Strip Mining the Universe

[Borealis4x (OP)]

So I feel ready to, if not colonize the galaxy to at least take it for everything it is worth. I need some more info though.

For instance, how much cargo does an automated mine and a mass driver take up in a cargo hold? For some reason this is not readily explained by anything. Know how much infrastructure weighs would be nice to. What would be the best thing ever would be if you could command cargo fleets to keep on mission filling up their holds with as many mines as they can until there are a certain amount on the target planet.

Also, do I have to put down mines everywhere myself? When can I get some free enterprise up in this mutha?

In addition, when it says a ship will mine 14 tons of minerals per annum does that mean per year or per 5 days? If it means per year how are asteroid miners supposed to be useful?

And finally, is it worth colonizing a planet that is barren. Unfortunately, the moon does not have anything useful in it. Can I turn it into a giant doom fortress or something?

[Rich.h]

All in the wiki.

[Borealis4x (OP)]

The wiki that hasn't been working since forever?

[Mastik]

Colonizing barren bodies will come down to your play style.  Luna for example is easy to populate, and terraform.  Your empire will generate trade, taxes, and infrastructure from that population.

[Prince of Space]

1. One standard cargo hold will hold one mine, one automine, or or mass driver. You can estimate how many installations one trip can transport and use repeating orders to order a desired number of mines be moved. Or you can use civilian shipping assets once they start building cargo ships.

2. Free enterprise enters into the equation when you start getting civilian mining complexes (CMC):

http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=1716.msg16335#msg16335

3. Per annum means per year. But it actually works as per year per mineral type. So an asteroid with Duranium, Sorium, and Gallice will produce 14 tons of each, multiplied by the local accessibility multiplier. Personally, I deploy 50- or 100-module engineless mining rigs via tug. The real value in asteroid mining operations, if you ask me, is in cranking out a constant stream of mining assets without occupying my construction factories.

4. Uses for a planet without minerals include:
-populating the body to generate wealth, improve population growth, and distributing the manufacturing sector across multiple planets
-building a rest stop for passing ships to refuel, resupply, load ordnance, conduct shore leave, and/or undergo maintenance overhauls
-constructing armed PDCs to defend the area, if desired
-exploiting research anomalies, if present

[TT]

It seems like civil mines and shipping companies spring up when you start your first colony. I don't know if that is an actual game mechanic, but that seems to be the case in my games. Invariably, my first colony is either luna or mars as they are so close, they are easily supportable with early game frieghter support. Your colonies will generate a good bit of wealth and, over time, generate a lot of population. Dump 500 infra on Luna or Mars and our solar system will come to life.

Most standard installations will fit one to a standard cargo hold. You can fit 10 infra into a standard cargo hold. You can fit .05 parts on a terraforming center or a ground forces traing center into a standard cargo hold.

I make a couple kind of colonies in my games.  A frontier manufacturing center with lots of minerals and easily terraformable, Mining colonies with alot of an important minerals at low accessability but easily terraformable, an automining colony with lots of minerals but unihabitable, a money colony where I can build financial centers or a military colony. I also build asteriod mining ships and fuel harvesters continually throughout the game.

Know you'll use up Earth's minerals reasonably quickly and want to pursue other sources from the start. Colonies are your friend. Start with something close an expand.

[Thanatos]

I believe what actually triggers civilian shipping is a population on a planet. Usually when I start my games, I just drop 5 million on Luna, no infrastructure, the freighters pop up, and save Luna when it falls to around 1m.

[Borealis4x (OP)]

Whats the best way to get a colony to be self-sufficient? I ship factories, mines, and infrastructure but the colony can never really grow out its capabilities unless it has access to all the trans-Newtonian minerals and I really don't want to have to manage that...

[AL]

If other bodies in the same system have better mineral deposits you could ship automines and mass drivers to them and use your habitated world as a central collection point.

[Rich.h]

Whats the best way to get a colony to be self-sufficient? I ship factories, mines, and infrastructure but the colony can never really grow out its capabilities unless it has access to all the trans-Newtonian minerals and I really don't want to have to manage that...

A combination of mass drivers in the system and carefully planned out transport links that bring in minerals from hub points outside of it. However there is a vast difference between a self sufficient colony that can slowly grow itself, and one that is able to start producing things like ships, troops, or the components to start other colonies.

[Garfunkel]

Whats the best way to get a colony to be self-sufficient? I ship factories, mines, and infrastructure but the colony can never really grow out its capabilities unless it has access to all the trans-Newtonian minerals and I really don't want to have to manage that...

Depends on what stage your empire is at. If Earth is still consuming minerals faster than it receives them, then all focus should be on getting more minerals to Earth itself. If you already have sufficient mining projects (automines+mass drivers, CMCs, asteroid miners) to support Earth for the next 12 months (at the least), then as AL said, the easy way is to sprinkle auto-mines and mass drivers around the system that your new colony is on. A system that has a habitable planet and all 11 TN minerals in good quantities is worth a lot.

If you don't find all 11 minerals inside a single system, which can often be the case depending on the RNG, then you have to fiddle with freighters collecting & delivering minerals over multiple systems. That is pretty advanced logistics but figuring it out can be very rewarding.

[joeclark77]

Depends on what stage your empire is at. If Earth is still consuming minerals faster than it receives them, then all focus should be on getting more minerals to Earth itself. If you already have sufficient mining projects (automines+mass drivers, CMCs, asteroid miners) to support Earth for the next 12 months (at the least), then as AL said, the easy way is to sprinkle auto-mines and mass drivers around the system that your new colony is on. A system that has a habitable planet and all 11 TN minerals in good quantities is worth a lot.

You can do both.  Let each star system have one "hub" planet that all the mass drivers point to.  Ideally, that planet will accumulate all 11 TN minerals.  Freighters resupplying Earth can stop at the "hub" planet on their regular route.  You can use minimum stockpile amounts to prevent the freighters from depleting the entire stockpile, so the "hub" planet can retain a supply to be used for its own production or what have you.