By expanding your territory, you will be able to increase your population and the flow of resources, which, in turn, will increase your chances of winning. To achieve this goal, you must use colonizing ships. Don't forget to choose systems with very good planets or a lot of mediums. Planets with oceans or flora are wanted by all races, so it doesn't matter which faction you play, because you should choose these planets as your priority targets during expansion. They also provide approval bonuses, which are helpful. With the development of technology, you get the opportunity to inhabit more planets and even turn them into something more favorable. You can also help environmentalists in your empire. If they are in power, you can colonize almost all planets, although you will receive a penalty for having too many of them under your control.
At the beginning of the game, you start with one colonizer ship, but nothing prevents you from building more. Moreover, the building of colonizing ships does not require a population unit (unlike the previous game of the part). Colonization consists of two stages.
First, you must find an empty system (one that is not influenced by another player) with planets that can be colonized. Such planets are marked on the game screen as white full circles (miniature planets) under the system name. When you send the colonizing ship to the desired location, you can select the "Colonization" option. This ship is used in the process of building an outpost, which is the first step towards a settlement in this system.
The second stage is the development of your outpost. Although this planet is under your control, its system is still neutral. If there are other planets that don't belong to anyone, other players can colonize them. Here the race begins - who will be the first to develop his outpost, that is the system. It develops on its own. An outpost creates the first population unit by collecting a certain amount of food that it produces itself (the base production of a given planet plus the production of an outpost). On this planet, civilian ships with food will begin to fly, which can speed up this process. They come from your capital or the system you have chosen. But you must remember that these ships are defenseless against pirates and enemy fleets. When you select this system, under the planet name, you see three options and a bar showing how much time is left to get the first aggregate unit. Nearby you can see the village icon that appears there. This will usually be the population of your faction.
However, you can help your colony. There are three ways:
- The first is useful when the system has an outpost belonging to another civilization. With a little manpower, you can take food from other outposts.
-Also you can finance the development of the colony and increase the level of food production by 100%.
- The last option is to increase the attractiveness of the system. By doing this, more people will be arriving in the new world.
In most cases, you will use the second and third option. Funding for food production is most useful on far-off worlds, where ships carrying migrants have a long way to go. The second is ideal for systems close to your empire, because thanks to this, you can get a system in a very short time. When you get your first population in an outpost, this system becomes part of your empire, and you can now rule it like any other colony.
