THE PLANETS SCREEN

The planet report screen provides not only a full planet summary for all the star systems that you control and a breakdown of your maintenance costs, but also allows you to instantly look up and move to any planet of your choice by name. Furthermore, a quick scan of this screen will reveal which planets have the best population growth and which ones are losing colonists to pollution.

When first entering the screen, the planet that you were previously viewing will be highlighted. Selecting any other planet’s row will send you to that selected planet in the Main Control screen.

Arrow Icons: If you have more than 12 planets under your control, the arrow keys will allow you to scroll the list up and down to find a particular planet.

Population: The current colony population is shown in the left box. If the population has changed since last turn an arrow will be displayed in the right box (red for decrease and green for increase) along with the amount of change. Unless the colony has been engaged in combat, a red arrow is a sure sign that industrial waste is killing off your population. (For details on population growth, see Colonizing Planets.)

Planetary Shields (SHD): Planetary shields defend both populations and military bases from enemy space bombardment. The rating of the shield, V–XX, indicates how many points of damage are absorbed from each attack. Missile bases are protected by both Planetary Shields and their own Deflector Shields.

Factories (FACT): Industrial factories are the main source of colony production, but each factory requires at least one colonist unit to operate. Eventually advanced robotics technology will allow colonists to operate multiple factories. Any factories beyond the control of the colonists can not be operated. Missile Bases (BASE): Missile bases are a cheap alternative to space fleets for planetary defense.

Industrial Waste (WST): The industrial waste shown beside the number of factories reduces the maximum number of colonists that can live on a planet. The report screen is quite useful for identifying those planets that are having pollution problems and then jumping to them so that you can increase their ecology spending.