I think it is because Tom has the misfortune to be located next to some aggressive expanders.
Totally not me too...... I'm probably not going to expand to my east much soon. My friend who joined us up there needs a few more planets, so I said he could have the ones between mine and his territory. Whether I stick to that promise depends on how bored I get
Hopefully some of the trading changes will make maintaining your planets more of a focus.
Amen. I'd quite like to see planets change hands fairly frequently because of dissatisfaction, but then that doesn't play to the style of the game so it won't happen
Anyone noticed that fleets of the same ships can have different acceleration speeds? I've just seen an Arc with 0.335 acceleration, two of mine have 0.33, one at 0.324, eight at 0.325, with the rest on 0.35. Each of those speeds comes from a different planet. So perhaps planets have set speed modifiers they can apply to fleets? Perhaps based off society level?
EDIT: Seems so. Built an arc at a SL1 planet and got 0.251 acceleration. Built one at SL123 planet and got 0.35 (same speed for SL111 planet). Got varying speeds for planets in between. Next highest was 0.33 at SL80 planet, so I'm guessing it caps shortly after that? Educated guess would be maxing out at SL84, which is when food stops.
EDIT EDIT: A friend suggested (0.25 + soc/1000). Seems to fit for me, everyone else too?