I've read or heard several supposed tricks for this and was wondering if they work or are just old wives tales. Here's some of the tactics I've come across:

1) Putting 20% of the total colos in equipment production.
2) Keeping a minimum amount of organics on the planet (say 5k).
3) Keeping a minimum amount of equipment on the planet.
4) Avoiding landing on the planet as much as possible.

I've played around by keeping 5k colos in equ and 50k in fuel and it seems to keep them multiplying like rabbits - but since the die offs are somewhat random it's hard to say for sure without having a large number of volcs to test. Has anyone done any testing on this?

I would suspect it's just old wive's tales, but I don't know for sure. If you have all your colos in ore, they grow on average at .15%/day, I think.

maybe intermixed stories with fig production?
i dont know the exact formula, but if you have say 20k figs in fuel, and then put X amount in equip, fig production (figs per colo) will decrease.

The following is from Someguy.txt http://tradewars.fament.com/cruncher/Links.htm

Volcanic Type: This type produces basically fuel ore and nothing else.
-------------- Not much on fighter production either. It's main value is as a quasar-cannon. Colonists on it produce twice the fuel ore that mountains do, and it can store up to 1 million units of fuel ore. This makes it just about impossible to invade. It does have 1 serious drawback, its colonists tend to die each time one lands on the planet, and also when one does a Corporate Planet Scan (command T L). Keep landing down to an absolute bare minimum, AND put 25% of the colonists on equipment production (where they do nearly nothing), and the other 75% on fuel ore. This reduces colonist deaths very nicely. Maximum efficiency is with 50,000 colonists on fuel ore, but don't forget an extra 12,500 colonists on equipment. And don't be tempted to pick-up the bit of equipment they produce, as this will kill more colonists! They are extremely slow to upgrade, but worth it.

So is this guy full of it?

quote:Originally posted by Mantis

The following is from Someguy.txt http://tradewars.fament.com/cruncher/Links.htm

Volcanic Type: This type produces basically fuel ore and nothing else.
-------------- Not much on fighter production either. It's main value is as a quasar-cannon. Colonists on it produce twice the fuel ore that mountains do, and it can store up to 1 million units of fuel ore. This makes it just about impossible to invade. It does have 1 serious drawback, its colonists tend to die each time one lands on the planet, and also when one does a Corporate Planet Scan (command T L). Keep landing down to an absolute bare minimum, AND put 25% of the colonists on equipment production (where they do nearly nothing), and the other 75% on fuel ore. This reduces colonist deaths very nicely. Maximum efficiency is with 50,000 colonists on fuel ore, but don't forget an extra 12,500 colonists on equipment. And don't be tempted to pick-up the bit of equipment they produce, as this will kill more colonists! They are extremely slow to upgrade, but worth it.

So is this guy full of it?


Someguy was writing for mbbs, pre twgs, when colos used die on H's from time to time. There were many theories about the pattern, and how to prevent/minimise the deaths. I could never get any of them to work.

Never heard of colo deaths in TWGS. Best way to manage H colos is keep them just under 50M ore, move them to equip or off planet to maintain 50M in ore for max production.

quote:Originally posted by Slim Shady

maybe intermixed stories with fig production?
i dont know the exact formula, but if you have say 20k figs in fuel, and then put X amount in equip, fig production (figs per colo) will decrease.


Fig production is based off of product production, not colos directly. For example, on H's, when you're producing 50 units of product, you also produce 1 fig. So if colos are in a higher production category like equipment, you get fewer figs/colo.

no, im saying this:
you have 20k colos in fuel, nowhere else.
you are producing 20k fuel.
you are making a certain amount of figs *Z*
you now take more colonists from elsewhere (leaving 20k in fuel) and put X colonists into equip production.
now you are producing *more product* (20k fuel + X equip) however, your colo/fig ratio has increased, so you are actually making less figs a day.

quote:Originally posted by Slim Shady

no, im saying this:
you have 20k colos in fuel, nowhere else.
you are producing 20k fuel.
you are making a certain amount of figs *Z*
you now take more colonists from elsewhere (leaving 20k in fuel) and put X colonists into equip production.
now you are producing *more product* (20k fuel + X equip) however, your colo/fig ratio has increased, so you are actually making less figs a day.


C'mon, Slim

- "There are lies, Darn lies and statistics." Winston Churchill

Die offs do still happen in TWGS - I've seen it happen. They appear to take place at extern but don't happen that often. Since the habitability rating of a stock volcanic is 90%, I'm assuming that there is a 10% chance of a die off occuring. I guess the only way to put this urban legend to rest is to hop on a test server and tedit a bunch of volcs. Can any of you math gurus tell me how large of a sample I'd need for a 5% or less error rate if run over a period of 5 days?

quote:Originally posted by Mantis

Die offs do still happen in TWGS - I've seen it happen. They appear to take place at extern but don't happen that often. Since the habitability rating of a stock volcanic is 90%, I'm assuming that there is a 10% chance of a die off occuring. I guess the only way to put this urban legend to rest is to hop on a test server and tedit a bunch of volcs. Can any of you math gurus tell me how large of a sample I'd need for a 5% or less error rate if run over a period of 5 days?


If it is 10%, at least one of 6 planets over 5 externs (or one of 30 planets over one extern) would incurr deaths with a probability of 95.7%.

As I have never seen it happen in TWGS, and I always play blue, I suspect some other factors must be involved. My games are usually stock or near stock; I never use any planets besides H and L, and keep population below or very close to optimum in categories.

I just made 10 H's, put 50M colos on each, ran them through 100 externs. Checked after every 10 externs. No deaths.

The "habitability rating" and most of what is in the internal game help file, btw, was written almost 15 years ago, and even then did not reflect the game in reality.

i'm just saying what i've seen. granted the only place i recall seeing that is in an unlim which no doubt had crazy edits. ill make some crazy edits and see what i can find out.

quote:Originally posted by Kavanagh

I just made 10 H's, put 50M colos on each, ran them through 100 externs. Checked after every 10 externs. No deaths.

The "habitability rating" and most of what is in the internal game help file, btw, was written almost 15 years ago, and even then did not reflect the game in reality.


Cool - Myth busted. Thanks. [:)]

I guess a corpie must have moved some colos and that lead me to believe that they had died off.

Apparently the habitability rating doesn't actually do anything in the current version of TW. (Unless it has an impact on the population growth rate?)

Colos die off in TWGS.

quote:Originally posted by Slim Shady

no, im saying this:
you have 20k colos in fuel, nowhere else.
you are producing 20k fuel.
you are making a certain amount of figs *Z*
you now take more colonists from elsewhere (leaving 20k in fuel) and put X colonists into equip production.
now you are producing *more product* (20k fuel + X equip) however, your colo/fig ratio has increased, so you are actually making less figs a day.


No, you are making more figs/day on that planet than you were before, you're just making fewer/colo. The ratio of figs/product produced is constant. However, as you switch colos between different efficiencies of production, the figs/colo ratio will change.

quote:Originally posted by Harley Nuss (teamEIS)

Colos die off in TWGS.


Thanks for clarifying that Harley.

Kavanagh - try bumping your system date up a couple of weeks and see how that impacts the populations. It may be that die offs are triggered by a date change rather than extern.