newbie construction stalled due to resource shortages

[ak0000]

My construction yard is showing this message, how do I get more of this resource?

[FarAway Sooner]

Use the exploration planner to identify nearby resources. General rule of thumb is don't mine any planet unless it has a total production % of at least 100% across all the different resources, as each Mining Station costs money and the volume of each resource that gets produced scales directly with the % number for the resource. A generic mining station should get you all of the resource you need.

This is one part of the game that requires some micromanagement. Especially if you're playing a Prewarp start, getting the right resources into your production system (and not purchasing too many of the wrong components) prior to discovering Warp capability is key. It just takes too long for sub-light Constructors (and freighters) to tool back and forth across your solar system. I think the most common solution is not to build many ships (I build 2 Explorers, 1 Constructor, and put a few weapons of some sort on a smallish Starbase with a lot of labs of all sorts, and that's about all the ship construction I do until after I get warp).

Once you have warp, then it's open season on Lead & Steel (very easy to find), Gold, Caslon & Helium (harder to find but stil; pretty easy), and the harder elements: Chromium, Silicon, Osalia, and one or two others. Luxury Resources are useful but not as important to get right out of the gate--get the other Strategic resources first and there'll be plenty of time to pick up those super-important Luxury Resources a little later in the game.

For people who have played the game a lot, they tend to roll through the early years at very high speeds. I tend to play the first 5 years prewarp at normal speed, just so I can track what's going on.

Hope that all helps!

[johanwanderer]

This is one of the areas where the Military Construction Advisers are bad. They would advise you to build a lot of ships (based on cash on hand) but totally forget to take into account your cash flow and resources. They work mostly okay in lower difficulty games (I used to build what the advisers suggest to shut them up) but they can definitely get you into trouble quickly if you're low on resourses (being raided one time too many, for example).

[Kilravock]

A quick fix is to setup a smuggling mission at that colony. Doing that should encourage nearby pirates to transport resources there to fix the shortage.

A longer term solution is do what was previously posted; build more mines and focus on strategic resources you don't have sources for. After that then work on getting multiply sources near your colonies. Maybe slow down your building and colonization efforts. You might be building to much to quickly.

[Werewolf13]

^^^^^^
What Kilravock said - especially setting up smuggling missions - keep those dang pirates working for you instead of against you.

[Jeeves]

In my current game I have protection with 76 gangs for under $100k and last year they smuggled 675k of resources to my colonies...

Lonnie Courtney Clay

[NephilimNexus]

A quick fix is to setup a smuggling mission at that colony. Doing that should encourage nearby pirates to transport resources there to fix the shortage.

Keep in mind that every pirate smuggler that delivers to your planet increased their Influence a little, and you, as an Empire player, cannot see what their level of Influence is until it's too late and you see a Hidden Pirate Base being built on your planet.

So use Smuggling missions but use them sparingly. Influence will decay over time if you don't abuse Smuggling contracts too much.