Administrators are very useful for one purpose: temporary pop-up (size-3) colonies, especially tech mines. Administrators can govern the temporary pop-ups while I personally govern my big cash-cow colonies and storage. Eventually, after I suck all of tech mines dry, I want to have as many size 10 planets I can get (without using cores). I never got far enough to drain all of the sector's mines. I want a big empire and lots of footholds everywhere. One or two planets in a single backwater system is not enough.
I would like to colonize the entire sector, but that is only possible with lots of the alpha cores. If I do not want to use cores, then seven or eight colonies are the most I can get. Four for my character (or five with Planetary Operations 3 plus Industry), and three from administrators.
Administrators do not level up at all. Yes, Industrial Planning is probably the best of the three, but the other two skills are better than nothing. Two skill administrators are rare and should be hired if spotted.
Pather Interest is very annoying, and a clear "Guide Dang It" (trope). I did not know how it worked until I read the wiki. Thanks to the nanoforge bug, and current Industrial Planning 1, it is possible to completely avoid Pathers if player does not use items and does not build up too much at one planet. If I played another game now, I would build my colonies in a way to prevent Pathers from bothering me (no cores, no synchrotron, but gleefully exploit nanoforge bug for pristine ships). Next version, nanoforge will add 4 interest like synchrotron, which means player will attract pathers - lame. Also, with new Industrial Planning change from less demand to less upkeep, player will need to use items to meet demand of some industries, which means pather interest (with any item) and/or inspections (with cores).
@ Xenoargh: In addition to factions not respecting you, they also fail to defend their own colonies from Pirates and Pathers. In one game, I completely ignored them (because my colony was far in the fringe), and one of the Independent planets (I think Asharu) decivilized. Thus, I need to babysit not only my colonies, but also core worlds if I want maximum income. That was what I meant that my character is a space cop, or space Batman. Take time off from fun stuff just to deal with pirates and pathers to defend my colonies is already annoying enough, and taking more time off to defend the cowardly and corrupt core worlds because they do nothing but send thugs at your colonies is even more annoying. Next release, defending colonies from expeditions will cost reputation, so I need to take more time off to restore reputation and protect accessibility.
Lastly, I think it's totally silly that being non-neutral with the Pirates / Pathers counts as "hostile Factions" in terms of Stability. They really shouldn't get handled like that at all.
Totally agree. Either fully support relations with default hostile factions (so that they do not do weird stuff due to assumed hostile relations) or just remove reputation meters and messages and lock them into permanent hostility.
By the way, do Remnants even count toward to accessibility?
