Civilians moving minerals

[Magnnus (OP)]

I realized while playing that I didn't have any industry or anything running on Mars; I considered starting something up but didn't simply because I didn't want to bother with moving minerals around all the time. Thats where this suggestion comes in; do you think it would be possible to contract civilians to automatically look at what colonies need a certain mineral and take that mineral from a colony that doesn't need them. I'm not suggesting contracting civilians to just move one chunk of minerals to one location, but to have a system similar to moving trade goods or colonists. If you allow them, which could be a check-box saying something like allow civilians to move minerals, civilians would take minerals from colonies that have excess and move them to a colony that needs those minerals for their current production. They would only take or give minerals to or from colonies that you allow them to.

On a related note: how about being able to specify what minerals you want a mass driver to send out.

[sloanjh]

I realized while playing that I didn't have any industry or anything running on Mars; I considered starting something up but didn't simply because I didn't want to bother with moving minerals around all the time. Thats where this suggestion comes in; do you think it would be possible to contract civilians to automatically look at what colonies need a certain mineral and take that mineral from a colony that doesn't need them. I'm not suggesting contracting civilians to just move one chunk of minerals to one location, but to have a system similar to moving trade goods or colonists. If you allow them, which could be a check-box saying something like allow civilians to move minerals, civilians would take minerals from colonies that have excess and move them to a colony that needs those minerals for their current production. They would only take or give minerals to or from colonies that you allow them to.

I think this is a variation on a suggestion for mass drivers that's been made a few times.  I think a lot of people would like to be able to set a "reserve level" for each mineral - the mass driver would only throw minerals in excess of this level.  This is an interesting variation - it sounds like you're saying that civies might look for planets with minerals below the reserve level and move them there from planets above the level.  Sounds cool to me - yet another reason for civie shipping.

On a related note: how about being able to specify what minerals you want a mass driver to send out.

That's the suggestion that's been made a few times

John

[Magnnus (OP)]

I figured the mass driver suggestion had been made so I was a little hesitant to mention it.

As for civilians moving minerals, I was thinking they would look at the projected usage of minerals for a colony and try to match that by taking minerals from another colony that you have allowed to be a source. Of course don't let the sources minerals get below their projected usage. This could also allow them to supply colonies in neighboring systems. I guess my philosophy is that a colony only needs as much as they will use; theres no point of piling minerals onto every colony in the event they will need them.

I was thinking this would be a perfect complement to the civilian contracts in 4.8.

[Steve Walmsley]

Civilians moving minerals will be added at some point. I just want to make sure the civilian contracts work OK and then I will start expanding what they can do. I can see that the demand is growing for the mass driver change as well

Steve

[welchbloke]

Civilians moving minerals will be added at some point. I just want to make sure the civilian contracts work OK and then I will start expanding what they can do. I can see that the demand is growing for the mass driver change as well You can add me to the list of people who would like the mass driver change.

[Father Tim]

I'd like to see civilians moving minerals around - mainly because I don't use mass drivers . . . ever.  They just don't fit in with my conception.  I want a massive merchant marine conducting trade all over explored space, and a navy tasked & honour-bound to defend it.  As a result, I have hordes of freighters of all sizes and tech levels (I never obsolete designs, or scrap ancient 1-hold, Nuclear Thermal-engined tramps) following various 'cycle orders' trade routes to collect minerals from mining outposts and carry them to major colonies.

A hearty 'Yes, please!' to increasing civilian capabilities.

And instead of adding a mass driver subroutine to maintain X amount of mineral on planet, make it a more general ability.  (For example, have the military ship "Load (TNE)" order ignore minimum stockpile setting, but "Load X (TNE) when available" order respect the decision to maintain a certain amount on planet.)  I know I'm in a tiny (unique?) minority that doesn't use mass drivers, but I wanted to remind you that there's at least one of us around.

[ShadoCat]

I can see that the demand is growing for the mass driver change as well

[sloanjh]

I'd like to see civilians moving minerals around - mainly because I don't use mass drivers . . . ever.  They just don't fit in with my conception.  I want a massive merchant marine conducting trade all over explored space, and a navy tasked & honour-bound to defend it.  As a result, I have hordes of freighters of all sizes and tech levels (I never obsolete designs, or scrap ancient 1-hold, Nuclear Thermal-engined tramps) following various 'cycle orders' trade routes to collect minerals from mining outposts and carry them to major colonies.

A hearty 'Yes, please!' to increasing civilian capabilities.

And instead of adding a mass driver subroutine to maintain X amount of mineral on planet, make it a more general ability.  (For example, have the military ship "Load (TNE)" order ignore minimum stockpile setting, but "Load X (TNE) when available" order respect the decision to maintain a certain amount on planet.)  I know I'm in a tiny (unique?) minority that doesn't use mass drivers, but I wanted to remind you that there's at least one of us around.

I really liked the philosophy expressed in this post (about the thriving civie sector).

If the civies will move the minerals for me (and the issue with civie lines not showing up is fixed, e.g. by adding a "create civie line" button in SM mode), then I'd be ok with ditching mass drivers.  The only reason I use them is because the micromanagement involved with setting up "Load X when available" orders for the cargo ships was too much micromanagement to mean, in addition to meaning that I had cargo ships sitting on every lump of rock containing automated mines.

John

[Father Tim]

I really liked the philosophy expressed in this post (about the thriving civie sector).

Thank-you!

If the civies will move the minerals for me (and the issue with civie lines not showing up is fixed, e.g. by adding a "create civie line" button in SM mode), then I'd be ok with ditching mass drivers.  The only reason I use them is because the micromanagement involved with setting up "Load X when available" orders for the cargo ships was too much micromanagement to mean, in addition to meaning that I had cargo ships sitting on every lump of rock containing automated mines.

John

I felt the same way at first, until I thought about all the stories where the suppply ship shows up once every six months or so with fresh fruit and mail, and hauls away whatever the locals produce.  So I set up a bunch of long, circuitous routes whereby freighters visit a half-dozen rocks before hitting a major colony to unload, then off again 'round the loop.  It's easy enough to copy those orders to additional freighters and have three or four following the same route weeks apart.  And I didn't pay overly-close attention to how much was produced each place, and how often the freighters took it away.  I just looked around every so often, when I had a freighter or two to spare, and assigned them to visit a few places with stockpiles to move.  I figure there should be a fair amount of inefficiency in the freight sector.

Though I'm not saying "Ditch mass drivers, Steve!"  I'm saying I don't use them, please don't force me to use them or miss out on new functionality.

[mrwigggles]

It would be really nice to set up a depot colony in a system with various automines that mass drived their mineral to the depot and the civies picked it up and delivered to hear and gone.