Newbie With Questions

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

I completed all the tutorials last night and now I'm on my own trying to get to grips with all the details not covered. If the questions are answered elsewhere I apologise I did search but nothing really helped me.

During the tutorial a colony is created on Mars and but as far as I can tell it has no population do I need to build a colony ship and start transferring population from Earth?

Is the best thing to build on Mars Auto Mines and if so how do I get the mined minerals back to Earth? I guess thats what the freighters are for.

Finally I have found a jump point with one of my Grav Survery ships should I move my warships close by just in case?

Sorry for all the questions I really want to get my head around this game and figured the best way is to ask here I'm sure lots of you have been in this boat before.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[UnLimiTeD]

To 'create a colony' doesn't necessarily do anything, it's just required for doing anything there.
What you want to do on Mars totally depends on what you want to do in the long run, and how many minerals are there.

To transfer colonists, you should first produce Infrastructure on earth and ship it to mars, or they will just die there.
Mars is remotely habitable, so terraforming it for manned mines might be cheaper if theres enough minerals to justify a long time mining operation.

Jump points itself don't necessarily pose a thread, keep in mind theres likely more Jumppoints, even if you were to be attacked, I would guard my homeworld.
Once you have a jumpcapable ship, you can probe those points to see whats behind them.

If you got a lot of time, it also helps to read some of the campaigns posted on this forums, they give quite some info on tactics and the like.

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

Thanks for your reply I suppose the longterm mining operation is dependent on how many minerals are found and also how long it will take to mine them?

Are automines better used on planets that are not colonisable?

I have started to read the AAR's and they gave me the the impetus to learn how to play so I can perhaps write some AAR's of my own.

I might start a beginner one which may help other beginners learn from my mistakes which I think will be many.

Apart from the Wiki, the forums and tutorials are there any other places where info about Aurora can be found?

[randal7]

Automines are more expensive and require more minerals to build. If a planet has minerals you want and is colonizable, put some people there and use regular mines. It only takes 50k people to run a mine, so a couple million will cover your personnel needs for the first decade or two. Automines are for uninhabitable locations, although they will work anywhere.

Moving minerals in the same system is best done by using mass drivers. A mass driver will launch 5000 tons/year to the target of your choice; it will be a while before you need more than one launcher. Make sure you have a mass driver on the recieving end as well. Otherwise, large rocks are crashing into the target at very high speeds, which is bad for the environment and those who live in it.

[praguepride]

Automines are more expensive and require more minerals to build. If a planet has minerals you want and is colonizable, put some people there and use regular mines. It only takes 50k people to run a mine, so a couple million will cover your personnel needs for the first decade or two. Automines are for uninhabitable locations, although they will work anywhere.

Moving minerals in the same system is best done by using mass drivers. A mass driver will launch 5000 tons/year to the target of your choice; it will be a while before you need more than one launcher. Make sure you have a mass driver on the recieving end as well. Otherwise, large rocks are crashing into the target at very high speeds, which is bad for the environment and those who live in it.

This almost happened to me in my game and I didn't stick with it to see what would happen:

Say you launch a mineral packet at a planet and while the packet is en route a freighter comes by and packs up the mass driver. Will the mineral packet actually cause damage to the target colony?

[randal7]

I haven't seen it firsthand, but what I understand from other posts here is that not only will it damage the colony, but they will regard it as a deliberate attack and become hostile. Apparently citizens in this game don't have a sense of humor about these things.

[ZimRathbone]

Say you launch a mineral packet at a planet and while the packet is en route a freighter comes by and packs up the mass driver. Will the mineral packet actually cause damage to the target colony?

Been there, done that and oh boy were the colonists miffed.