Weellllllll………. Not so much struggling - it’s my nature to turtle so right next to Sol I have a system with so many many minerals - all of them, so I’m duplicating an earth like planet over there - colony cost 2 and I’ll terraform it, next to that system Sagittarius is a colony cost 2 and a few good moons to mine, and then another system with maybe a few moons to mind but no decent planet
i suppose I’m asking does one create a sol like system in every body that has a decent planet and some good mining around?
for those systems with good mining but no real central hub planet - a mining outpost - but what does a mining outpost consist of?
I follow the following doctrine
Close to Sol (roughly 3x jumps max) i will colonise and terraform most habitable/decent mineral/high capacity planets. This creates a decent population growth and core worlds.
Past that i follow this:
Colony - decent pop capacity, strategic location, low terraform cost. Just spaceport, infra and mass driver (this creates a logistics hub for any minerals in the system)
Mine - 0.5+ availablity of desired mineral, same as colony setup + mines or forced labour (only just started using these and they are great)
Forge - high pop capacity world with minerals of each type or system with them, same as the two above setups + factories + shipyards + any other main manufacturing
1 Like
Are you always scouting the next system and the next and so on or do you stop and go - right let’s build this up and move, build and move
I used to do that but became abit boring
So i tend to explore over multiple axis’s simultaneously while building up systems behind.
I currently have 3x fleets for colony setup. They take 2M people, 1x spaceport, 1x mass driver, 3x listening and i think 2000x inf and a garrison template.
Using this they can then just be left and wait for civs and the terraforming stations
1 Like
I tend to be scouting 3-5 systems beyond my closest colony
If a system has a good gas giant and low cc body then I will ship over some harvesters, tanker to the gas giant. Refueling station to the low cc body.
If the system has DUG then it gets maintenance factories, a carrier, auto mines and mass drivers, no DUG gets ground forces.
If it has minerals for mines then some construction factories (and 25k construction ground force to kick start building) to scale up extraction.
STOs on inner most gas giant Moon, low cc body and mining bodies.
A few hundred infrastructure to get civilian colony shipping people in.
I will send 10 terraform stations once carrier or STOs are there to start the process, but the vast number of stations stay closer to the systems to Sol until at least one body in those systems is 0 cc. If a system has more than one low cc body then once the first is complete, all but 10 stations push out rimward.
I have a growing list of low cc, no gas giants with fuel, no DUG systems too. I am thinking about starting some colonies on them with only ground forces and STOs just to build population hubs and depending on minerals in system maybe mines and ground based terraform them. But I have been lucky with my systems so far that production is fully on the other systems.
TLDR, if it has good gas giant and a low cc body I start basic colonisation. If it has DUG and low cc but no gas giant with fuel then it goes on list for next wave of colonisation.
What does that acronym DUG stand for?
Duranium, Uridium, Galacite?
2 Likes
The holy trinity of maintenance.
2 Likes
Blessid be the machine.
Who provides this boundy of MSP
It may be offtopic but I think what you are struggling (and many others) is that you are try to “win” the game. I think a strategy or 4x game should be approached more with letting the story guiding your choices.
In this case, what is your goal? Are you playing wide or tall?
Are you looking at the perfect logistic “Swiss” empire that runs like a clock or at an unstoppable war machine hungry for resources and forward support outposts.
Are you a puny human or an insectoid race that spreads more like a disease?
What I am saying is that there are too many variables to narrow it down the the 1 perfect exapansion plan, the perfect ship design, the perfect ratio to grow pops, and so on.
5 Likes
Jumps are not the most useful measure of distance.
Prioritize systems and bodies based on bkm from home.
Proximity makes an enormous difference in how rapidly you can grow your colonies.
1 Like