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[Kakroom]

I was surprised to learn that colonies/settlements/stations don't actually shrink in size, regardless of commodity shortage or unrest or war or whatever. This seems to run counter to both, um... the way life works, but also to the idea that size changes in the sector are primarily based in immigration. Hence the pop caps on new colonies.

I think that it'd be pretty cool if this weren't the case, and that colonies gradually shrank over time if their conditions were not amenable to, you know, people surviving there. It seems like this is so simple it must've come up and been ditched for a balance reason or something, but in the unlikely case it hasn't, here it is.

As an aside this could add a funny bonus to low accessibility colonies where people might be inclined to leave your settlement but, you know. They can't, because the nearest starbase is like a billion lightyears away.

[Sandor057]

Managing, or rather being able to decrease colony size better would be quite nice. It could be in form of some toggles (like the Free Port button), which would severely decrease growth rates, like immigration restrictions or forced relocation to other planets. This toggle could and should cost some money and a few points of stability, maybe even cause the loss of an industry.

For those planets you only colonize because you don't have any better candidates, you would be able to gradually decrease their size and then abandon them altogether. But lacking any other options, being able to decrease planet size if pop % hits 0 of the current level would be useful (and would also add some concenrs to the player to look out for with the early colonies).

[Kakroom]

I believe Aurora has a similar system involving immigration restriction. Something about placing them under military control?

That'd certainly be useful for setting up colonies that you don't particularly want to turn into large population centers. Military outposts and the like.

[Megas]

Seeing that size 3 colonies are immune to Pather cells and (next release) expeditions, I want a bunch of size 3 colonies ruled by alpha cores (that guarantee entrenched Pather cells if colony size is 4 or more) to print free money.  It gets annoying removing spaceport temporarily to prevent colonies from growing to the next size.

Preventing my first colony from growing to size 5 would be handy in case my fleet is still not powerful enough to handle endgame fleets that come to attack my colony.  Once colony becomes size 5, it becomes too big to abandon.

[intrinsic_parity]

Seeing that size 3 colonies are immune to Pather cells and (next release) expeditions, I want a bunch of size 3 colonies ruled by alpha cores (that guarantee entrenched Pather cells if colony size is 4 or more) to print free money.  It gets annoying removing spaceport temporarily to prevent colonies from growing to the next size.

Pirates will still attack you though, and you will still have weaker defenses because the colony is so small. I feel like this will not be any less annoying. Size 3 colonies also don't make much money, so I'm not sure how worthwhile it will even be.

[Megas]

Pirates will still attack you though, and you will still have weaker defenses because the colony is so small. I feel like this will not be any less annoying. Size 3 colonies also don't make much money, so I'm not sure how worthwhile it will even be.

Sure.  Although I guess friendly with pirates stop that part.  If I try total core kill, I want to be friendly with pirates just to stop the raids.

However, if we still have -1/-10% pirate raids, a tier 1 battlestation and ground defenses should be enough to reliably repel pirate raids that small by itself, no patrol required.  Bigger defenses are required for major factions or bigger pirate raids.

The idea is after a total core kill and friendly pirates, there will be no need for defenses or babysitting because cells bypass them or simply do not appear, and pirates do not raid if friendly.  (Just eat the penalty from activity; no point removing it if it reappears the next day.)  All other factions are removed from the game if their core worlds are wiped out.  (I just want to explore without the babysitting, and I probably need to kill everyone, or at least kill the military worlds and let pirates decivilize everyone else.)

Size 3 colonies also don't make much money, so I'm not sure how worthwhile it will even be

The idea is to colonize tens or hundreds of worlds and make big money despite no trade income after a total core kill.  (5k to 10k credits times a hundred or so instances of Pop&Inf is a big chunk of cash.)  The point of the game after total core kill is to colonize the entire sector.  (There is a reason why I called it the mad quest.)  Enemies are generally Radiants for cores, which are stronger than everything the core worlds can throw at the player in combat.

Of course, pirates are probably the strongest faction because they have that demon power of campaign immortality and relentlessness.

P.S.  Once cores start to do more than merely stick around like cursed sticky items, then that plan will fall apart.

[intrinsic_parity]

If you have tons of colonies, you will have tons of babysitting no? constantly chasing pirate bases before they level up and overwhelm your undefended stations? You won't have any defensive fleets if you want your one industry to make money, and your ground defenses will be super weak because of the colony size, so I'm not sure a tier 1 will be enough. You will probably get like <30k per colony too with a station to upkeep and low accessibility to avoid growth. It seems like way more work and way less money than just having a few super colonies and dealing with the issues associated.

[Megas]

If you have tons of colonies, you will have tons of babysitting no? constantly chasing pirate bases before they level up and overwhelm your undefended stations? You won't have any defensive fleets if you want your one industry to make money, and your ground defenses will be super weak because of the colony size, so I'm not sure a tier 1 will be enough. You will probably get like <30k per colony too with a station to upkeep and low accessibility to avoid growth. It seems like way more work and way less money than just having a few super colonies and dealing with the issues associated.

If tier 1 pirates will be the same as they are today, they will be stopped by orbital station and ground defenses.  I have seen this multiple times.  Actually, I have not seen pirates from a -1/-10% base succeed in a raid protected by only an orbital station and ground defenses (I forget if they were basic or heavy batteries).

There is no need to chase pirates if you are friendly with them (if what I read about friendly pirates not raiding is true).

I still have the super colonies.  However, they will not be so super after the core worlds are dead because they lose all income from trade.  Today, if player made a million with seven super colonies trading with all of the core worlds, he will make less than 100k if the core is dead.  The only way to get more money from colonies is to get more income from Pop&Inf, and the only way to do that is build more colonies.

If player can eliminate babysitting from pirates, pathers, and majors, he can colonize as many worlds as he worlds.  The majors disappear if their worlds are wiped off the map.  Pathers do not appear if the colony is only size 3, and pirates do not raid if they are friendly.

[intrinsic_parity]

Don't pirate bases level up if you leave them alone? Also, we have very different ideas of what the goal of the game is. I would stop playing long before killing the core worlds, there's no point for me in continuing once you're that strong. Also, I'm fairly certain there will be new enemies to fight in end game, so I wouldn't use the current end game as a reference.

[Megas]

They do level up.  However, I forgot about the pirate raids that come anyway as expeditions if no major factions would attack, like that first raid that comes a few months after the player builds his first colony.

there's no point for me in continuing once you're that strong. Also, I'm fairly certain there will be new enemies to fight in end game, so I wouldn't use the current end game as a reference.

This is similar to playing a classic endless arcade or retro game.  The point is to see how far you can go.  In an arcade game, how high you can score or how long you stay on the machine, even if the gameplay is repetitive and predicable (although whether the player can keep up in spite of that is another matter).  In Starsector's case, it can be how many planets the player conquers after he has nuked the core worlds.

I have not tried taking over the sector because I do not have the time to play that kind of game and I know more updates will come.  I rather do sector conquest once, and I want to wait until Starsector hits 1.0 before I try that.