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You do realize the number of water vaporator prefabs you could have bought for the amount of resources you spent to build that, right? Water deposits are a wasteful trap outside of maybe one just for emergencies; vaporators should be your go to and are the superior permanent solution.
Generally, barrel domes make for the best starting dome. You won't usually have a good spire to start so the lack of the spire slot doesn't matter, and the extra space in the dome will give you the room you need to get through the early game. Some commanders or sponsors, like Church, do start with a really good spire but you can play that by ear.
I usually build 2 barrels which is all I ever need for early game and will get my colony to around 100 colonists before I can research medium domes and move on to them. As for a general build path, your goal at the start is to get past the founder phase ASAP, which means breeding a child. So your initial 12 colonists should do nothing but man a standard service slice to get comfort as high as it can be to start. After that, I generally will build a couple ranches to secure a steady stream of food, mines to get metal and rares, and a initial set of small factories and a research lab. I partially specialize my two barrels to split the specialist types in the best way for service needs overlap and population balance.
After that, it's medium domes and building specialized domes, in the order of farming->manufacturing->research, with a child and senior dome in there as they become needed. Additional mining domes are built as I find good sites and my initial mines start running dry.
Vaporators are clearly superior only with that +100% breakthrough, otherwise it's not always a preferable choice.
Vaporators consume no machine parts at all.[survivingmars.paradoxwikis.com] None. They require only metal for upkeep, and require only metal and polymers to build. And early game you will be buying them as prefabs anyways, as they are a late game tech. Their upgrade is an early game tech, which costs a trivial amount of polymers for a 50% boost to output.
They are literally always the preferable choice.
That's to say, early difference is still massive: 5 power for 1/1.5 water or 5 power for 4-6 water ("very low" quality deposits should be avoided early).
Early power generation is nowhere near free, you're either paying substantial maintenance (metal is irrelevant, polymers/machine parts are not) or funding (for stirlings).
It'll cost more power to produce the MP[survivingmars.paradoxwikis.com] that extractor needs for maintenance than to run the vaporator itself, considering the flat power cost of the factory (50 power for 12 MP a Sol) as well as all of the additional costs of the colonists that run the factory.
No matter how you want to slice it, vaporators are cheaper to build and run than extractors. They also don't require you to build tunnels or large breakage-prone pipe networks to access water deposits, or hugely expensive to build and operate trains if you have that DLC.
You just won't admit you're wrong, will you? No matter how many patently incorrect things you say, you just keep digging in. You are ignoring, of course, that the cost to run the factory isn't JUST the flat power. You think the 15 engineers don't require food, services, housing? That those don't all come with additional maintenance and power costs?
Pointlessly inflating your MP needs while necessitating a huge pipe network is just stupid. Vaporators ALSO get a proportional bonus as your planetary water rating increases. They will literally always be the more efficient choice than water deposits.
No, that's not what you are saying. You're trying to move the goal posts now. You were saying that mining water deposits were the better choice. They are not, and never will be, and it's exceptionally bad advice to give to a new player.
Shifting your upkeep to MPs to run an expensive extractor still requires you to have those MPs, whether you produce them yourself or buy them.
Water sources will save you power, some metal, and the not insignificant import cost of vaporators. On a dust storm map, it will also save you water storage. Compare e.g. a water reclamation spire that will also "only" save you a few vaporators but is worth 3MP maintenance and more importantly 6 workplaces. So water depots do matter, even if I too would not pay the cost of a tunnel just to get one.
The machine part argument also does not really work for me since the 10 power needed for 2 vaporators also cost you a machine part in maintenance (or at least 0.5-0.66 with boni), in addition to the 4 metal.
Why don't we stop ranting at each other about who is right and wrong and do some maths on the subject.
A tunnel needs 30 machine parts. Each machine part import costs 18mil.
So on machine parts alone a tunnel costs 540 million. There is also the added cost of metals and concrete, and needing to build pipes and power in metals.
You also need some drones to work the extractor and build it etc so perhaps a dedicated RC rover for 300m or a drone hub for 150m.
So you're looking at around 690mil-840mil at the low end to set up some water excluding long term machine part maintenance and electronics for the hub. Lets say you get 4-6 water out of it.
Now to get if look at vaporators,
We'd need 3 with 6 polymers for the upgrade to get 4.5 water. Thats 684mil to import and upgrade them. If we want 6 water it will cost 912 million.
Both of these methods would require I think at least 2 supply pods or a dedicated cargo rocket so I'll discount that cost.
So for a single water source its abit of a wash in terms of the resource cost and I'd be tempted to say going vaporators makes the most sense, especially since tunnels can be hit by meteors and that is very painful. Long term aswell vaporators are much more cost effective.
It you can grab two water sources from a tunnel however, well, that can be interesting cost wise. Getting 8 water from a tunnel actually starts to be a pretty great deal. The short term boost of underground water is excellent and can really boost your colony early game by giving you some spare millions and power to use on other things.
So yeah, as with most things there is some nuance.
If you want water within range of your drone hub you should absolutely take it, they are highly efficient. If you need to tunnel to water consider a few options, a very low one isn't worth it, a low one probably isn't worth it for only 4 water compared to vaporators, anything higher or multiple sources can be provided you can take the risk of the tunnel being destroyed by a meteor.
Anyone feel free to disagree with my maths, but please explain why rather than saying 'duh, you're wrong'.
In my opening rocket I like to grab a couple of Sterling generators. I realize they are expensive but the quick reliable, maintenance free power is great, especially since you can boost your output in an emergency then close them again.
I always take a drone hub, fuel, 2 vaporators and a RC transport rover. I do not invest in an RC command yet and I send an RC explorer in a supply pod on Sol 1.
I scout of a good looking area and before I even land I plan out a few things such as where my first dome is going (always go Barrel Dome first unless you are Church and want the spire).
I place it down and plan where the drone hub will go to support this initial base so it can capture other resources such as concrete and water. (If I need to flatten terrain I won't place some objects but note where they are going.
Land the rocket and build.
The first priorities are to set up, explore and rapidly expand. I send a passenger rocket on day 1 aswell (assuming I have another rocket). Go for younger colonists, sexy if possible and try to get a fairly even ratio and male/female for breeding.
Build the drone hub asap, those extra few drones are great plus its gonna be the heart of drone operations for a while.
Then build concrete, don't be afraid to build 2 or 3 extractors on the same concrete resource, especially if its a lower grade, we want that dome up asap and I don't believe it has a negative efficiency cost long term, just make sure dust zones don't overlap.
Set up the water situation, either with your imported vaporators or a water source (save the vaporators for later if they aren't needed), then get some fuel going.
The RC transport is on metals duty, have it scavenge all the scattered metal across the map. It should keep all your metals needs in check for a long time.
I'd strong suggest building a sensor tower immediately and get scanning around your base.
Research order is also important. It might be tempting to rush apartments, they are resource and power intensive and not worth it.
I'd suggest focusing on the two techs that increase passive research, the one from sponsor research and the one from RC explorers, it should increase your daily science by 200 which can be a huge boost. Don't be afraid to throw down some outsourcing to get this initial boost.
After that the rocket fuel efficiency one is extremely useful, and the autonomous sensors can be really important. Once I get that I like to import a RC Commander and some extra electronics then place sensors all over the map. Normally about 8 to 10 of them, spread them out so you get good coverage and can scan much faster. They also give you a huge amount of extra warning for disasters which can be great. It also rapidly speeds up revealing the map.
I always prioritize the key anomalies, they are criminally underated. When you want to bee-line to a tech being able to skip useless ones because of the key revealing more is huge, especially early game. Get them. The other ones are also obviously good and a great breakthrough can be a game changer, but the faster you scan the faster you benefit.
Once your colonists arrive hopefully your dome and infrastructure for them is set up, you just need basic service buildings for them, don't worry about food, we just want them comfortable and breeding. For power, a bunch of solar panels and batteries are great, remember you can turn buildings off at night so things like concrete which is no longer urgent can be turned off at night to save power. A couple of batteries are worth the cost in polymers vs the machine parts cost of wind in my opinion.
Lastly, I say skip food altogether (I may get flak for this but I've mathematically proved its superior to farming in the past). Its an incredibly intense resource slog, it takes up a slice in your dome and a ton of water which in itself costs alot of money and resources, its also super inefficient early game. It also takes colonists to work it and we don't have that many to spare yet.
Instead, set up a trade pad and offer concrete in return for food.
The rivals will ignore you at first, I dunno if its a reputation thing or they need to be more 'set up' but I think between 10-20 sols they will start agreeing to trade.
This is so so so efficient because they send the rockets so no fuel costs, you just load up the concrete and get a ton of food in return, your surplus will be massive.
Concrete is also the easiest resource to have an abundance of, you won't miss it.
With all your extra water, power, colonists, money etc you can dedicate them to something else, like science which can turbo charge your colony as everyone is way more efficient.
With this strat its fairly trivially to get the Mohole mine around sol 50-60 on most sponsors.
But once this set up is done just focus on growth and sustainability, don't necessarily rush to get a machine parts factory. Control your maintenance and you won't need it urgently.
Anyway, lots of strats and advice I think for you to ponder, good luck.