"That's a good idea. I might let the grav surveys continue though and just mothball the geo survey ships
Why even continue doing Geo Survey? What does it get them for the expense of paying upkeep on the ships? Minerals have been found, several worlds to colonize have been found, many open warp points I agree but whats needed is to get new production on line. Continued exploration does nothing for that goal and is a negative to it as it diverts resources from the objective.
I stronly suspect you have made minerals too rare. Whats going to happen in the late game when you have ships taking over a year to bring in loads of minerals? You will have the production / population in mined out systems huge distances from raw materials. Materials that will burn in upkeep a ships build cost to go out to get them and then to haul them home.Mike
As I said I intend to mothball the geo ships for now but I will continue doing grav survey because I might find faster ways to get places or a route into Terran space or the Delphi system
With regard to minerals, I am concerned I may not have made them rare enough given some recent finds. As for it taking a long time to get to minerals, the minerals within easy reach of Thebes will last for a very long time, decades at least. In any event, don't forget that ship speeds will increase over time as well so even though minerals may come from further away, it may not take any longer. It will be more of a case of finding local supplies for each populated world than a general shortage. The Gallicite problem is local to Sol and is a short term problem with a solution requiring some effort, which from a game design perspective is ideal.
For example, there are twelve million tons of Gallicite on Thebes. If the Commonwealth had all six hundred mines on Thebes it would take about one thousand years to use up that deposit and 2000 years to mine out the 27 million tons of Duranium.
Steve