Colony won't mine - Why?

[solops (OP)]

I have 6 million colonist on Mars with construction factories, mines and infrastucture. The construction factories are working but the mines do not produce anything, even though the Mining/Maintenance screen header says I should be getting 270 mins per year from my 27 mines. It also says accessability is 1.0, but has no entries for any minerals in the "Quantity," Accessibility" or "Annual Production" columns. There are no costs listed in the "Maintenance" box. My mines are fully staffed and mars has excess workers. What is going on and where should I have looked to undestand it?

[Erik L]

I have 6 million colonist on Mars with construction factories, mines and infrastucture. The construction factories are working but the mines do not produce anything, even though the Mining/Maintenance screen header says I should be getting 270 mins per year from my 27 mines. It also says accessability is 1.0, but has no entries for any minerals in the "Quantity," Accessibility" or "Annual Production" columns. There are no costs listed in the "Maintenance" box. My mines are fully staffed and mars has excess workers. What is going on and where should I have looked to undestand it?

Have you performed a geo survey of Mars?

[solops (OP)]

I thought I had, but I am not seeing anything. I'll try that.

[Erik L]

If you bring up the system view (F9), and look in the first column by Mars, you should see an S or M. S means no minerals, M means there are minerals, and nothing in that column means you have not surveyed it yet.

[solops (OP)]

Oh poop....Mars has no minerals. Ten years of development down the tubes.

[Caesar]

A geological team might discover something.

[Paul]

The development is not entirely "down the tubes." You can develop Mars as a financial base. If you have the extra minerals on Earth, use cargo ships to haul in a load of Corbomite and Uridium. Then set your factories to building financial centers. They'll generate money which will let your other planets finance more research and construction. I use lots of planets as purely financial centers in order to finance the rest of my empire.

[WCG]

A geological team might discover something.

How do you use a geological team? I played the tutorial and set the default orders for my survey ships as described there. But they skipped the Earth, and the summary for that planet shows that there's been no "Geological Team Survey."

Well, I had some leaders with nothing to do, so I created a Geology Team. But now what? How do I tell them to survey the Earth,... or really do anything at all? I thought about transferring them to one of my survey ships, in case they would help with that, but this option is not available, either. Just the option to transfer them to one of the laser ships the tutorial had me make.

[Brian Neumann]

A geological team might discover something.

How do you use a geological team? I played the tutorial and set the default orders for my survey ships as described there. But they skipped the Earth, and the summary for that planet shows that there's been no "Geological Team Survey."

Well, I had some leaders with nothing to do, so I created a Geology Team. But now what? How do I tell them to survey the Earth,... or really do anything at all? I thought about transferring them to one of my survey ships, in case they would help with that, but this option is not available, either. Just the option to transfer them to one of the laser ships the tutorial had me make.

To get the team survey done all you need to do is put them on a planet/moon/asteroid, ect that does not have a survey.  They will start surveying, and periodically there will be a message about them having found some new amount of minerals, or upped the availability.  At some point there will be a message that the survey is done.  As long as the team is on a planet that has a finished survey, there will be a message saying it is finished.  Thats all it takes.

Brian

[WCG]

OK, so since I created the team on Earth, I can assume that they're actually doing something there, because the Earth hasn't already had a geological survey. There's no way to tell what they're doing, otherwise? And I should get a notice when the survey is complete, so I can move them elsewhere.

And if I understand you correctly, this is a more detailed survey than what survey ships do, so it's helpful to send the team around to any mining colonies.

Thanks for the info!

[Steve Walmsley]

OK, so since I created the team on Earth, I can assume that they're actually doing something there, because the Earth hasn't already had a geological survey. There's no way to tell what they're doing, otherwise? And I should get a notice when the survey is complete, so I can move them elsewhere.

And if I understand you correctly, this is a more detailed survey than what survey ships do, so it's helpful to send the team around to any mining colonies.

Thanks for the info!

Yes you will get a message when the survey is done. Yes, it is a good idea to send them on a tour of your mining colonies. You should also see a line on the Summary tab for Earth for the Geological Team Survey that will tell you if it is complete.

Steve