Ability to Choose Colony Capital Location

Ever play a game like poker or bridge, one where you get dealt an arbitrary, random, and imperfect hand of cards, but get to overcome the challenge of what you were dealt?  That feeling is the best, and I am sure the devs know that as well as I do.

All that aside, the point has come up multiple times before and it doesn't sound like the devs think it is needed and it may be more of a pain to implement than we realize.  So, I do not think you will get to see this one, even in a DLC, although I have been wrong about many things before, and that is just the last half hour.

I honestly do not understand why people think a capitol has to be in a perfect placement.  The placement of the trade goods is usually much more inconvenient to my development plans, for one thing.  But the whole "it's almost perfect therefore it's terrible!" reaction puzzles me.  Why isn't "almost perfect" actually equal to "pretty darn good!" instead of being some sort of disappointment?

Yeah I agree.  Myself and others brought it up several times way back in beta that we want to be able to place the colony capital.  The best the devs ever gave us was a "maybe we will think about it".  It seems silly we can place every building where we want it, except the first building.  I suppose we can dream that someday we will be able to do what seems like a basic thing.

it will be a good option... also for the Faction Capital building.. 

  Would love to see this as well.  I'd like to place the capital building where I think it fits best, and fits my vision of the colony, rather than having to put up woth where my frequently drunk or drug addled colonists like to put it.

I can see why you wouldn't be able to pick your civilization capital as it theoretically has thousands of years of history preceding it, but if you're starting a colony from scratch it makes sense that you'd be able to place its starting location. Doubt a space-faring civilization would just be like "hope our colony ship lands somewhere nice!" and not choose a spot that maximizes that planet's resources.

Theoratically you have right.... as Ingame Fact you didn´t...because at a start ...the Game placed the Civilisation Capital randomly... and for sure we didnt have 2150 or so.. but i cannot imagine that the capital o f the Earth will be in the Desert of Africa or in northern Siberia near the Northpole... it is a little ridiculous...you agree ?

 and the only option you have at this time is.. when you didn´t like where the capital was randomly placed is.. abandone the game...Start a new one... and that you can do until you are a happy.. And that isn´t a Option that is only boring.. You should have the Possibility to move your capital where you like...

Or you could just, y'know, ignore the incredibly minor bonus you might get from having the colony capital placed ever so slightly to the left, and play the game instead of obsessing over getting the planet just so. But that might be crazy

Frankly, this probably isn't going to go away, so I say add it. People will be asking for it forever, and while those of us who don't care, by definition, don't care either way, those who DO care really, really want this. The values in play are so minuscule that there's no serious downside to adding it from a balance point of view, and  from a gameplay point of view the only slowdown is that you're placing 1 extra building at a point when you were placing all the other buildings anyway. As long as the engine can support it then what's the harm?

Nah, I could totally see the capital of Earth being in the Sahara or Siberia if enough crazy stuff happens in the next 200+ years. Can easily imagine those places becoming more important if climate change or nuclear war makes today's population centers uninhabitable. That being said, I DO prefer having my Terran capital placed in either North America, Central Europe, or China. Just seems more probable to me.

Good points and i agree.  While there have been (and will be) times when i wish i could relocate the capital, thb i would spend way too much time fretting over if/where to move to .

I know its been asked in streams but do not recall Pauls answers to the issue. I think he was supportive of considering it in a wishy washy sort of way )

Quoting a0152570, reply 9

I think he was supportive of considering it in a wishy washy sort of way )

End of a0152570's quote

Yeah, I think Paul kinda personifies most people's reaction to it tbh. "Really? You care about that? Sure, whatever, if we're not doing anything remotely important one afternoon then why not..."

It means a lot to the guys playing it as a planet-building sim, and no-one else is ever going to be bothered if it's there or not. It's not controversial, it'd get a lot of goodwill from a chunk of the playerbase, and I suspect that it's not exactly hard to add. So, undoubtedly, Paul will completely rule it out on the next dev stream

I play the Yor, and from what I can see this is so minor I can't see why this is a issue.

First the power matrix, or any other power plant once upgraded for that matter would make a better hub in most circumstances.

Second the resource buildings would be more significant.

If you want it that badly beline for it in the tech tree like I do. The colony capital is the third most important hub. If I had to choose my capital it would have to go in the third most stragetic spot unless I wasn't wanting a research, manufacturing, morale, wearlth, or defense planet. The game already provides two solutions for your problem. Other than that it does sounds like a good idea; except it would probably mess up spots where players could place better buildings with a little, or lot more work.

[quote who="Zenitram_J" reply="5" id="3595688"]

   While there are times I wish the colony capital was in a better location, far more frustrating are the times it is blocking a crucial hub spot.  Like when it is wasting the adjacency bonus of both a trade good and a special resource.

  Moving the capital does not move the actual starting capital city, it just boosts a single planet by 5 raw production and food, and reduces your first planet by the same amount..

I've often wished I could choose the location of a Colony Capital or better yet move it, after the fact.

I appreciate its effects compared to other hubs is negligible but as a micro-manager it irks me not to have control over this. It would make perfect sense to be able to choose where the capital goes and move it after the fact, perhaps once the planet and been terraformed and more options are open to me.

Being able to move it via a construction project would be a reasonable compromise since it wouldn't require any new colonization handling and the cost of doing so could be set high enough that a player wouldn't want to do it trivially. From a thematic standpoint there are plenty of historical precedents of capitals being moved around for various reasons.