Islands have larger biome zones for Reef, Ocean, and Vents. Under absolutely ideal conditions (access to shallow water dwellers, vents dwellers, and air-breathers for Gardens; only shallow water dwellers and vents dwellers are needed for Islands) their population cap works out to be the same. With shallow water dwellers alone (such as the Phidi), Island worlds support a higher base population cap than airbreathers alone on a Garden world, and Islands are unambigiously the best worlds for Phidi colonisation. Basically, what worlds are 'best' to colonise depend on who you're playing and what other species you have amalgamated into your empire.ShadowDragon8685 wrote:Are Garden-type worlds categorically superior to Island type worlds? They have all the biome types that Islands have, plus that all-precious Forest type that's so beloved by so many races.
I just think Islands are nicer, is all.
Humans, Teros, and Haduir all prefer Gardens; Humans are marginally better on Glaciers than most other species, while Teros and Haduir handle Arid worlds well.
Yoral also prefer Gardens, but can cheerily get a lot more out of otherwise nearly uninhabitable worlds, and can pack a surprisingly high population on Glaciers, while dealing with Arid worlds as well as the Ashdar.
Phidi prefer Islands, while still being able to take equal advantage of Gardens as most airbreathers. In exchange, they're less able to take advantage of Arid worlds, and can't even do so until environment domes are researched. They also love Coral worlds just as much as Paradise worlds, if not more- I'm not in a position to check if they get a slight advantage in population on Corals compared to Paradise worlds.
Orthin actually do best on Iceball worlds that are of marginal value to anybody else, followed by Islands and then Gardens, which are less valuable to them than to any other playable race. Orthin are unusual in that they're the only race that doesn't get more population on its own out of Paradise worlds than they do out of simple Iceballs and Islands.
Gremak are unusual in that they actually get slightly more habitability on their own out of Gardens than most other races, and the most habitability of any single race out of Paradise worlds, but they synergise less well with other races to get the most out of Gardens or Paradises. (That is to say- an airbreather or shallow-water species alone on a Garden or Paradise world will support a lower population than Gremak alone; pairing Gremak with either an airbreather or shallow-water species on such a world will have a lower population cap than airbreathers and shallow-water species together, and airbreathers and shallow-water species together get no benefit from adding Gremak.) Islands are marginally worse than Gardens for Gremak, but they handle Islands and Corals better than any other airbreathers. They also, unfortunately, are less tolerant of Arid worlds than other airbreathers, who can generally get at least basic use out of Arids.