How Important are Fissiles?

[BanDHMO]

All the common wisdom I've seen is to not overinvest in Luna early and go for Mars after maybe one Lunar colony for water/volatiles/metals. But for one of the Luna sites, the Fissiles output is 12.5 in my game, and looking around the solar system, I see very few sites that are anywhere near that.

Seems to me I should try to lock this Lunar site down before anyone else gets it, if Fissiles are an important resource. Are they?

It may come at the expense of the best Mars site, which is rich in yellow metals, but those seem to be less rare than Fissiles.

Is my thinking wrong here?

[ExavierMacbeth]

Consider Earth Orbit as the middle ground... Fission Piles & Solar Panels work equally there.

Solar panels work better closer to the sun while every base you have beyond that will require Fissiles to provide power. So if you can claim a good spot of them on the moon it means that many more bases you can support out system as you look for better sources.

Its also a heavy fuel material for Orion & Salt Water Neutron Flux drives which are very High thrust (good for moving around heavily armored defence ships) drives that have roughly the same delta range per fuel tank as the Advanced Pulsar drives. So if you plan to use those engines you will want a good income of it.

[ulzgoroth]

It depends on whether you're going to be short of something else.

The ideal outcome from the Moon is probably to get a positive balance in every resource, so you can switch to build-in-space rather than build-from-Earth.


In general, I'd say 12.5 fissiles is plenty to justify planting a mine all on its own. But for a first mine, it probably isn't the highest priority.


If my game is anything to go on, you should not worry too much about somebody else taking a tempting site like that. If you really want it you can build an assault frigate to steal it later.

[Soul]

Fissiles can end up being super important depending on the Engines you use and equipment variety you go for. It really dependso n how you are gearing up the fleet and what you are building.

[BanDHMO]

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

In general, I'd say 12.5 fissiles is plenty to justify planting a mine all on its own. But for a first mine, it probably isn't the highest priority.

Thanks. I neglected to mention, this would be the second Lunar outpost. I knew enough that I'd want water/volatiles/metal, so grabbed the only site that had those. The choice now is to either hit the Fissile-rich Lunar site and risk getting only second-best of Mars, or give up the Fissiles and get the best shot at the yellow metals-rich site on Mars.

[ExavierMacbeth]

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

It depends on whether you're going to be short of something else.

The ideal outcome from the Moon is probably to get a positive balance in every resource, so you can switch to build-in-space rather than build-from-Earth.


In general, I'd say 12.5 fissiles is plenty to justify planting a mine all on its own. But for a first mine, it probably isn't the highest priority.


If my game is anything to go on, you should not worry too much about somebody else taking a tempting site like that. If you really want it you can build an assault frigate to steal it later.

This I can agree with... Water should be your biggest concern for a moon material. Its the most heavily used resource in the game (Support & fuel costs) and as such it is easily the single largest drain on BOOST until you are net positive on all resource mining in space.

But if you can grab a spot that has all 4 (or at least 3) on the moon it will make things alot simpler.

[Captiva]

They are not common, 12.5 is not bad. Early game I know they are important. They can be used as fuel in some drives, so I would grab the site.

[Soul]

Noble metals and fissiles have been my bottlenecks in the very endgame, early game I'd say it was volatiles while I was expanding the industrial base. Water is pretty easy to get from ice moons. Midgame it was mostly whatever I happened to be using for fuel at the time. I definitely recommend hoarding large fissile deposits to yourself and stockpiling as much as possible.

[Mistfox]

Fissiles are super important because you'll be needing them to expand beyond Earth. Solar panels lose efficiency really badly at the asteroid belt, think it only works at 18%, so you definitely need a reactor of some sort to expand out there.

[BanDHMO]

Originally posted by ExavierMacbeth:

Consider Earth Orbit as the middle ground... Fission Piles & Solar Panels work equally there.

Solar panels work better closer to the sun while every base you have beyond that will require Fissiles to provide power. So if you can claim a good spot of them on the moon it means that many more bases you can support out system as you look for better sources.

I'll clarify this by noting that inside the Earth's orbit, there's very little. Venus is uninhabitable, and Mercury has 8 sites. Compared with hundreds in the outer orbits. So it seems the answer to my original question is yes, quite important, as this is your primary energy source. Is that right?

[ExavierMacbeth]

Originally posted by BanDHMO:

I'll clarify this by noting that inside the Earth's orbit, there's very little. Venus is uninhabitable, and Mercury has 8 sites. Compared with hundreds in the outer orbits. So it seems the answer to my original question is yes, quite important, as this is your primary energy source. Is that right?

lol yes & no... too much randomization in the game.

My current game I have most of my infrastructure on Mercury with only 4 bases outside of earth orbit (Mars, Both of Mars's Moons, & Ceres) just because the game gave those spot such high concentrations of water & volatiles that I didn't NEED additional bases out there until I started running out of materials due to the Nanofactory farms I set up on Mercury :P

Every game is going to be a little different on what specifically you consider "important".

Also depending on how fast you research Fusion Piles/Arrays/Farms to replace the Fission Piles/Arrays/Farms will also determine how important the Fissiles are. Each fusion pile is twice the energy output for I think 1/10th the Fissiles drain so if you push for it then you can streatch that single 12 point spot on the moon pretty far.

But like someone said, You can always build a Marine frigate & steal the base from the AI later if you decide you want it :P

[ulzgoroth]

IMO you should, within no more than your first two bases, aspire to have net positive space production of all five space resources. That's the game-changing threshold where you can stop suffering shipping times from Earth.

I would strenuously avoid a path that slows down that attainment.



In my game I haven't bottlenecked on any space resources (having instead overbuilt mines) but I will say...fissiles are vital, but the amount of them you consume (unless you use certain later drives) is just not all that big. A base is unlikely to consume even one unit of fissiles for sustenance (unless maybe you start building T3 bases in the outer system without fusion?) and a ship unlikely to cost more than a fraction of a point either.

[ulzgoroth]

I'd also re-emphasize that letting an AI claim that particular base site doesn't matter in the long run - you can most definitely seize it from them if you find yourself wanting it enough.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

Ifissiles are vital, but the amount of them you consume (unless you use certain later drives) is just not all that big.

^ This. In reverse though if you don't have that small amount, you're in for a real long wait as you ship parts out from Earth at huge cost in boost and time.

So. Vital but only small amounts needed.

[BanDHMO]

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

IMO you should, within no more than your first two bases, aspire to have net positive space production of all five space resources.

Could you elaborate on why the emphasis for 2 bases specifically?

I seem to have played suboptimally for that goal. My first Lunar site has no fissiles or noble metals, but has a some water and volatiles (7W, 3V) and decent base metals (10). Best Mars site has guaranteed amounts of everything, except fissiles (8-13W, 20-30V, 33-48BM, 10-20NM, 0-0.5F). What I should've done by your strategy is grab the good fissiles site, and then rush for the best Mars spot. Can still do that, but it'll take 3 bases.

[ExavierMacbeth]

Originally posted by BanDHMO:

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

IMO you should, within no more than your first two bases, aspire to have net positive space production of all five space resources.

Could you elaborate on why the emphasis for 2 bases specifically?

I seem to have played suboptimally for that goal. My first Lunar site has no fissiles or noble metals, but has a some water and volatiles (7W, 3V) and decent base metals (10). Best Mars site has guaranteed amounts of everything, except fissiles (8-13W, 20-30V, 33-48BM, 10-20NM, 0-0.5F). What I should've done by your strategy is grab the good fissiles site, and then rush for the best Mars spot. Can still do that, but it'll take 3 bases.

3 bases is fine if you have to do it that way. This game loves RNG so the resource ratios will be different every game. The point is to just get net positive on all resources as soon as possible because then you no longer need to use BOOST from earth to expand/support your space industry.