Quadrant Types vs Starting Planet Type

[General Hawkwing]

I remember a post awhile back about what starting planet type was the best. It talked about planet size vs number of planets.
One thing not mentioned (nor mentioned anywhere I could find) was quadrant type.
The game allows you pick 1 of several quadrant types at the beginning. When I first started playing, I would use the create map button to view the different quadrant styles and would usually find one I liked under the first type (I think its called mid-life). I then started just letting it select the default on games and would alomost always pick gas planets.
I thought (and it appears mistakenly) that the quadrant types varied in lay out (number of warp points, black holes, etc.) and that was about it. Well late Last night, I decided to run a different quadrant type (ancient?) and well lets just say that gas planet was not a good choice. Quadrant type APPEARS to not only affect layout but also type/amount of planets, suns and other things. Now this makes sense and I would say is great for adding game play . Chalk up another point for MM.

My questions are:
A)Has anyone done any analysis of the dif't quads?
B)Has anyone played with all the dif't quads?C)Am I totally blind for not seeing this sooner?

[Comar]

I've played with several, but not all. I have always found that the gas giants are the best, due to the size advantage if nothing else.

The different types and ages of galaxies do present different challenges and add a lot to the game. If you have not experimented with them, I would encourage you to do so.

[General Hawkwing]

Comar,
I plan on examining it over the next few days. The size of gas planets is the main advantage, but the quad I am in now is averaging less than 0.5 gas planets (of any atmosphere) per system. I've explored 15-16 systems and have 6 planets in 4 systems, with only 2 (homeworld and 1 other) breathable. Now I have meet 1 other empire ( a neutral, rock dweller) and they are 3 places in front of me. While they are extremely friendly and willing to enter in to a T&R treaty, I can not get them to trade me 1 colony ship for anything or combination of anything (I always stop short of giving dealing in planets). I guess I have to aquire it or the tech from some other means .

The above is not meant to be any kind of complaint, in fact this will probably be the most challenging/fun SE4 game I've played yet. Luckily there is no other AI close and there is only one route into the 15 systems I've explored. I'll keep y'all posted.

[eagleton]

Of the 8 races we know at the moment, 7 use rock or ice, I think. So choosing gas giants can lead to advantages because of less competition.
There are more rock and ice planets, therefore you can grow faster at the beginning, for you can construct more facilities at the same time, yet gas giants should be easier to defend because you can concentrate your forces on a few planets. Using robotoid factories and central computers is more profitable (and cheaper) with gas giants.

By the way, did anyone notice a difference between ice and rock planets?

[Comar]

Yeah, with the ancient systems, planets of all types are few and far between. You pays your dues and takes your chances. I still prefer the gas giants overall, though. There may be plenty of tiny and small rock and ice planets, but it takes a lot of them to make one gas giant, plus all the colony ships you have to build. I don't know that there is a perfect answer, just that it works for me.

[Saben]

The data for each sector type is stored in one of the .txt files in the data directory. You will also find which sector types the various choices for quadrant type lean toward.
You learn interesting things in these files, like the fact that all trinary systems ALWAYS have one asteriod belt.
Like the fact that moons are pre-determined, and that by counting them you can tell which standard star-system type you received.
Like the fact that almost every single sector will possess one storm and one asteriod near the outside edges.
Go ahead, dig into them files. There is a ton of usefull info to extract. Hell, I found a switch to set the number of population units it will take to operate one facility... hows that for expansion control?

[Repo Man]

Gotta agree, those data files are helpful. I experimented with several tweaks in the settings file. You can modify the resource value of planets, the resource value of home planets, the innate storage capacity for empires (useful for finite resources, 500K was accepted), the maintenance cost for ships.

The ability to customize the game will keep it fresh for years.

[LintMan]

Repo man, do you have the beta? I'd love to play with the data files, but I read that the demo doesn't allow that.

Oh, man, I can't wait for my full Version to arrive!

[Repo Man]

Nope, I�m just a poor repo guy doing his best with a great demo.

I too learned the hard way that the facilities and components cant be modified. However, the settings.txt file can. Just keep a backup of the original or use the path.txt file to use a new folder.