It turns out the answers was a) more casion mines and b) researching the more advanced reactors since the auto-design shoved quantum reactors on every civilian ship. Still running low, but it's less awful.

Heyo so I have something like 80+ CasIon mines, and hundreds upon hundreds of thousands stored across my empire, but my primary shipyards consistently have 0 CasIon available.

It seems the merchant fleet is just fully unwilling to ensure shipyards have enough fuel in port. Is there any way to fix ...

<t> Resort passengers don't take up much space, but migrants tend to be numerous. Its up to you. There's generally about 1 to 2 passenger ships per planet, maybe a total passenger amount of 10 million early game and 50 million late game? Each compartment can carry a lot of migrants. It depends on ...

<t> You just need enough to cover the energy requirements.<br/>
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Let's say you have a base with the following requirements:<br/>
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Static: 60<br/>
Energy Drain from All Weapons Firing: 232<br/>
Shield Recharge: 10<br/>
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Your Energy Collectors have a max potential of 32, and you ...

Does it have enough cargo space for all the components required for building a base?

<t> From a realism standpoint, yes, the station should be dead and useless until "repaired."<br/>
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From a "we're playing a game and the AI isn't perfect about keeping things stocked up" standpoint it makes sense to treat stations and such as you would ships without fuel; i.e., considerably ...

Oh, and it seems that energy collectors CAN charge the capacitor, and thus allow for weapons to fire, but they are space-inefficient.

Energy collectors only work when something is stationary, and power generation is dependent on distance and star type.

So yes, reactors + weapons + fuel = firing weapons. Energy collectors do not seem to be useful except for shields sand static requirements.

It shouldn't be zero, but it DEFINITELY shouldn't be producing materials at the same rate.

I realize overbearing challenge is individual, which is why I asked for others settings to see what has worked in the past for them

Thank you, I'll try that out next time.

<t> This is a video game? They don't come with warranties? Its a licensed product. You can do whatever you want to it. If you managed to reverse engineer the engine and rebuilt the thing, so long as you didn't sell it you'd be fine.<br/>
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The developers are under no legal obligation to do ...

<t> So I was wondering what game settings you guys tend to play on. I find myself expanding too quickly and becoming unstoppable pretty much right off the bat, because the AI is not quite as aggressive at expanding and everything.<br/>
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How do you guys set up your games, so that there is ...

I would consider that pretty high, and well within the area of "uhh errmmm meeeeyyyybeeee we should consider allowing the empire with a fleet six times the size of ours and vastly more technologically advanced to enter into a protective treaty with us."

<t> + 55 / +60, that realm.<br/>
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Ahh to have the ability to threaten war in exchange for better trading opportunities. We have to get our cheap tea and silk y'know, and we already made half your population addicted to opium, so those "trade restrictions" better go away or else.<br/>
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<t> Research time etc. - Could use more choices, and things are a bit fast. Reverse engineering is indeed rather swift, perhaps less options to reverse engineer found ships and have only the one occasional salvage project going (which should also tie up resources from your main research paths).<br ...

<t> Out of curiosity, beyond "hurr durr we don't want to rely on others even a little bit" is there a reason why an empire that I am ridiculously friendly with doesn't want to sign a protectorate treaty? Y'know, trading valuable resources, free trade agreement, enormous amounts of trade, similar ...

<t> I have not noticed the AI lacking fuel sources... well, until there's war between us. But aside from that, the AI seems to be 'ok' fuel wise.<br/>
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As for the one ship not refueling, I've had that happen once before and I think it has to do with the lowest possible speed. It was happening ...