At the beginning every player is automatically assigned his/ her home planet to start constructing buildings there. But that does not suffice in the long run to keep up with other players – if you do not develop new planets, you will notice very fast that you will stay behind the other players. Although the creation of new colonies is very costly at the beginning of the game, it gives a good return again. More planets means more mines and more planets from which your fleets can go on raids, which means a bigger raid area. That is why it is important to research the astrophysics as soon as possible and also the colony ships to expand your empire gradually.
==How to colonize planets?==
To colonize a new planet you need a colony ship – a special unit, which has only that function. However to build it you need the impulse drive on level 3, and the cost of 10.000 metal, 20.000 crystal and 10.000 deuterium to build a colony ship are far from cheap. Anyhow it is profitable to save the appropriate amount of resources early to build colony ships. To colonize a second planet the astrophysics must at least be on level 1. For each further planet you have to research 2 extra levels of that technology.
As soon as the needed level of the astrophysics is done and a colony ship is available, you can look for a position in the galaxy view to colonize. It will only be possible if there is no other player in that position, hence the line is empty and if the level of the astrophysics suffices for this position (with level 1: 4 – 12, with level 4: 3 – 13, with level 6: 2 – 14, with level 8: 1 – 15). If you have found an open slot you will have to select a colony ship and to send it with the mission “colonize” to the coordinates you have chosen. Normally you have to be patient for a few hours, because the colony ship is anything but fast.
As soon as the ship reaches the coordinates, one of these three cases will happen according to the given situation:
(1) The position could be colonized and your empire was expanded with one further planet. The colony ship disappears; instead the common resources for the start appear on the new colony. Resources, which have been picked up additionally by the colony ship, will also be credited there.
(2) Another player has already colonized the position you had chosen or a planet has been abandoned there quite recently. Your colony ship will automatically return home and is soon ready for a new try.
(3) You do not have the needed level of the astrophysics so the colony ship returns in vain.
Tutorial Reward:
As soon as you have established your first colony successfully, you get access to all features of the commander for three days for free.
When you make your first colony and you are lucky to find a large planet, you can consider abandoning the homeworld and thus the first found colony becomes the new home planet. A homeworld with more building slots can be precious for miners later in the game.
==What do I have to bear in mind?==
Every new planet costs a colony ship, at the beginning of the game that is first and foremost none too sparse. That is why you should maintain every planet as a start at that time and build mines to boost the your economy. As you colonize new planets, take note of the amount of fields it yields, most of the players define 200 fields as minimum level. Henceforward, every new colonized planet which does not meet your requirements, should be abandoned immediately – indeed you lose resources, but the damage which would be done by keeping smaller planets is much bigger in the long run. After destroying a planet, an asteroid field occurs at that place, which stays there for 24 to 48 hours and bans that position for colony ships – after that you can send a new ship there and try your luck again. The deletion of asteroid fields always takes place at 3:00 am server time.
==Which position shall I colonize?==
Planets at the outer edge of the solar system will have less planet fields and they will have lower temperature. Positions 7, 8 and 9 often become most usable colonies. However the size of a planet is random and you can't know the size of your new planet until colonization is complete.
But there is another reason why the position of the planet is important. Try to imagine that the fixed star (The Sun) of the solar system in OGame is on position 0, while disregarding the distance. The closer to slot 1 on galaxy view, the closer the planet is to the sun. The outcome of this is a difference in temperature and because of that, two important attributes for a decision are the result: the energy production of the solar satellites and the production of the deuterium synthesizer. The closer the planet is to the sun more efficient the solar satellites can work and that is of particular importance to achieve the necessary energy for the graviton technology. But also miners or other players, who count on that energy source, will have problems with a halved production. To balance those cons: the colder the planets are, the more the deuterium production is boosted which are slots 9 to 15 and are suited better for the production of that worthwhile resource.
==Colony sizes and temperatures==
Below is an empirical investigation into colony sizes and temperatures. The given temperature is always the second number shown on the ingame overview screen; for example if you had "Temperature 7°C to 47°C", 47°C would be used.
Position Planet temperature Satellite energy Deut. level 10 Deut. level 30 Fields
minimum ø maximum minimum maximum minimum maximum minimum maximum minimum ø maximum
1 220°C 240°C 260°C 60 66 103 145 2.093 2.931 95 100 108
2 170°C 190°C 210°C 51 58 155 197 3.140 3.978 97 103 110
3 120°C 140°C 160°C 43 50 207 248 4.187 5.025 98 118 137
4 70°C 90°C 110°C 35 41 259 300 5.234 6.072 123 164 203
5 60°C 80°C 100°C 33 40 269 311 5.444 6.281 148 179 213
6 50°C 70°C 90°C 31 38 280 321 5.653 6.491 148 194 227
7 40°C 60°C 80°C 30 36 290 331 5.862 6.700 141 193 238
8 30°C 50°C 70°C 28 35 300 341 6.072 6.909 163 208 247
9 20°C 40°C 60°C 26 33 311 352 6.281 7.119 155 197 238
10 10°C 30°C 50°C 25 31 321 363 6.491 7.328 154 188 223
11 00°C 20°C 40°C 23 30 331 373 6.700 7.538 146 176 204
12 -10°C 10°C 30°C 21 28 342 383 6.909 7.747 136 154 171
13 -50°C -30°C -10°C 15 21 383 425 7.747 8.585 109 115 121
14 -90°C -70°C -50°C 8 15 425 466 8.585 9.422 81 86 93
15 -130°C -110°C -90°C 1 8 466 508 9.422 10.260 65 69 74
==How to colonize planets?==
To colonize a new planet you need a colony ship – a special unit, which has only that function. However to build it you need the impulse drive on level 3, and the cost of 10.000 metal, 20.000 crystal and 10.000 deuterium to build a colony ship are far from cheap. Anyhow it is profitable to save the appropriate amount of resources early to build colony ships. To colonize a second planet the astrophysics must at least be on level 1. For each further planet you have to research 2 extra levels of that technology.
As soon as the needed level of the astrophysics is done and a colony ship is available, you can look for a position in the galaxy view to colonize. It will only be possible if there is no other player in that position, hence the line is empty and if the level of the astrophysics suffices for this position (with level 1: 4 – 12, with level 4: 3 – 13, with level 6: 2 – 14, with level 8: 1 – 15). If you have found an open slot you will have to select a colony ship and to send it with the mission “colonize” to the coordinates you have chosen. Normally you have to be patient for a few hours, because the colony ship is anything but fast.
As soon as the ship reaches the coordinates, one of these three cases will happen according to the given situation:
(1) The position could be colonized and your empire was expanded with one further planet. The colony ship disappears; instead the common resources for the start appear on the new colony. Resources, which have been picked up additionally by the colony ship, will also be credited there.
(2) Another player has already colonized the position you had chosen or a planet has been abandoned there quite recently. Your colony ship will automatically return home and is soon ready for a new try.
(3) You do not have the needed level of the astrophysics so the colony ship returns in vain.
Tutorial Reward:
As soon as you have established your first colony successfully, you get access to all features of the commander for three days for free.
When you make your first colony and you are lucky to find a large planet, you can consider abandoning the homeworld and thus the first found colony becomes the new home planet. A homeworld with more building slots can be precious for miners later in the game.
==What do I have to bear in mind?==
Every new planet costs a colony ship, at the beginning of the game that is first and foremost none too sparse. That is why you should maintain every planet as a start at that time and build mines to boost the your economy. As you colonize new planets, take note of the amount of fields it yields, most of the players define 200 fields as minimum level. Henceforward, every new colonized planet which does not meet your requirements, should be abandoned immediately – indeed you lose resources, but the damage which would be done by keeping smaller planets is much bigger in the long run. After destroying a planet, an asteroid field occurs at that place, which stays there for 24 to 48 hours and bans that position for colony ships – after that you can send a new ship there and try your luck again. The deletion of asteroid fields always takes place at 3:00 am server time.
==Which position shall I colonize?==
Planets at the outer edge of the solar system will have less planet fields and they will have lower temperature. Positions 7, 8 and 9 often become most usable colonies. However the size of a planet is random and you can't know the size of your new planet until colonization is complete.
But there is another reason why the position of the planet is important. Try to imagine that the fixed star (The Sun) of the solar system in OGame is on position 0, while disregarding the distance. The closer to slot 1 on galaxy view, the closer the planet is to the sun. The outcome of this is a difference in temperature and because of that, two important attributes for a decision are the result: the energy production of the solar satellites and the production of the deuterium synthesizer. The closer the planet is to the sun more efficient the solar satellites can work and that is of particular importance to achieve the necessary energy for the graviton technology. But also miners or other players, who count on that energy source, will have problems with a halved production. To balance those cons: the colder the planets are, the more the deuterium production is boosted which are slots 9 to 15 and are suited better for the production of that worthwhile resource.
==Colony sizes and temperatures==
Below is an empirical investigation into colony sizes and temperatures. The given temperature is always the second number shown on the ingame overview screen; for example if you had "Temperature 7°C to 47°C", 47°C would be used.
Position Planet temperature Satellite energy Deut. level 10 Deut. level 30 Fields
minimum ø maximum minimum maximum minimum maximum minimum maximum minimum ø maximum
1 220°C 240°C 260°C 60 66 103 145 2.093 2.931 95 100 108
2 170°C 190°C 210°C 51 58 155 197 3.140 3.978 97 103 110
3 120°C 140°C 160°C 43 50 207 248 4.187 5.025 98 118 137
4 70°C 90°C 110°C 35 41 259 300 5.234 6.072 123 164 203
5 60°C 80°C 100°C 33 40 269 311 5.444 6.281 148 179 213
6 50°C 70°C 90°C 31 38 280 321 5.653 6.491 148 194 227
7 40°C 60°C 80°C 30 36 290 331 5.862 6.700 141 193 238
8 30°C 50°C 70°C 28 35 300 341 6.072 6.909 163 208 247
9 20°C 40°C 60°C 26 33 311 352 6.281 7.119 155 197 238
10 10°C 30°C 50°C 25 31 321 363 6.491 7.328 154 188 223
11 00°C 20°C 40°C 23 30 331 373 6.700 7.538 146 176 204
12 -10°C 10°C 30°C 21 28 342 383 6.909 7.747 136 154 171
13 -50°C -30°C -10°C 15 21 383 425 7.747 8.585 109 115 121
14 -90°C -70°C -50°C 8 15 425 466 8.585 9.422 81 86 93
15 -130°C -110°C -90°C 1 8 466 508 9.422 10.260 65 69 74
