How should I setup my Colonies/Ring Stations

[skaorn]

I just got the tech to upgrade my bases to their final form but I'm not sure what I want to add to them. I'm looking at what I have available and I'm not sure what I want to set them up with. I was looking last night at the residential module for example (only have the tech 2 version right now) and couldn't figure out if there was any reason to actually use one. How do you setup your colonies and ring stations outside of earth interface?

[danhammond58]

Not sure what ver you are using. Because it makes a difference. For example Research institutions used to be able to be built at Mercury. And it was more effective to do so as they use a lot of power. But now in ver 4.32 they can only be built at earth. And there are several changes like this that have occurred in the most recent updates. So the strategy very much depends on which ver you are using.

[skaorn]

I'm using the current version

[Mavrah]

Depends.
Where do you have colonies/stations? Do you own all/most habs on the Moon, Mars or Mercury?
What's your power availability?

Earth interface, of course you'll want all those research centers that boost your investments, research speed and councilor mission strength. Three of each (of the max tier) will max out your useful bonuses. You'll also want 6 Nanofacturing complexes in Earth interface orbits and 15 Media Centers, if you have room. A few hospitals and hotels will be very useful, too.
The residential buildings are probably most useful for boosting the population of Mars, but I'm not sure what you get for increasing the colonists' numbers to 50,000.
Since there's so much solar power available on Mercury you can easily spam Nanofacturing, universities and Command Centers to augment your money, research or mission control as needed.
How many marine barracks, shipyards and Battlestations you need is all dependent on your play style.

[skaorn]

Originally posted by Mavrah:

Depends.
Where do you have colonies/stations? Do you own all/most habs on the Moon, Mars or Mercury?
What's your power availability?

Earth interface, of course you'll want all those research centers that boost your investments, research speed and councilor mission strength. Three of each (of the max tier) will max out your useful bonuses. You'll also want 6 Nanofacturing complexes in Earth interface orbits and 15 Media Centers, if you have room. A few hospitals and hotels will be very useful, too.
The residential buildings are probably most useful for boosting the population of Mars, but I'm not sure what you get for increasing the colonists' numbers to 50,000.
Since there's so much solar power available on Mercury you can easily spam Nanofacturing, universities and Command Centers to augment your money, research or mission control as needed.
How many marine barracks, shipyards and Battlestations you need is all dependent on your play style.

The moon I just grabbed the two best sites and that's it, but I've got most of Mars. I haven't done the Mercury research yet so no bases there. I did manage to get tier 3 Solar and Fusion researched. My Earth Interface rings are in good shape. I was mostly looking for good templates to upgrade some on Mars and slap down on Mercury and Jupiter when I get there.

[danhammond58]

The current ver does not help. Ver 4.26 you could build research institutions at Mercury.
4.29 has bugs should not be used.
4.32 You can not build research institutions at Mercury.
And a few others have changed.
4.32 is in beta but is the current ver.
4.29 is the current released ver but again has bugs.
4.26 is a roll back. Should be used if you can not get 4.32

[skaorn]

Originally posted by danhammond58:

The current ver does not help. Ver 4.26 you could build research institutions at Mercury.
4.29 has bugs should not be used.
4.32 You can not build research institutions at Mercury.
And a few others have changed.
4.32 is in beta but is the current ver.
4.29 is the current released ver but again has bugs.
4.26 is a roll back. Should be used if you can not get 4.32

I got the game about two weeks ago and I don't have access to it right now so I don't know what the exact version is.

[Kayedon]

Originally posted by skaorn:

Originally posted by danhammond58:

The current ver does not help. Ver 4.26 you could build research institutions at Mercury.
4.29 has bugs should not be used.
4.32 You can not build research institutions at Mercury.
And a few others have changed.
4.32 is in beta but is the current ver.
4.29 is the current released ver but again has bugs.
4.26 is a roll back. Should be used if you can not get 4.32

I got the game about two weeks ago and I don't have access to it right now so I don't know what the exact version is.

If you haven't gone to the beta tab in Steam (and you'd know if you did), you're on 4.26.

[POWER WITHIN USER]

Originally posted by skaorn:

How do you setup your colonies and ring stations outside of earth interface?

You'll want to come up with templates that fulfill specific roles such as shipyards, marine farms, population farms (residential modules) or research centers/workshops.
You should also have LOE templates, preferably for all station tiers.

Do keep in mind that while stations are going to be attacked and destroyed, the opportunity cost of filling them with defensive modules is worth considering. You could simply have a single PD and then entrust their defense to a patrol fleet as to maximize the productivity out of each station.

[Ericus1]

Residential modules for the most part have no current role in the game. They are mainly intended for future plans in the game where we will have higher tier habs than the 3 we have right now. There might be some use for passing the 10K population threshold for building universities, but realistically Mars can reach that by having higher tier habs at its sites, and there are enough orbital slots in Earth-Luna to build more than enough.

Other than that I don't think there is a "right" way to build your exo-LEO habs. Generally having one nanofactory and one skunkworks for the positive random event choices, then enough farms to negate or near-negate water/volatiles use is helpful, and from there it just varies.

I'm more likely to add defensive modules to remote habs because I can't protect them with fleets, and they'll push the aliens to attacking other places. But even one PDA helps to avoid the negative consequences of the debris strike events for space habs. Likewise very important stations like shipyards would get defensive modules. I might put an admin center on exceptionally productive mining sites. Mercury is a good place for larger amounts of nanofactories because of the ample energy production and they aren't restricted by population and aren't as expensive to build. I rarely build MC buildings since it is so much easier to get it from Earth, but you could if you have ample money.

The point is while you can define templates for "research rings" or whatnot, a one-size-fits-all approach makes less sense to me than just building what you need wherever makes the most sense and adapting to conditions at that particular solar body.

[danhammond58]

You will figure it out. Just pay attention to restrictions on where you can build certain modules. Because they change the rules from one ver to the next. Also be aware that at Mercury your solar panel will produce about 8 times as much energy as a fusion reactor can.
So power hungry modules are best built at Mercury if they are allowed at Mercury in the ver you are playing. Also pay attention to modules that have to be in a certain orbit to provide a bonus you may want. Because orbits can fill up quick. At Earth fusion generators produce more power than solar does. And last some modules have to be built at Earth will only function there. So build your list and then figure out what to build where. And when you max out tier 3 bases they will absorb a lot of money to maintain them. So you will need a fair bit of money making modules as well to supplement your income. Most of those are best built at Mercury. But not all like a hospital has to be built at Earth. Then some of the modules also use up boost to operate them. So it requires a bit of re-balancing your economy to get it all up and running.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by danhammond58:

So power hungry modules are best built at Mercury if they are allowed at Mercury in the ver you are playing.

It's not really relevant whether the specific module is power-hungry or not. That power needs to be consumed regardless of where it is, so making as much of your stuff as possible be powered by Mercury will result in the lowest maintenance costs for power (but the radiation does mean it takes lots of Metals to build there).

[danhammond58]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Originally posted by danhammond58:

So power hungry modules are best built at Mercury if they are allowed at Mercury in the ver you are playing.

It's not really relevant whether the specific module is power-hungry or not. That power needs to be consumed regardless of where it is, so making as much of your stuff as possible be powered by Mercury will result in the lowest maintenance costs for power (but the radiation does mean it takes lots of Metals to build there).

But the payoff is in how many modules you can place on an orbital at Mercury vs how many orbitals you need to build to support the same number of modules at Earth vs how many mission control points can you spare. You do understand that I hope.
Your reply makes me think this never occurred to you.

Further now that you are building more orbitals your upkeep money cost has risen and now you need more money producing modules to support the expansion. So now you need to build more orbitals with money modules and use up even more MC. And all of this new construction is burning up more minerals as well. So yep I totally do not get the mineral connection at all.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by danhammond58:

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

It's not really relevant whether the specific module is power-hungry or not. That power needs to be consumed regardless of where it is, so making as much of your stuff as possible be powered by Mercury will result in the lowest maintenance costs for power (but the radiation does mean it takes lots of Metals to build there).

But the payoff is in how many modules you can place on an orbital at Mercury vs how many orbitals you need to build to support the same number of modules at Earth vs how many mission control points can you spare. You do understand that I hope.
Your reply makes me think this never occurred to you.

Your reply makes me think that you don't understand what I said at all and should reread it.

[Mavrah]

Originally posted by Ericus1:

Other than that I don't think there is a "right" way to build your exo-LEO habs. Generally having one nanofactory and one skunkworks for the positive random event choices, then enough farms to negate or near-negate water/volatiles use is helpful, and from there it just varies.

I'm more likely to add defensive modules to remote habs because I can't protect them with fleets, and they'll push the aliens to attacking other places. But even one PDA helps to avoid the negative consequences of the debris strike events for space habs. Likewise very important stations like shipyards would get defensive modules. I might put an admin center on exceptionally productive mining sites. Mercury is a good place for larger amounts of nanofactories because of the ample energy production and they aren't restricted by population and aren't as expensive to build. I rarely build MC buildings since it is so much easier to get it from Earth, but you could if you have ample money.

What he said. No one right way or even a best way. Cookie cutters don't prepare your installations for what your changing needs will actually be. If you have fusion tech then you really have the flexibility in building to do whatever you want. If power plant upkeep is too much for you, then just stick to basic defense, construction chains and farms. Or make self-sufficient habs that outproduce all the research the other factions are doing. Up to your play style and how far into the game you are.

[alexander.julian.erhard]

It can sometimes make sense to specialize a bit, because the admin building provides bonuses to resource generating buildings like research, money, or mined resources, but no bonuses to MC and shipbuilding as far as I know.

Aside from that LEO 1-2 should obviously have a sufficient amount of the buildings that provide earth bonuses.

Defensive modules are rather bad at actually defending against Aliens until you get to the later techs, especially battlestations and laser techs.
And even then can obviously still defeated with large enough numbers.
They can still scare them away from actually coming and attacking though.
But I´d argue their real strength is preventing tiny enemy faction fleets from sniping undefended stations or bases.


Making templates can be helpful to cut down on Micro, but be careful because:
-Solar Power depends on the spot you´re using it. It´s awesome at Mercury, still great at Venus and sufficient at Earth, but with Fusion I would change to using Fusion for Earth.
Also don´t use it in an L2 Lagrange Point.
-The energy used by the Mine varies, with heavier space objects needing a bit more power (reflecting that you need more power to send those resources into space). This could potentially have the same layout have enough power in one place, but slightly not enough in another place.