Hve played Civ 3 and 4 and just started the game, but I found the possible lack of new planets or not being able to do more with a planet, after getting options to improve squres to be very limiting. Last game I played on was medium with 3 differnt oppentnts and the map gave us the following planet that were playable

planet size planet number
4 4
5 2
8 1
10 4
11 1
12 1
15 2

Started 4 or 5 games before this at a very easy level to get a flavor for the game and as I do not like playing a military type, will fight only if attacked, like builbing civ, is the lack of buildable planets on purpose or just bad roles. tried a game at large size and number of usable planets did not seem to increase.