How to earn money

[Tman]

I'm constantly broke. I'm so broke, I visit planets that I've already explored to raid the coins that accumulate. I followed the beginner's guide here & build a trade center on each of my starting planets, but my rate of making basic rations is pretty low.

I'm slowly building up to where I just built my first hotel .... but was perplexed when I have to have a reception to only have one bed. I have yet to build a visitor center, which I was going to do once I have the hotel and some souveneirs, but damn if this isn't going at a glacial pace.

Any advice?

[Tman]

Well, I restarted and didn't follow the beginner guide here after watching a good video by Sidani here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_VNdBV2v00&list=PLRdMlhWlpRwbDcZnZ1kkrGWvTJauXiFZC&index=4

She rushed for star maps and plain clothes and only builds the distribution center thingy on one or two planets max for each product type. One thing she did which I hadn't caught is that the location is very important - as you move it around, it shows you the % increase you'll get in demand. So this can be used to get as much as you can on a planet.

So I'm doing OK, selling star maps & plain clothes right now. It's a very slow and methodical grow out, with new recruits costing > $1,400 right now, I would really like to add several more to start doing touristy things, but no way the staff I have right now could handle it. I'm barely making enough basics just for my officers not to mention what tourists would want.

Trade is very tedious and manual. With only 2 ships right now, it's a lot of manual editing of flights / stopping pickups and selling Maps or Clothes to get needed cash. Because of that, I try to get a decent amount of stock on hand before implementing it, but bank account dries up pretty quick.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Tman:

Well, I restarted and didn't follow the beginner guide here after watching a good video by Sidani here:

Cool, will take a look at that! (I probably need to. ;))

TLDR at the bottom for a possible "early game" economic strat. Correct me if you think I've missed the mark, there, as i'm just now returning to the game. :) It's long, but I think it covers some good "basics" for the first few hours of play.

..Trade is very tedious and manual. With only 2 ships right now, it's a lot of manual editing of flights / stopping pickups and selling Maps or Clothes to get needed cash. Because of that, I try to get a decent amount of stock on hand before implementing it, but bank account dries up pretty quick.

I just returned to the game yesterday and put quite a few hours into it. I, too, noticed that the initial "economy curve" is very steep in terms of getting one's economy off the ground and actually functioning.

It's an "Economic Race" to see if you can get your economy up to the point where it can sustain the growth you need in order to produce/build the "next tier" of Economy, mainly the "Visitor" areas and saleable items/services there that enables a truly passive economy that doesn't require one's constant intervention.

It's... rough going. :) At least compared to some other games that have similar mechanics, that is. There's a hurdle there that you have to sort of prepare for. I had to restart my playthrough, which is usually unheard of for me in these sorts of games, in order to better prepare for that hurdle. And, I'm still not quite there yet in being able to understand and plan for where the break-points are in terms of making on-demand money to support the building of a passive economic system that will "run itself." At that point, if I can successfully get the initial Visitor economy segment going, then I can focus on fine-tuning gameplay without having to rush a tradeship out to sell "Basic Meals."

I, too, started with selling Basic Meals and it's not too bad, but it is starting to put a strain on supply, which is worrying as I am not quite sure I've gotten over the hurdle, yet. I am about to start living "hand to mouth" in terms of economy and I can't readily see that getting relieved very quickly. I have to build the Visitor stuff, yet I have to support it and that means having the cash to build "everything that supports it." I think it's going to be a "build it block by block as I send out tradeships with meals/other to sell.

One thing that makes it very difficult to adjust "on the fly" is the Delivery Station mechanic. AFAIK, in order to change to a different trade good, I have to send a team back out to change that Delivery Station to another trade-good. And, there can only be one of these on a planet. (Yes?)

It's a pretty steep curve at the beginning. I guess that's why there's that "inspection" event where you can get a nice influx of cash in the early game if you're successful?

Just from my play yesterday, I think one needs to work on producing Meals in the Early game and setting up the Delivery Stations on the first couple of Human planets to sell those. "Just in case" one needs a quick influx of cash. It won't be much, about 2500 credits, but you've got to produce Basic Meals anyway and can generally produce enough to keep ahead of one's own demand curve.

After that, it's likely hoarding one's credits until one can start selling a non-meal product that's equitable to produce, like Clothing, Maps, etc.

One thing to keep in mind is that, at least as far as I've seen, you can only sell just so much Basic Meals to a planet before the price drops a little bit, but you really only need a couple of planets to sell Basic Meals to. It's unlikely you can sell shiploads (I use the 70 Cargo one for sale deliveries) of Basic Meals to multiple planets in the "Early Game." So... why build Dispensers for them on all the Human planets? That's the mistake I made in my current, second, attempted start. It's not a permanent mistake, I hope... I assume I can change those dispensers to something else. :)

As it stands, I can't see anything as profitable or fitting to sell to the other race in the system right now. So, it appears I'm "locked in" to selling to Humans until I get the Visitor's area built up a bit and get some passive income going with that.

Note: It's possible to get overly focused on producing Basic Meals, pushing the promotion of "too many Chefs" and neglecting the other Disciplines you really, really, need to produce the other early items like Clothing/Maps, etc..

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The Actual TLDR Portion :): An Early Game strategy, from my limited experience yesterday: For your consideration. :)

At first, only send out one ship with an armed Spatial and a healing Spatial to Explore planets and set up Extractors. Visit as many as you can with that one ship. (The large cargo one, since they will fill it up with gathered loot.) Loot as much as you can, kill all the hostiles for experience/loot, set up as many extractors as you can. Focus first on Fruit and Water. Keep the other ship, and its crew, at the base to help out with building/crafting.

Built two Basic Meal Trade Dispeners on Human Planets. (Preferably while you're Exploring them.) Don't build any others until you can produce a different product to sell, like Clothing/Maps and can support the same level of production. It's not likely you'll produce enough Basic Meals at this stage to supply more than those two Basic Meal Trade Dispensers on those Human planets.

Build Recruitment Centers everywhere. There's no reason why you shouldn't unless you're very low on funds. Getting a nice long list of potential hires increases the chance you'll get a particularly good one. (I don't know if there are other mechanics that increase that chance.)

Focus your very Early Game production efforts on sustaining Basic Meal and Filtered Water production and selling your overages of Basic Meals to those two planets.

As soon as possible, as soon as you've built your first Storage area, Kitchen, Canteen and Barracks, build a Research room and put in a couple of Research Tables. Get the best Researchers you have dedicated to doing Research. Two tables is enough to start with with dedicated Researchers. Three, later, once your population is up and basic base-building is done for now.

By the time you've reached this point, you should have already set up your cargo ship to Autopilot to all the planets you have Resource Gatherers on. Reduce the crew of that ship to one Spatial. That particular Spatial is going to end up becoming a Diplomat, most likely. If you need more Diplomats for some reason, you can dump them in that cargo ship. Consider it a "training ground" for Diplomats, I guess?

Once you have Basic Meal, Filtered Water, and Research covered, build a second Barracks. Use nice floor tiles as this will be your second tier Officer's Quarters. You'll need this once you start promoting Redshirts into their Specialties. (Science officers, etc..)

Promote Science Officers to cover Basic Meal production and Research. Don't promote more than you need to fill those specific slots.

Don't promote too many Science Officers if that means you're promoting a Spatial that could easily get promoted soon into the Disciplines that Clothing/Maps (or Pharmacy or whatever other item you've chosen as your "next stage sale item.") needs for production. That "next stage" in production will be critical as you start increasing the number of Officers/crew/Spatials.

Your other, smaller, ship will be reserved for whatever exploration you yet need to do and resource gatherers you need to set up to get the rest of the planets covered in your starting system. You won't need more than two crew, one DPS, one Healing, on that ship, but having three, with two of them being DPS, really speeds up things in terms of killing hostiles. Do that if you can. You will want to get a Combat Specialist out of one of those DPS and it's easy to do if you wait before adding that third crewmember. Use this second ship to send Trade goods out when they're sold, reducing the crew to one once you've visited all the planets. Don't interrupt your Cargo (gathering ship) for expediting Trade. You'll sell less at one time, but it's not likely you've got that much to sell yet.

Jobs/Work Priority/Getting Specialists -

Getting a Science Officer is easy as you'll have a number of Spatials working hard on making Basic Meals/Filtered Water. It is literally a "no brainer" to get Science Officers. Do Not Promote Too Many Science Officers in the Early Game! Instead, build other crafting machines as you can and as you get the raw materials to support. Look at the Crafting Station's Specialist required to operate the station and micromanage that production in your Jobs list to assign the Spatial you want to fill a specific Speciality, preferably the one that serves to operate the crafting benches needed for your next tier of trade product.

Prioritize Specialist's Job/Work as you can. While it's easy to just leave Redshirts to their own devices, they are going to be "stealing" experience from possible Specialists... Sure, you can leave everything basically RNG, except for the one's you've already promoted, but that's not the smart move. It's tedious, but you really need to get specific Spatials assigned to specific Jobs and crafting stations to max out their experience for specific promotion to the Specialties you need to get to increase production in that second tier of products (Clothing, Maps, maybe even non-human items like Pills/Mead/Whatever...). Once you've got enough Science Officers working Basic Meal/Filtered Water/Research production, you really need to start a few Redshirts down important soon-to-be-needed Crafting Specialties. Keep some generalists/Redshirts for mundane tasks, though. You need "filler."

Note: Focus on getting at least one Specialist in each of the Disciplines (second tier of promotions) while still having Science Officers working your Basic Meal production and Filtered Water. Don't "overpromote" any specialists as they will require increased wages. You should time their promotion with the ability for them to work the crafting items to produce the goods needed to be sold to pay for their wages. :)

New Hires - So far, I haven't found too much of a strain introduced by New Hires in the Early Game. You want them, but need to be able to house them and feed them. That shouldn't be too much of an issue, but it takes some balancing. As you start promoting Officers into their beginning Specialty, you'll move them over to that newly built Officer's Barracks with +5/whatever appeal, yet still just with Basic Beds. That will free up a slot in your Redshirt Barracks. Fill that as you can afford to as one of your most important resources is your Officers. Look at them as a resource you need to add Food/Water to in order to produce "work." :)

Master Quarters - Don't. Don't push that in the Early Game until you can support it. It's expensive to pay wages for and expensive to build the facilities for. If you must, a "Chef" is a decent choice as you can still sell Basic Meals, but wait on promoting anyone else to that level until you have the second trade tier of items set up and profitable. One Chef is plenty in the Early Game and it's not likely you'll enjoy supporting them... May be best to wait until after Visitor facilities and products are ready, to be honest.

On Visitors - By far, this is the best way to min/max your potential as it is relatively "passive." (Later, much more expensive products for Trade can be produced, but you'll need additional ships by that time, too.) You don't have to do anything other than "make stuff" and support the Visitor's facilities to start making money from them. Basically... you don't really have to leave the Home Base view to make money and that's a good thing. But, getting that facility up and running is expensive. Do not waste resources building it up until you have Researched the basic capability and have researched items to sell there. You also may want to wait until you have Security Doors that Visitors can't use, to prevent them from mucking around in your own Officer's quarters. (I'm still working on pushing Visitors and playing through that bit.)

[nephilimnexus]

Powerdrive straight for tourism. Specifically, hotels. You can add stuff to sell them later but get a hotel built and a visitor port to serve is ASAP. That will offset all of your basic upkeep expenses right there, allowing you a moment to actually plan your next step.