I made some mistakes

[db48x (OP)]

With 1.12 released I decided to try a harder game. Conventional start, of course, with 10% research, terraforming, and survey speeds as well. Then I got the idea to turn on Human NPRs and set the year really high so that I can reclaim my lost empire. It stands to reason that my lost empire must have mined a lot of minerals out of Earth, so I set the minerals down to 50%. That was clearly the first mistake.

The other mistake was to read someone's clever idea for using a carrier with grav survey fighters to rapidly explore the jump point network. It was such a neat idea that I decided to try it. That was clearly the second mistake.

So why are these mistakes? Well, I managed to build about 180 automines before completely running out of Corundium. There are only a handful of other sources in the solar system, and two of them orbit Miranda which is a 61bkm round trip. I managed to survey Miranda and its moons with the help of a tanker sitting at Sedna, but moving a large quantity of mines all the way out there is going to take a while. I also don't have that many to send, and with only about 1000 tons of Corundium mined every year I'm not making them very fast.

The Duranium mines on Earth have also been depleted, but my stockpile of 9k should be enough for the immediate future.

Finally, I'm also out of Neutronium. My carrier with 8 hangar decks, a 1kt fuel tank, a jump drive, and one single layer of the finest armor humanity can manufacture is just 40kt. I didn't even know that shipyard operations needed Neutronium, and I didn't hesitate to expand all my other shipyards. I ran out of Neutronium just when that particular shipyard reached 37kt. I paused all the other shipyards to conserve Neutronium, but retooling also needs Neutronium. I'm pulling in just 1203 tons of Neutronium per year, and the game now stops every other construction cycle to remind me that I'm out again.

Maybe in a year or two I'll finally be able to start construction of the first jump-capable ship since the fall of civilization. My engineers assure me that constructing the ship won't require any Corundium or Neutronium at all, but I'm not really sure I believe them.

What mistakes have you made lately?

[Garfunkel]

Whoopsie! 

[Kaiser]

With 1.12 released I decided to try a harder game. Conventional start, of course, with 10% research, terraforming, and survey speeds as well. Then I got the idea to turn on Human NPRs and set the year really high so that I can reclaim my lost empire. It stands to reason that my lost empire must have mined a lot of minerals out of Earth, so I set the minerals down to 50%. That was clearly the first mistake.

The other mistake was to read someone's clever idea for using a carrier with grav survey fighters to rapidly explore the jump point network. It was such a neat idea that I decided to try it. That was clearly the second mistake.

So why are these mistakes? Well, I managed to build about 180 automines before completely running out of Corundium. There are only a handful of other sources in the solar system, and two of them orbit Miranda which is a 61bkm round trip. I managed to survey Miranda and its moons with the help of a tanker sitting at Sedna, but moving a large quantity of mines all the way out there is going to take a while. I also don't have that many to send, and with only about 1000 tons of Corundium mined every year I'm not making them very fast.

The Duranium mines on Earth have also been depleted, but my stockpile of 9k should be enough for the immediate future.

Finally, I'm also out of Neutronium. My carrier with 8 hangar decks, a 1kt fuel tank, a jump drive, and one single layer of the finest armor humanity can manufacture is just 40kt. I didn't even know that shipyard operations needed Neutronium, and I didn't hesitate to expand all my other shipyards. I ran out of Neutronium just when that particular shipyard reached 37kt. I paused all the other shipyards to conserve Neutronium, but retooling also needs Neutronium. I'm pulling in just 1203 tons of Neutronium per year, and the game now stops every other construction cycle to remind me that I'm out again.

Maybe in a year or two I'll finally be able to start construction of the first jump-capable ship since the fall of civilization. My engineers assure me that constructing the ship won't require any Corundium or Neutronium at all, but I'm not really sure I believe them.

I also started a new conventional campaign, the first thing I was out was corundium and neutronium as you, too few on Earth, fortunately I anticipated this, harvesting some from near asteroids (I build asteroid miners).
I bought some time now to explore and find new reserves outside the Sol.

[Zap0]

What mistakes have you made lately?

I keep underestimating how many minerals are actually needed to support a fleet. I'm fine on Duranium since CMCs prefer it over everything, but Gallicite? That's gold.

[Droll]

What mistakes have you made lately?

...but Gallicite? That's gold.

I'm pretty sure I've consumed millions of Gallicite making missiles only. I did however manage to kick the bad habit of slapping 1% thermal reduction on all my engines. I just go with the 50% one. Makes a massive different for ship engine costs.

[db48x (OP)]

Oh man, corundium is used to make beam weapons too!

[Zap0]

Oh man, corundium is used to make beam weapons too!

Used for both lasers and mining lasers!

At least that's my headcanon.

[db48x (OP)]

Oh man, corundium is used to make beam weapons too!

Used for both lasers and mining lasers!

At least that's my headcanon.

That makes so much sense!

But not to worry, in just under a year, our troubles will be over. Two mines and a mass driver will be unloaded onto Minerva's sixth moon, which has 7.8Mt of corundium (at accessibility 0.1):



In other news, the geosurvey probe we left at Luyten 726-8 A II a few decades ago finally broadcast its results. There are good quantities of three minerals (but no duranium or corundium) to be had there, and there is a ruined outpost and a dormant construct. And you'll recall that last year the probe at Luyten 726-8 A I found good quantities of four minerals (no duranium, but there is 200kt of corundium) and a dormant construct. That's two in one system, and only one jump from Earth! As soon as my flagship is built, I'm going to personally lead the fleet over there to brush aside the alien ship that shot down our diplomatic mission 5 years ago and claim the world for Humanity.

[TheTalkingMeowth]

So you're gonna get 2 tons of corundium per year?

Yep, all your problems are over.

[db48x (OP)]

3.54t/yr, actually. I assigned a governor.

[Michael Sandy]

Several games I have had such a shortage of Mercassium that it is what drives extra-solar exploration.  Turtling without the ability to build large numbers of research labs is not acceptable to me.

I have had, to date, only one game where I managed to avoid any kind of Duranium crunch.  And that was because there were significant deposits of gallicite and duranium on the moon, (not great availability, and no other elements), but it meant I could guarantee SOME Duranium coming in all the time.

A lot of resource crunches are not so bad if you anticipate them and go with economic or fleet strategies that depend less on them.  But it can be a real pain if the mineral you need to dig out of the crunch is also the one in a crunch!

[db48x (OP)]

I think the game might be trolling me now.

[Froggiest1982]

I think the game might be trolling me now.

Is 3000 just not fitting or did you take 2750 years to leave Sol?

That's a humongous amount of clicks

[db48x (OP)]

Is 3000 just not fitting or did you take 2750 years to leave Sol?

That's a humongous amount of clicks

Hah, that would be pretty slow. The date just doesn't fit. Now that you mention it, it's rather odd that it shows that one in a different date format than the others…

[Droll]

Hah, that would be pretty slow. The date just doesn't fit. Now that you mention it, it's rather odd that it shows that one in a different date format than the others…

It's a problem that is specific to Wednesday my dudes. Its the longest day name so it doesn't fit, it annoys me to no end when trying to see completion dates that fall under a Wednesday.