Colony Management
 

Hiee!

I'm still the newby guy. Due to the akward planet resource structure of this game, I'm interested in colony and resource management. If there's any information that anyone can share with me, I'd be very appreciative. I'd say things like, "thank you," and, "thanks alot!".

What rules do you follow when making colony types? The colony type names (Mining Colony, Military Installation), anyone use them?

Anything else you can help me with, I'd be greatful.

Re: Colony Management
 

Those colony types are used by the AI when it picks a facility to build. Otherwise, they are just eye candy.

I just build whatever I am needing at the time. If I need more minerals, I build those wherever there is 60% or better value. Orgs and Rads go on planets with 80% or better when they are needed (and not many are needed). Once I get Monoliths, those go on every planet that has at least one value above 100 or at least 2 above 80. Everything else gets research/intel.

Re: Colony Management
 

Cool.

You were also mentioning before, you place a SY on every colony with more than 4 spaces?

Re: Colony Management
 

I try to look at each star system as if it were semi autonomous, even though in SE4 they aren't. Some planet has be the "system capital".

That planet should be able to build a ship that could be sent to other planets in the system quickly. It should be far enough away from warp points to make it difficult to attack from outside the system. It should have the spaceport, space station shipyards.

Put resupply facilities on any planets in a straight line between warp points. If the planet is one or two spaces away and you need a resupply base, make it a waypoint. Don't bury your shipyards and resupply bases in the far corner of the system.

I like to put a spaceyard on any planet that holds more than 10 facilities. You never know when you'll need a buch of ships in a hurry.

Re: Colony Management
 

Early on (first year), building a stack of 3-4 SY bases will help a lot.
You can pump out ships much faster that way.

Any planet that has excellent value in organics or rads should have some extractors of that type, even if you don't need them. Either you'll need them later, or you can scrap extractors on a multi-resource world in order to make room for more mineral miners.

When building monoliths, it is best to fill up the planet with regular miners first, then build one monolith and scrap one extractor at a time to change the planet over to monoliths.
Regular extractors can be made much faster than monoliths, and you'll harvest some extra resources while the monoliths are under construction.

Re: Colony Management
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes. I try to get as much ship building capacity as possible. Overwhelming your enemies is the surest path to victory.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That is a micromanagement nightmare, and I do not recommend doing that unless you want to spend 4 hours on a turn once you get a large empire.

[ July 30, 2003, 20:16: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: Colony Management
 

One colony type I added was "Warehouse Colony" Not to be confused with "Whorehouse Colony" Mediocre resources, 1 shipyard for repair only, and lots of cargo. The premise is that this colony would pump out and store Weapons Platforms for future use and deployment; if I should need to dipatch a large transport to pick them up for deployment on the infidels planets. Could do the same for fighters too. Could get pricey if my WP's get obsolete!
I guess this could be called a "Military Outpost" also.

Re: Colony Management
 

I've created "Storage Bases" (1 SY and the rest resource storage) and "Resource Colonies" (monoliths)...

I like to put a SY on every planet, no matter how insignificant, just because it provides a larger shipbuilding capacity and I don't have to worry when I go to the construction queues to multi-add a ship that I haven't turned off "planets (without shipyards)" in the build queues window and lose my selection http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif Why can't you select a group of SY's by clicking the first then shift-clicking the Last, and make control-clicking select one at a time?

Re: Colony Management
 

Awesome help, thanks guys.

Re: Colony Management
 

You may enjoy some of your questions explored in the Newbie FAQ:

17.3 Managing Your Economy

Re: Colony Management
 

Whorehouse Colony: a planet with one big facility, a building with beds that give rest and relaxation to crew thus giving combat modifiers. Visiting ships must be careful on re-entry!

Re: Colony Management
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Bwuahahahaha!!

Re: Colony Management
 

I like to create a 'system capital' type colony, where the spaceport, training facilities and system-wide improvement facilities will be located.

Re: Colony Management
 

When I colonize planets I do several things:

Tiny worlds I classify as Storage Depots and place material storage facilities there.

I put a shipyard on any planet with 5 spaces or more, so I have plenty of production and repair areas available.

One planet in the system (preferably breathable) is the system capital, where I keep the Port and Resupply facilites as well as things that affect the entire system (shrines, training facilities, production enhancers, etc.).

If a planet has over 100% in a certain resource I have the planet churn out that resource exclusively. You'll need it at some point, you can convert it, or trade it. If more then one resource is over 100% I always go with minerals, or which ever is higher.

Anything else is research/intel.

Re: Colony Management
 

First priority is always whatever resource I am low on, usually Minerals, after that come the other decisions.

Try to put a Shipyard on every planet. They are cool.

I try to put the System Capital on the most worthless planet I can find in a system.

If can hold a large number of facilities, it gets Research or Intel, as needed. I try to keep heavy Research and Intel worlds to their own systems, so that I don't need both their system-wide facilities.

Sometime late in colonization, when I am ready to start saving, I try to put huge numbers of Resource Storage Facilities on worlds that fit large numbers of Facilities. Sometimes your game will not allow this. If you desperately need other facilities on planets, just put a few Storage Facilities on worlds, here and there.

Any planet with a bunch of moons gets Fleet/Ship Training Facilities on all of them.

If a planet is near, or on, the front the first thing it builds are Weapon Platforms that have been designed to be built in one turn. Have two separate designs, three if you're facing a religious enemy: one with just guns and Shields/Armor, one with Combat Sensors, ECM, Stealth Armor, Scattering Armor, and guns, and a third, just for those planets facing a religious enemy, with the Combat Sensor, guns, and Shields/Armor. Try to keep two 'gun' platforms for every 'other stuff' platform. Remember that the platform with the lowest number of total hit points is likely to be hit first.

Re: Colony Management
 

In terms of helping the colony micromamagement, I like to use the queue list a lot. For instance, I'll build a queue for a medium mineral planet - complete w/ facilities, troops, weapons platforms, everything I need for that planet - and add to list. Next time I colonize a med min planet, I select the item from the queue list and 20-30 click event is now down to 3 clicks.

I put lots of queue lists based on MY "planet type". Speeds things up a lot when you're colonizing 5-10 planets per turn mid-game...