my experience with yours.

EDIT: Or are we in essential agreement, that in a standard unmodded game, an alien planet will tend to move to indifference faster and then eventually become angry and riot?

[ February 09, 2003, 09:37: Message edited by: tbontob ]

[Fyron]

Maybe you are just seeing conquered populations? They start off angrier, especially after a number of planets from their empire have already been taken. Also, a race you are at war with (and engaged in hot war with) that you have on your planets does get angrier. But, just an alien race that you are not fighting does not get angry from just being an alien race.

[tbontob]

Hmmmm.

Here is an example. Actually, it was my first solo game.

I had completely wiped out a race and moved on to other solar systems.

After a few turns, I suddenly noticed that an alien moon had become a member of my empire.

I suspect, they had a colony ship which colonized a moon and since the race had been wiped out, the new alien moon became a member of my empire.

I can't remember if they started happy or indifferent. But they were either angry at the very start, or eventually became angry. Some 10 turns or so later, they riotted.

At the time I had no idea what would stop them from riotting, so they just continued to riot till the game was over (the next 50 turns or so).

[ February 09, 2003, 10:06: Message edited by: tbontob ]

[Slick]

The relevant properties are from happiness.txt as follows:

Our Troops on Planet := -2
Natural Decrease := -50
Natural Decrease for Other Races := 20

This governs anger/happiness. Negative values make your empire/planet happier, positive values make them angrier.

There are lots of other things that affect happiness/anger which can totally overwhelm these effects, but relative to your question with "all other things being equal":

- planets with your native population get happier over time by 50 points/turn.
- planets with alien population (any amount) get angrier by 20 points/turn.
- EACH troop regardless of size and components makes the planet it is on 2 points/turn happier.

Doing the math, 10 troops of any kind will offset the negative effects of alien population exactly to zero. Add another 25 and they will act like your native population.

I find that "one turn's worth" of small troops with only a cockpit are usually enough to offset alien population. Also, I usually build an Urban Pacification Center in every system anyway just to get all planets to jubiliant. This is normally enough to prevent anger/rioting even if there are enemy ships in the system and/or battles in the system, both of which make planets angrier.

Hope this helps.

Slick.