[Baron Munchausen]

I've never seen this "one component" effect, but I'm still using Beta 1.40 rather than patch 1.41 -- I hope this is just a mistake on your part and not a real change. Currently I can get pretty good return on a Battlestation filled with Robominers. Especially if you place it over a planet with moons. It's definitely a good way to supplement your resources. If this has been cut back to just one component it'll be useless as you've said. Are you sure it's not one VEHICLE? Have you noticed this with satellites maybe? He's been trying to restrict it to one satellite in a group for some time now but couldn't quite get it to work right.

I think the best use for these other than increasing their output so they can be useful to everyone would be to make them a racial tech for a "space native" race as we've discussed in these forums before. If it become possible to generate research and intel with components, and for population to grow in a "habitat" component, you could have races that are UNABLE to live on planets (they could be whiffs of gas that can't handle strong gravity, for example). They would have to use remote mining to get their resources and build huge stations to house their operations. Obviously, they should have a racial ability to build larger stations very early in the game and ultimately have special stations larger than anything else in the game. They should also have the ablity to remote mine better than any standard race.

Edit:

Even better, how about using the "vestigial" properties of asteroids? People have noticed how they still have facility capacity. What if these 'space native' races could colonize asteroids but not planets? You could have some interesting late game conflicts when Stellar Manipulations are held by several races and one major race wants to bLast all the planets into asteroids so it can colonize them while the rest want to convert all asteroids into planet so THEY can colonize those...


[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 10 August 2001).]