Exploiting Asteroid Belts
 

I have a game where there are 17 asteroid belts circling an ancient red star. There are no planets to build a resupply depot or spaceport on so how can I best utilize this star system?

Or do I chalk it up as: The "Seeker" class scout ship emerged from the warp point to find the remnants of ancient planets, now reduced to rubble, circling an ancient red star. Who knows what history this system has seen. Did a race of beings rise from the primordial soup to civilize a planet once circling this star early in it's stellar evolution? Did this race expand outwards to the other planets and establish colonies only to fall upon itself and use nightmare weapons that destroyed all traces of life, reducing the planets to small lifeless formations of rock?

This abundance of resources is too good to pass up but I am unclear as to how to go about exploiting it. Any ideas or hints?

Re: Exploiting Asteroid Belts
 

Get advanced stellar manipualtion and build planets out of all the asteroids.

Build a space station in the system and fleet it with passing ships to use as a fuel depot.

Build remote miners and mine the asteroids.

Re: Exploiting Asteroid Belts
 

The easiest way to get something out of the system is to build remote miner bases over the asteroid fields. Warning: Unless the default setting has been changed for your game, using remote miners will permanently reduce the resource value of the asteroid fields you mine. Eventually the mining bases would not return any profit over their maintenance costs & you'd have to scrap them.

A little more difficult -- mainly in research time -- but with more Lasting results is what Imperator Fyron suggested. Build stellar manipulation ships to convert the fields into planets, then colonize them. Note: If you don't have all three colony techs, you ought to have a destroy planet ship handy so that if they are turned into planets of a type you cannot colonize you can destroy and re-create them until they are of a usable type. Messy, but often necessary.

[ June 09, 2002, 02:54: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

Re: Exploiting Asteroid Belts
 

If only you could control what your planet building ships were doing. I think that you should be able to influence what gets made.

Re: Exploiting Asteroid Belts
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Or have it so that created planets are automatically of your home type and atmosphere.

Re: Exploiting Asteroid Belts
 

I have been using the remote mining/farming/rad robo extractors placed on ships (escort hulls)and sent to asteroid belts but only in systems where I have a colony with a space port.

Space ports process all resources generated within the star system and makes it available for use in the empire. I just figured that without a planet to build a space port any remote extractors I sent to work the asteroids would not generate any resources to be used by the empire. Is this incorrect?

Re: Exploiting Asteroid Belts
 

Remote mining does not need a spaceport to function.

Re: Exploiting Asteroid Belts
 

I vaguely remember that there was some kind of limit on vehicles in the sector that can robo-mine. Or was it that only one miner component worked per system? I cannot remember, can anyone clarify this for me? (I'm to lazy to search for it tonite. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif )

Re: Exploiting Asteroid Belts
 

I think (man this branch is skinny!) that one remote miner from each ship can mine each asteroid group. So if you had two asteroid Groups, two ships with two remote miners each= 4 mining production of resource. Understanding that the amount of resource for each asteroid group is variable and most likely reducing each turn by one unless you've changed the .txt file.

Re: Exploiting Asteroid Belts
 

"So if you had two asteroid Groups, two ships with two remote miners each= 4 mining production of resource."

I think it's per sector, per resource. And I KNOW you can put more than one component on a ship and have it work.

So:
Three space stations in one sector each with 3 miners of a single type (one station all mineral, another all organic, another rads) would work fully.
Three space stations in one sector, each with one of each type (1 organic, 1 min, 1 rad per station) would NOT work. Only one ship would mine.

Re: Exploiting Asteroid Belts
 

Thanx for the clarification.

Re: Exploiting Asteroid Belts
 

Just ran into a second system (same game) containing a collection of asteroid belts and no planets.

Thanks for the clarification about space ports. I can now send remotes to both these systems and start exploiting the abundance of resources there and they will be added to my empire's coffers.

Re: Exploiting Asteroid Belts
 

&lt;steps in authoritatively&gt;

No, the REAL rule is: Only one ship or unit (or unit group in early Versions) can mine a planet or asteroid sector at a time. (That's right, planets can be remote mined, but only if they are uninhabited. No, they do not need to be colonizable or breathable.) So the best strategy is probably to build a starbase with about 20 remote miner components (or however many will fit) over each asteroid sector you want to mine. (Bases have a 50% maintenance reduction, which is QUITE useful for a remote miner.) Or, you can use large satellites, which have no maintenance at all, but unless you are playing with a really outdated Version, only one satellite will be able to mine in each sector. So you want a satellite layer with only 1 sat launcher so you don't go wasting satellites all over the place. If you ARE using the old Version (maybe 1.30 and before, I don't remember), just plop about 100 sats over the asteroid sector and watch the income roll in! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Oh yes, and if you get lucky and find a planet with moons that are also rich in resources... your miners will mine their full capacity from EACH planet or moon... don't ask how they do it, but they do!

&lt;steps off pedestal&gt;

Re: Exploiting Asteroid Belts
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Or have it so that created planets are automatically of your home type and atmosphere.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think the type should be determined by the type of asteroid (rock or ice) and the atmosphere either random (but set with the asteroir at game generation) or automatically your race's atmosphere, or automatically no atmosphere (needs to be terraformed after being created).

Anyone know if any of these things would be possible with mods? or is this hardcoded in stellar manipulation?

If it was possible then it would be cool to do, and quite probably boost gas worlds alittle, so that gas world races don't get a disadvantage.

--
AeoN2
--
Benchley's Law of Distinction:
There are two kinds of people in the world, those who believe
there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don't.

Re: Exploiting Asteroid Belts
 

I've always been a bit miffed that remote mining wasn't more useful. I think that probably the best modification that could be made would be to reduce the size of the mining components so that they fit in a small satellite (and that they increased in capabilities quickly)

I think that remote mining will play a huge part in our economy once we make it off the planet...mostly because people would rather have a dirty smelly mine on a far away asteroid than next to their house.

In fact, maybe mineral miner facilities should generate unhappiness.

Re: Exploiting Asteroid Belts
 

"No, the REAL rule is: Only one ship or unit (or unit group in early Versions) can mine a planet or asteroid sector at a time. (That's right, planets can be remote mined, but only if they are uninhabited. No, they do not need to be colonizable or breathable.) "

Hrrrrrrrrrm. OK, I was wrong on this point.

"Or, you can use large satellites, which have no maintenance at all, but unless you are playing with a really outdated Version, only one satellite will be able to mine in each sector."

But not on this one! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I'm using Gold 1.67, and one sat per resource type will mine.

Phoenix-D

Phoenix-D

[ June 10, 2002, 00:04: Message edited by: Phoenix-D ]