Matrix Games Forums

I'm quite confused about resources in this game. I know that you mine them; I know that there is some sort of galactic market for them that determines their price; I know that they are used by your empire--some for fuel, some for construction. But I'm confused about what happens in between.

Unmined resources are represented as percentages on the planets/moons that they can be mined from--fine. I get that this represents their abundance or whatever, but can you harvest resources at twice the rate from a planet that has 70% of a resource compared to one that has just 35%?

Once the resources have been mined, where do they go? Oh, I know that they get hauled away by freighters, but what happens then? I think they go to spaceports, but I'm not sure. I'm used to dealing with resources in games like the Hearts of Iron and Age of Empires series, where there's a nice bar across the top telling you the numerical quantities of resources that you have. I know that there are far more different resources in this game than those, but I still expect a screen that I can go to that will show me: here's how much of each resource I have. Or, here's how much of each resource I have at this spaceport.

In general, I'd like some quantification of the resources in the game, and looking around I haven't found that. Can anybody point me in the right direction?

Going to try and answer as best as I can

ORIGINAL: AerLingus
I'm quite confused about resources in this game. I know that you mine them; I know that there is some sort of galactic market for them that determines their price; I know that they are used by your empire--some for fuel, some for construction. But I'm confused about what happens in between.

Basically the "private sector" moves them about to where they are needed. If a resource has no demand, they sit in storage doing nothing
Some resources are "Luxury", and I believe are shipped and consumed by planets in order to provide happiness bonuses

ORIGINAL: AerLingus
Unmined resources are represented as percentages on the planets/moons that they can be mined from--fine. I get that this represents their abundance or whatever, but can you harvest resources at twice the rate from a planet that has 70% of a resource compared to one that has just 35%?

This I don't know the answer too

ORIGINAL: AerLingus
Once the resources have been mined, where do they go? Oh, I know that they get hauled away by freighters, but what happens then? I think they go to spaceports, but I'm not sure. I'm used to dealing with resources in games like the Hearts of Iron and Age of Empires series, where there's a nice bar across the top telling you the numerical quantities of resources that you have. I know that there are far more different resources in this game than those, but I still expect a screen that I can go to that will show me: here's how much of each resource I have. Or, here's how much of each resource I have at this spaceport.

There are screens, but they aren't quite obvious
If you goto the colonies screen and click on "cargo" tab, it will show you how much is stored on each planet
Same with ports and ships

Also, if you goto your expansion planner, the list of resources at the top has columns showing you overall stock/demand levels for both you and the galaxy in total
Also shows you how many different sources as well

ORIGINAL: AerLingus
In general, I'd like some quantification of the resources in the game, and looking around I haven't found that. Can anybody point me in the right direction?

Hope this helps abit, of course, this my understanding of the mechanics and I may be completely wrong

Also, I would like to ask a silly question, are resources infinite or do they eventually dry out?

I was wondering many of the same things, AerLingus!  Thanks for the answers, Bigwolf, and I can answer your question about resources drying out:  the Galactopedia (at the general entry for "Resources") says resources are "rarely" exhausted--no specific numbers, though.
 
I also wonder about resources and ship/base building and retrofitting.  I've seen some wonky behavior from the game with certain structures refusing to retrofit at one point or the option not even showing up for them when I think it should, only for them to retrofit normally a few minutes later.  Also, the designs screen seems often to lose my new, upgraded designs, reverting to previous ones, but then the modernized ones might show up again later, too [:@].  I was wondering if this might be due to a resource shortage at the ship/station/planet doing the building (i.e., "sorry your majesty, we can't retrofit the flagship until freighter 84t5325 brings in more dilithium!").  The manual and Galactopedia talk about galactic resource supply and demand determining ship cost and maintenance, but I don't see any specific mention of what a shortfall can do.  If resource shortages are able to restrict a player's building and retrofitting choices, I'd suggest to Matrix's excellent and hard-working staff that it'd be great for some sort of indicator to show this.  Great work overall, though, guys--love the game!  [:D]

ORIGINAL: Elrohir525

I was wondering many of the same things, AerLingus!  Thanks for the answers, Bigwolf, and I can answer your question about resources drying out:  the Galactopedia (at the general entry for "Resources") says resources are "rarely" exhausted--no specific numbers, though.

Thank you, I somehow missed the 2 line paragraph [8|] <face-palm>

ORIGINAL: Elrohir525

I also wonder about resources and ship/base building and retrofitting.  I've seen some wonky behavior from the game with certain structures refusing to retrofit at one point or the option not even showing up for them when I think it should, only for them to retrofit normally a few minutes later.  Also, the designs screen seems often to lose my new, upgraded designs, reverting to previous ones, but then the modernized ones might show up again later, too [:@].  I was wondering if this might be due to a resource shortage at the ship/station/planet doing the building (i.e., "sorry your majesty, we can't retrofit the flagship until freighter 84t5325 brings in more dilithium!"). 

If you lack a resource needed to retrofit/build a ship, it will indeed halt
It just needs to be abit more obvious why it's stopped and what resources you need for it to continue (It is possible to find out already, but it's not specific)

Not sure on the reason for designs disappearing, it might be the case, but I don't think it could be, might be worth posting in Tech Support and see if we can get an official answer about that

ORIGINAL: Elrohir525
The manual and Galactopedia talk about galactic resource supply and demand determining ship cost and maintenance, but I don't see any specific mention of what a shortfall can do.  If resource shortages are able to restrict a player's building and retrofitting choices, I'd suggest to Matrix's excellent and hard-working staff that it'd be great for some sort of indicator to show this.  Great work overall, though, guys--love the game!  [:D]

If a resource demand outweighs supply, the cost goes up
And because ship prices and maintenance are based on resource prices, it increases the cost of everything
If there is a major shortage, the prices should shoot up, if there is a major supply, prices should drop like a stone (ie. look at Gases, supply always outstrips demand in my experience, therefore is the cheapest resource about)

Ah, OK!&nbsp; Thanks for clarifying those points BigWolf!&nbsp; [:)]&nbsp; I'll have to pay more attention to my spaceports' lists of stored supplies as I build things in my next game.&nbsp;

I'd also like to see more concrete numbers about what resources are where, in one place. The "demand" list works OK, but it doesn't contain any hard numbers. The cargo lists *do* contain numbers, but you have to look at each installation's cargo bay one by one. It'd be nice to have one screen that contains all the numbers.

Not a must-have for me, though; I suspect the developers have higher priorities.

Of course, just been stung by this abit
My maintenance costs just sky-rocketed, which confused me because I have all the resources I need
So I check the Expansion Planner, sure enough, price on Polymer has increased to from 0.5 to 2.2

The reason? 
Galaxy Demand is 6700 but supply is only 5000
Which isn't too much, until you consider that when you take my own supply and demand into account, the numbers become

Galaxy Demand is still at 6700, however the supply is now only 900
A major difference, and of course, I've yet to meet "The Galaxy", so that 900 is being shared between everyone else, while my 4100 units are sitting in warehouses

The result?
Prices have increased when my own supply vastly outstrips my own supply, causing me abit of a headache over something I can't even influence lol

ORIGINAL: Grotius

I'd also like to see more concrete numbers about what resources are where, in one place. The "demand" list works OK, but it doesn't contain any hard numbers. The cargo lists *do* contain numbers, but you have to look at each installation's cargo bay one by one. It'd be nice to have one screen that contains all the numbers.

Not a must-have for me, though; I suspect the developers have higher priorities.

I would think it'd be easily doable
Just alter the colony list, so there is a drop-down to filter resources, when one is selected it shows in the list what amount is at each colony

Of course, you couldn't have all resources showing at one time, since it would be far too much information

As for the demand list, that's just Total numbers rounded too the nearest thousand with 1 decimal

I would also like to know what the price is for? Is it per unit or per 1000, or what? Cos some of the numbers don't really add up

In my example above, the extra cost for the increase should of been around 300 credits for my Space Port, based on cost per unit, but instead has increased by 2000 credits