Storage facilities

[Elowan]

I've been going back and forth trying to decide whether building storage facilities is a good thing or a bad thing and I'm still not sure of the correct ratio of mineral vs organics vs radioactive.

I can see that having 'money-in-the-bank' is a good thing if you need to build a fleet or two relatively quickly and need the resources but if you never allow your resources to drop into the 'red' (minus) - is storage still useful?

Then - where do you build them? I've been putting them on small/tiny non-breathable worlds and on moons, hardly ever on breathables. Secondly - when do you start building them and how soon do you upgrade same?

Which brings up the third question: does mothballing use storage space on a planet?

[Slick]

Personal preference. I recommend increasing storage somewhat, but your play style needs to determine how much. The bigger your "bank account" the more of a surge you can handle in or out.

no, mothballing does not take up cargo space.

[Q]

In the early game I usually build very few or none at all storage facilities. The only exception is if my resource production/consumption is very unbalanced and I have to do a lot of resource trading to compensate.
But when I have monolith facilities and resource converters then storage facilities become essential.

[ September 10, 2002, 16:36: Message edited by: Q ]

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by Elowan:
I can see that having 'money-in-the-bank' is a good thing if you need to build a fleet or two relatively quickly and need the resources but if you never allow your resources to drop into the 'red' (minus) - is storage still useful?

Yes, or in that case, no.

Seriously, you seemed to have figured it out, if the resouces are comming in so fast that you can't possibly use them,
1). Start using them!
2). Storage space then becomes space that could be generating research, intel, build ships, build units.

Elowan, seriously tho... if you build one or two more or less that is needed, what's the worst that can happen

[tesco samoa]

cargo storage is good on moons to protect large planets.... 5 cargo and 1 space yard can build up quite a defencive force to protect that planet...

Resource storage should be started early to capture those resources that are generated at the beginning of the game that your empire cannot use... They will come in hand at turn 15 or 16 when your running a deficit...

Then when you expand and are producing more than you spend on a resource build them... build them every once in a while on the smaller planets... Ie. the Mediums and smalls... and occasionally on the large planets as required... Cant build them on all small planets... or you enemies know what to target all the time...

[rdouglass]

They also are a necessity if you're planning any substantial/wholesale upgrades. When you start upgrading standard (primarily non-racial) weapons and want to do 20 - 30 ships at a time, you'd better have some minerals stockpiled....

Or, if you're going to war 'hastily' and need to crank out ships on Emergency Build.

I personally like to use small breatheable planets with small mineral resource values and fill them with Storage Fac's. I usually plat Advanced Storage Techniques, so I can put 6 Mineral, 4 Rad, and 2 Organic Storage Fac's on each one.

[Wardad]

They are essential for doing Retrofits. I was bogged down in a game because I did not have enough stored resources.

I had plenty of resource income, much more than I was spending, and much more than my 50K storage. But... My retrofits were not being done due to lack of resources.

I added resource storage, and my retrofits are being done, even though I have a smaller surplus.

If I had to guess...
1. Build Ques are funded this turn but Maintenance and Retrofits are funded next turn???
2. Or worse... Every thing is funded next turn and only what can be stored is passed to the next turn.

[Suicide Junkie]

I think Production and maintenance is subtracted from generation.
I know that retrofits are withdrawn straight from storage AFTER production/maintenace, AFTER the storage limits are applied, and BEFORE the generation.

[Wardad]

SJ,
I hear you. I think there must be something funny about how and when the storage limits are applied.

[Arkcon]

Somehow, it just seems wrong when your production, after maintenance and construction, is 100x what you can store. It just seems counter intutitive from ... oh ... dare I use the word ... realism.

I guess what most people would say is that I'm just not constructing ships fast enough. I could build more and expand faster, but I dunno, I just don't want to go MEE that fast.

When I have enough resources, and enough intel to defeat any opponent, plenty of research (so I'm outstripping the AI). I like to put storage facilities on some worlds.

I build 'em like this.
Mineral
Organic
Radioactive
Mineral
Radioactive
Mineral
Mineral
...sequence repeats
MOR MR M

Is that too many, is that too few ?... Do I need Organics, or rads that much ?... I dunno, but I HAVE backrupted myself on organincs building Urban Pac's everywhere. I have run low on Rads with fleets mounting WMG and Null Space

Early game they're kinda important too. You have few resource facilities. But can you spare the space.