Updated the FAQ

[Nocturnal]

Thanks! You'd need to take out the emergency propulsion V or the cargo bay to make it a longer range design capable of self-resupply.

One advantage for remote mining that I didn't see discussed was that it costs you no space on your planets at all. Playing a race of god-like researchers, I got a HUGE advantage in tech very early by getting well over 60% of my minerals from remote mining ships, and stuffing every planet I could find full to the brim with research centers.

Now later in the game, remote mining only gives me about 30% of my minerals income because I've maxxed out all my research. (My colonies are focusing on intelligence now, but I'm already the Mega Evil Empire and pwn the azzes of all teh mofos wtf lol. Smaller empires sometimes capitulate immediately at my "Resistance is futile" speech that I give as soon as I get a new "first contact.")

Of course, this is against the AI, and such a plan may have weaknesses that a canny human player can exploit. However I feel that vigorously mining asteroids before you have the tech to build planets out of them can give a gigantic ROI in terms of resources and also planet space. For best efficiency, use the largest hull available for your miners - until the late-mid-game, my mining fleet was a bigger drain on my economy than my battlefleet, but the payoff was fantastic.

Note: Remote mining with other than satellites or bases is COMPLETELY USELESS on limited-resource games. You can never make up both the upkeep costs and the initial investment in a timely manner, unless you can reduce upkeep.

[ November 18, 2003, 23:36: Message edited by: Nocturnal ]