Colony Management

[Litcube]

Hiee!

I'm still the newby guy. Due to the akward planet resource structure of this game, I'm interested in colony and resource management. If there's any information that anyone can share with me, I'd be very appreciative. I'd say things like, "thank you," and, "thanks alot!".

What rules do you follow when making colony types? The colony type names (Mining Colony, Military Installation), anyone use them?

Anything else you can help me with, I'd be greatful.

[Fyron]

Those colony types are used by the AI when it picks a facility to build. Otherwise, they are just eye candy.

I just build whatever I am needing at the time. If I need more minerals, I build those wherever there is 60% or better value. Orgs and Rads go on planets with 80% or better when they are needed (and not many are needed). Once I get Monoliths, those go on every planet that has at least one value above 100 or at least 2 above 80. Everything else gets research/intel.

[Litcube]

Cool.

You were also mentioning before, you place a SY on every colony with more than 4 spaces?

[Arkcon]

I try to look at each star system as if it were semi autonomous, even though in SE4 they aren't. Some planet has be the "system capital".

That planet should be able to build a ship that could be sent to other planets in the system quickly. It should be far enough away from warp points to make it difficult to attack from outside the system. It should have the spaceport, space station shipyards.

Put resupply facilities on any planets in a straight line between warp points. If the planet is one or two spaces away and you need a resupply base, make it a waypoint. Don't bury your shipyards and resupply bases in the far corner of the system.

I like to put a spaceyard on any planet that holds more than 10 facilities. You never know when you'll need a buch of ships in a hurry.

[Suicide Junkie]

Early on (first year), building a stack of 3-4 SY bases will help a lot.
You can pump out ships much faster that way.

Any planet that has excellent value in organics or rads should have some extractors of that type, even if you don't need them. Either you'll need them later, or you can scrap extractors on a multi-resource world in order to make room for more mineral miners.

When building monoliths, it is best to fill up the planet with regular miners first, then build one monolith and scrap one extractor at a time to change the planet over to monoliths.
Regular extractors can be made much faster than monoliths, and you'll harvest some extra resources while the monoliths are under construction.

[Fyron]

Originally posted by Litcube:
Cool.

You were also mentioning before, you place a SY on every colony with more than 4 spaces?

Yes. I try to get as much ship building capacity as possible. Overwhelming your enemies is the surest path to victory.

When building monoliths, it is best to fill up the planet with regular miners first, then build one monolith and scrap one extractor at a time to change the planet over to monoliths.

That is a micromanagement nightmare, and I do not recommend doing that unless you want to spend 4 hours on a turn once you get a large empire.

[ July 30, 2003, 20:16: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[EvilGenius4ABetterTomorro]

One colony type I added was "Warehouse Colony" Not to be confused with "Whorehouse Colony" Mediocre resources, 1 shipyard for repair only, and lots of cargo. The premise is that this colony would pump out and store Weapons Platforms for future use and deployment; if I should need to dipatch a large transport to pick them up for deployment on the infidels planets. Could do the same for fighters too. Could get pricey if my WP's get obsolete!
I guess this could be called a "Military Outpost" also.

[Ed Kolis]

I've created "Storage Bases" (1 SY and the rest resource storage) and "Resource Colonies" (monoliths)...

I like to put a SY on every planet, no matter how insignificant, just because it provides a larger shipbuilding capacity and I don't have to worry when I go to the construction queues to multi-add a ship that I haven't turned off "planets (without shipyards)" in the build queues window and lose my selection Why can't you select a group of SY's by clicking the first then shift-clicking the Last, and make control-clicking select one at a time?

[Litcube]

Awesome help, thanks guys.

[Stone Mill]

You may enjoy some of your questions explored in the Newbie FAQ:

17.3 Managing Your Economy