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Newbish questions - 11/16/2012 3:12:20 AM   
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tylertoo
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Status: offline 		My planned colony ships are not getting built because I apparently lack steel and perhaps some other resources. Do I have to sit down and figure out precisely which resources are lacking, then find those resources in the galaxy map, then build mining stations or send out mining ships all simply to get these colony ships going? Is there a way to stream line the process?

I have most settings on automate or suggest, including mining, but the AI doesn't seem too interested in mining for those particular resources. There certainly is plenty of unmined steel (for example) in my little portion of the universe.

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RE: Newbish questions - 11/16/2012 6:39:23 AM   
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exelsiar
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Joined: 4/27/2010
Status: offline 		your best bet would be to pause or cancel all construction for say, a month game time to allow resources to build up. Then queue up a couple of steel mining stations. or if you want to speed up the income a little bit, build a stripped down version of the mining station so it's cheaper and quicker to build.

that or cheat in some mining stations :P

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RE: Newbish questions - 11/16/2012 7:24:51 AM   
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Jim D Burns
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Status: offline 		One thing I've found that helps a lot in my games is to queue up mining stations on every planet in my home system as soon as the game starts. Early in game you don't have a lot of civilian transport ships so if you build stations a long ways from you main construction yards, it can really create a backlog as sites wait for the few cargo ships to make the long voyages.

By building a lot of short-hop stations early, the civilian economy will build cargo ships to service them and since they are usually serviced very quickly the cargo vessels are available to do other things and it keeps things from getting bogged down due to cargo transport shortages.

Later in game when you have hundreds of cargo ships you can scrap the bases built on low percentage sites, but early on its the extra civilian ships you want, so build bases at every site you can in your home system.

Also make sure you build more construction ships as soon as you can afford it. Otherwise it'll take months for all your bases to get built. With one planet starts, I generally queue up the bases and 10 explorers first. Then when I can afford it I queue 5 constructors. Only after those ships and the bases are queued for construction do I allow military stuff to get built.

This is a kick start strategy, the automated AI is perfectly capable of building up your mining. But it isn't efficient enough to plan ahead and build extra capacity ahead of time. It simply makes sure you have the capacity to produce x amount in x time, and if it finds you lack something it queues up a mine, but that lags behind demand a bit. You'll need to manually queue up a little cushion into your production if you want to reduce shortfall downtimes.

< Message edited by Jim D Burns -- 11/16/2012 7:36:26 AM >

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RE: Newbish questions - 11/16/2012 12:16:01 PM   
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WoodMan
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From: Ol' Blighty
Status: offline 		I'm guessing this is early game? How many colonies have you got? How many colony ships are you trying to build? Do you have any steel mines? What about the other strategic resources?

I don't know your level of experience or your empire situation but my advice if you a very new player is to never have colonization automated and to not spam lots of colony ships at once it will cause a resource shortage. Just build one, because then you know your main planet will build it. You may not have a resource shortage at all! If you are trying to build colony ships at small colonies they will simply take forever to build, it is faster to build them one at a time at only your large colonies/homeworld (say 2 billion population minimum). If you use the expansion planner it will usually choose the right planet for you, unless you spam it then it will start building them at all your worlds.

I build mines manually to make sure I've got everything. I generally don't go on what is in most demand, but on what I have none of. So, first thing is to get 1 mine for every single resource I can. Then, go from there. On the hard settings I play on only smallish Empires are possible (until you conquer anyway) and 1 or 2 mines of each resource is more than plenty.

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RE: Newbish questions - 11/16/2012 1:24:45 PM   
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Jeeves
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Status: offline 		A bit of advice : the civilian ships purchased as a result of colonizing a new planet consume more than ten times the resources required to build one mine. DO NOT add colonies until you have lots of steel and caslon, as well as at least one mine for every resource except the super luxuries and rare luxuries. Manage mining yourself, it doesn't really require much attention since mines typically take 6-9 months to build. In my current game as an Ackdarian at 18 months I built 14 constructors and have lots of everything, until I got a lost colony when the first civilian ships were purchased. That brought my mining operations to a screeching halt due to not having steel at the homeworld. I have about 10k of steel in my mines but it takes a while for the independent freighters to arrive and move it for me...

Lonnie Courtney Clay

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RE: Newbish questions - 11/16/2012 2:43:23 PM   
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tylertoo
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quote:

ORIGINAL: WoodMan

I'm guessing this is early game? How many colonies have you got? How many colony ships are you trying to build? Do you have any steel mines? What about the other strategic resources?


Thanks all. Yes, Woodman, this is early game (and I'm new to the game).

Here's the situation: I have only my three starting colonies, but I realized that among the nearby potential colonies is a planet with 1.2 million of my own race. Two neighboring, hostile races have also discovered the planet and seem to covet it as well. So I beefed up a fleet and have that fleet stationed around the planet, basically saying to the others, 'stay away.' I ordered up just one colony ship. I don't think I normally would have done so this soon, but I surely want that planet.

Then, much to my surprise, my fleet discovered an abandoned capital ship in orbit over the very planet that everyone wants. So I claimed it, added it to my fleet and made it the leader of the fleet. I plan on keeping the fleet in orbit around that ship until the colony ship can claim the planet, which brought me to my problem of the colony ship construction being stalled for lack of resources.

I don't have any mining stations at all yet, as far as I can tell. I do have one mining ship complete, and in fact it is mining steel. Four other ships are queued up for production.

So I could sit back and wait this out... that fleet isn't going anywhere. But I didn't know if I should be proactively micro-managing resources to speed up that colony ship.

As far as other strategic resources:




In other words, not much

< Message edited by tylertoo -- 11/16/2012 2:48:16 PM >

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RE: Newbish questions - 11/16/2012 2:52:12 PM   
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WoodMan
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From: Ol' Blighty
Status: offline 		Oh wow! lol I've never seen that! I play on the harshest startup settings possible and I have never seen no stock in *anything*, in the couple of years I've been playing DW I've only got a resource shortage that caused a standstill once that I can remember (Chromium). I really don't know what to do when you get in this situation, do you build a lot of ships or something? How could you end up with no resources at all

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RE: Newbish questions - 11/16/2012 2:52:50 PM   
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Bingeling
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Status: offline 		Be aware that the fleet will sit idly at the colony while the nasties invade/colonize. It is not an act of aggression to colonize or build a mining base (or attack an independent).

I thought what I see there is impossible. Have pirates ravaged your bases? You got 0 caslon sources, 0 stock, 35.6k demand. This is fuel we are speaking about. It could be that you are advanced (started at high tech), but you got no hydrogen either (which is the alternative fuel).

Steel is not in that screen shot, but I would man handle constructors (manually) into building gas sources at at least 2-3 centrally (in system preferrably) caslon source (as long as you have caslon fueled ships).

It could be that all your freighters are out of fuel heading for some foreign gas marked, expected to arrive in 4 years (before making the return trip with 44 caslon...).

Edit: I saw only the first image commenting this


< Message edited by Bingeling -- 11/16/2012 2:53:17 PM >

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RE: Newbish questions - 11/16/2012 2:56:04 PM   
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WoodMan
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From: Ol' Blighty
Status: offline 		Did you delete your starting spaceport(s)?

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RE: Newbish questions - 11/16/2012 3:25:03 PM   
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Bingeling
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quote:

ORIGINAL: WoodMan

Did you delete your starting spaceport(s)?

Should that impact anything? If anything, it should cure issues as there is nowhere to build freighters... Stores are on the colony, no?

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RE: Newbish questions - 11/16/2012 4:04:49 PM   
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WoodMan
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From: Ol' Blighty
Status: offline 		Dunno, you start with a whole bunch of stuff, not sure where it is stored. To be honest I think either there is some funny business or a rare bug of some sort going on here!

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RE: Newbish questions - 11/16/2012 4:14:41 PM   
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Darkspire
Matrix Elite Guard



Posts: 1986
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From: My Own Private Hell
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quote:

ORIGINAL: WoodMan

Oh wow! lol I've never seen that! I play on the harshest startup settings possible and I have never seen no stock in *anything*, in the couple of years I've been playing DW I've only got a resource shortage that caused a standstill once that I can remember (Chromium). I really don't know what to do when you get in this situation, do you build a lot of ships or something? How could you end up with no resources at all


Could be wrong but im sure the OP said,

quote:

then build mining stations


He has no stock because he has not built any mining stations to replace the initial resources you get when you start the game?

For a new player I would not suggest to go for the one of each type of resource approach, thats great if you know the resource usages for items but if your new its much better to sort by demand and have a look at what is being used and needed, you can then work out what needs what resource by monitioring the build queues. Like Caslon for fuel, steel for ships etc.
If you just sort by demand on the exp'planner then go the bottom of that window and select the mineral that that is needed and select it to queue a construction ship to build a mine there, work through the demand list and youll see the same things are needed for the starting techs each game, once you have a few games under your belt then go for the one of each type approach and you will know the order of resources needed.

Darkspire



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RE: Newbish questions - 11/16/2012 4:20:02 PM   
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tylertoo
Matrix Trooper


 

Posts: 83
Joined: 9/3/2012
Status: offline 		Well, wow. Thanks for the prompt replies.

There is info I left out that may be pertinent:

--I am using the Picard Era Mod, and control the Ferengi.

--I did my initial set up, put everything on automate, and then let the game play forward about five years at 4x speed. When it hit the start of year six, I paused and took a look, spotting that potential colony, and sent my fleet over.

Why did I 'sim' forward several years? I kind of dislike the early game stuff. I wanted to start out with some level of progression already taken care of. Perhaps that was a mistake.

So what you see is the result of the AI managing things for five years under the Picard Era Mod. Maybe the mod has messed things up.

I have a save of the initial set up (Year one) and then one when the simming stopped, then the current save after several months of semi-human control.

I apologize for not explaining that from the start. Thanks for your help.

< Message edited by tylertoo -- 11/16/2012 4:21:21 PM >

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RE: Newbish questions - 11/16/2012 4:24:01 PM   
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Bingeling
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Status: offline 		I have no experience with mods (apart form the odd graphics replacement one). It could be that it starts out with no gas mine (that I think is ensured in legends at least).

The AI, while at peace, should use its constructors to build mines and the odd resort or research base. There are not much signs of any mines in your game (I guess the carbon fiber and stuff are on colonies)? Being flat out of resources (as long as you started with some), could be the results of pirates/empires at war munching away ships and spaceports as you build them, until nothing more is built. But I think you would have noticed your empire being ravaged while you fast forward.

For a newbie, I suggest staying at the normal game, at least if this is what using a mod leads to :)

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RE: Newbish questions - 11/17/2012 2:40:00 PM   
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tylertoo
Matrix Trooper


 

Posts: 83
Joined: 9/3/2012
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Bingeling

I have no experience with mods (apart form the odd graphics replacement one). It could be that it starts out with no gas mine (that I think is ensured in legends at least).

The AI, while at peace, should use its constructors to build mines and the odd resort or research base. There are not much signs of any mines in your game (I guess the carbon fiber and stuff are on colonies)? Being flat out of resources (as long as you started with some), could be the results of pirates/empires at war munching away ships and spaceports as you build them, until nothing more is built. But I think you would have noticed your empire being ravaged while you fast forward.

For a newbie, I suggest staying at the normal game, at least if this is what using a mod leads to :)


In going back over the earlier saves, your guess of "pirates/empires at war munching away ships and spaceports as you build them, until nothing more is built" seems to be on the mark. I DID have resources up to a certain point, but pirate attacks seem to have whittled away my ability to mine. So, not a bug in the mod, but newb incompetence.

I think the single decision I made in overriding the AI -- moving defense forces to the potential colony -- left my three colonies fairly defenseless which allowed the pirates to pounce. So I'm still learning. I'm going to back up to an earlier save and have another go at it. I still want that planet, but obviously if it costs me my economy and resources its fruitless.

Thanks for everyone's help. Nice community you (we) have here.


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RE: Newbish questions - 11/17/2012 4:34:04 PM   
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WoodMan
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From: Ol' Blighty
Status: offline 		woot

Glad ya figured it out tyler I was totally stumped

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