Starting Ship Design Tips

[Aures]

About step m, my tests indicate resource extractor components have no effect on colonised worlds. I could be wrong of course or it might only work with strategic resources (my tests were mostly on luxuries). I would be interested to know how confident you are in that statement and whether you have done any explicit tests comparing building a spaceport with extractor components to one without on the same world using the same savegame. I would be delighted if I could boost the extraction rate at a colony and I don't want to tell people it isn't possible if it is.

[Jeeves]

Hmmm. I based my statement upon what happened in 1.0.4.5 rather than 1.0.6.0 regarding mining at spaceports. Perhaps the mined resources hit 20k because it take 3-5 years for my spaceports to complete except at independent colonies. Since the yards are last on my designs, the civilian freighters are not built to haul away the surplus as soon as it is mined. I HAVE noticed that it takes a couple of years or more for my own freighters to start visiting small colonies. They seem to prefer going to the completed spaceports at independent populations which I colonize. I DO get some visits within the first couple of years from independent freighters bringing in luxuries, but they lack the cargo capacity to haul away large stockpiles. Maybe you did not put enough extractors on the spaceport? One or two is negligible. I mine at least rate 100 of minerals or luxuries per day, using however many extractors that requires. Typically the size of all those extractors is 200-400 depending upon the stage of the game...

[Aures]

My tests were using lots of extractors (dozens or more). Freighters visiting makes it more complicated. I did a few tests on a planet with 100% Korabbian Spice that was well away from my empire. Placing a mining station with over 100 extractors got me a huge load of Spice very quickly (multiples of 10k after a short time). Placing a colony on the planet netted me about 60 units every week, far less than with the mine. Placing a spaceport with the same number of extractors as the mine on the planet had no effect, I kept getting 60 every week or so.

Next time that you are about to colonize a new planet where you plan to build a spaceport-mine hybrid can you save the game and run a similar test? Place a mining station with the same number of extractors as the spaceport would have and see what your extraction rate is (make sure you put enough cargo bays, with a lot of extractors you run out of room pretty quickly). Now load the save and proceed to colonize. Note the extraction rate now and build your spaceport like you planned to. Compare the three extraction rates and let us know whether they are similar or wildly different. It will help if this is a game that is pretty advanced so you are planning to add a lot of the best extractors.

[Jeeves]

ORIGINAL: Aures

My tests were using lots of extractors (dozens or more). Freighters visiting makes it more complicated. I did a few tests on a planet with 100% Korabbian Spice that was well away from my empire. Placing a mining station with over 100 extractors got me a huge load of Spice very quickly (multiples of 10k after a short time). Placing a colony on the planet netted me about 60 units every week, far less than with the mine. Placing a spaceport with the same number of extractors as the mine on the planet had no effect, I kept getting 60 every week or so.

Next time that you are about to colonize a new planet where you plan to build a spaceport-mine hybrid can you save the game and run a similar test? Place a mining station with the same number of extractors as the spaceport would have and see what your extraction rate is (make sure you put enough cargo bays, with a lot of extractors you run out of room pretty quickly). Now load the save and proceed to colonize. Note the extraction rate now and build your spaceport like you planned to. Compare the three extraction rates and let us know whether they are similar or wildly different. It will help if this is a game that is pretty advanced so you are planning to add a lot of the best extractors.

For reasons which I will not mention in this forum, I have other ways to spend my time at the moment rather than testing my statement regarding extractors at spaceports. I will take your word for it that they have no effect, and we can both proceed to build spaceports without them. I always felt a bit guilty doing it anyway, since it seemed like a game exploit to have both a colony and the equivalent of a mine at the same location. Thanks for telling me the results of your tests...

[Aures]

No problem, I'm in the same situation. Guess we have to leave it as an open question for now, maybe someone taking your advice on board will get around to testing it.

[Jeeves]

LOL see below

[Aures]

Sorry, I'm sure that it is public knowledge. The word I used is probably fine as well but to be safe I have edited out the offending portion.

[cswelleswatts]

Regarding those tests Aures performed on planets... How do you actually measure the extraction rate mid game? Also if we are going to agree that space ports do not increase the mining extraction rate on a planet then doesn't that mean we might have a reason not to colonize a world? In either case it seems to me that the next patch should include a way to develop the mining extraction rate on planets so we can take full advantage of those resources!

[Aures]

It is a bit tricky due to freighters transferring goods and any use at the actual colony. But it is pretty easy to see that a big mining base with like 100 extractor components gets multiples of 10,000 cargo within a month while a colony or a mining base with one extractor gets a couple of hundred. Just check the cargo tab in the ships and bases screen to get an idea how much is being extracted. But as the previous posts indicate it would be good to get some independent confirmation on whether extractors have any effect at a colony.

It does mean there is an incentive not to colonize a world so you can get more resources. I agree that you should be able to increase the extraction rate at a colony. Colonies should just give some free resource extraction that you can augment if you want. The limit of one mining base per resource target vs unlimited state owned bases with extractors is also inconsistent but I am not sure what the best way to solve that is.

[James009]

How does the Private sector pick which ships they build? I played around with upgrading the default freighter design and eventually started seeing them flying around (awesome). I'm wondering if I can have a variety of designs for the commercial sector to pick from and wondering if I'll see a variety of them. Any ideas?

Should commercial ships have more storage and faster engines? Does that help trade? Or do they just like cheap ships?

[elanaahova]

James re private sector ship. i don't know how the game selects which designs to build, out of those available. Now i'm curious about choices.

i usually take the freighter designs and increase the fuel storage, acceleration, and add a bit of armor - and remove the weapon. At start, passenger ship design is too large to make, so i redesign it smaller... and the private sector will purchase some. having a few passenger ships near the start seems to help economy. My limited experience has been that faster freighters means MORE resources moved, more sold, etc.

Aures, regarding the limit of one mining base per planet. i agree it doesn't seem 'fair.' However, i **suspect** its there to keep users from building a mining base on the VERY rare luxury resources that the Guardians always seem to have built before users even discover them?