how do I expand my borders with 2.0?

[Luxivus]

what the title says.
So far i'm enjoying the changes made to the game, but the only thing that's really puzzling me is how I am supposed to get resources from other sectors now. I have my starting planet, and the resources in that solar system, but...I have no idea how to expand the border control of my significantly reduced sphere of influence compared to 1.9. Even the perk I get from Supremacy doesn't give the 20% border expansion anymore, so i'm at a loss. Ideas please?

[cooltv27]

completely survey a system with a science ship then build a starbase over the star with a construction ship

[Apocalypse_Later]

Just build the little outpost stations all over. They don't have any upkeep.

[Luxivus]

Originally posted by Apocalypse Later:

Just build the little outpost stations all over. They don't have any upkeep.

they changed outposts to no longer have influence upkeep? that's kind of a relief and shock at the same time.
When i use my construction ship, it ONLY gives me the option to construct starbases, not outposts. there is not outpost option anywhere that I can easily see.

[cooltv27]

outposts and starbases are the same thing now, the starbases have no upkeep (well, a small amount of energy but whatever). you now need to build a starbase in each system you want to claim

starbases start at level 0 and can be upgraded but there is a limit to how many you can have above level 0

[Luxivus]

Originally posted by cooltv27:

outposts and starbases are the same thing now, the starbases have no upkeep (well, a small amount of energy but whatever). you now need to build a starbase in each system you want to claim

starbases start at level 0 and can be upgraded but there is a limit to how many you can have above level 0

so, as long as I do not upgrade the starbase, it doesn't go towards the starbase cap?

[cooltv27]

Originally posted by Mikha'el:

Originally posted by cooltv27:

outposts and starbases are the same thing now, the starbases have no upkeep (well, a small amount of energy but whatever). you now need to build a starbase in each system you want to claim

starbases start at level 0 and can be upgraded but there is a limit to how many you can have above level 0

so, as long as I do not upgrade the starbase, it doesn't go towards the starbase cap?

correct

[Old Mister Syrup]

Pretty tedious

[Apocalypse_Later]

Originally posted by Mikha'el:

Originally posted by Apocalypse Later:

Just build the little outpost stations all over. They don't have any upkeep.

they changed outposts to no longer have influence upkeep? that's kind of a relief and shock at the same time.
When i use my construction ship, it ONLY gives me the option to construct starbases, not outposts. there is not outpost option anywhere that I can easily see.

This confused me at first, so I'll lay it out for you.

Outpost: Classed as a Station, but has no upkeep, is easy to knock down in battle.
ACTUAL Stations: Built by upgrading OUTPOSTS, have UPKEEP, can be modified in a wide range of setups.

[cooltv27]

Originally posted by Apocalypse Later:

have UPKEEP

the upkeep is energy, not influence. just to make it clear

[Luxivus]

Thank you all for your help, this atleast helps me reason with the changes. It sounds like doing it this way will gain me significantly less resources than 1.9, but, hey, this is a space sim, realistically you'd guard key assets, not have an entire empire with rich planets.

[cooltv27]

Originally posted by Mikha'el:

Thank you all for your help, this atleast helps me reason with the changes. It sounds like doing it this way will gain me significantly less resources than 1.9, but, hey, this is a space sim, realistically you'd guard key assets, not have an entire empire with rich planets.

on the contrary I have significantly more resources than usual. may just be RNG but I have always had the mineral produciton to do everything I wanted to do

[Josh]

I saw someone freak out about the fact they changed some influence costs (like leader recruitment and specific edicts) to energy costs instead, and they were freaking out about the fact they weren't going to have enough energy for it.

Which I didn't understand, considering every single early game (until and ONLY IF) I meet an enclave, I float upwards of like 4-5k energy creds that does nothing. Not only does this change make edicts look more attractive, but they got rid of the system that forced you to lose a certain amount of influence generation, and now instead everything just costs influence points. Also a better change in my opinion, considering how easy it was for the AI to expand and live you in the dust.

Although yes, what you're thinking about losing resources is technically correct. There's an opportunity cost to having to build these random outposts all over the place as opposed to your border growing organically, and that's the present loss of whatever minerals you aren't able to claim whilst having to build outposts to gain territory (or alternatively, losing territory by having your construction ships busy building mining stations whilst other factions are expanding)

[Tankfriend]

Originally posted by cooltv27:

Originally posted by Mikha'el:

Thank you all for your help, this atleast helps me reason with the changes. It sounds like doing it this way will gain me significantly less resources than 1.9, but, hey, this is a space sim, realistically you'd guard key assets, not have an entire empire with rich planets.

on the contrary I have significantly more resources than usual. may just be RNG but I have always had the mineral produciton to do everything I wanted to do

Had the same feeling so far. Very early start is much slower because you have to build the stations to actually expand and build anything else, but the building time of the stations seems long enough to gather more resources for the next building projects. And the removed influence upkeep allows you to gather enough influence to steadily expand your territory.

[Dene]

Originally posted by Apocalypse Later:

Just build the little outpost stations all over. They don't have any upkeep.

Well the number of outposts you have increases the research cost etc. so there actually is upkeep for them in the form of reduced research speed. Unless you want to fall behind in tech you need to think what systems you want to put station on. It will cost you more influence but atleast you won't shoot yourself in the foot when you occupy those 1 mineral/ energy systems.

In the end the outposts will be causing far greater cost to research than colonies will. I just noticed that my bunch of outposts (95 systems (aka outposts)), which equates to about 1/5th of medium sized galaxy, increased the cost 188% while my 6 colonies only increased it by 25%.

[john]

Can someone help me with a really dumb question? How do I build a Starbase? I moved a construction fleet to the system. I select the fleet, and one of the options is Build Starbase. I select that, and the icon goes yellow for a few seconds then returns to green, but no starbase gets built. I don't know what I should be doing.