Facility to generate a passive income of resources?

[Sticky Wicket]

I am new to this game and loving it so far

I am beginning to run low on Tech and Materials and can foresee that this is going to start creating problems for me soon unless I find a way to generate some.

I have had only 1 scavenge mission so far (out of searching about 20+ sites) but it did not give that many crates of stuff. Am I just unlucky? I have a ton load of food, but nowhere wants to trade resources for food.

Is there a facility (like a mine or processing plant) I can research that will generate a passive income of raw materials? Tech+materials? If so how do I get the research to make these?

[Artek [General]]

The only 2 resources that can be passively generated are FOOD and MUTAGENS.
Fungal Farms and Mutation Lab Facility, respectively. Both are Disciples of Anu tech, i believe.
Later on you can also capture live pandorans and turn them into both of those as well, although New Jericho will have some things to say about it.

TECH and MATERIALS can only be acquired through outside means.
Primarily - missions.

• Defending any Haven from any attack will earn you some, as Havens always pay for saving them.
  
• Scavenging missions, as you already noticed. Those missions on average contain about 200-300 of various resources and i think it can go higher.
  Piece of advice: Vehicles with dedicated min-maxed scavenger operatives are the best way to deal with those without taking too much risk.
  
• Advanced pandoran hives (not Nests) will often contain loot crates similar to those you find in Scavenging missions. They don't contain as much, but its something, although they are often harder to steal as your soldiers are too busy actually surviving the mission.

Another option is getting them from Factions by either Stealing or Trading them, depending on how you wanna do this.
Stealing will not only provide a decent bunch of those resources, but will train your soldiers as well. Of course it also means your soldiers will run a risk of dying, as Faction soldiers can be infamously difficult depending on their composition and weapons available.
Trading is a stable, reliable and peaceful way of acquiring resources. Most havens produce at least 1 resource and can produce up to 2, taking whatever they can't produce as payment. You can tell by little icons next to them.
Havens that produce both Tech and Materials are essentially gold mines - keep an eye for those and put some extra effort into defending them, if you can.
Havens will restock their supplies every day or so, but i never managed to figure out the precise timing.
While there are varying exchange rates - there is no such thing as a bad trade. As long as you have a resource to spare - its always a good call to trade it for something else, then once you realize you traded too much of X for too much of Y - now you can start trading away Y for something else and you will always gain from these transactions.

[Spotter]

Originally posted by Artek General:

The only 2 resources that can be passively generated are FOOD and MUTAGENS.
Fungal Farms and Mutation Lab Facility, respectively. Both are Disciples of Anu tech, i believe.
Later on you can also capture live pandorans and turn them into both of those as well, although New Jericho will have some things to say about it.

TECH and MATERIALS can only be acquired through outside means.
Primarily - missions.

• Defending any Haven from any attack will earn you some, as Havens always pay for saving them.
  
• Scavenging missions, as you already noticed. Those missions on average contain about 200-300 of various resources and i think it can go higher.
  Piece of advice: Vehicles with dedicated min-maxed scavenger operatives are the best way to deal with those without taking too much risk.
  
• Advanced pandoran hives (not Nests) will often contain loot crates similar to those you find in Scavenging missions. They don't contain as much, but its something, although they are often harder to steal as your soldiers are too busy actually surviving the mission.

...

That MUTAGEN LAB also makes resources for the Mined Resources, so you can make PROTOCIVILIZATION Weapons

[AurumHawke]

Originally posted by Artek General:

Havens will restock their supplies every day or so, but i never managed to figure out the precise timing.

There seems to be a timeframe during "daytime" where the havens are active and will repeatedly reset their stock every few hours or so.
Looks related to the Attack/Mission schedules so your squads can trade while they're waiting for missions (just don't get too far out-of-position).

Originally posted by Artek General:

While there are varying exchange rates - there is no such thing as a bad trade. As long as you have a resource to spare - its always a good call to trade it for something else, then once you realize you traded too much of X for too much of Y - now you can start trading away Y for something else and you will always gain from these transactions.

Given some of your Tech will be sourced from NJ or Anu at 9:2 or 10:2 (2:10 and 2:12), Synedrion 2:9 Tech -> Materials/Food is a bad trade; it also means you can't buy Tech at Synedrion's 8:2 rate.
Materials <-> Food is always 4:5 or 4:6.

If you -need- those specific resources, then use that trade. But if you're doing Trade, you simply won't need it.

[Sticky Wicket]

Thanks for the replies but obviously not what I was hoping for. Defence missions, trading and trying to rely on random event/missions that might give some materials up is just not reliable enough.

Searching the workshop for a solution, I think this is what I'm looking for...glad someone else is thinking along the same lines. IMO this needs to be in the base game.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3157610942

Posting the link for anyone else that is interested.

~~~~

Again, thanks for the input guys

[Artek [General]]

Originally posted by Sticky Wicket:

Thanks for the replies but obviously not what I was hoping for. Defence missions, trading and trying to rely on random event/missions that might give some materials up is just not reliable enough.

Never caused any issues for me. You just have to realize that scavenging missions require your full commitment and GG. I kinda skipped them / wasn't giving my all for them escaping as soon as heat was getting too hot, and yet still made it to the end. Wasn't doing much trading either.

In consequent playthroughs i learned to abuse Vehicles for scavenging to the point that it becomes a highlight of the campaign - i just laugh and smile the entire way as my squad of dedicated looters flawlessly clear the map and escape with a jackpot, while i make jokes about them funding the entire operation.

Defense missions ARE a reliable supply too. They will never stop. Even when you build a satellite in every base - some pandoran hive will always hide just outside of their reach, assaulting havens all the same from a safe, undetectable distance. Its like the 2nd most important thing you're supposed to do after actually clearing said hives, which you can't even detect until you defend a haven from them.

[Sticky Wicket]

Originally posted by Artek General:

Originally posted by Sticky Wicket:

Thanks for the replies but obviously not what I was hoping for. Defence missions, trading and trying to rely on random event/missions that might give some materials up is just not reliable enough.

Never caused any issues for me. You just have to realize that scavenging missions require your full commitment and GG. I kinda skipped them / wasn't giving my all for them escaping as soon as heat was getting too hot, and yet still made it to the end. Wasn't doing much trading either.

In consequent playthroughs i learned to abuse Vehicles for scavenging to the point that it becomes a highlight of the campaign - i just laugh and smile the entire way as my squad of dedicated looters flawlessly clear the map and escape with a jackpot, while i make jokes about them funding the entire operation.

Defense missions ARE a reliable supply too. They will never stop. Even when you build a satellite in every base - some pandoran hive will always hide just outside of their reach, assaulting havens all the same from a safe, undetectable distance. Its like the 2nd most important thing you're supposed to do after actually clearing said hives, which you can't even detect until you defend a haven from them.

As said before I have only had 1 scavenge mission so far (and infact I looted every single crate) but It didn't give that much in resources. Perhaps if there were a steady flow of them then I might be in a different situation and think differently, but because scavenge missions appear randomly you can end up being unlucky and get almost none.

I have done every defence mission available but it is not providing enough resources. I really need to build a second transport ship but I have been trying to do that for ages...just do not have enough materials. Replenishing ammo/building new facilities/making better armour and weapons is just way too costly imo and stifles growth and expansion.

[mergele]

If you are playing vanilla trading is the thing that breaks the economy. massive profits that endlessly repeat.

[Artek [General]]

Originally posted by Sticky Wicket:

As said before I have only had 1 scavenge mission so far (and infact I looted every single crate) but It didn't give that much in resources. Perhaps if there were a steady flow of them then I might be in a different situation and think differently, but because scavenge missions appear randomly you can end up being unlucky and get almost none.

I have done every defence mission available but it is not providing enough resources. I really need to build a second transport ship but I have been trying to do that for ages...just do not have enough materials. Replenishing ammo/building new facilities/making better armour and weapons is just way too costly imo and stifles growth and expansion.

Yeah, the game is a bit slow at the start. I too have trouble imagining how to build a 2nd plane quick while also building gear, acquiring new soldiers... Which is why the meta choice around here is to just steal one from somebody. Just one, its a game changer.

All of that is also why quick and thorough exploration is top priority in early game - finding more havens means more defense missions, and random world events can provide decent chunks as well. Whenever you find any scientists looking into something - helping them will usually yield +TECH, while options to dismantle / salvage things usually provide +MATERIALS. The story missions also often provide decent resources too, so its basically a race to get done as much as possible.

[Sticky Wicket]

Originally posted by Artek General:

Originally posted by Sticky Wicket:

As said before I have only had 1 scavenge mission so far (and infact I looted every single crate) but It didn't give that much in resources. Perhaps if there were a steady flow of them then I might be in a different situation and think differently, but because scavenge missions appear randomly you can end up being unlucky and get almost none.

I have done every defence mission available but it is not providing enough resources. I really need to build a second transport ship but I have been trying to do that for ages...just do not have enough materials. Replenishing ammo/building new facilities/making better armour and weapons is just way too costly imo and stifles growth and expansion.

Yeah, the game is a bit slow at the start. I too have trouble imagining how to build a 2nd plane quick while also building gear, acquiring new soldiers... Which is why the meta choice around here is to just steal one from somebody. Just one, its a game changer.

All of that is also why quick and thorough exploration is top priority in early game - finding more havens means more defense missions, and random world events can provide decent chunks as well. Whenever you find any scientists looking into something - helping them will usually yield +TECH, while options to dismantle / salvage things usually provide +MATERIALS. The story missions also often provide decent resources too, so its basically a race to get done as much as possible.

I don't want to steal anything because I don't want to play like that.

I have searched extensively and have found something like 30 sites and have scanned nearly 1/3 of the globe but income of resources is just way too slow.

In fact I realise now I should have installed this mod far earlier cause my troops are facing impossible battles now (enemies way too tough for my squad now ~ tried to do a defence mission and was severely outclassed). I realise that lack of resources has severely sabotaged my progress for a long time. I new that things were simply not progressing as well as they should have.

My only option is start a new game with this mod installed right from the start. It seems like the Kaos engines DLC does not initiate anyway in a game in progress also.

[Artek [General]]

Originally posted by Sticky Wicket:

I don't want to steal anything because I don't want to play like that.

I have searched extensively and have found something like 30 sites and have scanned nearly 1/3 of the globe but income of resources is just way too slow.

In fact I realise now I should have installed this mod far earlier cause my troops are facing impossible battles now (enemies way too tough for my squad now ~ tried to do a defence mission and was severely outclassed). I realise that lack of resources has severely sabotaged my progress for a long time. I new that things were simply not progressing as well as they should have.

My only option is start a new game with this mod installed right from the start. It seems like the Kaos engines DLC does not initiate anyway in a game in progress also.

Being outmatched by pandorans is more or less normal. They will have a couple of major jumps in evolution that will greatly increase their combat potential. I'm genuinely curious which one you refer to...

You, however, do not get such a jump, not really. Most of the new gear unlocked is not that much stronger than whatever you are already using, usually providing marginal improvements or tactical utility for specific situations. Your main source of power are capital "E" Experienced soldiers. A squad of x8 Level 7 soldiers with cross-classing enabled can brute force essentially every mission in the game on all but highest difficulty.

[Bobucles]

In terms of resource generation, base facilities don't really cut it. The investment is too high(okay it's not that expensive), the payout is too slow.

Trade, now that's the big money maker. Vanilla trade is almost universally profitable, with anu/NJ/syn giving extra good deals on their food/mats/tech. Get more aircraft flying around, more planes means more chances to trade.

TFTV reverses trade, making it generally a money loss. It's still decent to collect pandorans and turn the food surplus into something.

[wendigo211]

Don't forget you can get some resources from scrapping gear you've acquired. It's not as much as you spend making it, but it adds up. Particularly if you're running a lot of missions against humans, although the Pandoran Tritons sometimes drop weapons you can loot. It probably won't help you early game, but mid to late game it can be significant.

[Sticky Wicket]

I'm happy with the Mod it feels right for facilities to passively generate resources. It seems purely random whether you get enough tech and materials (down to how many defence missions/scavenge missions etc you get). This mod seems to be the only way to guarantee a steady flow of raw materials to be able to expand and build needed stuff.

[Voland]

Originally posted by Bobucles:

TFTV reverses trade, making it generally a money loss.

TFTV (and, specifically, Equalize Trade option) does not reverse the trade and doesn't make it a money loss, generally or otherwise :)

Equalize Trade sets a fixed rate of exchange of 1:1 for Food:Materials and 1:4 for Tech: Materiales/Food in all havens. You can't make or lose money from it.

In other words, it simply removes Vanilla arbitration trade, where buying and selling nearly always gives a profit, making it optimal to keep an empty trade fleet constantly travelling between havens, buying and selling.