It's possible to start out with 3 colonizeable planets at your homesystem (instead of the conventional 2) - even for MV games.

For this, you'll have to specify the name of your starting homeworld as the name of a (usually) empty PQ0 world which is listed at your own system. This planet then gets an upgrade to be a PQ10 world.
Here's a list containing all important taglines:  [extracted from the responsible "CustomPlanets.xml"-files] 


<StarSystem Name="Sol">
<DisplayName>Earth</DisplayName>
<Class>10</Class>
<Moon>gfx/planets/m00.png</Moon>

<DisplayName>Mars</DisplayName>
<Class>4</Class>

<DisplayName>Mercury</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Jupiter</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Saturn</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>
<Rings>gfx/planets/r00.png</Rings>

<StarSystem Name="Drengia">
<DisplayName>Drengi</DisplayName>
<Class>10</Class>
<Moon>gfx/planets/m10.png</Moon>

<DisplayName>Kona</DisplayName>
<Class>4</Class>

<DisplayName>Grathis</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Rathor</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Mawhar</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<StarSystem Name="Altaris">
<DisplayName>Altaria</DisplayName>
<Class>12</Class>
<Moon>gfx/planets/m03.png</Moon>

<DisplayName>Epas</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Imoth</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Po</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Wisp</DisplayName>
<Class>3</Class>

<StarSystem Name="Athol">
<DisplayName>Arcea</DisplayName>
<Class>10</Class>
<Moon>gfx/planets/M07.png</Moon>

<DisplayName>Hammer II</DisplayName>
<Class>5</Class>

<DisplayName>Arcea III</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Arcea IV</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Arcea V</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<StarSystem Name="Torus">
<DisplayName>Toria</DisplayName>
<Class>9</Class>
<Rings>gfx/planets/R05.png</Rings>

<DisplayName>Toria II</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Toria III</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Toria IV</DisplayName>
<Class>6</Class>

<DisplayName>Toria V</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<StarSystem Name="Icos">
<DisplayName>Iconia</DisplayName>
<Class>10</Class>
<Rings>gfx/planets/R03.png</Rings>

<DisplayName>Iconia II</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Iconia III</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Iconia IV</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Iconia V</DisplayName>
<Class>4</Class>

<StarSystem Name="Oxor">
<DisplayName>Korx</DisplayName> [in TotA] <DisplayName>Korlath</DisplayName> [in DL/DA] 
<Class>8</Class>

<DisplayName>Korx II</DisplayName>
<Class>8</Class>

<DisplayName>Korx III</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Korx IV</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Korx V</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<StarSystem Name="Drathis">
<DisplayName>Dratha</DisplayName>
<Class>10</Class>

<DisplayName>Dratha II</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Dratha III</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Dratha IV</DisplayName>
<Class>4</Class>

<DisplayName>Dratha V</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

 

<StarSystem Name="Thalis">
<DisplayName>Thala</DisplayName>
<Class>15</Class>

<DisplayName>Thalia II</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Thalia III</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Thalia IV</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Thalia V</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>  

<StarSystem Name="Iconis">
<DisplayName>New Iconia</DisplayName>
<Class>14</Class>

<DisplayName>New Iconia II</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>New Iconia III</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>New Iconia IV</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>New Iconia V</DisplayName>
<Class>3</Class>

<StarSystem Name="Ra'nagoh">
<DisplayName>Kora</DisplayName>
<Class>10</Class>

<DisplayName>Kynda</DisplayName>
<Class>4</Class>

<DisplayName>Ra'nagoh III</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Ra'nagoh IV</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Ra'nagoh V</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<StarSystem Name="Alora">
<DisplayName>Kryseth</DisplayName>
<Class>10</Class>

<DisplayName>Ghella</DisplayName>
<Class>4</Class>

<DisplayName>Alora III</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Alora IV</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

<DisplayName>Alora V</DisplayName>
<Class>0</Class>

Planetary bonuses:

1. A planet with a Moon receives +10% production (shown in 'Colony Management' under 'Details'; but not 'Summary')
2. An orbital Ring gives +10% research (also shown there)
3. A planet with Planet Quality (PQ) = 11 (or higher) receives +10% approval (shown in the tooltip if you hover over your 'Approval'-stat in a Colony Managment screen....)
4. Colonization-events can only be triggered from your 2nd colonized planet onward - ie. starting with 3 planets could actually give you another -early- bonus; such as Money/ BonusProduction/ BonusResearch/ StarshipQuality/ BonusMoral and else. That is, if you have the chance - try first to colonize the smaller one in hope to get some boost at your third goodPQ world.

In Dread Lords you can only manipulate your own system - all the AI systems are untouchable. Also: this extra planet will never have any bonustiles on it!

If you want to stay at your original starsystem no ARC is required just change your homeworld-name to a PQ0 from this system:  

The Custom Race-system cannot be manipulated by this - the absence of planetary <DisplayName></DisplayName> is responsible for this.

In Dark Avatar & Twilight of the Arnor the Krynn & Korath sun will get a different name if you use their systems - the missing <DisplayName></DisplayName> tags (for their system) make this, too. 

Nevertheless, in both versions you can actually ARC any of the above displayed systems as your own; and you can further give all your opponents (Stock Races) also another one. Even if this means to create duplicate or triplicate systems (or having 9* Thala... ). This opens up a new level of possibilities for different kind of games, because:

• in ZYWs (esp. Spore) you don't want the AI to spend all their money to buy ships or improvements therefore the Thalan-system (which holds only a single planet) is absolutely best!
• in Million-Pointer-Games where your tactic could be to let the AI do all the work for you, allowing him to colonize as many planets as possible which will then be swindled to you at a given time, it's better to give them also an extra planet in a decent system, such as Korlath/Korx or Iconis.
• if you're having trouble finding reasonably-well bonustiles at your own homesystem you could ARC the enemies to common 10/4 system (such as Drathis, Alora... just pick one without Moon/Ring), with these races starting at their standard PQ10 planet. This will net an increased chance of bonustiles at your system because a PQ4 planet (or below) will never have any bonustiles. So each enemy has only 8 free tiles where the game could possibly place a bonustile as in comparison to the 13 of Thala. However, an enemy possessing a double-system can also quickbuy 2 improvements or ships per turn and will therefore waste his starting money faster!

Saturn is the only PQ0 world which has a Ring - so this is your very best planet/system for any traditional DA ZYW game using mostly research to gain score + ending ASAP after 13-15 turns.

Perhaps the reason, why this trick is even possible, lies in a hardcoded routine which takes care that all starting planets are, at least, PQ10 (so they get the +10% approval bonus). Which means that, if you don't deliberately set up this trick and instead let races start from their conventional homeplanet, that Korlath/Korx and also Toria will get +2 resp. +1 tile(s).

Bonustiles will only be distributed from PQ5 onwards - New Iconia V, Mars, Kona, Wisp, Iconia V, Ghella, Kynda, Dratha IV do never see any. This knowledge can actually be put into good use for some ZYW setups in order to decrease the chance of your enemies getting access to bonustiles (they do, however, get more planets if you give them another one as Thalis... )

ARC: [see also]

Work on these file(s): (before you fire up the game!)

DL: C:\Users\name\Documents\My Games\GalCiv2\*.raceconfig

DA: C:\Users\name\Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar\*.customracexml

TotA: C:\Users\name\Documents\My Games\GC2TwilightArnor\*.raceconfigxml

The interesting taglines are:

<Homeworld>Iconia</Homeworld>
<Homestar>Icos</Homestar>

simply change the names to the one you like from the above list (bolded); Starsystem=Homestar

Total PQ count:

Getting extra tiles (via 'Soil Enhancement', 'Habitat Improvement' & 'Terraforming') works kinda differently in Dread Lords - where mediumPQ-planets usually only get +1 per tech. LowPQ-worlds sometimes get more though, up to +2 per tech but some planets may even see none!  This means that some of these lowPQ planets don't get to see the +10% approval bonus or even have a food-softcap. The Korx-system is the only one getting this bonus for all 3 worlds consistently...

The two best systems are either "Korlath" or "Iconis". Korx ultimately results in PQ35 + 3*10% approval. Iconian will have one tile more, but New Iconia V will stay lowPQ, thus only 2*10% approval.

Dark Avatar increased the way how extra-tiles were distributed amongst lowPQ worlds. A PQ3 like "New Iconia V" could become a PQ9 or even a PQ18   You can actually determine this development right upon colonization - counting the number of extra yellow tiles and multiplying that by 3. The amount for each planet is generated at mapstart & there seems to be no method to influence it   (unlike Colonization-events which can appear randomly). Although this is only a half-truth, as some planets (or target PQ-classes) will always see the exact amount of extra tiles; typically, your PQ10 starting world will become a PQ13 planet....

Because of this, "Korx/Korlath" will only develop into a mediocre/bad system now that can't compete anymore against  "Iconis" - which may even develop up to 48 tiles!!    

Technology Capping & Research Carryover 

The number of technologies you can research once you press turn is defined by your planetcount (DL) or your planetcount+1 (DA/TotA).

So if you're having just one planet at your disposal you cannot research more than 1 technology in DL (or 2 for DA/TotA). 

In this light it makes sense that the Thalans, which are the only race having only a single habitable planet at their homesystem, usually start out with more technologies than the other Stock Races.

Now, if you're colonizing a secondairy planet your planet-count will instantly be upgraded to reflect this change.

But - IF you're using the '3-planets-starting-trick', then this upgrade will be delayed by 1 turn. Building a lab on your newly colonized world does magically solve this but ONLY FOR THIS WORLD. So if you've colonized 2 worlds on the 2nd turn and still want to research 4 techs at the end of this turn, you'll have to build a lab on both new worlds.

The typical colonization-pattern in a DA-ZYW is:

1. Colonize second planet (2 techs possible without building a lab there)
2. Colonize 3rd planet (3 techs possible without building labs there)
3. (4 techs possible)

Now if you can't colonize the second planet, and then colonize both free worlds on turn 2 you'll get a problem because the game defaults to only 2 techs for this turn. In this case, build 1 or 2 lab(s) on a/both new worlds, depending if you set out to get 3 or 4 techs.

Usually you can see this capping in a lot of turns during a ZYW, if it has a good/strong research-setup. Most likely, whenever you end up with a tech-selection that didn't scratch or "bite into" a new tech - it's there. The overflow-research which cannot be spend on technologies this turn will go into an invisible pool and be added to your research-output in the next turn.

And this "research-carryover" will also happen when your research comes to a forceful stop when other reasons apply; such as

• meets end of a branch
• collision with an already researched technology, most likely one you did trade for previously

The invisible pool can be triggered if a survey-vessel encounters the

• "lucky coin"
• "waste of time"
• +25% research-anomaly [not sure on this]

All 3 anomalies are labelled as "research" in the gamefiles.

Furthermore, all 3 anomalies or a "Creativity-proc" all have the power to circumvent the tech-capping, most likely increasing by +1 additional technology.

Increasing Planet Quality via distribution points:

In Dread Lords only the normal (un-terraformed) basetile is multiplied - any tiles gathered later (via terraforming) aren't counted in. Therefore the +10% Planet Quality increase for 3 points will only generate an extra tile from a base (non-colonized) PQ10 planet onwards.

A DL-Giga-AllAbundant galaxy usually holds a single PQ4, several PQ26 & the rest somewhat evenly distributed from PQ5 to PQ19. It basically boils down that a good chunk of planets (PQ4-9) don't receive any bonus from the smaller (+10%) PQ-pack for 3 points, planets ranging from 10-19 get a single extra tile, and the few superplanets get 2.

The bigger pack (+20%) for 8 points actually will affect all planets except that sole PQ4 (or a few other starting planets such as 'New Iconia V' etc). It will give 2 tiles from PQ10-14, 3 tiles from PQ15-19 & 5 tiles for the few superplanets which all end up as PQ37!

Planet Quality in general is one of the best stats to maximize score, this has mostly to do with the fact that the other interesting (score-related) bonuses become rather lackluster in the presence of Galactic Resources & bonuses from technologies & improvements: usually one can easily have +300% research, +500% economics, +300% defense & +300% moral... now picking your distribution points in order to finally have +530 economics doesn't make much difference. Planet Quality is different in that regard because it will - more or less - scale/multiply itself with most of these bonuses over one corner or the other^^.

Another, very precious stat in DL is Population Growth - but this one doesn't really maximize what you do, instead it will place your pop+econ score more front/early (ie. like research) this will speed-up/advance your game, which is another method to increase your overall score.

Orbital Terraformer-BUG:
This GA doesn't upgrade the PQ-number - it only makes these extra tiles available. This is tragic because un-terraformed planets ranging from PQ6-10 run the danger of not getting the +10% approval bonus when this GA is used. And that bonus is actually a really strong one because it does flatly increase your planetary approval in stark contrast to moral which is increasingly depreciated by your population.
Nevertheless, there are a few options to do it right:

1. Manually terraform
2. Choose Neutral-ethics (bad choice in DL because 'Purchase Now Reduction' doesn't work, instead:
3. Use Neutral-aligned opponent which terraforms your planets ! Simply trade 'Xeno Ethics', followed by your planets, afterwards declare war & swindle them all back for peace. Works within a single turn so you won't loose any score.