Construction ship won't build mine

[rk0123msp@mindspring]

Hello:

I found my second rare luxury planet with Loros fruit, and none too soon as after upgrading my ships my economy started to move into the red. I moved a fleet to the planet which is some distance from my closest colony in order to prevent any other AI from building a mine there until I can get my nearest construction ship there to build one first. Every single time I click on the construction ship to build a mine there is abruptly does a 180 and goes completely in the opposite direction back toward my colony. I cannot directly make it build a mine on this planet. I order it to move near the planet (which is completely unoccupied) and when I right-click "build a mine" from the drop down list my construction ship just completely flies away from the planet and won't build a mine there, as if my order meant nothing. I have no idea why? How can I just make the construction ship simply build a mine on this emptly planet without it flying away: auto control is turned off the ship, and the ship is undamaged as far as I can tell although low on fuel. There is also enough money in my bank to cover the construction cost.

The printscreen shows the situation just prior to selecting "build a mine" from the drop down list .. which should cause the construction ship to build a mine, so I can start getting the Loros Fruit. But, the ship just flies away completley out of the system after I click "build mine"? I have no idea why?

What is going wrong here?

[shinobu]

I think probably what you have here is that the Construction Ship is actually following your orders; it's just going back to your territory to pick up some of the materials it needs to build the mine. I've had this happen to me before, and it's very hard when the distances are really great. I'll bet given time, you will get a mine here- it just may take a while.

[Merker]

I can confirm this. The Construction ship needs materials from your colony to build the mine. Makes sense, doesn't it, it can't just 'materialize' all the spare parts just like in star trek[:D]....... I was like you at first, angry at that ship, but after I took care of some pirates I saw the same ship starting construction of the mine. You can check the cargo of the ship I think and see how much stuff it has aboard(each station requires a set number of materials and you can also check that somewhere) but since I only got the game yesterday, I don't know how to do that. Awesome game, realistic and beautiful, haven't seen anything of this scope since Frontier First Encounters(as in terms of space realism, planets, ai and stuff).

Cheers

[Florestan]

This game is quite confusing, in the beginning, because of a lot of little things like this one that later turn to be quite logical. And also because it lacks a proper, understand more complete tutorial... But you will be rewarded in the end!
I think the constructor don't simply goes to any planet, but one of yours equipped with a space port.
To see the cargo of any base or ship in the game, select it, double click the information panel (bottom left) and then select the "cargo" tab, under the ships list.

[rk0123msp@mindspring]

Thanks for the input guys. There's a lot of little details I haven't figured about this game yet. There seems to be a conflicts whenever I try to take ships off "auto" control and do things "manually". I'll figure it out eventually one-case-at-a-time. [;)]

[DasTactic]

It would be really nice for any construction (from constructors, bases, or planets) to list the specific amounts of material it needs before it can start construction. I think this aspect is one of the most confusing for players who aren't used to the system because the actions don't appear logical.

If the constructor in this case had a status of...

Constructing mining station on Loros.
Need 6 Argon, 5 steel, 1 polymer.

... it would make life much easier.

[tassox33]

OMG yes lol,

If the constructor in this case had a status of...

Constructing mining station on Loros.
Need 6 Argon, 5 steel, 1 polymer.

... it would make life much easier.

[Pipewrench]

to add , if your building something that is larger than what the constructors cargo hold can carry the build will be stalled in limbo unless you either pull the constructor off the partial build and then select repair to send it back for more supplies or wait for the private sector to send freighters to you with the missing resources.

as couple of side notes:

you have to be careful when building that when you get to a new tech your inventory can handle it otherwise the private sector will go out and pay top dollar from others for resources.

make sure your freighters have enough range to cover your expanding empire otherwise upgrades on certain worlds will be stuck in limbo as it will take forever to get supplies to that port.

as a test ,next time you upgrade a weapon system on a ship ,make sure there is a missing resource at that space port. you should see a freighter with the missing resource sooner or later bring it to that port. if you do not have much in inventory it will have to be bought on the open market and your cashflow will take a hit.

this game has good depth and should make you think when you expand.

[rk0123msp@mindspring]

I just played a couple more hours of my game. Get this, I was not able to build a mine on the planet but the game allowed me to build a Starbase there !!

Unbelievable, I checked my cargo holds as Florestan showed above, and there was no cargo at all. Now the construction ship could not build a mine on the planet, but it was able to build a starbase after flying off to get resources. Sometime later, I checked the planet and some jerk AI had built a mine on my planet (again) and had the gall to ask me if they wanted to trade Loros Fruit (even though I had a starbase there, they were able to build a mine right under me). I immediately flattened it with the fleet I had posted there. At this point the game allowed me to build a mine, even though I had to fly off and get resources from somehwere else.

I'm completely lost on this. Why would the game allow my construction ship to build a starbase but not a mine when the starbase takes so much more resources?

And, after finally building the mine, my finances went from +44k to +174k, unbelievable!!

I love the rare resources in this game and the concept of searching for them, but I do think they are a bit overated in value. You can double your fleet size just by obtaining the money from one rare resource planet. I went from +11k to +174k with just two rare resources.

[Merker]

ORIGINAL: rk0123msp@mindspring


I love the rare resources in this game and the concept of searching for them, but I do think they are a bit overated in value. You can double your fleet size just by obtaining the money from one rare resource planet. I went from +11k to +174k with just two rare resources.

Overrated?! Haven't you seen/read Dune?! 'Whoever controls the spice controls the universe. The spice must flow'? It makes sense that an extremely rare material or food that might even have special healing/empowering properties would grant more power to the empire that has monopoly+the associated money from it.

Cheers

[Igard]

Also, if you have access to a rare resource, chances are, that huge empire on the other side of the galaxy has access to at least one of their own. And that little empire tucked away in the bottom corner? They could stumble upon one too and before you know it, they're a superpower. Or, you could try and take it from them, before they get too strong.

[rk0123msp@mindspring]

ORIGINAL: Igard

Also, if you have access to a rare resource, chances are, that huge empire on the other side of the galaxy has access to at least one of their own. And that little empire tucked away in the bottom corner? They could stumble upon one too and before you know it, they're a superpower. Or, you could try and take it from them, before they get too strong.

If I stumble upon a rare resource, I'm gonna take it from them no matter if thery're strong or not [;)]
It's actually building the physical mining station that's the problem in some instances.