I didn't terraform a single planet until I unlocked the cloud accumulator, cloud vacuum, heat ray and refrigeration ray. To unlock the badges to get these tools I purchased and claimed solar systems. To do this I had three allies and two enemies. I set up trade routes with my allies and eventually purchased their star systems. I annihilated my enemies and claimed their solar systems. This unlocked the badges to get the terraforming tools. Although I also planted a few colonies myself, I found that this was the fastest way to gain solar systems, as well as making fast money.

Terraforming:
To actually start terraforming a planet, make sure that you have a large, medium and small plant in your cargo. You will not be able to stabilize the planet without these. You then need two herbivores and one carnivore/omnivore to further your t-score. You can't just put down a carnivore or it will starve to death.

Plants and animals do not have a specific t-score assigned to them. You don't have to go to a planet and search for a plant that is t1 for example. I just picked the plants and animals that I liked the best. Rikket describes this in another post as well here: http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/2116.page.

You can terraform a planet with any color trail using the ship's terraforming tools. The first planet that I terraformed was a planet with a blue trail. The trails just indicate the planets that would be hard to terraform using the terraforming tools that you have to buy such as the Ice Comet, Volcano, Drought Generator, etc.

Example:
1. Say the dot is in the top left corner in the Terraforming minimap on a T0 planet. Use the heat ray and the cloud vacuum to get a T1 score.
2. On the terraforming minimap, you will see the T1 line blink, and the outer circle of the planet on the Terraforming minimap change color. Then beam down a large, medium and small plant. You only have to beam one of each down. Each of these plants will be all over the planet.
3. Then beam down two herbivores and then one carnivore/omnivore. You now have a T1 planet!
4. Repeat steps 1 to 3 to make a T2 planet (depending where the dot is on the Terraforming minimap, use the proper terraforming tools to do the job).
5. Repeat steps 1 to 3 again to make a T3 planet!

Sorry for the long post. I hope this helps!

Some good tips.

Another good one here that could help early terraforming masters is to "abuse" the terraforming mission your homeworld gives you. They will sell you atmosphere generators for 1,000 Sporebucks as long as you don't terraform hthe planet they want you to. Now, alone they probably aren't great, but they are useful for getting some T0 planets to T1, and if you're lucky even a T1 to a T2. This could help you get some early badges, as well as paving some way for some easy and cheap colonies, since money can be tight early in the Space stage.

who needs terraforming? let the planet BURN!!! (or freeze...)

Something else that's worth knowing is that you can gain huge diplomatic favor by successfully terraforming a planet that another species already lives on. All you have to do is increase the T score by one and stabilize it with plants (don't even need animals) and it gives you +90 with that race for "You Improved Our Planet". Haven't tried it with the Grox but other empires that aren't friendly will develop a much nicer disposition towards you if you do this.

Decrepitude says:
"Something else that's worth knowing is that you can gain huge diplomatic favor by successfully terraforming a planet that another species already lives on. All you have to do is increase the T score by one and stabilize it with plants (don't even need animals) and it gives you +90 with that race for "You Improved Our Planet". Haven't tried it with the Grox but other empires that aren't friendly will develop a much nicer disposition towards you if you do this."

I think if you try it with the Grox, they will be displeased with you, because Grox *need* a T0 planet to survive. If you raise the T-score of their world, even temporarily, all their cities on that world are instantly destroyed. If you're going to fight grox, this is the way to do it. It's hella easier than trying to shoot down their ships. Bearing that information in mind, is it any surprise they don't want you to get to the center of the galaxy?

Can someone help me with this problem:

Whenever I try to beam down plants or animals to fill in gaps in the food web, they instantly die and I get the message "You need to improve the Tscore of this planet for this plant/animal to survive". This happens on T-1 and T-2 planets.

I dont get it.

[quote=decrepitude]Something else that's worth knowing is that you can gain huge diplomatic favor by successfully terraforming a planet that another species already lives on. All you have to do is increase the T score by one and stabilize it with plants (don't even need animals) and it gives you +90 with that race for "You Improved Our Planet". Haven't tried it with the Grox but other empires that aren't friendly will develop a much nicer disposition towards you if you do this.[/quote]

Actually, it's a +45 for most philosophies, but for Ecologists, it is indeed +90. For other philosophies, you can do it again to get it to +90, though.

[quote=decrepitude]Something else that's worth knowing is that you can gain huge diplomatic favor by successfully terraforming a planet that another species already lives on. All you have to do is increase the T score by one and stabilize it with plants (don't even need animals) and it gives you +90 with that race for "You Improved Our Planet". Haven't tried it with the Grox but other empires that aren't friendly will develop a much nicer disposition towards you if you do this.[/quote]

hey, that's good to know, i never would have thought to terraform someone elses planet (besides Grox).

good tip!

matticusuk wrote:Can someone help me with this problem:

Whenever I try to beam down plants or animals to fill in gaps in the food web, they instantly die and I get the message "You need to improve the Tscore of this planet for this plant/animal to survive". This happens on T-1 and T-2 planets.

I dont get it.

Click the globe icon in the upper right corner of the minimap. It will show a graph with the temperature of the planet on the x-axis and the atmosphere density on the y-axis. The graph will have 3 rings in the center representing the various T-scores of the planet. To the right of the graph will be three rows of dots representing (from left to right) small plants, medium plants, large plants, herbivore, herbivore, omni/carnivore, colony. Black dot means that slot is open for you to add a plant/creature/colony. Blue circle means the plant/creature exists but hasn't been scanned. Blue dot means the slot is filled and has been scanned (and you can click any of the blue dots/circles to track it).

Only one species can fill a slot, and no species can fill two slots. You can't start filling a new row of slots until you have adjusted the temperature and atmosphere to a new T-score.

blanketyblankman wrote:Blue circle means the plant/creature exists but hasn't been scanned. Blue dot means the slot is filled and has been scanned (and you can click any of the blue dots/circles to track it).

Only one species can fill a slot, and no species can fill two slots. You can't start filling a new row of slots until you have adjusted the temperature and atmosphere to a new T-score.

Yes. this is what i wanted to know. thankyou, thankyou my friend

i have a problem with making the dot stay in the center after i have finished making it a T3 planet (sending down plants and such is included)

the dot just keeps going to the left... anything i can do?

kasper700 wrote:i have a problem with making the dot stay in the center after i have finished making it a T3 planet (sending down plants and such is included)

the dot just keeps going to the left... anything i can do?

It will keep moving until you have stabilized it at that T-level. It is not stabilized until you have filled in the plant circles with the needed plants for that T-level.

I don't know how many other people know this, but it was big for me when I figured it out. Namely, the second you beem something to a planet your terraforming, it is part of the food web. So the moment its on the ground be it plant or animal, beam it back. In that way, once you have a big enough cargo hold, you just need 3 of each plant, 3 preditors, and 6 herbies. Its a good system because you don't have to keep rushing back to other systems to reload on life.

Does anyone else find it strange that omnivores only fill preditor slots? It just seems like it would make more sense if they filled any slot that was open, or both a preditor and a herbivore slot.

Random240 wrote:I don't know how many other people know this, but it was big for me when I figured it out. Namely, the second you beem something to a planet your terraforming, it is part of the food web. So the moment its on the ground be it plant or animal, beam it back. In that way, once you have a big enough cargo hold, you just need 3 of each plant, 3 preditors, and 6 herbies. Its a good system because you don't have to keep rushing back to other systems to reload on life.

Does anyone else find it strange that omnivores only fill preditor slots? It just seems like it would make more sense if they filled any slot that was open, or both a preditor and a herbivore slot.

First plant you beam down will multiply at once so you can beam up extra, nice if you have lost many.

Yes the omnivore restriction is strange, there are multiple omnivores in the game with only bite 1, they would get problems killing anything, and others are probably mainly predators.

And I find it annoying that we can’t rearrange item in the cargo hold. Now I have plants, spice, animals and artefacts mixed together.

Always beam down on high ground or next to a colony. When you terraform planets, their surfaces change and often water appears and rises. If the water covers your beam down spot while you are beaming down, your plant or animal will die and not count towards the food web.