Hi there,

I would like to ask/discuss, what is the realistic and most beneficial strategy of planet colonization?
I see many players buying/taking large and smaller planets just because of MR+ production (mainly Arti) so they can get 200+ AP/hour from it while they can not defend nor cloak it. This way they fill up plenty of planet slots and later I can see many "complaining" about ultra high invasion/colonization cost. Later, if these rocks are taken, the invasion cost is for them in double digit of billion credits.
Is this approach really smart?

I was thinking also about focusing only on planets size VL+ and MR+ in Arti, so I can get 180+ while 18K def (after legion bonus) is on it.
My main focus is to gather ctp and buy 15MR+ Arti planets and slowly fill my planet slots with really above average rocks.
I can keep my total spending (PvP, planet invasions, trading for KU) pretty much smoothly under control.
On other side, I would like to work on my arti production and I am open to suggestions.
PS: I am slow ranker, so the number of open planet slots is always bellow 25 (now 14).

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions?

Most players simply cannot afford to fill every slot with above average planets and thats the bare bones.
And those smaller planets are run Pure Production for me and if somebody nicks it, its no big deal.

The idea behind this approach is called minimum/maxing... i.e. having a minimum size to resource you will take and getting the max out of it whilst you still own it.

The idea is that you don't care if you lose those planets, hence why they are considered "Pure Production". They are for all purposes planets you don't care about, but just having 12 can give you 3k aph for however long you own them.

I take the same approach with my toxics... max production... 0 defenses(save for where the artifacts have defenses/attack). It's so easy to make more, so better to get 500+ from them than 300 with defenses.

I'm not going to invade any of these planets back, because as you say... my invade costs are huge.

so would you suggest to follow the same path? how fast did you rank pls?

from a long term perspective, you should only take Very massive planets, production does not matter since eventualy you get to be the race that can bring them all to be x15's. Now this is a VERY long term thinking plan, but ulitmately would be extreemly effective.

There is no easy answer for this.

On average with my excavator bonus I make 700 ap per planet.
My invade is under 10 billion.
My ap is ~ 117k

I was only able to keep up with my peers because I was ranking very quickly.
They could add 1000 ap by a simple scan run and picking up 4 ok quality planets.
I had to rank 5-10 times for the terraformers to make a single planet producing 1000

Slow ranking and trying this is most likely a terrible idea. You will fall wayyy behind everyone else whether they be slow ranking and taking a bunch of ok quality planets or they are ranking normally.

Maybe if you are trading to where you are buying nice planets fast enough to keep production on par with your peers.
Or maybe someone is really helping you out.

There is no significant difference of whether a planet is small or large if:
the production amount is similar
the defense capability is similar
it won't be on your chain of uplift anyway.
Obviously, to achieve #1 the smaller would need a higher modifier, but you certainly won't take it if it didn't.

The primary benefit of a larger planets are:
better for uplifting
suffer a smaller % loss in production for same amount of defense increase.

Given that, if you are like me and only uplift C planets(plasma), the first part doesn't matter.

And for the second, each planet that you do NOT plan to uplift, IMO, should be configured in the following way:
There is a threshold of production under which you will not colonize and over which you will. While its production is under a certain second threshold, don't bother protecting it. For each x amount above the second threshold, protect it to some extend accordingly. Now, as both extra production and protection takes space, you have to plan it first. And finally, there is a third threshold for when you would "safe" a planet either by some standard amount of def/atk/pop OR max cloak it. That would be the amount of protection you are willing to have, no matter how much higher production goes.
The thresholds vary from player to player and grows over time, but that's the way I do things by.
Given that, size is not a real factor directly, as if it is over the first threshold, I'd grab it anyway. Size would be less efficient in terms of protection if it can go over the second threshold, but if it's over that it's worth keeping regardless. So when you start considering defense purposes, whether or not you want to colonize the planet is already answered.

TL;DR:
What you can uplift is limited, beyond that all it matters is how much raw output a planet can put out. Even if it WOULD suffer more production loss IF it produce high enough to be worthy of protection, that means it's worth grabbing in the first place.

Before Solynia, if I could get 250 ap or more from a planet, I'd take it.

Now that I have Solynia, I'll colonize VL/VR or better. I won't conquer less than VL 3x unless it has badass arties on it.