How do you manage resources and other staff after the first expansion? (Full Version)

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kotti -> How do you manage resources and other staff after the first expansion? (11/12/2014 7:41:30 AM)

Hello,

so I am a little into the game and after the first few colonize I have some questions regarding resources and other points.

What I have:
- 4 colonies with low pop
- every strategic resource at least one times (from the more common ones 4-5)
- many gas mining stations at various planets/systems to easy supply my fleets ( I could use resupply ships here too)
- one big spaceport at the capital planet
- star bases at each colony w/o construction capability
- every luxury resource I could find (not that much in this particular game)
- the galaxy is very peaceful so far (pirates are payed off since its cheap)
- fleets consists of guard fleets at each system (auto) + some roaming fleets for space monsters (manual)
- every aspect except diplomatic is on manual/suggest

what I plan to do
- build more colonies
- increase amount of strategic resources
- build a additional big spaceports at strategic points
- start a war

So the questions are:
1) How many resource mines did I need?
2) Did you use more than one weapon tech? If yes Why ? I use torpedoes only.
3) do u arm your mining stations? I do this since I had some bad experiences in previous games with single roaming pirates)
4) Is there a way to increase colony ship building speed? Its so slow and blocks my main world
5) Do u automate constructors? If yes, how do u prohibit building mining station at the other end of the galaxy? (I use them manually)
6) Can I have too many mines?
















catweasel -> RE: How do you manage resources and other staff after the first expansion? (11/12/2014 9:27:08 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: kotti
(...)
- start a war
(...)
So the questions are:
1) How many resource mines did I need?
2) Did you use more than one weapon tech? If yes Why ? I use torpedoes only.
3) do u arm your mining stations? I do this since I had some bad experiences in previous games with single roaming pirates)
4) Is there a way to increase colony ship building speed? Its so slow and blocks my main world
5) Do u automate constructors? If yes, how do u prohibit building mining station at the other end of the galaxy? (I use them manually)
6) Can I have too many mines?


1) I usually check if there is any shortage in the resource planner. If yes, add these resources/luxuries quickly. Otherwise I check the genereal availability within my empire and add those, where the numbers are low.

2) In one game I only used torpedos (and point defense), which worked well for my ships. However, you still want to research some other weapon techs to get useful components (or planetary ion cannon). In my current game I still focus on torpedos for ships, but reasearch close range weapons for arming stations.

3) Yes, absolutely. I give them strong shields and enough weapons to defend against 1-2 pirate ships. Anything more will make them too expensive, and if you are at war, the enemy will come in force anyway - so you still need your cavalry to come in, fast.

4) I haven't found a way. But you could build ships at other colonies.

5) I prefer full manual, exactly for that reason.

6) Yes. Either they will not generate enough profit and/or maintenace is too expensive, lowering your private economy's cashflow, or you build them too quickly, leading to a resource shortage to build them. If that happens early on, better restart ;)

As for "planning to start a war" - It will come to you eventually. Closely monitor the miliary strenghts. If you are stronger, other races will be less demanding. If you are weaker, they might block a colony to extort you. And the insectoids want to wipe out every other race anyway... ;)



Jndion -> RE: How do you manage resources and other staff after the first expansion? (11/12/2014 12:43:39 PM)

There actually are some tips on this:

1. You'll need at least 1 source for every strategic resource. As to how many you'll need, it totally depend on how hard your game environment is and how fast you consume your military ships. If you set your game resources to be scarce and map vast and you are constantly at war with other empires, or you are just expanding quickly, you might want as many of these strategic resources as possible. If you are playing a peaceful game, then not quite necessary with too many mines. You'll never be locked dead with certain resources as long as there are pirates to assign smuggling mission for or there is a private gas&mining ship.

2. Torpedo proves to be the most efficient weapon in a late game, and makes ship design much simpler. So you may want to develop this line of techs faster than others.

3. No, I never equip my mine station with either weapons or shield defense. I only put some plates for protection. If someone is attacking my mine station, I will give the station to the "independent" nation (or whoever you prefer, you may even earn some quick cash if your station is at someone else' territory), and after their military leaves I can take it back with a boarding team easily. Sometime I just left it there because it is so cheap that I just want to build it somewhere else!

4. Yes. You might want to build stuff at a colony with the highest population. You might want to build the High-speed Shipyard wonder at that colony. In combination of both you'll have a colony building stuff with a super fast speed!

5. No. You need to manually build stuff in the beginning.

6. Maybe, depend on how hard your game is. If it is a hard game, you may need to control your construction because it may drain a lot of your cashflow. If it is an easy game then it just doesn't matter.



Spacecadet -> RE: How do you manage resources and other staff after the first expansion? (11/13/2014 2:25:34 AM)


1 - It depends on your play style.
I try to have one of each type in or as nearby each colonized Star System - this helps reduce Freighter trip time.
I pretty much nail down every Fuel Resource I find.

2 - Again, a play style choice, but for me, yes.
I use different Range/Speed tactics for different ships classes.
Also take into account Weapon Range and Rate of Fire.

3 - Yes, but it has to be reasonable or else it gets too expensive.

4 - This is dependent upon Colony Population, Resources (no shortages), and Construction Tech.

5 - Yes and No.
I generally start out Manually for the most part and eventually transition to Auto.
At a point, under Auto your Constructors will eventually stop building - which is generally fine by that time.

6 - Possibly, I probably build more Mines than anybody else and it's not uncommon for me to have a couple hundred of each Gas and Mineral Mines.





Shark7 -> RE: How do you manage resources and other staff after the first expansion? (11/13/2014 5:38:19 PM)

I'm going to give you the quick, messy advice rather than a step by step. There are three main things you need to do when you are first expanding your empire:

1. Make sure to get the mining bases (especially gas mines for caslon and hydrogen) that are either in system or in the closest systems built first. These two resources are not only fuel for your ships, but your colonies require massive amounts of each for growth. Also, I tend to put 12 docking bays on my gas mining stations so when ships do dock to refuel, they can do so quickly. Then grab the strategics, then the luxuries. Why do I suggest in system or close to the system...simple, the less territory you have to cover, the easier it is to defend it. Defend only the strategic areas. Because just as Frederick the Great said: "He who defends everything defends nothing." Your small navy simply can't be everywhere at once, but if everything is in close proximity to home bases, they ships can respond in a reasonably timely fashion.

2. DO NOT build additional space ports for a long time. You really only need 1 for every 10-12 colonies in my experience. Space ports are resource sinks that will draw resources away from newly established colonies. The less strain you put on your freighters, the better and shorter trips and only needing to supply a few important points is much easier on the civies (see point #1 above). Design a cheap star base with recreation and medical modules and build those at each colony. And I mean minimal so if you lose it, not a big deal to rebuild it. Besides it is hard for any base smaller than a defense or large space port to stand up to a determined pirate/enemy attack. Better off to make the outer colonies stuff as cheap and easy to replace as possible when lost (because it will be).

3. If you capture or 'salvage' a space port (through abandoned bases or pirate bases), my advice is to get rid of it as soon as you can. Give it away or just scrap it. I have the most problems with resource shortages when I gain one of these 'freebie' space ports in some out of the way place and the whole freighter fleet abandons the inner colonies to resupply it. The bases away from major colonies are nothing more than resource vampires that will suck the life blood out of your economy.

As for your specific questions:

1. As many as it takes. There is not definite right answer here.

2. Qaulified answer: I play a mod with new weapon techs so mileage will vary. I do mix weapons, usually choosing a mix of heavy lasers for up close work and missiles for stand-off battles. That way when I run into a heavy installation (pirate base) my ships can stay out of range and plink away with missiles until it damaged enough to go in for the kill. Also, never skimp of PD weapons...you run into an alien race that uses a lot of fighters and you will have problems. 4 PD per ship is NOT over-kill in this game.

3. Moderately. Enough guns to drive off a pirate escort or frigate. I tend to put more shields and armor than guns so that when something more powerful (or a group of pirates) attacks, it can last long enough for the navy to respond.

4. Three ways to do this one. A) Mod the game files, namely the race.txt B) have a leader/governor with the colony ship construction speed skill or C) build the Bakuras High Speed Shipyard wonder (best option).

5. Yes. You can still issue specific orders by going to a planet and using the UI to order a station into the queue. I do this, but mostly keep a hands off approach when it comes to constructors. Easier just to queue stuff up in the planner when sorted by distance and let the AI carry out the queue.

6. Short answer for me? No. The more mines you have, the faster you pull resources into the colonies where they are needed. I guess if some one were to go through and weigh cost versus return there might be a point when you get no return for building additional mines, but I've not seen it myself.



kotti -> RE: How do you manage resources and other staff after the first expansion? (11/17/2014 11:37:22 AM)

Ok this helps a lot.
So far colonies need resources and luxury goods to grow. Has anyone an idea how much of that stuff a colony requires? (different populations levels?)
Are there running costs for colonies and bases /ships beside fuel and maintenance?



Shark7 -> RE: How do you manage resources and other staff after the first expansion? (11/17/2014 6:10:50 PM)

I can't give you a set amount. However, if you will open up the resources.txt file with notepad or wordpad, you can go through and see how the resources required for each colony are weighted. IIRC, you will see that Hydrogen and Caslon are set to max, with others falling somewhere between there and none at all.



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