2.2 Ringworld: No Mining district?

[Sabaithal]

So I'm using a mod that makes my start planet a ringworld, or rather my starting planet is in the same system as a ringworld. Just colonized it and am starting to get my economy up, when I realized there are no mining districts on any of the ringworld segments. Am I missing something? Is this a bug? How do I get mining districts as an option? If I can't get more minerals my economy will crash in no time.

[NixBoxDone]

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

I'm still referring to ringworlds as late-game structures. I fully realize using a mod to get one early game does not count. My previous argument still stands.

The idea behind this (both for realism and for balance) is that a ringworld isn't a self-contained structure (anymore). You're supposed to have a number of agrarian or mining worlds to support the high density and highly productive specialized worlds.

This both solves one of the complaints I and many others had in previous versions (that planets are mostly the same 5 utility buildings + however many production buildings of whatever resource you needed most when you colonized/developed it) and gave every planet type a distinct use/feel.
It also makes it so you can't just spam ecumenopoli/ringworlds and automatically win anymore. You have to retool worlds as you go and carefully consider if you can actually support another ringworld section (or at least budget a sizeable part of your produced energy towards buying consumer goods and/or minerals to keep the balance).

You'll have agrarian and mining worlds to produce resources and ecumenopoli / commercial worlds that have high housing and target the production of trade goods or science which are supported by said agrarian and mining worlds.

It also makes the new megastructure(s) much more valuable because things like the matter decompressor, science nexus and mega art installation give you a lump income of resources you would otherwise have to devote city districts to or conquer planets to produce.



The only problem I have with it so far is that it seems to me that mining districts in general are very rare. Most planets I find have 6 or less, almost never more than 9, yet I almost always find planets with generator/mining districts over 15 when spreading out my early empire.

As a result, almost all my planets end up building the maximum allowance of mining districts before anything else just to feed the voracious need for alloys and consumer goods.

I'd like it if they were at least as numerous as the other two. That would make it more valuable to produce ringworlds in the first place (access to much more food and energy production) and allow me to actually have dedicated mining/industrial planets instead of building all mines everywhere.

[Random]

The complimentary megastructure to a ring world is a matter decompressor giving you +1k mineral production dyson sphere style from a blackhole.

Ring worlds are basically dyson spheres with added food as well as the ability to produce second tier production goods like unity/research/consumergoods, also a place for pops themselves to grow and be resettled from.

[Khalani]

I have the same issue with ringworlds. Not only ringworlds, the ability to get minerals at all. I also build every mining district on a planet (even if there are only 3) and I still don't have enough to feed my economy. Without the DLC you can't get the matter decompressor either so minerals are late game a serious issue if you wanna build a huge empire without stopping development.

There is a mod for a matter replicator to convert energy into minerals. I'll try it in my next playthrough but there should be an official solution. Even without ringworlds there will be a point where all those alloy and special resource buildings just take too much to keep up with the mineral income.

Another alternative are those mods which add buidings like the hydroponics farm, where you can create mining jobs with buildings

[NixBoxDone]

Yeah. I think the idea here is to shop for them on the market, but I'd rather the resources were evenly distributed and traits/civics just encouraged specializing to sell what you can produce easily and in great numbers to buy what you can only produce little of on the market instead of the current system where even making your pops great miners just means you get to fill your own needs.

I can make a trading/engineer empire and swim in credits, but even as a mining/very strong race my mineral output has a fixed cap based on the low number of mining districts.

That should be a POSSIBLE outcome (i. e. you just had bad luck and the 9 planets in your empire happened to roll mostly energy/farming planetary features), but not an all but guaranteed one (all planets everywhere just spawn with less mining districts as a rule).

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by NixBoxDone:

The only problem I have with it so far is that it seems to me that mining districts in general are very rare. Most planets I find have 6 or less, almost never more than 9, yet I almost always find planets with generator/mining districts over 15 when spreading out my early empire.

As a result, almost all my planets end up building the maximum allowance of mining districts before anything else just to feed the voracious need for alloys and consumer goods.

I'd like it if they were at least as numerous as the other two. That would make it more valuable to produce ringworlds in the first place (access to much more food and energy production) and allow me to actually have dedicated mining/industrial planets instead of building all mines everywhere.

Ditto. Barely had one solid mining world, and planets in general seem smallish.

[Azor]

You can always specialise a ringworld sector to produce a tremendous amount of trade value to be converted into consumer goods and energy credits, and use the excess resources to buy whichever resource you want. I also specialised the other sectors to produce other resources such as technology, alloys, food and strategic resources.

In the end I had no economic issue because I was had so much energy credits and excess resources to sell that I could monthly buy any other resource I needed. Plus the high research output ensured a constant economic growth and that I stayed below admin cap.

2100 pops, no Matter Decompressor, no resource issue, constant development.

[NixBoxDone]

Originally posted by Azor:

You can always specialise a ringworld sector to produce a tremendous amount of trade value to be converted into consumer goods and energy credits, and use the excess resources to buy whichever resource you want. I also specialised the other sectors to produce other resources such as technology, alloys, food and strategic resources.

In the end I had no economic issue because I was had so much energy credits and excess resources to sell that I could monthly buy any other resource I needed. Plus the high research output ensured a constant economic growth and that I stayed below admin cap.

2100 pops, no Matter Decompressor, no resource issue, constant development.

I'm not saying it's impossible to work around, I'd just prefer if it was possible to focus on mineral production just as it is currently possible to focus on energy credits or food. It makes no sense to me that mineral production is the only base type that is hard-capped unless you invest in the appropriate megastructure.

[phantommail]

Originally posted by NixBoxDone:

Originally posted by Azor:

You can always specialise a ringworld sector to produce a tremendous amount of trade value to be converted into consumer goods and energy credits, and use the excess resources to buy whichever resource you want. I also specialised the other sectors to produce other resources such as technology, alloys, food and strategic resources.

In the end I had no economic issue because I was had so much energy credits and excess resources to sell that I could monthly buy any other resource I needed. Plus the high research output ensured a constant economic growth and that I stayed below admin cap.

2100 pops, no Matter Decompressor, no resource issue, constant development.

I'm not saying it's impossible to work around, I'd just prefer if it was possible to focus on mineral production just as it is currently possible to focus on energy credits or food. It makes no sense to me that mineral production is the only base type that is hard-capped unless you invest in the appropriate megastructure.

Yep. You can easy get like + 500 credits per month as megacorp if you got 2-3 friendly neighbors in first 50-70 years.

But alloys and minerals are different story.

[Cryptid]

you can turn that useless ringworld into fortress bottleneck, make them at all chokepoints, and let the crisis cleanse the galaxy for you.

[キールス]

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

You can produce lots of energy, but if I have the resources to build a ringworld it means I already have a massive surplus. Also, don't dyson spheres do the exact same thing, but better?

Actually, ringworlds beat dyson spheres now in terms of energy production and a lot more cheaper. However I really wouldn't recommend building one unless if you are a machine empire.

Organic empires don't really need to worry about energy as much as machine empires because the energy upkeep isn't as taxing.

You are better off with an Ecuminopolis.

[Astasia]

Type of districts you find on planets is now in large part based on the type of planet. Some planet types are mostly going to have a lot of food, some are mostly a lot of energy, some are minerals. I don't remember which is which, I think wet is food, dry is generators, and cold is mining, but I'm not sure. In any case if you pick the right type you end up with loads of minerals, and you can grab the mining guilds civic as your 3rd option for a massive boost if you feel you are short.

I've never had a game where minerals were an issue though. Usually I'm selling minerals and food for energy, I mean often the minerals from mining stations is enough with all the research for them, and if you are converting trade into consumer goods.

A fully loaded ringworld dedicated to energy production produces much more than a dyson sphere now, and you can spend that energy on whatever else you want.

[pyrocyborg]

In my Synth Empire, I currently have 3 ringworlds filled with people, and I'll obivously need more by the time I reach 6k pops, but I don't have the courage to play right now due to performance issues past year 2500. Each ringworld produce a lot of Energy while housing people. My other smaller worlds can generally handle minerals, and the 5% increase I get from every completed research covers the gradual increase in pops and ressource usage. I'm always at a large surplus and I'm forced to sell it (500+ per month, and growing). If you're producing a lot of research and are playing tall, you'll eventually get more minerals than you can use, but I don't think you should use ringworlds at first if you're an expansionnist.

Anyway, unless you're severelly in deficit in one ressource or the other and are gradually getting increased market rates while buying your much needed minerals, generating a lot of energy isn't a bad thing and can be put to other purpose.

Also, I get what you say, but ringworlds had to have some kind of drawback : Sure, they cost a lot of Alloy, and you shouldn't create one unless you have some sort of "disposable income", but they're the tall empire's dream come true. If you could house a lot of people and generate every ressource needed, you wouldn't need to create colonies on another planets.

As I was cornered by two agressive empires advantaged at start and both FE early on, I decided to play tall and protect whatever I already had. Ended up wiping the crisis in one go and am now waiting on rolfstomping Awakened Empires if they ever try something funny, which they won't because I've got three times their fleet... and that is after surviving the Synth Ascension glitch that render all your rulers useless for 10-20 years.

[cooltv27]

ring worlds are amazing as a hivemind cause I can focus all my energy and food production there and turn every planet into hive world mineral factories, use habitats as alloy and science centers, while using the extra building slots on mining worlds for special resources

[Sabaithal]

All valid points, but again, the costs of actually making a ringworld outweigh any benefits (to me, we all have our own opinions on this subject). Like some just said, energy can be produced by trade easily enough, and its not that big of a deal for non-machine empires. Ringworlds do also come with generator and agricultural districts if I recall. But there are no mining districts, and no other special bonuses.

Seriously, at this point making a planet into a Ecumenopolis is more useful to me than any ringworld is, and it costs much, much less. At least a Ecumenopolis comes with special districts for generating secondary resources like alloys and consumer goods. My argument is that in their current state, ringworlds do not provide enough usefullness to be worth building anymore. They are expensive late-game structures, and they need to have capabilities mirroring that. Yes, they are supposed to be a little OP, they cost tens of thousands of alloys to build, and you only get the tech to build them by acquiring 2 AP perks, and late-game research.

[cooltv27]

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

My argument is that in their current state, ringworlds do not provide enough usefullness to be worth building anymore.

I cant speak from a normal empires perspective, but as a hivemind they are amazing.

given the mining district restrictions that normal empires have to deal with you are probably right in those cases