Hi!

My guess is it’s best to use very specialized colony’s with production planets with nothing but factories (and a space port) with the odd entertainment network thrown in for good measure.

I wouldn't recommend doing that, or you'll face big money waste on social production queue on planet with factories. Currently unused social production is lost. Because of that fact specialization in production isn't cost-effective.

My way to develop (early) planets is to rush-buy a factory, queue another one or two, then some reseach facilities, and (if I have high taxes - low approval) a morale building. When money gets low, some econ buildings get priority. On better planets (8+) I let pop grow to it's max, then I build a single farm and a single morale building (always in pairs). So far (playing only campaign) I ignored compleltely the influence buildings - usually no room for that damn thing. And when I expect to need ships I build shipyards everywhere.

The usual queue is so:
1 production
2 research or more production
3 research
4 morale or econ
5 shipyard
6 farm&morale
7 research or econ

In GalCiv 1 I used to build every wonder I could. Here I build only the most important ones, because they take a tile forever (can't scrap them ) HTH.

BR, Iztok

Specialization all the way!

Haven't play the campaign yet but finished a couple of maps on Painful difficulty and I've got to say specialised planets work best for me (althought I usually have huge problems with cash until trade routes become well developed). Anyway I usually turn my first planet into a "mix" but with a slight focus to production. On a big map my aim is usually 3-4 production planets, then some 3-4 smaller research ones. If I'm building up an 11+ planet, the first buildings are usually 4 factories. Followed by an entertainment center and a farm. And then you build up the other tiles according to the planets specialization. Same pattern for the smaller planets, except use 3 factories and then when all tiles are filled upgrade a plant into another specialization building.

Hi!

Social Production, represented by hammers, is spent on projects. If you have no projects queued, the number above the hammers will be in parenthesis

I don't remember seing it in parenthesis, only the military production. Manual is wrong on those technical details in so many places it's hardly a valid reference. Better check with the game.

That's why I was looking for an other way to develop my planets.

There aren't many. The main obstacle is low number of available tiles. I just wanted to point out that specializing in production isn't quite viable. Specializing in research or influence can also fire back when you need ships or get upgrades done quickly. The only specialzation I see viable is economical one - big planet, that produces LOTS of money. However if you lose that planet, your civ also suffers big time. So I don't belive in specialization, but I use most tiles with bonuses to full extent (but food-ones - too much pop is hard to keep content).

However there's a thought that's naggig me since I have the game. I still need to check with the game, but at present time it looks like there's not much point in significantly increasing any production, if you don't "produce" enough money to run it at that increased level. So taking research resources, building production-increasing starbases, building manufacturing capital ... only increases ABILITLY to produce more. One still has to PAY for that. And if he doesn't have enough money, is that "upgrade" pointless.
If that is true, then building a starbase on research resource becomes quite less important, compared to other resources, and makes anything that gives you more money, or something for free, much more.

Seems that the quote in the manual on Galactic Economy
“Money makes the galaxy go round.”
Is much MUCH more important, that I thought previously.
BR, Iztok

Specialization in production or research doesn't work. You still need money to fund everything. On the other hand, you can rush build anything you want, as long as you have money. No factories required.

You can't rush research, but specializing outside of the planet that's your tech capital doesn't really work.

Taxes aren't supposed to be your primary source of income. Trade is, and tourism is to a lesser extent. Evil players therefore have a harder time; morale is supposed to be your weak spot, so you can't fund expansion easily with taxes, and the high pop counts necessary for your transports are harder to fill. The planetary minuses from taking the good choice doesn't seem so bad when you realize that your major economic drivers are independent of any planets: trade and tourism.

Never trade with the Drengin or Yor. You'll grow dependent on that revenue, which will disappear when they declare war. And you'll help fund their expansion, which is ten times harder if they had to do it with taxes alone.

GoatRider:
The manual is currently wrong about social production. It's not entirely clear whether it's a bug or a feature, but right now unspent social production is wasted. It is not returned to the treasury. There have been quite a few threads about it not working as described in the manual.

Unused military production, on the other hand, is not wasted.

Usually I have about -100 credits income per turn until I research advanced trade and set up the routes. But it's easy to compensate for that if you sell your technologies to the AI, especially to minor races. That way my balance is about 2000 and even if for some reason I suddenly cant research a new technology and sell it before the offers, I still have a "cushion" of about 20 turns.

Okay, so maybe I didn't read the manual closely enough, but farming does not produce population, it just raises the population cap for a given planet, right? So, what are the driving forces to increase population, morale? Also, if you don't need population to have production (just the money from taxes to pay for it) why am I building all these darned farms on tiles that could be used for research or production? AHH!!! I guess I am in the old mind set of the TBS that says farms=people. I gotta go back and re-read the manual...

Population increases on it's own, given morale is greater then 50%. It reaches it's cap rather fast. So yes, in essence farms do = people.

and those tiles are not wasted production or research. They're an opportunity to good money. That's how I treat them, anyway.

So, what are the driving forces to increase population, morale?

Prioritized according to my play style:

1) more people=more taxes collected
2) more people=a harder to invade planet
3) more people=more influence