Orbital Ring strategies?

[Sedmeister]

Just wondering what people are doing with Orbital rings? In my home system, I did shipyards. Everywhere else I did gun batteries. Wondering if that's the best use of the new structures?

[Tactical Drongo]

The interesting part about the rings is not the space station stuff, its the special ring buildings at tier 2 and 3
well, that again should be rather easy depending on the planet you want to upgrade with them

[Sedmeister]

Originally posted by Tactical Drongo:

The interesting part about the rings is not the space station stuff, its the special ring buildings at tier 2 and 3
well, that again should be rather easy depending on the planet you want to upgrade with them

Yeah I'm interested in how they work. For example do the mining related buildings only become options if you have mining sector in the planet (like options on habitats being dependent on the kind of stellar body you build them next to) or are all the options available regardless? Also are the building options on rings unlocked by the ring tech itself and then levels or do other techs unlock different kinds of buildings?

And as per the OP, how do you use them?

[jordanleemn]

My question would be are they worth more than the habitat they replace?

[tiavals]

Originally posted by jordanleemn:

My question would be are they worth more than the habitat they replace?

If you get them early, yes. Habitats need pops to function properly(although having a habitat leads to pop growth).

On the other hand orbital rings give relatively massive boosts to already existing infrastructure(though you MUST specialize your planets to benefit). For instance, having a planet with only Industrial or Mining or such districts, and popping an Orbital Ring over it can give you +2 to Alloys/Minerals per worker. This is great because the % bonuses modify these things, which makes it very powerful, rather than if it just gave a 30% bonus when you already have 200% to everything.

Of course, if you haven't min-maxed the planet so you have a few districts then it's not worth it at all. But if you've done a good job with the specialization, it's really nice.

The main difference is sort of that the orbital ring gives you a big boost to your economy right away, while the habitat does so later once it's grown up in pops etc.

In short: Make orbital rings around big, already specialized planets(or re-tool the planet to produce only one kind of resource).

However, you do need extra technology to actually unlock the Orbital Ring Buildings, and if you haven't researched those then your options are very limited. So you might not get what you want/need right away if you're unlucky.

Math example:
-
You have 30 pop making minerals and have a +100% bonus to mineral stuff. The +2 minerals per worker building will give you an extra 120 minerals. (each pop makes 2 more, so 60 more, and the extra 100% from techs/traits makes it 120)

For alloys you'll get less since alloy % bonuses are far more rare, but alloys are of course much more valuable, so it's also a good deal. (may have been just +1 alloys per worker, can't remember)

Comparatively, on a habitat, to get 120 minerals, you'll need to have it over a mineral deposit to get mining districts, then have 10 miners plus a level 2 mineral processor(since normally you get 4 minerals per miner, which the mineral processor brings to 6 per miner, and if you have the same 100% bonus(unlikely since habitats have poor habitability etc), you'd get 12 minerals per miner and thus 10 guys makes 120 minerals).

In other words(for this example), comparatively the orbital ring mining building does the job of 10 miners on a habitat if you have 30 miners to begin with.

Getting a habitat to 10 pop takes quite a bit of time, so the Orbital Ring definitely gives you a lot of stuff very quickly(though building and upgrade it does take time, of course).

(Additionally, making the orbital ring over a high stability planet will likely give you even more stuff, etc. So it's pretty good for how early you get it, IF you know how to design your planets properly. Building an orbital ring over a small or poorly designed planet is WAY worse than a habitat, though)

[Half Phased]

Habitation modules. Generally a planet is restricted in the districts it has available so 4 more districts is great.

And buildings to support the planet specialization.

[Sedmeister]

Both the above responses were helpful, thankyou.

Does ring tech pop up earlier than habitat tech? It's been the case in all my playthroughs thus far.

[Taco]

Originally posted by Sedmeister:

Both the above responses were helpful, thankyou.

Does ring tech pop up earlier than habitat tech? It's been the case in all my playthroughs thus far.

They seem to pop up around the same time generally. I'd say generally the rings are stronger to have than a habitat.

[mike]

Habitats are like planets - you have to manage the number of buildings, residences, jobs, happiness, amenities, etc.
Orbital rings don't have their own pops, so they are easier to manage.

[Seraphiel]

I only ever use habitation modules (extra districts are amazing) and the buildings that boost planetary resource production (you can get some insane resource production particularly on an ecumenopolis).

Doing anything else is a massive waste.

No point using shipyards (once you've got a Mega Shipyard there's not much point using anything else). Gun batteries can be good (mostly early - mid game) but chances are they're just going to get wrecked by a big fleet and be useless late game.