How do you deal with Consumer goods minerals penalty?

[T`Zarken]

in my current game I have 10 worlds and have been trying to keep expanding as quickly as possable so the AI empires dont take them all.... but now I have a mineral income of -1 with a customer goods cost of 68 and ship maintence of 2.5..... all the surrounding empires are Overwhelming fleet power and while im aware they cheat ... this is bull crap.

So.... how do you sucessfully expand in a 25 empire 1000 star 4 arm galaxy map? do I need to get every space mineral node mined before expanding? do I need to continually unsector micro manage planets?

[galadon3]

You haven't even seen the real problem with the consumer goods.
The price per unit doesn't scale with galaxy-size or number of habitable planets.
Its just a base-price of 0.5 +0.01 for every planet after the first, with no upper limit.

[jacobellinger]

You need to get the middle top acention tree. Eventually you can get gene modding as well and then add traits to your race that lower it even more. Other then this you are forced to build mines.

[T`Zarken]

ok, so just have to "deal with it" and "make it work" early game till gene tailoring and 3rd civic are available..... and enemy fleet power? just try not to provoke anyone till you have a real economy and battleships? (unless you can box in an empire or two early game)

[T`Zarken]

I have fixed my problem somewhat with now + 40 mineral income... its just distressing getting offered to be a protectorate or tributeary.

[TSP]

An alternative is lowering their living standards or have tributiaries. But yes, species traits, civics, ethos and traditions are really great at lowering these costs.

[Sky]

Well, the first and forthmost part is to ensure you have a stable mineral income. Abuse your planets, mine the everliving hell out of them, Habitats built with nothing but mines and energy. All that good stuff.

And, as others have said before me, Species traits, Certain civics, ethos, and Traditions will drop your mineral consumer costs.

Now...im not sure if this is the same as vanilla because i mod all the things in stellaris.
But...heres what you can do to make sure your people consume as little as possible yet still be as happy as can be.

Egaltaritism reduces on consumer costs, especially fanatical ones.
The species trait of Conservatism also reduces consumer costs.
The civic trait of enviromentalism reduces on that even more.

Then...the Harmony tradition tree.
Add on "the greater good" part. Adds in 10% more happiness to all your populations which means...
You can set your living conditions to impovished conditions. And still retain happy happy levels.

Fully build out the tree, and your population has a 20% consumer mineral cost reduction. Again.

There you go.
You have ensured that your people can survive on nothing but the air they breathe and the sweat off their backs.
And still smile.

[T`Zarken]

Originally posted by Synoptica:

Well, the first and forthmost part is to ensure you have a stable mineral income. Abuse your planets, mine the everliving hell out of them, Habitats built with nothing but mines and energy. All that good stuff.

And, as others have said before me, Species traits, Certain civics, ethos, and Traditions will drop your mineral consumer costs.

Now...im not sure if this is the same as vanilla because i mod all the things in stellaris.
But...heres what you can do to make sure your people consume as little as possible yet still be as happy as can be.

Egaltaritism reduces on consumer costs, especially fanatical ones.
The species trait of Conservatism also reduces consumer costs.
The civic trait of enviromentalism reduces on that even more.

Then...the Harmony tradition tree.
Add on "the greater good" part. Adds in 10% more happiness to all your populations which means...
You can set your living conditions to impovished conditions. And still retain happy happy levels.

Fully build out the tree, and your population has a 20% consumer mineral cost reduction. Again.

There you go.
You have ensured that your people can survive on nothing but the air they breathe and the sweat off their backs.
And still smile.

I used the +20% consumer goods use trait so i could get +20% habitability and something else.

Once I get to Habitats I do ok and when i get to Dyson Spheres and Ringworlds im golden.... the problem for me is just the beginning and surviving till the high end stuff is available.... it seems only recently ive had this problem.

I will try abusing and enslaving my populations though.

How do you manage your first 10 worlds? sector and balanced or put in 2 sectors and fiddle for ideal energy credit to mineral output ratio? Need pro tips please.

[Lady Crimson (RIP)]

Well.. I do mine every space node actually.. mostly out of habit.. not sure if it's required but certainly it is a good thing to do early game.

[Lady Crimson (RIP)]

If you are having serious mineral problems however.. there are several ways around: Materialists can focus on machines for pops.. xenophobes and collectivists can have slave populations for higher minerals and less consumer cost.. and egalitarians get reduced costs ( which I think can stack).

Generally, as a rule of thumb I tend to have my people at least semi-impoverished from the very beginning.. though I may improve this depending on happiness once factions are introduced or similar factors.

[Sky]

Originally posted by T`Zarken:

I used the +20% consumer goods use trait so i could get +20% habitability and something else.

Once I get to Habitats I do ok and when i get to Dyson Spheres and Ringworlds im golden.... the problem for me is just the beginning and surviving till the high end stuff is available.... it seems only recently ive had this problem.

I will try abusing and enslaving my populations though.

How do you manage your first 10 worlds? sector and balanced or put in 2 sectors and fiddle for ideal energy credit to mineral output ratio? Need pro tips please.

If you ask me, habitability isn't really on my radar when I conquer a species that naturally lives on said planets. But whatever floats your genocidal boats.
Oh. I don't enslave and abuse my pops, thats for the Authoritarians. Im a materialist.


How do I manage my first 10 worlds?
well...
- I set my sectors to Industry focus and ensure that they don't give me anything as a tax. when you start a sector off, You want to make sure that EVERYTHING they make is put into their growth.
- give that sector a couple hundred minerals and occasionally check back every so often to make sure they aren't going in the red.
- When you feel like the sector is now up to operational standards, you can start taxing at a quarter or half.
- Always try to make sure that your planets are set in one single sector rather than multiple because once the planets are fully developed (Or as developed as best as the AI does...) they usually act as supporting caretakers for those planets that have been recently colonized.
But still, always check to see if their mineral and energy income are dropping in the negatives. Once they reach that threshold, those sectors go into a coma. Never developing unless you economically stimulate them.

I suppose the key is to make sure that your first 4 or 6 worlds are able to sustain your expansionistic goals. because after those starter worlds are made, you aren't going to make much back from those planets in those sectors.
Rapidly expanding can be a problem when your economic foundations are in a newborn state.
Don't worry about your Empire size too much in early game. Focus on economic and Scientific stimulation and feeding your fleet sizes, once your fleet is a good size, usually you can start being agressive and taking what you need.
Of course, don't completely neglect expansion either. Try to find a healthy balance.

[Yama]

Fanatic Egalitarian, Environmentalist Civic, Conservative Trait, Full Harmony Traditions.
75% Decrease :^) Easy Utopian Abundance
(Max Possible is 90% decrease so I guess if you slap synthetic on top of that or if you're in a defensive war then yeet.)

[Hugh]

Just lower living conditions and focus your planets on mineral production, also reform your government to get civic traits that either lower consumer goods cost or increase minerals production. That will sole your program.
Then later do the gene modeling stuff.