Planet specialization versus trade ports question.

I think on higher population planets the social specialization is better... On Terran and Ocean planets to have 700 like population.. The industrial spec does not give sufficient bonus I think to outmatch this high population. You need 3-6 levels of industrial thing to be useful, but still the trade port income increase is like 50%, not that much for that huge cost, but have to test it and see numbers, it is just my feeling that the higher population is better..

Actually if you build a ton of trade ports and upgrade alll planets to have industrial spec (not sure of the name) it can give a huge boost, though with decreased population, so you have to be careful.. In my calculation the first level is the best, that only removes 1-10 population from every planet, and gives a 10% trade port income bonus if I'm right.. but further levels decrease population by higher amounts and make the specialization not effective I think..

In my second game as Advent against hard AI's I was able to get a good economy from like 5 planets, my home was 700+ population, and i had a ferrus with full industry and full trade ports, and made my trade chain the longest possible. It was surprisingly good. I guess the key for the specialization is numbers, you need to know what numbers make them efficient, and what planet is suitable for which type.

The specialization bonuses vary by planet type.  Volcanic and Ferrous worlds get much higher industrial specialization bonuses than anything else. 

Yes, but they cannot provide space for much trade ports.. consider building some factories to take advantage of the build time bonus and the trade income increase is even smaller. Ferrus worlds suprprised me with that 16 civilian slots (if i remember the number right).. But to make your economy more intensive for example when you have no more slots to build trade ports then an excellent addition even if there is only 2-3 trade ports.

Social Specialization is useful if you ever get Planet Corruption on a moon or asteroid. Makes it so the planet doesn't lose you money.

I think social spec is better than the other.. on high pop planets it does wonders...

I'm going to play a medium map against easy AI without using any trade ports, only social specialization and see if I can get a decent economy.

We'll need to get some hard math down on this. I haven't looked into it enough yet to be able to put down a verdict, but my gut feeling is the industrial specialization is going to be too good compared to the social one and will need a nerf.

I also find it very strange to have this feature be included as part of a DLC rather than the actual game itself. This specialization system is going to entirely change how the economy works - is that really something you want to feature as DLC rather than a patch?

I feel the opposite, i think they are equally good, as social spec. can easily give you huge number of extra credits (and extra pop growth), consider having a 700 pop terran as capital planet... you will never get this much trade increase from any planet.. and it was said before that there will be planets that are better in this, some will be better in industrial spec.

See this thread: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/445384

- some good observations were made in the later posts.

Much of it will depend on the distance from the capital planet. Even if it has a high base population, if planet allegiance is low it might not be worthwhile to sink any money into specializing it into social. The trade port economy doesn't suffer from this problem, so there will potentially be a *lot* of planets where the industrial specialization is worth more, especially with some of the new planet types having tons of logistical slots and low population.

we will see how things turn out, after 1 day we cant say anything for sure..

Yes but what if you couple social specialization with culture spreading buildings which the specialization is geared towards to get higher allegiance?

anyway i hate being obligated to put trade everywhere if I want a good economy... there aren't much of alternative choices.. people say it will help trade economy better, this specialization system, but I think it shoud provide an excellent alternative to it..

that 10 percent will not change the situation much i guess.. only at the homeworld and neighbouring planets

Well I always put culture spreading buildings at my fronts to help me and hurt the enemy.

me too, but trade is way more efficient if you want to boost your economy.. though without culture many people miss a nice addition to income..

Agreed. Cultures effectiveness is not its small bonus, it is that if you have that small bonus on many of your worlds it do give you an significant bonus.

In my game I'm now turtling and building lots of specializations. My economy is going really well but boy does it cost to upgrade the specializations! It's a huge money and resources sink.

noone said it will be free

The social specialization is well worth it on high pop worlds, Plus it offsets the trade debuffs. In the end on Terran worlds you get a better income bonus than what you would if it had just trade ports. You don't need trade ports on those worlds unless you are trying to link them. Refinery's will be totally useless at max social. Like was said. It is better to use the low pop worlds for industrial spec. The opposite of social. Build shipyards, Trade ports, and refinery's for the build speed, and trade buffs.

I haven't seen all the planet bonus's yet, but in am liking what i see so far. Even if i do get a bad die roll, and they are all bad lol

On maps like Systems of War. I tend to use social spec on all but one of my home system worlds. Then i scuttle my homeworlds shipyards. industrial spec one of the desert worlds. Then use it for my shipyards. Social spec-ing the asteroids on that map may not make sense, but it is a huge buff for me especially if i am advent.

allegiance can have an effect on it..

Check the income of a fully socialized Advent homeworld with allure of the unity fully researched.

Indeed, I want to say I was getting over 50 credits per second. 

lol, no, I mean on planets with low allegiance, social specialization may not worth it.. but not sure, haven'tt done the math..

I know on homeworlds this is brutal, I myself always use it.. (in that 3 games lol i have played with the dlc).

I wish there was a bit more incentive to industrialize. The industrial bonuses as they stand don't appear to be anywhere near what the civilian ones are. I wonder.... does anyone else think adding something like a +4 logistic slot bonus for each level of industry specialization help balance things a bit? What about a resource extraction or refinery bonus in addition to trade?

Also, I'm a bit confused as to why these roles are what they are. Logically speaking, shouldn't worlds with higher populations have  more to contribute when it comes to trade? I know it's just a game mechanic, but I'm a bit baffled as to why having a higher population could hamper trade.

Heh, this is funny, cause we anticipated exact opposite to happen, the social path to be worthless and the industrial one be the sh!t. Who would not want better trade and faster ship production anyway?

Turns out the population increase is so major, at least for the high pop high allegiance worlds, that it outweights the trade penalty. I actually like that i have now a chance not to screw around with tradeports like crazy, this is nice especially for the Vasari, who get them later. Obviously it is bit more comfortable just to upgrade the planets instead of researching tradeports, building them on every planet, research cargo ships improvements, upgrade logistics slots on those planets to get more tradeports...

On other hand, the thing i dont like as much is. that both social and industrial path have basically the same main  implication - to improve your cashflow. At the moment its down to decide which path to use on which world to maximise your income, and thats about it. Would like to see some more differences.

Finally, i wonder if these upgrades have any inluence on the amount of money you get from stripped planet. I think when playing for VL, i wont be so ready to strip my homeworld as fast as before, given the fact, it equals to getting rid of 50 and more credits per second income now. Unless you OFC get proportionally more money from stripping the planet than before.