Gathering resources for scorched planets

[Herode (OP)]

Ladies & gentlemen,

french speaker here, so please forgive my mean english. 

I've just discovered Aurora after the reading of a short news about indies games on a french wargaming site.  The game looks really impressive and much fascinating, as far as I can understand what's going on.  Of course, and despite the fine tutorials, I'm kinda lost with all those shiny screens, so I plan to open here a few threads where I'll ask some naive questions. 

First one here : I'm trying to colonize Mars.  I moved some infrastructure and colonists, as well as a few factories.  Unfortunately, those factory workers do not want to work because. . .  there is no mineral available on Mars to build anything.  I then planned to move some mines to Mars but the F2 screen (mining tab) shows no resources.  I was wandering if I was missing something here : such a big planet without a single ore to mine, that looks weird (at least for a modest non geologist player).  Moreover, if Mars really has no mineral resources, is there an automated way to supply its factories ?

[Brian Neumann]

A couple of questions for you to start with.

Have you done a geological survey of mars yet.  This would normally require a ship with geological survey instruments.  If you have not or are not sure then the fast way is to turn on the SM functions and then open up the system display screen (F9).  If Mars has been surveyed then in the far left there will be a letter either a S, or an M.  S means that the planet was surveyed but no minerals were found, and a M says that there are minerals on the planet.  If that far left column is blank then use the button down on the far right that says body survey.  Make sure that Mars is selected and it will survey mars for you.  If you just want to have the entire system surveyed then use the button that says system survey.

Any other questions we would be happy to help.  If there is nobody else on the forum that speaks french let me know I still can get along with my french even though it has been years.

Brian Neumann

[Herode (OP)]

Hi Brian, thanks for replying. 

I checked the system report in SM mode and Mars is labelled S, so : no minerals 

I guess I'll have to move minerals on Mars with my freighters.  My first try shows that I can move minerals in quantities : 3 freighters with a total of 15 cargo holds moved around 6000 Duranium, 6000 Tritanium and 2000 Vendarite (that's the full stock of Vendarite on Earth. . . ), that's more than enough to build some installations on Mars but I almost depleted the stockpiles on Earth so I'll have to check the numbers before loading next time.  I wonder if I could set some automatic resupply instead for the lacking minerals. 

[voknaar]

Mass Drivers would be a better alternative have one set up on earth and one on mars. The mass driver will shoot minerals from earth to mars when it is set up to do so. Also they are the standard form of shifting minerals to industrial worlds from your mining planets.

[Brian Neumann]

With mass drivers just make sure you never remove the final mass driver on a planet that is recieving minerals this way.  If you do then the rest of the mineral packets will be bombarding your planet and they can do lots of damage to the planet.

Brian

[Herode (OP)]

All right, great ! I'll try mass drivers ASAP, looks fun 

Back to the minerals question : I was checking the Population & Production Screen (F2) and in the Summary tab, for all the colonies, I see : geological team survey completed.  What does it mean ?

[Thiosk]

You can get some of your officers and assemble them into a geological survey team, and send them to go and pick through rocks, and discover some minerals.

As far as building things on mars, in my current game I did not build factories on mars.  Earth has a huge industry, and it will take a long time for mars to: get terraformed, develop that industry.  Instead, I focus on bringing minerals to earth to fuel its industry.  I use Mars as a baby making factory, and MUCH later, place research installations there to make use of the little workers. 

[danw13335]

With mass drivers just make sure you never remove the final mass driver on a planet that is recieving minerals this way.   If you do then the rest of the mineral packets will be bombarding your planet and they can do lots of damage to the planet.

Brian

Thankfully there's a warning for that now.

[Nibelung44]

As for minerals on Mars, we are speaking of Trans Newtonian minerals only in Aurora, so this explains why you can have planets without any mineral whatsoever... 

[waresky]

As for minerals on Mars, we are speaking of Trans Newtonian minerals only in Aurora, so this explains why you can have planets without any mineral whatsoever... 

Right.

Aurora's Economy use ONLY Trans-Newtonian ore.

And a warm welcome by new Officer.

careful out there.."The Steve's Evil Mind" had bad new setup in other Solar System,..

[Herode (OP)]

You can get some of your officers and assemble them into a geological survey team, and send them to go and pick through rocks, and discover some minerals.

I have created a geological survey team (5 members), actually based on Earth. But I don't find the way to give them orders. Do they accomplish auto-survey on the planet where they stand ? Are they disabled when on Earth ? Or (most probably) am I missing something ?

[voknaar]

The F2 window will show you if the Geologists have completed their survey. Its located at the bottom of the summary of your planet. When it is complete it is time to move the team to a new world to discover new minerals. This happens automatically, you only need to make sure that all 5 members are alive and that the survey for that world isn't complete for them to go about their task. Once its time to move on select a ship you wish to use (can be any type of ship) on the F12 screen select the planet they are on. Then select the Pick Up Team order and then select the team. The process of unloading is practically identical. Select a place you want surveyed and drop them off.

Also the place they are dropped doesn't need to be made into a colony before hand because dropping them off automatically makes the location into a colony.

[Herode (OP)]

OK, thanks.

Is there any way to know how far the geological team has accomplished his survey ? I mean, something like the estimated percentage processed or something like that.

Also, if I later drop the team on, say, Titan or Venus. Should I have to assign them some equipment/module to survive in such hostile environment or is the team always implititly equiped with whatever stuff is needed ?

[voknaar]

They can go anywhere but Gas Giants since colonys can't be made on them. You dont need to worry about their health or the planets conditions. There is no way to know their progress, but as long as there are five members and the survey isn't complete they will eventually. Even if this takes years at a time.

[Herode (OP)]

Also the place they are dropped doesn't need to be made into a colony before hand because dropping them off automatically makes the location into a colony.

Do you know what happens when an alien colony already exists on the planet ?
Can you drop your geo team on those planets ?
Do we still have the auto-creation of an empty colony ?

Looks like there is a high chance of diplomatic fun if the auto-creation takes place in such occasions