Best PQ=4 (Ex: Mars) Strategies?

The farm idea wouldnt work as the PQ caps the allowed population for that planet. Being that low means they will never get higher than 5 billion people. I usually make my first low qaulity planet a manafactuiring world and crank out constructors. I do a mix of either that or make research worlds out of them. Either way by the time you get terraforming or go neutral they will make resonably ok planets.

Felk the Terraformer

I always make them research planets. I play in a gigantic galaxy. If there was a shortage of planets (i.e. tiny gal with all players), it might become a factory world.

1 factory 1 research 1 entertainment (i tax really high)
then when i get nuetral ethics i get 1 more entertanment and 1 farm

An entertainment facility so they don't lower my overall tax bracket, and either two factories or a factory and a lab.

I'm surprised that folks need entertainment on something with so little pop? I generally only need entertainment if I'm going to exceed 5B pop. And (as has been stated), a PQ 4 has a max of ~2.5k pop, so not nearly enough to drive down the morale...

What good is a Factory without a Starport? Other than building, well, buildings . . . which you can't fit too many of on a small planet.

either one factory and 3 research of 1 starport and 3 factories. I will often use these to create constructors throughout the game.

What good is a Factory without a Starport? Other than building, well, buildings . . . which you can't fit too many of on a small planet.

If you dont have a factory on say a class 4 planet than even if you focus on social production it will take something like 100 weeks just to build one entertainment center. And then when the building upgrades become available it will take forever again to get them. And dont worry about wasting space with a factory because it will probably be constantly working on some social project untill they are all upgraded all the way. By the time you have habitat improvement or terraforming you can either build a starport or when you are done building on the extra spaces just build something else over the factory.

Factory, Entertainment, Lab + Colony Center. After Lab is built upgrade factory to lab. Focus on Research after all is built/upgraded.

All labs.

One can ignore them, and then buy galactic wonders or trade goods on them.

Factories and a starport. I Use it to pump out constructors or other small ships throughout the game.

One factory and two labs

Actually… Don’t colonize it. Let AI spend time and money to build it up. By mid game, use espionage (or other mean) to find out whether the planet is truly useless or not.

If it has bonus tiles or expandable, then it is not really useless and should start planning a way to take over it in the future (military, influence, or other mean). Once took over, update it accordingly (follow bonus tiles, or expand it into a class 6, 7, 8 planet)

If it has nothing, then ignore it and focus your resource somewhere else. As your empire grows, your influence grows, and eventually it will flip to you. Once it flipped to you, update it anyway you like, since by that time your empire will be so big that this small planet really won’t contribute anything useful. Sell it, or give it away to gain good relationship with other race.

I concur, factories and a starport. PQ4's make nice troop farms for your transports, since they hit the pop cap anyway.

Another trick I do: don't develop them at all. In the initial colonization phase, the low-PQ planets can serve as a buffer, to make the AI will colonize them instead of the high-PQ planets you really want. But if you wind up colonizing them anyway, you can plant a very small population and then trade/gift it to an AI. You'll only get around 80bc for it (less than even the price of the colony ship), but it will be a real drain on his economy. Better his than yours. And later (after he's developed it) you can flip it.

P.S. I think it might have been me who suggested earlier to put a farm, an ent. ctr and a market place on a PQ4 planet. That was wrong. Won't work.

My custom race has points thrown into higher PQ but i still sort of ignore that neighboring planet. I usually go with a starport and dump labs on all the rest. Then i let them sloooowly build constructors to throw on my military starbase i always put in my home system for defence.

I'm a stickler for neat borders and territories, so I prefer not to let the enemy take it. Besides, supposing they have Mars, for example, means they've got the range to get not just to, but past your homeworld. I prefer to site a Factory and three labs on the planet, since the population limit keeps it from becoming an effective tax farm and the lack of space curtails the number of factories that can be built on them.

Starport, Factory, Lab... market next if the PQ gets adusted for habitat reasons.

W/R
Suralle

I buy either 2 research and 1 market or 1 research and 2 market, depending on how I feel at the time

I used to put a starport and two factories on those planets. Now I just build one factory and put labs on the other tiles. Once all the labs have upgraded to the neutrality learning center (I almost always choose neutral), then I'll upgrade that one factory to an NLC, because the factory isn't needed anymore.

I tend to ignore colonising Mars, let the AI have it, then watch it revolt under the sway of my influence capital.

I rarely colonize below 7PQ, but however I get them (flip, conquest), any PQ4 or less planet gets 1 morale building (entertainment center or better) and the rest research, but the entertainment center gets built last and the first research building gets bought so that I am getting value from the planet immediately.

1 factory, rest labs.
After I get final science building built (neutrality center or discovery spheres), I replace last factory with another science building.

No need for entertainment centers, even if I tax high, sicne I use races with morale picks and build trade goods that increase morale.