Exploiting Asteroid Belts

LokiOne · #1 June 9th, 2002, 01:50 AM

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?

Fyron · #2 June 9th, 2002, 01:55 AM

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.

Baron Munchausen · #3 June 9th, 2002, 03:53 AM

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 ]

Fyron · #4 June 9th, 2002, 04:55 AM

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

Spoo · #5 June 9th, 2002, 06:23 AM

Quote:

I think that you should be able to influence what gets made.

Or have it so that created planets are automatically of your home type and atmosphere.

LokiOne · #6 June 9th, 2002, 06:26 AM

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?