About Mineral Shortages and About Sorium Harvesters

[Atlantia (OP)]

Hey all, I've been around for a few days, having a REALLY good time with Aurora.  I've just come up against a hostile alien civilisation in the next system over that destroyed my Geo survey ship with 40 Fighters (at least, I assume they're fighters, with a Thermal Sig of 160, but I have no idea. )

But back to the topic at hand.  I'm about to give up on this game because I've utterly run out of Corundium, and the only source I have is on Venus, and its accessibility is 0. 1.  I tried to be really conscientious this game and built nearly 75/100 automated mines in the 7 years I've played.  So, the question: Is there any way to avoid (or at least stave off) mineral shortages other than mass-producing mines (and hoping the bloody corundium doesn't run out too soon)?

Secondly, I had the bright idea of building some Sorium harvesting ships.  When they got to Jupiter to collect some of that sweet sweet Sorium, I got a game error message relating to the conditional order: "Drop off fuel at colony and proceed to gas giant" (I had "When Fuel Thanks Full" it is for the first condition).  So in theory this should have worked, but I got an "Overflow error," IIRC (it was late and I didn't think to record) and the ships refused to drop off the fuel anywhere.  Now I've simply given up on them because I can't figure out how to make them unload their fuel at Earth manually.  So, the question: What's the deal? Should I delete those ships and use Fast OB to make new ones?

Thanks!

[Din182]

Create a survey team using officers. They should find some more minerals on Earth and once their done, you can move them to Venus to hopefully increase the accessibility.
Not sure about the second problem, but that combination of conditions always seems buggy to me.

[Atlantia (OP)]

Oh, I've had a survey team, and I always explore the inner planets before moving on.  They often get stuck for many many months at a time on some planet outside the inner asteroid belt.

[Ashery]

While not of much use now, your primary method for staving off mineral crashes is proper planning beforehand. But, as I said, that's not much use now.

Have you scouted for other potential jump points leading out of Sol? I'm guessing the primary reason the tutorial recommends setting a minimum number of jump points for Sol is to avoid the exact situation that you currently find yourself in.

Other than that, I'd say your best bet is to hope you get lucky with geosurvey teams on otherwise empty planets (Assuming you've already checked Venus). I was actually in a situation similar to yours early on where Venus had 20mil corundium @ 0.1, Titan had 600k @ 0.1, and I was lucky in that I had an asteroid with 50k @ 0.8, but very low amounts of other resources. A combination of uncovering several thousand tons of corundium in some ruins and discovering a world with 2.5mil @0.8 with high levels of other resources was what eventually broke the shortage. My situation may have been a bit worse, actually, as I was suffering from multiple shortages: duranium, mercassium, and corundium. I was pretty much manipulating the build allocation for my mines and labs on a weekly basis in order to make sure I didn't run out of their respective resources. Duranium wasn't as limited, as I could clearly keep building labs/mines, but shipyard expansion was pretty much out of the question and I was frequently forced to spend my discretionary build rate on financial centers simply because I didn't have the duranium for anything else.

I'd have to see the exact situation to really give more direct advice.

Not sure about the harvesters, but my design is engineless and relies on tankers to periodically ship fuel back to my primary colony in the system.

[Atlantia (OP)]

While not of much use now, your primary method for staving off mineral crashes is proper planning beforehand.  But, as I said, that's not much use now.

What kind of planning do you mean? I assume something like "Scout out and distribute mines more proactively?" I think I'll do that in my next game here.

Have you scouted for other potential jump points leading out of Sol? I'm guessing the primary reason the tutorial recommends setting a minimum number of jump points for Sol is to avoid the exact situation that you currently find yourself in.

Oh yeah, I scouted every jumppoint.  The trouble is that I was only 7 years into my game (because I was mass-producing mines and automines) when I ran out, so I hadn't had time to get any kind of jump technology designed beyond solo engines for my survey ships.

I'd have to see the exact situation to really give more direct advice.

Ah, I reckon I'll just try to adjust my play style so I don't run out so quickly.

[Ashery]

By "planning" I mean a general awareness of what resources you currently have access to and can easily exploit in the near future and using said awareness to build accordingly. Fortunately in your case, building auto/mines is exactly what you should be doing in the case of a corundium shortage, so your game is probably salvageable. Just how much corundium is on Venus anyways? Even with 0.1 accessibility, you'll still be able to do some modest mine expansion.

Another fortunate bit: Developing basic jump gate technology doesn't require a drop of corundium, so you can start expanding to the nearby systems relatively cheaply and quickly.

Just keep your survey vessels active in nearby systems and you'll run into a decent source soon enough.

[Atlantia (OP)]

Venus has just under 3 million Corundrium, and I have 54 automines on the surface producing a whopping 65 per year.  I suppose I can start moving all of my automines from Earth, which will bring me up to about 130 there.

I haven't yet found any asteroids or planets with more than a few hundred Corundrium in the two adjacent systems I've more or less mapped, but I guess the world won't end with me not having enough to finish my hundreds of mines on Earth.

Now, about jumpgates.  If I construct one, do transiting ships need anything more than to use them? I've heard of these Jump Tenders, but haven't looked up anything on them yet.

[Ashery]

There's really no reason for automines to be on Earth unless you're desperate for minerals that can't be produced in the necessary quantities elsewhere. It *will* run dry eventually and, at least with my conventional start, I soon had several hundred nearly useless mines sitting on Earth while I was busy scrambling to establish an extra-solar colony. Also, drop a couple automines on the asteroids that have corrundium. It won't be much, but you'll certainly be producing a hell of a lot more than if you relied purely on Venus. You don't even have to bother with mass drivers, just drop a couple automines and pick up the resources right before your stockpile on Earth is depleted.

For jump gates, any ship can move through'em with the "Standard transit" order. Jump tenders are used when you want to move ships that are not jump capable into a system without building a jump gate. The reason people often favor using jump tenders is that a jump gate can be used by hostile ships to freely jump through your systems.

[Father Tim]

Is there any way to avoid (or at least stave off) mineral shortages other than mass-producing mines (and hoping the bloody corundium doesn't run out too soon)?

Explore.

Crank out a bunch of Geo & Grav ships (or combination geo/grav ships) and explore your neighbourhood.  Keep exploring until you find a good source (several million tons at 0.7+ availability) of every TN mineral.  Then it's just a matter of organizing your mining and transport in the face of any shortfall.

And yeah, get all your automines off Earth and out where they're harvesting what you need.