Re: Engineering (Civil) - Good for planning?
 

In a small community, though, I think you can substitute Leadership. You'll be fine up to five hundred people, and you can make it work for a few times that number.

Re: Engineering (Civil) - Good for planning?
 

Substitute leadership for city/community infrastructure layout? Not sure I understand the reasoning. Maybe explain?

Re: Engineering (Civil) - Good for planning?
 

That looks like Administration to me - pushing around your resources (human and capital) to maximize the success of a large scale project.

I suppose there is a familiarity penalty for people who've never administered a colony project, but management is different for every kind of project. You don't need a specialized skill for each kind of enterprise you can manage.

Re: Engineering (Civil) - Good for planning?
 

I don't mean the resources required, I mean City planning aspect. Which looks like professional skill.

The idea is "If we put houses here, street here, bridge here. Stop sign here, stop lights there, businesses here... this will maximize the space and keep traffic low, while not bothering these people with high speed collisions that kill kids..." etc.

The skill for that.

Re: Engineering (Civil) - Good for planning?
 

In some ways its city planning...

And yet I know the class on how to plan traffic was in the civil engineering department at my alma mater.

Re: Engineering (Civil) - Good for planning?
 

That's why I started the thread asking if it was Civil Engineering. These touch on subjects I'm not all that familiar with. I know enough to know I don't know enough =)

Re: Engineering (Civil) - Good for planning?
 

Sounds like Engineering to me too. Engineering isn't just about "how can I build X", it definitely includes a considerable piece of the previous step "given problem Y, what kind of things X might solve it".

Probably engineering -- in a tech level high enough to have space colonies
 

-- as a lot of the technical details, nuts & bolts of "if the overhead lights are here & here, the wiring has to go . . . and what about the conflict with the toilet outflow pipe . . . " are going to be done by expert software plugged into the office computers.

Said widgets will be able to run a few thousand possible permutations of such designs to come up with the "best" solution (which will probably NOT cause short circuits, explosions, sewage leaking into the reception room, &c.)

You'd have to hire a high-quality professional to go over the plans to ensure that the computer didn't have a hiccup, but that's a lot cheaper than having humans do all the work.

Re: Probably engineering -- in a tech level high enough to have space colonies
 

Hueristical search, noice.

However, what about in pre-computing ERAs? That seems like an equipment bonus to me.