Ships Inner Hulls, Planets, Climate Control and Intel

The hulls of your ships control what order components take damage.
The damage order is:
Armor, then outer, then inner. Some components must be placed in certain locations.

I place everything from the inside out, unless it MUST go in the armor or outer locations, I place it in the inner hull. I do not use auxiliary control, I have better things to use the space then a useless 2nd bridge. If I need a 2nd bridge, the ship is already lost.

The planet types and atmosphere are controlled by the SystemType.txt file.

I extracted this partial list from the SystemTypes.txt file, The (Percent) I added and will corrupt the actual file.
Chance Type 1 Number of Any Planet Atmospheres := 5
Chance Type 1 Any Atmos 1 Type := None
Chance Type 1 Any Atmos 1 Chance := 20 (percent)
Chance Type 1 Any Atmos 2 Type := Methane
Chance Type 1 Any Atmos 2 Chance := 20
Chance Type 1 Any Atmos 3 Type := Oxygen
Chance Type 1 Any Atmos 3 Chance := 20
Chance Type 1 Any Atmos 4 Type := Hydrogen
Chance Type 1 Any Atmos 4 Chance := 20
Chance Type 1 Any Atmos 5 Type := Carbon Dioxide
Chance Type 1 Any Atmos 5 Chance := 20

Chance Type 1 Number of Any Planet Compositions := 3
Chance Type 1 Any Comp 1 Type := Rock
Chance Type 1 Any Comp 1 Chance := 34 (Percent)
Chance Type 1 Any Comp 2 Type := Ice
Chance Type 1 Any Comp 2 Chance := 33
Chance Type 1 Any Comp 3 Type := Gas Giant
Chance Type 1 Any Comp 3 Chance := 33

The climate control facility will also affect migration with population migrating to the 'better' planets and away from the 'worse' planets. That is one reason that your home world starts as "unpleasant" if it was optimal then migration to your other colonies would be very slow.

Best intel activity:
Sabotage Empire wide, this can bribe transport ships (the ones that you cannot see and move your resources around the empire) to deliver the resources from the other empire to yours. This one can also steal technology, and can destroy research points of enemy empire.

The worst intel, IMO is all the rest. All espionage is random, against a random planet, system, ship, and I have found that it is useless to know that a ship, planet, system is weak when you can't get there, to exploit that information. Sabotage against planets and ships is again random, useless since I cannot direct it against specific colony, ship, fleet to create an advantage for my conquest. Cooperative intel seems to be useless, since intel is exchanged based on trade treaties.

When I design a ship I imagine I'm looking down on an actual ship and place things accordingly. I've never given the order components are damaged a thought but I'll place things were realistically they should go.

For example it's not necessary, and if I run out of places I might make use of it, but you can put engines anywhere they'll fit. I always put engines at the rear. If the design plan has nacelles naturally I'll use them. I place the bridge in the dead center. It doesn't need to be on the hull and it's too fragile otherwise. Liekwise crew berths and life support. Some design plans actually show a little bridge on the picture, so that's where I'll place it.

I've never really thought about the number of each type of planet. I always assumed it was roughly equal. I am vaguely aware of an idea that Gas giant planets might usually be larger on average.

Reproduction is affected by climate eg. if it's got a crummy climate with lots of rain, or depending on your race not enough rain, your people will breed less. I can't recall ever bothering changing the climate. Take planets from other people if you need to grow more.

I find Intel annoying. I do all this work and then some radomn spy comes along and steals stuff. I leave all Intel I have to defence. I don't know if defence is 3 times effective per point vs attack.

Cooperative intelligence useless? You will see when you are at war with a player that has weak intelligence services and they will suddenly start having many successful intel attacks against you.

I think he meant that he thought it was useless since it can only be done to help your allies.

1: Inner hull: ship control systems. Bridge crew life support, etc... colony components. why? colonizers don't work if they have taken ANY damage.

1b: No, it's junk.

2: Types/atmospheres are a pretty even split. BUT as there are no None/Gasgiant planets you will find considerably less planets with None atmosphere. I usually make a race that has Ice or Rock and a Methane, Hydrogen, or Carbon dioxide atmosphere. Why? AIs tend towards Oxygen and rock.

3: Yes, it also improves happiness. Planetside production is a function of happiness. Thus the better the environment, the happier the people, and the more productive they are.

4: I favor 2 fields. Ship sabotage, and planet sabotage. Steal or disable their ships to cripple their military. Or, cripple their economy by damage their production infrastructure.

The specific strategy I employ depends on what my opponent is strongest at. If they have a powerful fleet I'll sabotage it to make winning in combat easier. This type of sabotage can even destroy the units on board ships, potentially stopping a ground invasion or disabling a carrier by destroying the carrier's fighters. Stealing ships is also good for reinforcing your forces or to acquire their technology.

I dislike empirewide sabotage as it's effects are too random to be of any strategic use. And yes spying is a waste. Although it's a bit easier to accomplish spying projects.