Colonies? Are you kidding?

[Zzabur]

So, i discovered a colony a few weeks ago, i didn't know about them, so i was nicely surprised.

I spent a few days building, making decisions and so on, for the promise i would get some production.

A few days later, yeah! My first colony production!
What? 100 gamma roots, ok it's cool, but i got a farm making 800/4hours, and you are telling me 40 people working on this spot make 100 gamma roots/day???

I try to synthetize, alone, well no, automatic farming (i just work for harvesting which takes me a few seconds just to harvest, and i produce, alone, while exploring and doing most of my stuff outside the farm, 4800 per day at most, during this time, 40 people working only on one farm produce 100 gamma roots/day???

Well, i am a bit overreacting, i also got about 10 other devices that can makes me 20k units/day too. I wonder why i am making stasis devices at 15millions each !

I am making decisions that just change nothing, i dont even know who is right or wrong, but anyway, that did not seem to have much importance....

So, i keep my colony, as it's fun roleplay, but is there any purpose to these colonies? Sentinels attacks are the best loots i can get from this colony...

Questions :
-Is it going to be better? I dont mean 200 gamma roots/day, but something really useful, or is it definitely useless?
-Are decisions really changing anything in my world? Can i know if i made the proper decision even days later?
-Does my colony suck or are they all definitely useless?
-Roleplayers, is it even worth working on them? Does it change anything? Will i get a special mission from them or something for the background?

I know i can play without them, but i find it sad to get such features but in the end useless...

[Lindy Bomber]

It will get a little better but not much. Once your product is maxed out you only need to stop my about once every two weeks to pickup loot. Or just forget about it completely.

It's a poorly designed and poorly implemented system.

[gNg]

They're pretty much useless, I'm afraid and even at their best, they never produce anything worth the time, effort and materials you put into them.

Enjoy the roleplay, if that's your thing, 'cos that's all you're going to get from them.

[Darth Cervantes]

They are a little tacked on but you can make a really cool base out of the colonies by adding onto it by putting a base computer as close as possible

[Mr. Bufferlow]

The settlement is mainly for laughs. To the extent it helps, realize you are just getting the Overseer's share of the production, not the settlement production. You are just getting a cut of the action for working for them. (Powerful and important but still just an employee)

They make no sense and there is no method to increasing the perks for the most part. You just get random decisions that sometimes hurt and sometimes help. No strategy involved. More like playing WAR the card game.

[Lindy Bomber]

For a long time there have been players asking for cities on planets because the lack of civilization is jarring to them. "We need cities because cities are supposed to exist". Settlements was a way to check off that item on the bucket list. Settlements should be viewed as a cautionary tail of "be careful if what you wish for" and a case study in "most gamers don't understand what makes a good game".

[Syzzle]

Originally posted by Lindy Bomber:

For a long time there have been players asking for cities on planets because the lack of civilization is jarring to them. "We need cities because cities are supposed to exist". Settlements was a way to check off that item on the bucket list. Settlements should be viewed as a cautionary tail of "be careful if what you wish for" and a case study in "most gamers don't understand what makes a good game".

So players asked for a City, they gave us a poorly implemented Settlement and somehow it's the players fault for asking? What kind of braindead logic is that.

[Krash Megiddo]

The tangible benefits are minor and sometimes hilarious, such as a colony that generates piles of crap. Mostly its just useless stuff to sell.

I like settlements as a background to my main base.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2758256218

[Comradovich]

When you first get to a settlement, BEFORE you agree to become manager, look at the monument and it should show you which two items that settlement produces. If you like both of them, then agree to take over it and if you've got an old settlement, that old settlement will become unclaimed.

For instance, I have a settlement producing both kelp polyps (which I use for cooking to make rice/flour), and comet droplets. The droplets sell well enough that I figure it's a decent start. This is a "good enough" beginning to a settlement base, and the way I make it better is by using a base computer and mining equipment. This way, the settlement becomes free infrastructure that doesn't count towards my per-base, or per-save part counts.

Second thing to do with your settlement is make it into a crafting hub. Again, using mine as an example, it's located on a Lush biome world. Which means I use it to also harvest nitrogen, paraffinium and oxygen. I've also put down standing planters to harvest carbon, and it's located next to a cave system I can get cobalt from. So, five of the requirements for a stasis device farm are satisfied with just this one settlement. To place refining and industrial mining capacity down, I first ran around the settlement with a Survey Device and marked all of the hotspots I would need. Then I planted down a base computer, making sure it was within 1000u of both the nitrogen hotspot and the power hotspot. (Gasses are the resource you need the most in a stasis device or fusion igniter farm node, so you'll want to make sure you're within the base extension range of these). For reference: Lush has Nitrogen/Paraffinium, Scorched has Suphurine/Phosphorus, Frozen has Radon/Dioxite, Irradiated has Radon/Uranium, Toxic has Nitrogen/Ammonia, Barren has Suphurine/Pyrite. If you're doing stasis devices, the first three biomes are enough. If you want to branch out into fusion igniters, you'll either need all six, or a source of salt so you can refine salt+plant into the uranium/pyrite/ammonia you also need. A settlement on ANY of the worlds with the resources you need is a worthwhile prospect. The resources it creates are like a bonus, you're just after a spot that won't take up a ton of base parts when you build around it. Remember, once you put that base computer down next to your settlement, you can pick it up with the edit dialogue in the build menu and move it next to your office in the settlement. That won't change the center of your base, but if you accidentally teleport to the base computer later on, you'll be right next to a portal in your office.

[taniwhat]

What they drop is random. Fusion ignitors suck not so badly.

Just don't take them seriously and they are kinda fun.

[gilph2]

In my new max difficulty save, I'm not making a settlement, and to be fair, I dont miss it. The best part was that you had usually about four marketplaces that sold things you get at minor settlements, like salvaged data. Once I didnt need it anymore, I ignored it.

[Foxglovez]

Settllements are just a little mini-game. I think late one Friday afternoon someone at HG had a great idea, played with it a little, gave it to the janitor to work on and what we have is the result. Like many things, interesting but not well thought out or implemented. Such is NMS life. Does make a nice vista from a base though like Krash noted.

[Tirandys]

I am not sure, but I think if you want the drone (Laylaps), you must do the settlements. After you warp away you will get the taste of metal quest line and get Laylaps and a couple of other things for your minotaur. Not very important, I turn Laylaps off because it is annoying.

[Eightball]

Considering they are 'fire and forget' and that you can easily change to another one if you find one that produces better products they really are not that much of a hassle.

They are just passive income generators and if you 'build' them in a way to get max population and an S class rating you can make some not insignificant coin for doing nothing.

Find one near a gate and its even better.

[vaanomega]

I just did a noob mistake yesterday, i had a Colony running fine (Rank B and a good production on the work) then i saw another colony, i decided to take another one... and without knowing it, i lose my first colony... no pop ups, nothing to tell me that i could only own one colony at a time

If only we could get multiple colonies running...

[Kieran]

I don't know, I'm having the same problem in my colony, along with debt that will take weeks to pay off.