Resources

[lancer]

Goodaye,

It appears from all the available information that resources play a vital part in the game. They have to been found, mined and transported before you can use them to build things or maintain Colony nirvana.

I'm curious how the game deals with resource abundance, or lack thereoff. I didn't see any settings in the start screens that allowed you to tweak this so I assume that it is hard coded.

Specifically are you, as a player, confronted by a situation where you are always desperate to find more resources to keep the show on the road or is it a land of plenty with the challenge being how to exploit them?

Or looking at it another way are you compelled to expand by a lack of resources, a-la-Japan in WW2 or is resource availability no big deal and your focus is how best to use them, a-la-America in WW2.

If somebody with game experience could venture an opinion it would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Lancer

[hadberz]

Resources are setup randomly for each new game, though you can add additional planets to the galaxy. The resource on those planets are selected randomly so you can indirectly add more resources.

I really haven't had any problems getting resources as long as I defend my mining stations. If I go to war too soon or let the pirates get out of hand and start losing civilian ships and mining stations things can get ugly. You have to protect your civilians. Even if you do lose a lot of mining stations your civilians will buy resources from other empires provided your not at war with them or have trade sanctions.

I use the Expansion Planner to find planets with resources that I have high demand for and colonize them or build mining stations on the planets I cannot colonize. Some Luxury resources can be hard to find when your starting out, but the strategic resources hydrogen, steel, etc are pretty easy to find. The AI does a great job of keeping you supplied.

[Wade1000]

Some Luxury resources can be hard to find when your starting out, but the strategic resources hydrogen, steel, etc are pretty easy to find. The AI does a great job of keeping you supplied.

"Steel"?

[DivePac88]

Yes he is right; Steel is listed as a strategic resource in the game.

[Wade1000]

But...isn't it produced in the game using found iron and carbon and other ingredients?
Steel is a processed metal...not a naturally occuring metal.

If the game developers set it like that in the game then...Heh....heheheh...almost LOL.
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Later edit:

I suppose the "steel" can be abstracted/considered as the iron and carbon needed to get the steel. Or...maybe it can be abandoned steel that is found.

I looked more at the resources on the screenshot. Are they all suppose to be naturally accuring resources?

Carbon Fibre(Fiber I think most would prefer) is a processed material. Funny, also, if that is a gathered resource. If it is not then the inclusion of steel and carbon fibre(fiber) would indicate that the game has the feature of created/processed resources.

Is that true?

What are:
-Loros Fruit
-Caslon (A serif type face sort of text? heh)
-Aculon

[ypsylon]

Exactly my thoughts about Steel. There is Gold, Lead, Chromium and then BANG! - Steel. I had a good LOL at this one. Same thing with Carbon Fibre. You need a bit more to make CF than just Carbon. CF by definition is purely synthetic material.

But hey, it is only a game. Let's give Devs a break. [:D] It will be a good game. And it is all what counts!

[Gertjan]

How do the pirates behave in their raids? Are they very predictable or might they vary in size/strength and when and where to attack? Can you also hire pirates to attack someone else for you?

[Wade1000]

I don't like giving breaks on such ill-thought inclusions. :/
I will play the game though. If they don't fix those issues then I'll just imagine that those processed resources that are gathered are an abstraction of being gathered then processed. Also, that some of the processed resources were scavenged from abandoned locations.

That will work okay in my imagination.

[Okim]

Ships need steel, not carbon and iron. Iron as a material could be needless in space construction. I think that devs made a good choice making things simply. We already have a lot of things that we must take into account to achieve success.

Perhaps resource production might be a good expansion feature - to produce certain material you`ll need an orbital foundry over planet that has at least one of the component materials for required resource.

[Deto]

Well looking at the Resources list in the preview images theres also Carbon Fiber which also is 'construct' and not something you harvest from your backyard, so we can safely assume resources ISN'T necessarily something found but rather RESOURCES built, gathered, harvested and what not

[Erik Rutins]

I find that there are always enough resources in peacetime if you are reasonably diligent about construction of new mining stations and such as your empire expands. However, wartime is a different story, especially if you have not built up huge reserves of some strategic resources. I've had a few stations taken out to see some resources no longer keeping up with wartime demand - which causes their cost to spike, which increases the cost of everything that is built with them, can slow down production if local stocks run out, etc. Caslon is actually a very strategic element as it is used by most ship engines as fuel.

[ASHBERY76]

If the resources are overabundant there is little point having them in the game.

[Erik Rutins]

If you took my response to mean that they are "overabundant" then you misunderstood me. I would say there are "just enough".

[Joram]

As long as I can mod in Transparent Aluminum, I'm happy!

[cdbeck]

Yes, resources sometimes represent abstracted "finished products" in the game.

[hadberz]

ORIGINAL: Gertjan

How do the pirates behave in their raids? Are they very predictable or might they vary in size/strength and when and where to attack? Can you also hire pirates to attack someone else for you?

They normally target mining stations, civilian ships, scouts. Usually this happens in out of the way places. Sizes of the attacks do vary. There are many different pirate fractions, you can pay them off, attack them, hire them to attack other empires, and sometimes a fraction will join you when you destroy another fraction.

[cdbeck]

different pirate fractions

You really have to be careful about the Diabolical 1/4 and the Irrational Pi. [;)] 

I think Hadberz really highlights something quite neat here - you deal with Pirates through diplomacy just like you deal with other races (well, not EXACTLY like them, but with special pirate diplomacy). This means they are like "minor races" in their own right - only much more hostile ones. It is a really cool feature!