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[Network Pesci]

Never, in all my two dozen playthroughs of StarSector version .95.1, have I found a planet suitable for regular Soil Nanites in a system I'd want to settle.  I can find plenty of planets that technically can take Soil Nanites, but why would I settle a single Poor Farmland desert planet by itself? I can probably find a Terran World with Rich Farmland, although it's probably "polluted" with Organics or Rare Metals, and will have other planets in the system.  So, you know, objectively superior in every way except I can't use Soil Nanites there, but it would produce more food anyway.

I can't speak for .96 yet, because in my two playthroughs I haven't explored literally every planet in the sector, but I don't remember the last campaign that I ever had a reason to use Soil Nanites.  The exact combination of "already worthwhile to farm" combined with "not worthwhile to mine" needed means that I'm statistically never going to use them.

A "Perfect System" would have a mining planet, a low-hazard barren planet to use as a forge world (the first two are often the same planet), a gas giant for fuel production, and a Terran or Terran-Eccentric world to supply food.  I don't remember the last time I've seen a "Perfect" system, I always settle for, ehh, good enough.  If I waited until I explored the whole sector before I started colonizing, I probably still wouldn't find a perfect system, and once I've explored everything, the campaign is basically over.

My Soil Nanites, unlike any other piece of Domain Tech, just sit in my planetary treasure vaults next to my 200 Arbalest Autocannons and my 15000 units of scrap metal until the heat death of the universe or at least until I get bored and start a new campaign.  The description for Soil Nanites states, unfortunately the inbuilt safeguards on this unit seem to be operational.  We can get Corrupted Nanoforges, and hope to replace them with the rarer but vastly superior Flawless Nanoforge.  So we should be able to get Hacked Soil Nanites that can be used on any planet with the right climate.  Make them five times as rare, fine, make them generate an obscene amount of Pather interest, okay, they probably would consider it a hideous corruption of sacred nature.  At least I would ever use them.

Or maybe make an optional quest where Gargoyle or somebody like that offers to hack your Soil Nanites if you do some huge favor for them.  Come on, Gargoyle would totally hack some nanites just because you bet him he couldn't do it, much less if you offered him a pet rock Alpha Core or swung an antimatter banhammer on some online rival of his.

[Wyvern]

...Huh. I mean, sure, you do get a lot of planets that can't use them, and I suppose if you're holding out for absolutely optimal planets... but I'll cheerfully take slightly sub-optimal but in the right place.

My current game I've got a colony with farming and mining and using soil nanites, for example. Is it the most profitable place ever? No. Is it conveniently in a system near the core with a gate? Yes, yes it is. Does it keep my faction supplied with all the food and organics I need? Yes it does.

...Anyway. I guess I wouldn't have any complaints about the restrictions being relaxed, but I also don't see any great need to change it.

[Princess_of_Evil]

The biggest problem i've found is that other than magma and gas giants (which have very limited lists of allowed conditions), the planet generator just doesn't seem to want to generate specialized planets.
It doesn't help that as of 0.96, soil nanites are hard to use just because of Pather interest completely wiping its profits to begin with (since they require a certain amount of accessibility).

[Great Wound]

I think a better fix would be to have them work at a reduced capacity if planetary conditions are not met:

Planetary conditions not met: +1 Production
Planetary conditions met: +3 Production

[Megas]

As someone who cares about meeting demand (for self-sufficiency) more than maximum profit, I would throw ii on a poor farmland planet (although even -1 is enough when improved or governed by IP admin) if I have nothing better (can't use forge or synchrotron, but maybe I can use spool if I have it).

I would pick a poor farm planet if the rest of the system is better in some way, like close to core and having a gate.  Good systems with a gate are rare, and I have gone through multiple seeds looking for good enough system with a gate.

In my current game, I would use it on one of the poor farm Arid planets I plan to colonize except they have volatiles (one has -1 - no good; the.other with 0, and that will be my volatiles source after I improve mining and stick an IP admin there.)  The good gate systems have no gas giants or cryovolcanics (and the nearby systems do not have more than one good planet I want to colonize).

For some games, poor farmland is what I get in the systems that are otherwise the best in the game.

In my old 0.95 game, I used soil nanites on a temporary planet.  (I wanted to keep the planet, but I would having eaten -2 or -4 stability from more planets beyond maximum, and I abandoned it eventually.)  I have used soil nanites, at least temporarily, in two or three games.

For me, the only mandatory items are pristine nanoforge and synchrotron to meet demand for High Command (and Military Base if I do not use colony improvements).  Synchrotron requires a No Atmosphere planet, and forge needs a non-habitable or already polluted planet if I do not want to add pollution to a habitable.  The rest of the colony items are nice, and I may use them as long as they do not exceed the +6 interest threshold for Pather cells.  (This is why I will never use the tap with its +8 interest, and I probably will not use fusion lamp because I cannot use another more important item like forge or synch, or combine it with cryoarithmetic, on the lighthouse planet without getting cells.)

[KDR_11k]

Make them five times as rare

I think that would make them rarer than planets that are very suitable for regular nanites.

[BigBrainEnergy]

I can probably find a Terran World with Rich Farmland, although it's probably "polluted" with Organics or Rare Metals,

Well there's your problem, you can actually put soil nanites on planets with organics my friend. It's rare metals and volatiles that block them. Organics are extremely common on habitable worlds so it's no wonder you can't find a good planet.

[SCC]

I think a better fix would be to have them work at a reduced capacity if planetary conditions are not met:

Planetary conditions not met: +1 Production
Planetary conditions met: +3 Production

I think this is quite a nice idea.

[Network Pesci]

Well there's your problem, you can actually put soil nanites on planets with organics my friend. It's rare metals and volatiles that block them. Organics are extremely common on habitable worlds so it's no wonder you can't find a good planet.

Ahh, once again the Ten Percent Rule has got me, and so embarrassingly public too.  Where in the name of Ludd did I get the idea that it was Organics?  Gonna leave this here so that all may witness my shame and ignorance.  Point at your computer screen and laugh, I deserve it.  My current breadbasket planet (and capital, I'm all about that self-sufficiency and I nearly always settle a farming planet first for both role-playing reasons and to not attract attention too early) can actually use them.

https://i.imgur.com/hRQhKec.jpg

Not the record I was hoping to set for the forum in this new version of StarSector, but I'll take it.  Witness me!  Witness the biggest numbskull in all of the official StarSector forum, over twenty campaigns where I might well had used Soil Nanites, but because somehow I got it in my mind that it was Organics that stopped them working, I haven't used them.  Witness me!  (You don't throw up the sign of the V8, you just make a fist and shake it up and down to witness for idiocy.)

I'm going to go burn down the Lion's Guard and raid Sindria for their Domain tech now so I can get a tiny fraction of my pride back.

[Doctorhealsgood]

it happens