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I've been running through a completely manual game start referring to Timotheus' guide and there are some things confusing me:

He recommends deleting the default weapons and energy research lab designs and going with a single High Tech one (which he refers to as "universal" at one point). I would naturally think if a planet has a weapons research bonus you'd need a research lab with weapons research labs, energy energy research labs etc. My first planet with a research bonus happened to be High tech, but the next one is Energy - I am unsure what to do.

Can someone please explain this?

he is saying make one stations with all research labs to keep cost down, the only difference being name of design you could make a "energy" station the same way (see what i mean). i would create a energy station with bare bones(up to you) 1 of everything needed to keep cost down and get the bonus this will save lots of money and if it gets destroyed no big hit in research. if you put more not sure it gives a bigger bonus.

i put the majority of my research stations on HW space port.

Ye, I always scrap two of the research base designs and throw all types into a single, small design.

I use a starbase design, kitted with research labs and outfitted like a defense base, makes things easier to increase the capacity and if built at a remote spot that has a good bonus can defend it self. On PreWarp it is the first thing built and scientists can be moved there without worrying about them too much, I often have amusing moments where all the starbase has is armor and a few pop guns and imagine the scientists running about plugging holes when the first pirates roll in [:D]

Darkspire

Ah - looking more closely at the components I see the "High tech" base actually has 2 weapons labs, 2 energy labs and 4 high tech labs (not 2 as well ??). I was probably too confused when editing it to notice that. So I get it - you just put one of these wherever you get a research bonus and it'll grab the bonus 'cos it's got all three types covered.

Speaking of research stations, the PDF manual says:

"Bases can supply their fuel needs with energy collector components."

That's not what I see in-game. I can put enough collectors to cover the energy needs twice, but apparently I still need at least one reactor, I am told so by a red message in the Warnings panel of the Ship Designer window.

Ye you need the reactor, but it won't be used assuming: 1. You have enough energy collectors and 2. Your base is in a solar system. Energy collectors don't work outside solar systems.

ORIGINAL: Raap

Ye you need the reactor, but it won't be used assuming: 1. You have enough energy collectors and 2. Your base is in a solar system. Energy collectors don't work outside solar systems.

what they don't work out side of solar systems? why? solar energy?

From the galaxtopedia

Energy Collector components collect energy from a nearby star.

Energy collectors must be stationary to collect energy. Thus they are typically used only on immobile bases. The closer to the star the base is located, the more energy will be collected.

Bases or ships outside a system are too far away to collect any energy – thus energy collectors are useless in deep space.

I don't think the "closer to the star, more energy" thing works. At least I haven't noticed it. I'm pretty sure they don't work outside the boundaries of SSs though. And despite the 'must be stationary to collect energy' requirement, they are quite useful on ships since your ships will spend a lot of their time being stationary, and you can thus avoid using fuel in these cases.

ORIGINAL: Raap

Ye you need the reactor, but it won't be used assuming: 1. You have enough energy collectors and 2. Your base is in a solar system. Energy collectors don't work outside solar systems.

The whole idea is to not include a useless component to reduce purchase and maintenance costs. Its goal is to transform fuel into energy, and we are generating enough energy with collectors. So the fact that the design still requires one can be considered a bug, right?

Bug/oversight/newbie protection. Ye. Could definitely be replaced with 'recommended' instead of 'required'.

ORIGINAL: Raap

Energy collectors don't work outside solar systems.

just tested -_- he is right

Timoteus recommends destroying some research stations as you say, but just a bit further in the text he recommends building research labs of each type in the small space station so each type has a strength of 100 for a total research of 300. So if you follow his recommendations, you will have research labs of each type before you start playing, and all 3 types of research will be ongoing as soon as the game starts.