Intelligence war

[DirectorTsaarx]

Originally posted by rockman:
I have a serious mineral shortage - are robo miners etc worthwhile?

It depends.

The "best" way to use robo miners is to design a base station (or starbase) filled with miners, and then (obviously) build the base on the highest mineral value asteroids you can find. Fortunately, in Gold (at least the current Version), asteroid values can be as high as 300% (!). The two reasons for using bases instead of ships are:

1. Bases have 50% maintenance reduction, so the net gain is higher
2. Only one ship/base/satellite can perform remote mining in a given sector at any given time, and bases can hold more mining components

Of course, for the above strategy you have to be able to build space yard ships (requires at least cruiser hull size) and be able to survive long enough for that ship to build the resource base. Not to mention pay maintenance on the space yard ship... but the long-term benefits should outweigh the short term losses.