New player in need of help understanding mechanics.

[Paul.B (OP)]

Hello everyone. 

First of all, I'd just like to say that this game is awesome.   as a huge space games fan you have my eternal gratitude Steve. 

now for the matter at hand,after reading though the tutorials, wiki content and youtube tutorials but even after that when I went to do my first serious gameplay I got stuck with several difficulties.   now I want to learn how to do these things properly before I start a new game:

1)How do mining ships work? I tried sending a basic mining ship to get some resources from a surveyed comet but its cargo bay is listed as empty even after it was on the comet.   Also, is there any way to automatically make it mine asteroids/comets and then just deposit it to a nearby colony (or specific colony

2)How does the economy, and particularly wealth, work? I dont understand how to increase wealth.   All I do know is that I get an warning that my empire is in debt. 

I've read the commercial shipping tutorial and did similar ships, but apparently the shipping lanes dont use them and it lists 0 ships there. 

3)how does the civilian contract works in the  civillians/ind status tab work? (in the economy menu) What does supply/demand mean? (does it mean I offer to supply them with X or demand them to construct Y) and why doesn't it change if I add things there.  ignore that.  found the answer in another thread.

4)is it better to send population and a regular mine or build automines in mining colonies? and is there any purpose in having a cargo fleet when you can use mass drivers?

5)Is there any difference between terraform installations and terraform ships? what would you recommend for when I start terraforming. 

6)haven't touched jumpgates yet, I assume they allow for travel without jumpdrive? Is it better to invest in jumpgate construction or just stick with jumpdrives (for early game atleast)

7)What does an Orbital Habitat module do?

8)Couldn't help but notice the "Planetary market" button doesn't work.   is it a bug or does it need to be unlocked or something?

feel free to add any additional useful information/tips that might help a newcomer to the game. 

[Jorgen_CAB]

I will try to answer some questions and what I do, there are several ways to solve some of your issues.

1. All the minerals is left on the planet when you mine them. You either put a standard cargo bay and give your ship a mass driver and then simply transfer the mineral to Earth. You obviously need to deploy the mass driver to the planet.
Personally I usually create very large mining bases without engines (use a Tug with a tractor beam to transport them) and then use one or more very small freighter (with one small cargo hold) to go between mined asteroids and comets to collect minerals. I set up a route and give it a speed so it will minimize the use of fuel to a minimum.

2. Remember that almost anything you do take a portion of your wealth from you, such as building ships, expanding naval yards, operate laboratories etc. You can view all this on the wealth tab of the F2 screen. You can also see what brings you income. Most of your income will usually be from taxes so the larger your population the more wealth you get. Something else that also will get you allot of wealth is trade between your colonies. So, in order to expand on your wealth it is wise to start building lots of colonies. Make sure you put leaders with high wealth bonuses on colonies that has lots of people. You can also build Financial Centers (these also don't cost Duranium which is a mineral in short sullies very often).
Another thing you can do is to research the "Expand civilian economy" that you find in the Construction/Production category. This will increase your wealth by 20% every time you research it.

4. If you build mines or auto mines depends on the habitability of that colony. On worlds with a low colony cost it is better with regular mines of you have the people to work them. Automines cost you twice as much to produce but do not require any people to operate.
Massdrivers are much cheaper to use in the long run so there is no question about them being the more efficient way of distributing your minerals, but you need freighters to get minerals from one system to the next. Once again I use ships with a small cargo hold to move minerals around most of the time because they are more fuel efficient.
You also need to remember that it can be very useful to have your own freighter at times when the civilian fleet have many contracts to consider or the distances between two points are greater than four jump points because that is the limit on civilian ships.

5. You would ideally want to use terraform ships on planets to lower the colony cost to a reasonable level. You then start putting down infrastructure and send some colonists and terraform installations. Once again I do not build terraform ships but stations and drag them around with tugs. They usually stay in one place for years and have no use for engines that much.

6. Jump gates is very useful for when you start connecting systems you plan to start colonies in, it greatly saves on time and effort constructing jump engines for you merchant fleet. I actually don't know if civilian shipping lines will start building jump capable ships but I assume they will if they have to, but remember that they build ships based on their income and profitability and jump ships will probably be more expensive.

7. It can house up to 50000 people at a planet without any infrastructure on it. They are useful on planets where you need a small population for some reason. In the latest version they are quite useful for shore leave duties to fleet in systems without any populated planets.

8. Don't know really... it has not been in use for a time if I remember correctly.

[sublight]

1) Asteroid Miners leave refined minerals neatly stacked in a colony on the asteroid they are mining. I don't know if asteroid miners are capable of mining other objects like comets.

2) See above explanation for what wealth is. Going into debt causes workers to works slower, and thus produce (and bill) less. Wealth can be increased by a) research wealth technology b) taxing rather than buying civilian mine output, c) encouraging civilian trade.
Both B and C require establishing at least one inhabited colony. Constructing financial structures will also produce extra wealth, but it takes about a decade for those to payback the construction cost.

5) Terraforming ships recieve bonuses only from their commanding officer, while terraforming facilities recieve a bonus from the planitary administrator. Otherwise there isn't much difference except that Terraforming ships are self propelled and don't require a planetary workforce.

6a) Yes.
6b) Civilian shipping seems to depends on a jump-gate network. Now that Steve has lowered jump-drive costs the choice is more of a matter of personal preference. I like jump drives. Most other people seem to prefere jump gates. *shrug*

7) See above.

8 ) Its either a relic from a window that was removed or a planed window that hasn't yet been added.

[Nathan_]

asteroid miners work on comets, which is good because asteroids are terrible.

[madpraxis]

Also, I see nobody caught this part..
'I've read the commercial shipping tutorial and did similar ships, but apparently the shipping lanes dont use them and it lists 0 ships there.  '
Yup, there won't be. They now make their own designs independently of you. I guess when they do there is a checkbox on the ship design screen that you can tick so you peruse their designs (I have a short screen, never seen it ).
I was going to type something else, but I forgot...oh well...
Oh ya. To get them to actually build ships they need to see a demand for it. Personally I usually hand them a few extra thousand steve bucks at game start and then eagerly await their cluttering up my screen. Not sure how the new civ fuel harvesters read demand (do they need an existing need like for other ships or do they just say 'oh, sorium, mine!') but the cargo/colonist ships need a colony that has a demand. Mars makes a good choice (even if mineral poor (or empty), just for the extra wealth the new colony will create with it's shiny new colony smell and pop growth rate combined with the ease of terraforming (take years, honestly, let the civ line(s) ship infrastructure and colonists and build up capital and ships), throw a few infrastructure on there and then drop of too MANY colonists. So now you have a colony that has a need for infrastructure. I find that this usually gets the civ shipping lines interested rather quickly, and they will have a tendency to pop out freighters (waaaay more useful then colony ships in my mind for the contract potential) more then colony ships.
That and honestly, who cares how much they whine and cry about not being able to suck near vacuum as they slowly (well, somewhat rapidly) expand from the low pressure. ONLY MAKES YOU STRONGER...till your eyes pop out, your intestines squeeze out your arse and your lungs creep out of your mouth while your ear drums squirt blood rather far in the low gravity and pressure. ONLY MAKES YOU STRONGER.
This post is rather cluttered, but I'm rather inebriated, so it's all good. HAVE FUN.

[Paul.B (OP)]

Thanks for the replies everyone.   

I figured out what I did wrong with the asteroid mining.     didnt know you had to colonize the actual asteroid to be able to mine it.     anyway to side step it? colonizing every asteroid I want to mine looks like abit of a needless chore.

Also, what should I focus on in early game? improve research (building research labs, and researching improved research)? start colonizing everything possible? securing resources?

[vonduus]

You can abandon the colony when you are done with it. There is an abandon button somewhere near the bottom right of the F2 screen, iirc.

[Paul.B (OP)]

I know, but the frequent create colony - abandon colony seems abit repetitve and annoying.  especially for bodies with low amounts of minerals.   

[Paul.B (OP)]

I see something interesting in my new playthrough.   

Venus is apparently rich in resources (19,807,720 Duranium,17,947,080 Tritanium,36,626,700 Mercassium,13,628,800 Sorium,7,416,908 Gallcite)but 0. 1 availability to all except for Duranium which is 0. 2 so not sure if its worth building a mining colony for that. 

[metalax]

Drop a survey team on it. They have a decent chance of upping the availability of at least some of the minerals.

Even without that, what you have there is a good trickle source of materials for when earth runs dry.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

I know, but the frequent create colony - abandon colony seems abit repetitve and annoying.  especially for bodies with low amounts of minerals.   

Typically any body actually worth mining will last years and years.   Don't even bother with the tiny crap.

[Paul.B (OP)]

last question hopefully.     

seeing how you need to colonize eitherway, the question now is should I use Asteroid mining base, or automated mines.      any real difference between them? particulary in cases of planets such as Venus. 

EDIT:

Looks like it wasn't the last question. 

in my focus on Venus I didnt notice that Titan was explored and a civilan mining complex moved in and I lost a moon with 3million tons of 0.  9 avaliability Duranium.   not a major loss but its still a shame. 

anyway to "persuade" the civilians to leave? so I can move in for myself or did I lost Titan to them. 

and another question - How does mining Sorium from gas giants work? since I cant colonize them I just move to orbit or something?

[Steve Walmsley]

in my focus on Venus I didnt notice that Titan was explored and a civilan mining complex moved in and I lost a moon with 3million tons of 0.  9 avaliability Duranium.   not a major loss but its still a shame.  

anyway to "persuade" the civilians to leave? so I can move in for myself or did I lost Titan to them.  

and another question - How does mining Sorium from gas giants work? since I cant colonize them I just move to orbit or something?

You haven't lost it. You can move your own mines (or anything else) to the same colony. The civilians operate their own mines and you operate yours - plus you get the benefit of the sensor station and the garrison unit.

Just move to the gas giant to mine/refine the Sorium straight into your fuel tanks

Steve

[Paul.B (OP)]

Excellent. 

Sorry to make this thread my personal guidethrought but questions just keep on poping up.   Now my auto-turns keep get interrupted and I get a message that my task force has began doing a secondary objective.   since its a constant repeating primary-secondary objective run I end up being interrupted every turns.  I tried hiding the event but then I still pause without any event messages even though auto-turn is enabled.

[Hazard]

Asteroid mining modules only handle asteroids and comets. If you try to use them on moons and planets, they won't work.

Fuel Harvesting modules only need to be placed into orbit of the to be mined gas giant. They will then convert the Sorium straight into fuel. Note that there is no technology that makes this conversion process more efficient and use less Sorium, only faster, but this isn't much of a problem because gas giants that have Sorium tend to have loads of Sorium.

Only way to get rid of that order loop is AFAIK to simply take it out of the standard orders.