What exactly does raising your planets population with habitat modules and other structures do for you?

It makes those that want to take the planet eat more energy to wear it down. Which means you increase the chances that they ccannot take it in a day on there own.

Well I don’t want to spoil it for those that play the game like me, I enjoy making mistakes along the way and fig out things on my own for the most part, that’s why I used to never come to this form, I thought it was like a cheat sheet and I hate cheat cods. But this site is far more than that it a helpful tool, so just believe me when you get to the end tir of the planet research, it will all be clear what population is for. And those that want to fig it out sooner go to Exotica if you have it in view they already have the end tir devices installed on their planet. But for the most part starting out population just makes the invading person spend more energy to have a chance to invade. Population is the least important imo cloak and defense I would say are you 2 main ones, then population and attack.

Thanks to you both, I just made level 20 and trying to decide how to defend my planets. So much I would like to do but resources go fast now.

well good cloaking is best if you keep it off their rada it is safe. the rest poulation and def only slow them down.

Yes, cloaking is a very good defense, but if it is a good planet MAKE SURE you have at least one defense and one attack or even a soldier outpost on the planet, as even with massive cloaking someone still might find it, and with no defense youll most likely lose the planet.