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[Megas]

I agree with Agile.  Low profile colony is a ticking time bomb that will eventually become too big (by about size 5), even if you do everything to *** growth short of removing Spaceport.  At first, pirates will raid, and the colony needs an orbital station and patrol hq immediately just to have a chance to defend it without constant babysitting.  Mining will attract Tri-Tachyon eventually.  Farming, is safe at first, but even that will attract majors eventually.

[Plantissue]

Sometimes people exaggerate, but it's because we love this game and want to see it as its best potential. Probably. In my case I have no problem just leaving my patrols in my system of 5+ colonies to deal with attacks. I am just bothered that those colonies are getting invaded my major powers it's -5 Rep for their failure, yet when I do the same it's -50 rep, Hostile!

That's because you probs attacked with transponder on lol.

By all accounts, the invasions seem to have their transponder on. You even get advance warning how strong it is likely to be, and the world it is being launched from. It is war in all but name and should be treated as such, not some unknown pirate attack by mystery raiders from space unknown.

[Tackywheat1]

I agree with Agile.  Low profile colony is a ticking time bomb that will eventually become too big (by about size 5), even if you do everything to *** growth short of removing Spaceport.  At first, pirates will raid, and the colony needs an orbital station and patrol hq immediately just to have a chance to defend it without constant babysitting.  Mining will attract Tri-Tachyon eventually.  Farming, is safe at first, but even that will attract majors eventually.

Oddly enough, farming was the industry that attracted tri-tachyon for my size 6 colony, not mining.

[Locklave]

Thanks for the input... I still want to try it, once I figure out how to make a lot more money, as bounties got somehow ridiculously OP for my fleet after a few of them.

Right now I am at a spot where I hav a decent fleet. I pay 30k credits per month for crew and captains and I have around 350k on my account. As supplies keep eating into my earning I am afraid to even touch that money for new ships till I have at least 500k - 1 bill.

So how in the world to I get a couple of billions so I can maintain a colony and a powerfull fleet at the same time?

Even tough figuring it out is poart of the fun, some tipps would be appreciated.

Okay, I have experience with this cash issue as I hate watching my 2.5 million turn into 2 million because I went exploring for many month.

Commissions pay is based on player level. Generally speaking at around the time you are paying out 30k you'd be making a profit over those costs easy. Commission screws baddly with your relations with other powers.

The other option is to use smuggling, having ships shielded cargo helps ignore patrols. LP and Pirates always need Drugs/Troops/Weapons ect. Generally at a huge markup. This can screw with rep but no where near as bad as a commission. If you have a decent fleet size the Pirates and LP will avoid fighting you, 30k crew costs tells me they will generally avoid you.

Important note on Commission:
You can settle a world in systems they control, as you are allowed to. They will never launch expeditions against you and their fleets will defend you from Pirates/LP and any expeditions that happen to be at war with them at the time. It takes away some of the pain in the butt, not all however. Certainly helps. Hegemony has some great worlds, low hazard is super important to managing cost.

Of course you can drop the commission and betray them later when and if it suits you.

[Nikron]

With a good industrial planning, right governor, starsystem with ultrarich ore or plentiful volatiles and little bit of smuggler and trader hunting you can get net profit of +1.000.000 credits per months from your 3+ colonies. Also easy ship replacement, assuming you had the blueprint

[Plantissue]

Hmm. Just to chime in - I think if you get a small mining or farming colony (the latter preferably at a low-hazard world), and don't invest in growing it too quickly, you can get a nice chunk of income that'll more than pay for the colony, and it doesn't require *too* much in the way of active protection. Worst case, you may end up abandoning it if it gets raided too much, but as long as you don't over-invest, it'll pay for itself.

The advice here is good, I think, but it also seems geared towards really building a colony up to endgame levels instead of just having it amble along for a bit.

People get colonies to do colony things. Mainly so they can get as much money as possible and make as many ships to play around as possible so they no longer have to worry about money and losing ships and go off exploring systems or whatever it is people with too much money do. People don't really seem to be happy to find a medium-high hazard world once they have enough colonisation cost/cargo to colonise just so they can just cover storage and general costs, when the game system seems built for more income and ship production.

Which is why you see people try to get as much money as possible as fast as possible and then pump as much money into growth as possible to get as big a colony as possible. There's some sort of satisfaction to be had to try to get as much market share as possible. AI cores, colony skills, synchrotron/nanoforge all exist so the player can use them presumably.

[Agile]

The problem is colonies are either go big or go home.

You either create a bad colony with barely any income from it to avoid raids, or you double down and invest heavily early into a system with multiple planets with at least 2 money makers and the rest military planets, or commision yourself to a faction and take a good world in their system so you have their protection.

There is no option 4; no middle ground. You can't negotiate with pirates, expedition bribes are too costly to someone who's slowly growing their colonies while those who built them fast can afford to just wipe them out due to military patrols + battle station or above, diplomacy isn't an option (like telling them to *** off or its war time).

While its great for forcing you to fight, its definitely not something designed for early game. Anyone who starts a colony early game will be severely disappointed unless they rushed a Tri Tach loan and commissioned themselves early then started up a world with at least one decent military base colony of their ally faction.

[SCC]

Before colonies, you constantly work to get credits. After colonies, you get credits passively and work on matters credits can't solve. Or so goes the idea. Currently there is no endgame, so you just get free money and no problems that require free money to solve.
My own experiences are that if you never let a pirate raid succeed, they are manageable. Pirate bases respawn very quickly, but I typically wait until they become an issue to deal with them.

[Modo44]

You can make obnoxiously large amounts of money, like 500k + monthly if you have 2-3 developed colonies. The hassle is there to try and balance that out.

But it is not balanced well at all. You either start a colony with low resources, and get ROFLstomped into high losses for a long time, or you know to get a mil or two of credits before settling, and ROFLstomp any invading fleet with ease. There is very little in between, where you could have an interesting time building a colony. The current system is either frustrating (to a new player), or easily exploitable (to a veteran).

[Apox]

So I did start up my first colony in a system in the north. Planets aren' great, but there are two 150% hazard planets and 3 more in the system.

So I went for one of those as my first. Within a week or two I had the first hegemony fleet and pirates fleet appear, which I destroyed. Ever since it's a bit more calm. So I went for ground defence and spaceport first, then waystation. Next I want to build a patrol HQ and then start with mining.

So, if I have 3-4 planets in the same system, how many should have Patrol HQs on them and ports, so that they defend each other?

Do I need my own food production? (all the planets do not have farms in that system)

[JDCollie]

But it is not balanced well at all. You either start a colony with low resources, and get ROFLstomped into high losses for a long time, or you know to get a mil or two of credits before settling, and ROFLstomp any invading fleet with ease. There is very little in between, where you could have an interesting time building a colony. The current system is either frustrating (to a new player), or easily exploitable (to a veteran).

The system certainly needs some refining, and could do with an in-game tutorial. It would also be nice to have a longer term way of preventing faction attacks, similar to how you can disrupt pather cells for a year at a time.

[Agile]

So I did start up my first colony in a system in the north. Planets aren' great, but there are two 150% hazard planets and 3 more in the system.

So I went for one of those as my first. Within a week or two I had the first hegemony fleet and pirates fleet appear, which I destroyed. Ever since it's a bit more calm. So I went for ground defence and spaceport first, then waystation. Next I want to build a patrol HQ and then start with mining.

So, if I have 3-4 planets in the same system, how many should have Patrol HQs on them and ports, so that they defend each other?

Do I need my own food production? (all the planets do not have farms in that system)

You don't need your own production, it just benefits you because you pay less in exports (your colonies). If you don't have a farm, your colonies will all import. Its not that big a deal.

As for patrol HQ's, you want to get at least a orbital station then a battle station FIRST. This is because without heavy industry, patrols are WEAK and absolute garbage. They are d-modded civillian ships barely refitted for combat.

However, when you get Heavy Industry, you have to face waves and waves of other factions trying to destroy you. So you need, at the minimum, a battle station on your colonies, or a battlestation specifically on your "Best" colony (if it has a AI core or key industries that take up huge market space, put a battlestation or above on it).

Only get lots of patrol HQ's and later military bases if you have heavy industry.

[Megas]

@ Agile: You need Patrol HQ to maintain relay ownership.  It hurts to eat an effective -2 (or -3) stability penalty because pirates took over your comm relay before your orbital station vaporized them, and you need to stop what you are doing and go back to take your relay back.  Patrol HQ will reclaim your relays.  It does not matter how weak they are, they will take your relays back so you do not need do it yourself.

Patrol HQ is useless for actual system defense.  The fleets are simply too small.

Orbital station, combined with high enough ground defenses, should suffice for pirates.  Battlestation or Star Fortress is when you cannot avoid major factions any longer.

[Ghoulishtie]

Not really much of a hassle 'yet'. I'm currently 4 settled planets strong (1 of which is a gas giant for volatiles) making well around 500-600k a month. Each one has a star fortress, patrol HQ, and heavy battery while one has a high command. Along with a heavy industry backed with a pristine nanoforge, my defending fleets have easily taken on any raids up to this point.

Expeditions are certainly a thing though I've just been paying them off while they're still cheap. Eventually I'll stop paying them and let them hate me. By that point I plan to have enough of a force to take them head on.

[Nysalor]

Please note that you just need Heavy Industry/Orbital Works SOMEWHERE, not on every planet you own. One Orbital Works with a nanoforge in a large colony can supply multiple star systems with ships, you don't need to build eight of them.